Originally Posted by
goldenband
Usually it happens at a critical point in a particular project, or even in their careers, when they have to choose between facing the thing that causes them anxiety (whatever it is) and blowing the whole thing up instead. So they deliberately alienate their supporters, burn their bridges, and alternate between aggro and self-pity/self-loathing -- because all of these things are easier, and safer, than facing whatever's scaring the shit out of them.
There are so many writers out there who burn their novels, composers who leave their pieces unfinished, programmers who get 80% of a fantastic project done and abandon it. Partly it's because the hardest part of creative work is often finishing what you start (and perhaps that's especially true of programming, on a technical level). But it's also because as long as something is unfinished, it still is filled with all the potentialities of what-it-might-become -- it still could be perfected, could expand limitlessly, because that potential dwells in the realm of imagination. As soon as you finish something, it's fixed, determinate, mortal, imperfect.