Finishing things

To prepare for the Programming camp I spent some time searching through my "Current projects" folder on my desktop, looking for different kinds of programs that I've worked on to use as examples, and became depressed by how many projects I have that are ALMOST done but never seem to get COMPLETELY done. They all seem to need some last little bit of fiddling or fussing to get them working the way I want, but I've somehow gotten wrapped up in adding neat new features which require more fiddling and fussing... it becomes an infinite loop!

The same sort of thing occurs when you're building a boat. It always seems to need a little more sanding or another coat of paint. I remember reading an interview with a man that did varnishing for a big boatbuilding yard...Hinkley I believe. They asked him how he knew when he was finished and the varnishing was done. His answer was basically "Oh I'm never finished. Eventually someone just comes and takes the boat away."

So my resolution is to every week get ONE thing to the point that someone can just "take it away". Just one thing. It might be the Project Wizard Cabinet designer that I've been working on for 6 months, the instructions for the puzzle letter sets that I've been promising to have done since the last Jamboree (and are only half done), or the Catbird 16 sailboat that's been in the middle of the shop for 2 years now! I'm not going to worry about it being perfect...just good enough.