I completely and whole-heartilly agree. Every time I realize that what I am working on is going to turn into crap, I move on to something else. The steaming piles of crap behind me: <a href="http://blog.mathgladiator.com/2010/10/last-ten-years-if-i-uploaded-it-to.html" rel="nofollow">http://blog.mathgladiator.com/2010/10/last-ten-years-if-i-up...</a><p>The problem with quiting/failing early is that you have to defend yourself from others who are unhappy and "stuck it out".
Seth Godin: <i>"Quit what you'll never be #1 at."</i><p>is isomorphic to<p>PG: <i>"You shouldn't worry about prestige."</i> <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html</a><p>because if you quit what you'll never be #1 at, you'll almost always be left with something that seems not-serious, a toy, like you're shirking responsibility.<p>That's ok. You just haven't made it prestigious yet.
As a software developer, until I see something that I consider better, there is no reason to quit.<p>Sure, what I consider "better" is subjective.<p>Yet, what is missing more, "perseverance" or lack of it?<p>I think that the important thing is actually to love your crap, because you made it, it is self-expression.<p>If others don't like it, too bad, but as long as you like it, everything's just fine, keep going.
I totally agree. I've abandoned lots of crap projects from many arts (both technical and artistic) and almost always went on to start something better. A few times, I've realized it was a mistake and went back to it.<p>The problem for me is knowing what is crap and what is not. To an outside observer, it's a lot easier to decide subjectively, but it's still hard to tell what the general populace will think.<p>The only advice I have to offer is: If you're waffling, then it's probably crap. Truly awesome things really, really shine.
I see this theme over and over again for businesses and organizations as well. One of my favorites, Good to Great talks about "Stop Doing" lists. Jack Welch pushed GE to end the businesses at which it couldn't be number 1 or 2.<p>In smaller organizations, it is worthwhile to occasionally take stock and realize the extraordinary number of things that you're doing that you have no idea why you do them. Most of those have no value.
It is so hard to tell what is crap though - often there is such a sharp tipping point. I can't tell you how many times in my life the golden egg came from the very last email I sent out, etc. It's super common.<p>Sometimes I've quit when it was too early. In high school I was selling chinese mp3 players on a website. I did some marketing of various types and didn't really know seo yet. I eventually gave up because demand was low. (How could I compete against ebay, I thought?) Two years later, I checked analytics, which I didn't know about at the time. It turned out a month or two after I quit I got tons and tons of traffic but by then I had broken the navigation - I happened to have an article I wrote rank for "chipod" or something along those lines which became a popular term later.
The difference between persistence and quitting being the right choice is often a matter of timing, luck, and other subtle unknowable factors. As often as someone quits one thing to focus on something else, someone else sticks to their guns and perseveres.<p>That said, knowing what to quit is probably the rarer skill, since stubbornness is often easier than moving on. Success is also often the result of many failures, not the opposite, which indicates quitting and learning is probably the more important skill as well.