The problem with super secret projects

Super secret “If I told you what I’m working on I’d have to kill you” type projects are exciting.  They conjure images of spy movies and covert operations. (At least they do for me, but I’m a pretty odd duck about things like this.)  You’re working on something that only you, or a very select few people, know anything about.  It’s cool!

At least at the start.

Once you’re several months into a super-secret project that you’re working on by yourself you realize that a good portion of your time might be spent feeling like this:

You have nobody to turn to when something isn’t going right.  There’s nobody to keep you motivated to finish the project but you.  That can be difficult when you’ve spent three days trying to find the answer to the same problem with no decent results.  It can be worse when you’ve come to the point of desperation or there are other projects that need your attention.

Of course, because it’s a super secret project, you can take a break if needed.  As long as you haven’t been running around giving people a release date for said super secret project, you’re all good.  Nobody knows that they are supposed to be waiting for anything, so there’s no time crunch.

That’s where I find myself now.  Just walking back into a super secret project that had me stymied a few months ago.  Instead of letting it take me over the edge, I walked away for a while and focused on other issues.  In the time I was away from the project, someone came out with a WordPress plugin that solved one of the biggest issues the project was facing and now it’s rolling again, though slowly…

All because it’s super secret and I haven’t started telling people when they could expect it to be there for them, which will hopefully be soon.

Yes, there are problems with super secret projects, but if you look hard enough you might just see that there is a bright side as well.  Leaving a project as hush-hush allows you to take the time you need to get the job done right the first time, with no compromises to your initial vision.

In my case the end result of this project will be going head to head against some very well established sites, so compromising the aspects of the site that will make it stand out from the crowd is simply not an option.  I have to do almost exactly the same thing that the big boys are doing, but i have to do it in a more effective way.  the site has to have its own selling points.  If not, it fails.  Period.

So now it’s back to the lab.  I think Igor is ready.  perhaps soon it will live!

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