Thanks for the great feedback/long, detailed post!
If you're serious about forcing yourself into making an impact, find a bunch of target customers with a pain to be solved, talk to them, and promise them something with a deadline attached.
Oh, I wish my life were that simple. The people who most need/can benefit from one of my side projects are mostly openly hostile. I've spent a lot of time trying to make communication in-roads in the face of that situation. One of my goals is to try to start making more regular updates to the website in question in hopes that gets people thinking without getting their ire up so much (ie not as much as trying to actually talk to them tends to do). Eventually, I want to write an app for it (a simulation -- aka "game"). But a) the audience isn't ready for that and b) I don't know a progamming language. Recently, someone kind of suggested I start with a design doc to start documenting my ideas without needing to learn to program first.
I was quite ill for a very long time. So I spent a lot of time piddling around on the computer to occupy myself so I wouldn't go nuts but was unable to be very focused/productive. Now that I am healthier, I am trying to break some of those habits and figure out how to structure my time so I can gradually start accomplishing more.
If you're serious about forcing yourself into making an impact, find a bunch of target customers with a pain to be solved, talk to them, and promise them something with a deadline attached.
Oh, I wish my life were that simple. The people who most need/can benefit from one of my side projects are mostly openly hostile. I've spent a lot of time trying to make communication in-roads in the face of that situation. One of my goals is to try to start making more regular updates to the website in question in hopes that gets people thinking without getting their ire up so much (ie not as much as trying to actually talk to them tends to do). Eventually, I want to write an app for it (a simulation -- aka "game"). But a) the audience isn't ready for that and b) I don't know a progamming language. Recently, someone kind of suggested I start with a design doc to start documenting my ideas without needing to learn to program first.
I was quite ill for a very long time. So I spent a lot of time piddling around on the computer to occupy myself so I wouldn't go nuts but was unable to be very focused/productive. Now that I am healthier, I am trying to break some of those habits and figure out how to structure my time so I can gradually start accomplishing more.