When something I work on gets cancelled or not released, I try to feel better about it by thinking of the learning involved. Sometimes when I've been on projects that are going nowhere I will try and find ways to learn new things. A very minor, but useful example was a project early in my career where we were told to stop work while the management re-evaluates the project. I learnt to touch-type that month, a useful skill for my whole career. That was my first year contracting, they gave us a months notice on that project and I started the next contract the next Monday, so I billed 13 months that year.

I feel for architects that see their own buildings torn down in their lifetimes and replaced. I'd find that hard to deal with.