Man, sometimes life just throws you curveballs, right? Or maybe you’re just trying to do too much, and everything feels off-kilter. That’s exactly where I found myself a few months back. I was pulling my hair out over this little side project. You know the drill, you start with a simple idea, a small thing, something to just tinker with on the weekends. But then, it begins. The scope creep. The “what ifs” start piling up, and before you know it, you’re trying to build a rocket ship when all you really needed was a decent skateboard.
I mean, I had this neat little concept for a very specific, super niche app. Nothing groundbreaking, just something that scratched an itch for a few folks, including myself. My first thought was, “Okay, keep it minimal, get it out there, see what happens.” But then my brain, bless its overthinking heart, started spinning. “Oh, but it needs this analytics dashboard!” “And what if users want to share their data?” “We definitely need a full-blown user authentication system with social logins!” For crying out loud, this was meant to be a simple utility for like, ten people!
I spent weeks, maybe even a couple of months, just churning on all these extra bits. I was trying to build out features that no one asked for, perfecting UI elements that wouldn’t even be visible in the first version. Every time I sat down, I’d get overwhelmed. I’d open the code, stare at it, feel this heavy weight of all the “shoulds” and “must-haves” I’d piled on. Nothing was moving. My drive was gone. I was just stuck, plain and simple.
One evening, I was just kicking back, feeling pretty darn frustrated with myself, and I started thinking about why I was so blocked. I was looking for some kind of insight, you know? And somehow, Hexagram 62 just popped into my head. I’ve messed around with the I Ching for years, mostly just as a way to chew on things from a different angle. It’s called “Small Exceeding” or “Preponderance of the Small.” And boom, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
My Realization and the Shift
I was literally making the small exceed its bounds. I was taking a small, manageable idea and trying to turn it into something gargantuan, way out of proportion. The hexagram talks about being careful, paying extra attention to small matters, not pushing for big things, and sometimes, even taking on a slightly humble or submissive role. It’s all about maintaining balance when the little things are out of whack, or when you’re in a bit of an awkward spot. And that was my situation exactly—awkward, and trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.
So, I decided to pull back. I mean, really pull back. My first step was just to
strip away everything that wasn’t absolutely critical. I opened my project file and just started deleting code, commenting out features, one by one. It was actually kind of liberating, like shedding a heavy backpack.
- I chucked the social logins.
- I axed the fancy analytics.
- I went back to the barebones UI I’d sketched out initially.
I wasn’t trying to make a big splash anymore. I wasn’t aiming for perfection. I was just trying to build the smallest, most functional version of that single core idea. The hexagram suggests that one should not aim high, but rather focus on small, careful steps. It also mentions that it might be favorable to let a bird fly low, meaning keeping a low profile and not attracting too much attention. That resonated big time.
Putting it into Practice
My next move was to change my whole approach. Instead of trying to spend huge blocks of time, hours at a stretch, I started breaking down my work into tiny, manageable chunks. I mean, tiny. Like, “implement this one button” or “fix this one minor bug.” Each session was maybe 20-30 minutes, tops. I was being meticulous with these small details, making sure each tiny piece worked perfectly before moving on. I was keeping my head down, not telling anyone about it, just grinding away quietly.
I also stopped trying to “force” creativity or progress. If I felt stuck, I’d just step away. No more pushing through exhaustion. The hexagram kind of implies that in a situation of “small exceeding,” being too assertive or taking grand actions can lead to trouble. Better to be modest, cautious, and let things unfold in their own time, with small, steady effort. So, that’s what I did.
It took a little while, but slowly, surely, the thing started coming together. I built that super-minimal, one-trick-pony app. It wasn’t flashy, it wasn’t groundbreaking, but it did exactly what it was supposed to do, plain and simple.
The Outcome and What I Learned
Once I finally got it to a point where I could actually use it myself and share it with a few friends, I just quietly put it out there. No big launch, no marketing blitz. Just a simple post on a niche forum, saying “Hey, I made this, maybe it helps some of you too.”
And you know what? It worked. The response was great, for what it was. People appreciated its simplicity. They liked that it just did one thing well. I even got some genuine feedback on how to improve that one thing, not requests for a million new features. It started to get a little bit of traction, more than I ever expected from something I almost killed with overthinking.
This whole experience was a huge reminder about Hexagram 62. Sometimes, you gotta check yourself when you’re making something small exceed its natural bounds. You gotta respect the “smallness” of it, pay extra close attention to the details, and not try to force it into something it’s not. Don’t overreach, don’t try to be too grand. Just focus on the careful, humble, small steps. It’s not about being less ambitious overall, but about applying the right energy and focus to the task at hand. And for this project, and honestly, a few other things in my life right now, that’s exactly what I needed to do. It truly makes a difference when you apply it right now.
