What is your temporal persistence? Like if you have some project you are putting off while trying to mull over a solution, how long do you generally keep that in mind until you find a solution or it fades from memory, replaced by something more productive. I’m not really talking about consciously shifting focus. I’m talking about the point when a project gets shelved unintentionally; you still hope to get back to it but usually do not. What is your temporal persistence like? Perhaps you complete every project, meaning you are less abstracted and that is fine too.
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I once spent about four months trying to understand a single diagram in a math textbook.
Okay that is a lot. What kind of diagram was it?
A diagram showing the domains of single-length vs infinite-length words in a particular type of iterated functional system.
Sometimes years.
The oldest project I haven’t actually given up on entirely has been rattling around in my head for somewhere around ~15 years, I think, with occasional bursts of progress.
(I also have an anxiety disorder… 🙃️)
I’m not sure what the average length would be though.
I finished a project last summer that languished for 7-years. It’s a fancy box with lights and switches that powers a blacklight to illuminate whatever you set on top. The kids were not impressed. :(
Congrats on finishing!
Me: Lets reorganize my (digital) files and make sure everything is backed up
[unknown] months later
Me: Oh shit, I better make sure I back up my files
🙃
How long? Long enough to make a note on it. Then, on slow days, I’ll look through the notes and usually go … nuh-uh … not enough (… time … money … usefulness …)
Years.
I don’t usually even start on something unless it’s been swimming in the back burner soup with the other ideas for at least a year. Then when I go to work on it it’s invariably mixed in with other ideas that have been back there waiting for the right moment.
I guess my real answer is that I never give up on an idea. Maybe a decade, realistically? But even then I feel like the spirit of the idea lives on in the soup.
If it’s a custom DIY project, potentially years.
Some of my best projects basically came from parts and materials out of my junk bins. And sometimes it’ll take years before I randomly stumble into the exact right parts and materials I was looking for.
That’s exactly ME! Sometimes I’ll find some trash in the woods and think, “That’s what I needed for that project!”
We hauled in driftwood from the river last week, working on a terrarium tonight.
