More dead projects…

I keep coming up with ideas for software projects, but I either start them and then get bored with them or they never get past the drawing  board.  I just can’t find the initiative to do anything with them, and I find myself wondering how some developers come home and decide to work on yet another AIM or BitTorrent client when they know it wont go anywhere besides their own network.  I understand that part of it is the fun of learning how to write one of those things yourself, but my question is where does the motivation come from?  I love learning and love creating code that is useful to other people but for some reason I can’t stop refreshing Google Reader.

Is there something other engineers do to keep themselves motivated on personal projects once they get home from work? Similarly, I have a few seminal programming books that I WANT to read but I’m never in the mood to sit down and read what is essentially a text book.