title: Is writing specifications for hobby projects the only way for them to be finished?
body: <p>Here's what I'm wondering. Every night that our 3 months old baby lets us sleep, I jump to my computer and start coding my hobby projects. I have about 20 different projects that I'm working on: different types of projects, from C++ games to web apps along with some contribution to open source projects. It's truly a passion and has been for a lot of years.</p>
  
  <p>Yet, when I look back, I see that I haven't been able to fully complete one of my hobby projects. I've always done the prototypes and setup the most important features, but with time instead of finishing my project I end up switching to another project that seems "so much cooler" at the moment. Hence I usually end up with buggy and incomplete games that have no end nor story, 3D engines that have the fastest PolygonDraw routine ever, yet lack to implement anything else, etc... The list is long. I think I must have written unfinished Pong over a hundred times different!</p>
  
  <p><strong>I've been told that the remedy is to write specs for my hobby projects.</strong></p>
  
  <p>On one hand, I write a lot of specs at work. I know how crucial they are for defining a product's roadmap and staying within schedule. On the other hand, specs and hobby project just quite don't seem to go along! It seems to me that the learning curve to building a game is actually what makes it fun; not the game itself. Hence the fun of losing time restructuring an entire engine, the fun of creating the most useless features, and so on...</p>
  
  <p>So here comes the question: Do you ever write specifications for your hobby projects? How are they different then the ones from work? How do you manage to complete your hobby projects?</p>
  
  <p>I'd be glad to know while I work on my new project: a piano sonata generator :)</p>