11–20 of 208 posts
Lately i have been wondering about the weird projects that people make- the “I built a web application framework in brainfuck” or “I built a text based bitmap image editor” or “I loaded an LLM on a Speak’n’Spell” kind of projects (I made up all of those but see similar on HN every day). I understand passion projects and the article hints that might be the reason, but I just don’t understand why people would spend suc…
On a less happy note, there are definitely jobs I've had where I felt like nobody wanted what I was making and its kind of miserable
I like the message, but I feel like the article doesn't support the headline. Instead, it seems to be saying that you should make something that you are passionate about, and in return other people will want it. I have not found that to be true personally, although I would like for it to be true.
clearing out externalities and understanding your own emotional response to a product- whether you’ve built it or not - is likely hard to learn, and is intuition driven.
and it is understanding this response that allows builders to create things that evoke a similar emotional response in others.
Having said a lot of people do software development for a living and they may depend on your project. So I think OSS authors do have the responsibility to word their motivation honestly, when they publish their projects.
its a sad state of affairs that a persons 'utility' is by how 'useful' they are in service of others.
Not sure about all that artsy "expression" talk. I also truly enjoy building products someone else needs and enjoys. When the guy who pays you is the guy who wants it, I find that similarly motivating, even if I myself will never have a need for what I built there.
Now, I've also been in a different situation: Being hired by someone to work on products for other people based on research and data. I don't care, the guy who pays me doesn't care, it's all about economics: Extract the maximum amount of money from users with the least effort. That I find demotivating. I don't think it's because I can't "express myself". It's just working on something that's not primarily trying to be useful or enjoyable, it's mainly trying to get bought/used.
I like the message, but I feel like the article doesn't support the headline. Instead, it seems to be saying that you should make something that you are passionate about, and in return other people will want it. I have not found that to be true personally, although I would like for it to be true.
My go-to example here is Nietzsche, who spent most of his life writing in obscurity. He actually had to pay to have some of his books published. Only after he became mentally incapacitated and died did his fame grow, and now he’s generally considered one of the three most important thinkers of the era, along with Marx and Freud.
Obviously making a little hobby web app is not the same as writing books about the future of Western civilization, but I think the lesson is: work on what you really think is important, not on what you’ve convinced yourself is important by listening to others.