Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Minimum Viable Self

kneelingbus.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 80 posts

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#11

Post by F_J_H »

OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #7

I appreciate the point being made from the outside. I have no social media persona (a decade-old defunct Facebook account might be it, plus HN which doesn't feel social in the same sense), yet I don't feel that I'm homeless in the virtual space. I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out.

>>I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out.

I've wondered about this - but how do you know what you are missing out on? For example, if you were active on twitter or LinkedIn and carefully cultivated those profiles, who knows what life changing connections you may have made? (I've seen several people comment on getting jobs, business partners, fellow hobbyists, etc. on twitter.)

*edit: missed a word

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#12

Post by disantlor »

okareaman wrote: post #10

I know very few people who want attention from strangers when they go out in public. Most of us want to be left alone while we go about our business. Online provides a forum for people to get the sort of attention we might like. "Look what I can do!" or "Look at me!" Still, one of my gripes about social media is that there are so many people who lurk. The lurkers are there to look at people attempting to get attentio…

I appreciate that this is a novel non-knee-jerk take on social media but not sure I fully buy it, mostly because the way commerce/the algorithm modifies this “stage” in real time. Art/performance always has and will have some commercial aspect, but it’s usually appears before and after but not during. Maybe the closest analog would be the improvising comedian that takes the set into a direction depending on what people laugh at. But then how do you account for the total opaque interests/influence of the algorithm?

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#13

Post by pram »

F_J_H wrote: post #11
OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #7

I appreciate the point being made from the outside. I have no social media persona (a decade-old defunct Facebook account might be it, plus HN which doesn't feel social in the same sense), yet I don't feel that I'm homeless in the virtual space. I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out.

>>I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out. I've wondered about this - but how do you know what you are missing out on? For example, if you were active on twitter or LinkedIn and carefully cultivated those profiles, who knows what life changing connections you may have made? (I've seen several people comment on getting jobs, business partners, fellow hobbyists, etc. on twitter.) *edit: missed…

This is quite literally FOMO and can be applied to anything really. Who knows what I missed out on by not becoming an astronaut.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#14

Post by OnACoffeeBreak »

F_J_H wrote: post #11
OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #7

I appreciate the point being made from the outside. I have no social media persona (a decade-old defunct Facebook account might be it, plus HN which doesn't feel social in the same sense), yet I don't feel that I'm homeless in the virtual space. I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out.

>>I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out. I've wondered about this - but how do you know what you are missing out on? For example, if you were active on twitter or LinkedIn and carefully cultivated those profiles, who knows what life changing connections you may have made? (I've seen several people comment on getting jobs, business partners, fellow hobbyists, etc. on twitter.) *edit: missed…

That's a fair question, and, while writing the original comment I thought about mentioning it. The honest answer is that I don't know what I've missed out on without social media. I try very hard to cultivate "meat space" relationships that are authentic. Social media, while I tried it out, never felt authentic and after a while I realized that if a relationship is worth having, it will spill over and endure in "meat space".

I guess my point is that, unless you buy into the idea of having online persona, you may not feel homeless online without it.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#15

Post by lugged »

F_J_H wrote: post #11
OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #7

I appreciate the point being made from the outside. I have no social media persona (a decade-old defunct Facebook account might be it, plus HN which doesn't feel social in the same sense), yet I don't feel that I'm homeless in the virtual space. I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out.

>>I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out. I've wondered about this - but how do you know what you are missing out on? For example, if you were active on twitter or LinkedIn and carefully cultivated those profiles, who knows what life changing connections you may have made? (I've seen several people comment on getting jobs, business partners, fellow hobbyists, etc. on twitter.) *edit: missed…

Spending all that time on social also comes at a cost.

Personally, one I'm not comfortable paying.

What are you missing out on by focusing everything through the lens of the Twitterverse?

Better yet, what is it doing to your psychology?

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#16

Post by thanhhaimai »

F_J_H wrote: post #11
OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #7

I appreciate the point being made from the outside. I have no social media persona (a decade-old defunct Facebook account might be it, plus HN which doesn't feel social in the same sense), yet I don't feel that I'm homeless in the virtual space. I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out.

>>I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out. I've wondered about this - but how do you know what you are missing out on? For example, if you were active on twitter or LinkedIn and carefully cultivated those profiles, who knows what life changing connections you may have made? (I've seen several people comment on getting jobs, business partners, fellow hobbyists, etc. on twitter.) *edit: missed…

I've not asked the question "what I am missing out" for like almost a decade. It came from the realization that I constantly and always "miss out" on 99.99% of things that happened in the universe. Whatever more Twitter I read won't move the needle of the statistics.

Rarely it happens that my success depends on things I "miss out". On the other hand, usually that my success depends on how well I take advantage of the opportunities I currently have.

So respect the opportunity, and make sure you're ready when it comes.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#17

Post by capiki »

okareaman wrote: post #10

I know very few people who want attention from strangers when they go out in public. Most of us want to be left alone while we go about our business. Online provides a forum for people to get the sort of attention we might like. "Look what I can do!" or "Look at me!" Still, one of my gripes about social media is that there are so many people who lurk. The lurkers are there to look at people attempting to get attentio…

> “Nobody is confusing the act for the real person except the young and naive.”

Aren’t many people (most?) who use social media young and naive?

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#18

Post by pennyintheslot »

F_J_H wrote: post #11
OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #7

I appreciate the point being made from the outside. I have no social media persona (a decade-old defunct Facebook account might be it, plus HN which doesn't feel social in the same sense), yet I don't feel that I'm homeless in the virtual space. I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out.

>>I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out. I've wondered about this - but how do you know what you are missing out on? For example, if you were active on twitter or LinkedIn and carefully cultivated those profiles, who knows what life changing connections you may have made? (I've seen several people comment on getting jobs, business partners, fellow hobbyists, etc. on twitter.) *edit: missed…

The safest way to find out is to just give it a try. You will see quite soon whether you enjoy the ‘game’ of a specific platform or not.

It’s unlikely that you will get good at something you don’t enjoy so I think the moment you can answer that question you should take the consequences.

Not enjoying it -> unlikely to get good at it -> unlikely to reap the benefits -> better skip it or work around it (you don’t NEED those platforms after all)

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#19

Post by Zababa »

malloreon wrote: post #4

The term “meatspace” has always bothered me. It’s “real life.” The internet is the illusion.

I mean, you're a real person that wrote this, and I'm a real person replying to you. No one of this is not real. The image that I might make of you in my head and that you might make of me in your head are illusions, but so are the ones we make in "meatspace". Feel free to call the internet "siliconspace" or something like that, but it won't make it not real.

Re: Minimum Viable Self

#20

Post by jbb_hn »

lugged wrote: post #15
F_J_H wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I simply don't inhabit it, and I don't feel that I'm missing out. I've wondered about this - but how do you know what you are missing out on? For example, if you were active on twitter or LinkedIn and carefully cultivated those profiles, who knows what life changing connections you may have made? (I've seen several people comment on getting jobs, business partners, fellow hobbyists, etc. on twitter.) *edit: missed…

Spending all that time on social also comes at a cost. Personally, one I'm not comfortable paying. What are you missing out on by focusing everything through the lens of the Twitterverse? Better yet, what is it doing to your psychology?

Agreed. It took me a couple of years to reach that same conclusion. When I did, I deleted Twitter and LinkedIn - the only two platforms I used.

When I realized my mental health was suffering from the “infinite scroll” and the toxicity of people saying things on Twitter that they’d never say face to face,I knew it was time.

That was almost 4 years ago. As the meme goes “No ragrets”.

Post reply on HN