Comment by qgin
7 hours ago
A few things come together I think:
20% of the effort gets you 80% of the way there. That means the last 20% is going to take 4x more effort than everything you’ve done so far.
You’re losing excitement and motivation, especially as you see the finish line recede farther into the distance.
You question whether the project was ever worth it, whether you’ll fail after all this work, whether it will be embarrassing, maybe worse than if you had never done any of it.
By this time other tasks are calling your attention, now you’re giving up real possibilities to work on this quixotic, possibly foolish project of yours.
A guy I worked used to (kinda) joke that the first 80% of a project takes about 80% of the work, and the rest of the project takes the other 80% of the work.
Known more formally, and generally as the pareto principle.