What is your temporal persistence? Like if you have some project you are putting off while trying to mull over a solution, how long do you generally keep that in mind until you find a solution or it fades from memory, replaced by something more productive. I’m not really talking about consciously shifting focus. I’m talking about the point when a project gets shelved unintentionally; you still hope to get back to it but usually do not. What is your temporal persistence like? Perhaps you complete every project, meaning you are less abstracted and that is fine too.
Years.
I don’t usually even start on something unless it’s been swimming in the back burner soup with the other ideas for at least a year. Then when I go to work on it it’s invariably mixed in with other ideas that have been back there waiting for the right moment.
I guess my real answer is that I never give up on an idea. Maybe a decade, realistically? But even then I feel like the spirit of the idea lives on in the soup.