[peteforde]

I think that this site itself could be the basis of a SaaS product. It's awesome.

However, I also know from painful experience that time spent on this is likely a distraction from actually building the thing. The happy exception would be if this was indeed the core idea of the thing that you're building.

If so: well played. If not: get back to work.

ps. Most books are also distractions, but I've heard excellent things about Traction.

[jascii]

One of the major but rarely talked about causes of failure for startups is simply the entrepreneur getting demotivated. Gamefication could be an excellent way to deal with that. Beating yourself over the head and giving yourself a guild complex "Focus! Distraction! I should be..." Tend to build resentment and do more harm then good.

[xwdv]

Except this isn’t how companies are built. If you have to rely on “motivation” to accomplish something, you’re finished. You’ll never do it, your motivation will run out. And then what’s going to carry you? This goes not just for companies, but for anything else in life, such as school or exercise.

The real way you build a company is by honing a hard discipline: getting up everyday and doing things you have to do whether you like it or not (and usually not). Whether you’re motivated or unmotivated, inspired or uninspired, sick or healthy, confident or afraid. You just get out there and fucking do it, and if you can’t, then be a failure.

A company can stay challenging longer than you can stay motivated.

[jascii]

That is not really how human beings function. Motivation causes "hard discipline". It does not exist in a vacuum.

[xwdv]

Only initially, but motivation doesn’t last forever.

[jascii]

Some motivations last a lifetime, I don't think our desire to feed ourselves is going away anytime soon.. A lot of current thinking on the subject is based on Abraham Maslow's 1947 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation". Your "hard discipline" seems based on the "esteem" part of his "hierarchy of needs" while this might be a sufficient motivator for some, for many it will likely be beneficial to look for other motivators.

[peteforde]

Honestly, xwdv is more right than wrong. If you lose motivation to work on your startup, your startup didn't really fail so much as you're doing the wrong thing for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIYXaa9IcxA&t=28m5s

[fromdevtomaker]

I thought about making it a SaaS product but I made the mistake to build without having any demands. Seeing how much people are enjoying it, maybe I can turn this into something.

I'll sleep on it.

Thanks for the recommendation, adding Traction to the list!

[jraby3]

I think if some of the game quests are to improve marketing and design skills then op hit it out of the park. In his case it’s not a waste of time, it’s a genius marketing and design quest.

[peteforde]

Focus, focus, focus.