It’s because:

start of thing == dopamine

finish of thing != dopamine

We yearn for the brain juice and hop from hit to hit

Neurotypical people do not have this issue, I’m told

Well that’s peak ADHD for you right there. New thing=dopamin. No dopamine any more = abandoned projektets. My best advice is to pick something that you can keep itterating on infinitely and keep interesting. For instance i like making smoothies and its something you can vary for ever and never run out of recipes to try. Basically food is a good hobby because there’s so much to learn from the entire world

For gaming something like Minecraft can be fun because infinitely projects, but maybe harder to stay motivated.

3d printing is also good because there’s something new constantly.

that I really should finish

That word “should” is a tricky little fella, he implies a judgement, the question is what’s the source of that judgement?

Wayne Dyer discusses the issues and challenges of words like “should” in his book “Your Erroneous Zones” by using a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy approach: examining and rewriting how we think about things.

When I find myself using that particular word, I ask myself “should, according to who?”. Almost always I find I have an old “script” in my head about priorities, values, etc, that upon re-examining I find it’s no longer useful. Like “I bought this game, therefore I must get maximum value from it”.

Sometimes things run their course, and that’s that.

I find when I get like this I have to give it a bit of a rest for a bit. I figure either I’ve blown out my dopamine receptors to the point of non functionality, or I just need to rest. I find that only doing a small handful of things at a time helps not get in this state, easier said than done though.

I recently realized that many of the things I end up sticking with are those I didn’t pick up on a whim, but that I planned to take a look at for a while and pushed back on. For example, I’ve owned Elite Dangerous for more than a year, I was barely touching it for the first six months, and played extremely occasionally otherwise. This lasted until last November, when something just… clicked, to the point my wife got together with my mother to buy me a HOTAS this Christmas.

Rest assured that your experience does sound extremely familiar. It’s very difficult to stick to something. The dopamine rush I get from the very act of figuring out something new just doesn’t last past the novelty phase.

Yes, and it’s an absolute TORTURE. I can’t say I have any good advice other than maybe trying to structure things so you are forced to get around to it. Or just embrace the fact that you’re flighty and jump from one thing to another. Anyways, I should stop scrolling lemmy and finish that book I started last month.

I generally only have this problem if I don’t enjoy the thing I’m doing.

Like learning a skill. Having the skill is what I am interested in; practice and all the boring shit to get the skill does not always keep my brain interested. Learning musical instruments is a struggle; but I have managed to do it.

Meanwhile learning a new language has been fun as hell even with the “boring” parts. My mind’s always been fascinated by words and writing; I now know it extends to words and writing in other languages, too.

Yeah my dude. I am surrounded by stimulus and I can’t get interested in anything.
Trying Cyberpunk again but I doubt it’ll last.

I just keep 5-10 projects and rotate between them.