I disagree. There is more value in starting something than in finishing it. Starting a project may involve designing and testing a new algorithm. Finishing it may involve playing with CSS for hours. At that point, there is no educational value in finishing it; the time would be better spent on a new project.
Personally, I have a lot of 80-90% "finished" projects that are available for people to use. This is usually enough. If someone is really using them, I might be motivated to finish everything on my todo list. But otherwise, something else would interest me more than checking off some imaginary todo list.
"There is more value in starting something than in finishing it."
I see your point about learning and agree with it, but I don't think that
in starting something is more value than in finishing it.
Starting is pretty easy, because new things are always more interesting.
It's getting hard when the interest vanishes. That's the challenge of
finishing something, that you can overcome this stage. Otherwise you
will never produce something remarkable, but just jump from something
interesting to the next.
For me, jumping from one to next thing just isn't satisfying, it's
aimless, just following your desires without any direction.
I agree. I start a lot of projects. I will spend some time on just about every dumb idea I come up with, just to see what life the project takes on.
Usually, with some small effort, I confirm that most of the ideas are, in fact, dumb. I'll stop development right there. But every once in long a while, the idea still sounds like a good one and it still keeps calling me to continue working on it. Those are the ones I will take to "completion."
It is good to finish things sometimes, but if you find yourself lacking the motivation to finish a project, there is a good chance that it isn't worth finishing. At least in my experience, when you are on to something valuable, you'll naturally be drawn back to it.
Personally, I have a lot of 80-90% "finished" projects that are available for people to use. This is usually enough. If someone is really using them, I might be motivated to finish everything on my todo list. But otherwise, something else would interest me more than checking off some imaginary todo list.