Novelty vs Nuance

Early in my engineering career I used to chase novelty - the shiny new idea that piqued by curiosity and let me explore solving new and exciting problems. The issue with this is, of course, you end up with a lot of half-baked/semi-developed projects. Once you've "solved" the core problem you were curious about, everything else suddenly feels like a bore and a chore - and then you never build up the skills required to deliver something. It's an easy thing to slip into when you're new to coding - you've been given a powerful hammer, and everything looks like a very hammerable nail. Somewhere along the way, I stumbled upon some sage words that helped me break the cycle: "There's novelty in nuance." Rather than chase the shiny new thing, stick with the old thing and instead the novelty in the details of the old thing. This strategy helps you stick with a project and helps you see it through to completion. As an aside, one of my long-time favorite bl...