Pete's Log: Dependency Paralysis

Entry #1836, (Life in General)
(posted when I was 42 years old.)

Today's xkcd (#2340) was the second time this year I needed to visit explainxkcd. The previous time was #2322. Today's comic I just plain didn't have the background to get. For #2322, I knew it was wrong but my brain just couldn't bring back what the Golden Spiral is actually supposed to look like. But that's not really what I want to talk about, it just seemed noteworthy to need to use explainxkcd twice in a year. </humblebrag>

I've found myself bogged down in what I'm going to call dependency paralysis lately, maybe even longer than I've realized. I figured maybe if I try to write about it directly, it'll help break the logjam. So first, what exactly do I mean by dependency paralysis? Well, lately I've had all these things I want to do and I haven't gotten any of them done. In part that is because of #parentlife, but I do get an hour or so to myself after JB gets to sleep and now that she's started daycare again, I shouldn't need that hour to catch up on work. So what else is keeping me from getting things done? Well probably also feeling burned out. But also dependency paralysis, which is probably best illustrated by example:

  • I have a post I want to write about PowerShell, but...
    It'd be nice to have the code nicely formatted and highlighted, but...
    I don't want to introduce a whole lot of JavaScript or other dependencies, but...
    hey, I found a tool that will take your code and generate static html that looks pretty nice, but...
    The css styles are inline in the html tags and I'd rather find something that uses class names
  • I have an idea that I think would make a neat tutorial on .NET / ORM / reflection / LINQ, but...
    • I don't know if it should be .NET or .NET Core
    • I'm not sure if I want to try to make videos or just text posts
    • Maybe I should do it in .NET Core and do it in Linux to show off the cross platform capabilities
      • I've been wanting to get Linux installed on my computer and have struggled several hours so far with no luck (I think it's my motherboard)
        • My hardware is five years old at this point, so I should upgrade it and hope it can then boot Linux
          • What is a Ryzen
    • This might be cool enough to turn into an open source library
      • What do I call it? The first name I thought of is already taken :(
      • What license do I use
      • Wait I wanted to do some dependency injection stuff but it doesn't make sense in a library
        • How do I make my library dependency injection friendly?
  • I should add a post about our camping trip two months ago, but...
    It should really have pictures and uploading them is currently a pain, so...
    I should add a feature to Pete's Log to allow image uploads, but...
    It should really be mobile friendly, but...
    Pete's Log in general isn't mobile friendly, so I should really do a major rewrite
  • I should write something in support of Black Lives Matter, but...
    Just a simple statement doesn't feel like enough, it should be well thought out.
    Also, what about climate change, does anything matter if we don't tackle that?
  • Before I post to Pete's Log, I should really reply to everyone who's emailed or messaged me lately.
  • I should finally delete my Facebook account, but...
    First I should write something about why I'm doing so, and...
    I should make sure I have everyone's contact info and birthdays, and then...
    I need to find some good software for tracking those, ideally something open source, or maybe...
    I should go old school and use a pen and paper solution, and either way...
    I also need to consolidate contact info and birthdays for people who aren't on Facebook, and and and
  • I shouldn't just casually mention JB being in daycare, but...
    I haven't written much about the pandemic in general so maybe I should do that first, and also...
    Should I mention how scary it is or how much research we did or how I check the Illinois numbers every day?
  • I found a neat-looking Rust course I'd like to work through, but...
    I should really take care of all the above, and also...
    I think I'd rather be working in Linux when I do it, so something something Ryzen

It just feels like everything I want to do gets bogged down in dependencies and sub-dependencies and other worries and doubts. Even my recent success in getting grossdalebrewing.com online almost got bogged down in trying to pick a good framework to build the site in before I managed for once to stop myself and just make the dang thing in plain html and css.

Writing about it makes it feel both overwhelming and inconsequential. Trying to write out my examples makes me feel like there really are a lot of dependencies for me to work out to just get a few simple personal projects done. But on the other hand these are serious first world problems and right now my family is healthy, my baby is thriving, and all things considered I shouldn't complain. But then again, I like to tell people that nobody ever tells anyone not to feel happy because somewhere somebody else is happier. So why do we do the inverse? I will indulge myself in a little self pity and try to strive for some self improvement.

I think two things will go a long way:

  • Learning to force myself to do something while ignoring or reducing its dependencies
  • Finding a good personal project management tool to track tasks and dependencies

The first is where I'll start, and I've started by writing this post. So if you're reading this post and I haven't yet replied to a message from you, I'm sorry and it's nothing personal, I'm just a bit stuck right now. Hopefully this helps get me unstuck and I'll reply to you soon. My next step is going to be to force myself to write that PowerShell post. The <pre> tag really will suffice. In fact, it's served well in past log entries. So yeah, it'd be cool someday to have automatic code formatting of some kind. I'll add it to the list. But in the meantime, I won't let it stop me. It didn't stop me in the past.