Hobbies Are Work, Too

I have friends who are musicians. To me, that always seemed like the most awesome hobby slash career in the world. I was very surprised to hear that, though they love making music, sometimes it can feel like a chore -- specifically, getting started on a track. When you have the concept for a song in your head that's been brewing for a while, you don't want to go back and start from the beginning -- to go through the necessary process of transferring it all from your head to a 'physical' medium. You just want what's in your head to magically exist, and go from there.

If you're like me, you have a lot of ideas swimming around in your head. Yet even though you are excited and have so many great ideas for extention, you never seem to get started -- there's some sort of mental block keeping you from saying "let's roll".

The fact is, anything and everything is work; because nothing is free. But sometimes things are worth their price tag.

Whether you're making music or a website, your outlook on the project is expressed through your coding. We are, after all, priests in the religion of technology. As Khoi Vinh says in 37signals' Getting Real, It Shouldn't be a Chore:

Enthusiasm manifests itself readily of course, but indifference is equally indelible.

So be positive. Start your next project with gusto. Because it's all about your relationship with your medium.

When you write a book, you need to have more than an interesting story. You need to have a desire to tell the story. You need to be personally invested in some way. If you're going to live with something for two years, three years, the rest of your life, you need to care about it.
-- Malcolm Gladwell