On a smaller scale, I'll sometimes solve a little problem, and the "mathematician" in me keeps looking for other solutions, maybe more elegant, maybe simpler, maybe more complex, and maybe just because I got the ball rolling and why stop now?

"To Engineer is Human". Not just when it fails [0] but also when it succeeds. Humans are only human. I have hundreds of Calochortus photos,[1] but since it's the very brief flowering season, I am drawn to go out and take more. Except this morning, as I'm a little pooped. But then again ... (looks out window) ...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petroski

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calochortus

Is that so bad?

If you are getting something out of putting in the effort and making the progress you are making, it may not be that much more work to end up with a "graveyard" of relative "masterpieces".

I wouldn't feel so bad about that :)

I think that's what an artist would do. Don't they often have projects that stack up, more unfinished than anything, before they finally reveal the masterpiece they completed with the utmost of pride?

When the whole time an art lover could come into the studio and might find an unfinished forgotten work they think is more impressive than the latest remarkable masterpiece.

In which case the unfinished piece only needs a few final touches and it's selling to the highest bidder, which is a lot easier than starting from scratch. And some people do have a lot more where that came from than others ;)