Is there a name for the irrational and silly (but nonetheless real) fear that someone else is working on the thing you’re working on and theirs will be miles better and you’ll have just wasted all your time?
I think it’s a silly and petty fear generally, because the act of creating should be the reward in itself… but like… sometimes it’s nice to have some recognition.
Everything I could think of is some mix of atelephobia (fear of imperfection), atychiphobia (fear of failure) and constant comparing your work to others
Hah, I get a similar feeling when I stumble upon some problem in an open-source app/lib that's been there for months or even years, start working on it, and then worry "oh no, what if somebody is also doing it right now and they'll beat me to it".
Oh god, I get this a lot. It typically takes me years, possibly even decades (possibly even never) to do the things I want to do, though, so it's kinda justified. I wanted to make my own fursuit back in the 1990s and even started working on it. I still haven't got very far, and now look at all the thousands of fursuit makers who beat me to it. Anything I make now is going to look like crap - basically it'll look like a suit from the 1990s! I still want to do it someday though, when I get the time, energy and resources to coincide - that's what delays things so much.
