The result has been thousands of side projects but nothing I can actually put on a portfolio or monetize (and as a result, poverty).
It's sort of bizarre and hilarious to see people glorify and promote it?
Do normal people have to make a significant conscious effort not to finish what they start?!
The "I'm not allowed to have fun or make mistakes" mindset seems to be drilled into people hard by the education system. I also suppose the survival fear adds "this time and energy I invest should pay off somehow" to the balance, at least it does for me (when considering significant projects).
My "backdoor" to working on many projects is that most of my projects only last a few hours, so the question of "is it worth the investment" never really factors into it.
I don't think that's it. It is the knowledge that, please forgive my blunt comparison, a spoiled child that wants this and than that and then that other thing and so on, will never get fulfilment.
The trick to good fulfilment is (sometimes anxious) persistence followed by some redemption.
An example. For work, there's some hardware related software bug that is nagging me already for some time. I want to find the fix. For that, i need to read docs and schematics, talk to people, do experiments and fail quite often. Finally i will have a mental model good enough to understand and fix the problem. The road can be frustrating, but i know fixing it will be fulfilling, and that keeps me going. Also the fact that some people are relying on/anticipating the solution, helps with my motivation.
If i just would try some other discipline every other day, i would never get such fulfilment.