Fear of releasing code

Alright, so this post is going to be all Captain Emo. I wanted to write about something I've realized I do, with the hope that if someone else is unfortunate enough to have the same habit that maybe they'll realize it as well.

I sometimes have a ridiculously irrational fear of actually finishing up & releasing my personal projects.

Of course, it doesn't manifest itself as transparently as "oh, crap, people might see my code & think I punch puppies". It's much more of a "gosh, I just don't know if it's really tested enough yet" or "why don't I add a few more features first" or "I'll just tweak the API a bit" or even the insidious "I'll work on that tomorrow". Oh yes, "tomorrow" being that wonderful code word for "maybe around the time I start laying golden eggs". Sometimes I've even thrown out a good chunk of work I had finished because I thought of a "better way" which mysteriously never gets coded up.

Here's the important point I've been thinking about: something is only perfect if it doesn't exist. If you want to actually accomplish anything, you're going to release stuff that is buggy, non-optimal, & might not even compile on anyone else's machine. That's okay. It can get fixed!

I've never lost respect for someone because of a bug in a library. I've only gained respect for them when they fix it. I'm probably not the only one who feels that way.