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Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

staysketchy.com

21–30 of 159 posts

Re: Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

#21
post #2

> In business theres a term called “Total Adressable Market,” or TAM. This is basically everyone in the world who could buy a product in a given category. What’s the TAM for a product like fishing rods? Well, that would be everyone in the world who likes fishing... > The reason we mention this is because when Pablo first started selling his art online, he created all his posts strictly in Spanish - his native languag…

YC startup idea:

AI generated-articles designed to give computer programmers dopamine hits when they get to correct a small error/issue/discrepancy.

Like Zyns but distracting.

Maybe it’s like a reward. Fix a tough bug and your manager sends you an article where you get to point out that the author is incorrectly using “strawman fallacy.”

Re: Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

#22

With AI hitting Art, and the Engineering Job Market right now, is it a toss which is the worse choice?

Regardless of AI, isn’t it equally hard to start a business (no matter how small)? OP made it (it seems), but chances are against one. I think this applies now, 10 years ago and will apply 10 years from now.

We only see posts of the successful ones, though.

Re: Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

#23
post #2

> In business theres a term called “Total Adressable Market,” or TAM. This is basically everyone in the world who could buy a product in a given category. What’s the TAM for a product like fishing rods? Well, that would be everyone in the world who likes fishing... > The reason we mention this is because when Pablo first started selling his art online, he created all his posts strictly in Spanish - his native languag…

YC startup idea: AI generated-articles designed to give computer programmers dopamine hits when they get to correct a small error/issue/discrepancy. Like Zyns but distracting. Maybe it’s like a reward. Fix a tough bug and your manager sends you an article where you get to point out that the author is incorrectly using “strawman fallacy.”

You could probably get a better ROI offering opportunities to make snarky, condescending comments

Re: Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

#24
post #2

> In business theres a term called “Total Adressable Market,” or TAM. This is basically everyone in the world who could buy a product in a given category. What’s the TAM for a product like fishing rods? Well, that would be everyone in the world who likes fishing... > The reason we mention this is because when Pablo first started selling his art online, he created all his posts strictly in Spanish - his native languag…

YC startup idea: AI generated-articles designed to give computer programmers dopamine hits when they get to correct a small error/issue/discrepancy. Like Zyns but distracting. Maybe it’s like a reward. Fix a tough bug and your manager sends you an article where you get to point out that the author is incorrectly using “strawman fallacy.”

Zyns?

Re: Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

#25
post #3

> “If you’re getting hate, that’s a good sign.” ...In the past, he used to engage with them...Now, he doesn’t get too involved. Did he mean to say "passion" in this case? How is hate a "good" sign of engagement? If someone has an opinion and is willing to share it with me, I'd hope they could do it in a constructive way (but I wouldn't call that "hate", and this is the Internet he's talking about). Imagine being surr…

Your edit is the goal, it's why content creators have a new influx in views after getting "canceled". People who forgot the youtuber existed before cancellation come back to see what's going on.

In this case, hate is attention that helps algorithms. It's why shortform media is usually inflammatory, you get more engagement out of it.

Hate and other powerful emotions are a good sign, they can promote you to people who don't hate you.

Re: Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

#27

Reminds me of the classic: "Sorry I missed your comment of many months ago. I no longer build software; I now make furniture out of wood. The hours are long, the pay sucks, and there's always the opportunity to remove my finger with a table saw, but nobody asks me if I can add an RSS feed to a DBMS, so there's that :-)" https://github.com/docker/cli/issues/267#issuecomment-695149...

I missed this! HN discussion (with an elaboration by the author/woodworker) here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24541964

Re: Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

#28
post #4
post #3

> “If you’re getting hate, that’s a good sign.” ...In the past, he used to engage with them...Now, he doesn’t get too involved. Did he mean to say "passion" in this case? How is hate a "good" sign of engagement? If someone has an opinion and is willing to share it with me, I'd hope they could do it in a constructive way (but I wouldn't call that "hate", and this is the Internet he's talking about). Imagine being surr…

It’s the unrecognized but genius artist fallacy: many great artists were unknown and poor when they did their best work. Therefore, since I am unknown and poor, I must be a great artist.

That’s not it at all. Almost all art is just quietly ignored. If people have strong feelings about your art then that’s a huge win.

Re: Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

#29

Reminds me of the classic: "Sorry I missed your comment of many months ago. I no longer build software; I now make furniture out of wood. The hours are long, the pay sucks, and there's always the opportunity to remove my finger with a table saw, but nobody asks me if I can add an RSS feed to a DBMS, so there's that :-)" https://github.com/docker/cli/issues/267#issuecomment-695149...

I remember a quantum information theorist went to become a hard labourer in construction because he thought "physical labour is food for the soul"

Re: Quitting engineering to pursue art full-time

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, that does sound like something someone who switched from music to tech would say, but it’s also a little true.

I made a career out of it and made it to regional status. If you want to pay your bills, you need to hit national level or teach music. It's a fucking grind and you naturally age out.

I've been watching one of my friends keep on pushing at the grind and it looks super gruelling, he's been drifting from programming to running the mixer board at a lot of local shows and it's impossible to hook up with him to hang out any more. I dunno how he does it.
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