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Stop Acting Like You're Famous

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Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#121

Post by throwaway290 »

mapreduce wrote: post #110

Why is it so that every so often one of these feel-good LinkedIn-style posts make it to the front page? Is there so much demand for banality on this site? I come here to read good tech articles or articles that stimulate my curiosity and it is sad to see these articles upvoted to the top when so many other good articles at https://news.ycombinator.com/newest continue to languish.

At first I thought it's generally good and can help with perfectionism and apathy, but the completely unnecessary plug of Grammarly put it in question. I'm on mobile but if there is any analytics tracking views (hard to say if it is server side) then surely the author gets paid

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#122

Post by emotional_fool »

blowski wrote: post #120
mapreduce wrote: post #110

Why is it so that every so often one of these feel-good LinkedIn-style posts make it to the front page? Is there so much demand for banality on this site? I come here to read good tech articles or articles that stimulate my curiosity and it is sad to see these articles upvoted to the top when so many other good articles at https://news.ycombinator.com/newest continue to languish.

Simplicity bias, kind of like "bikeshedding". A large number of people can read this quickly, agree with it, and upvote it. Whereas articles about optimising machine code for the Apple Silicon CPU, or "Risks to the Glen Canyon Dam" are a lot more niche. Personally, I follow specific people who regularly submit interesting content, and pay less attention to the homepage.

Could you mind sharing those accounts?

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#123

Post by brandall10 »

d--b wrote: post #84

Ok the most important sentence in this essay is its subtitle: “Advice for myself around leisure activities” Personally I am no perfectionist at all, but I don’t see the fun in making stuff myself that I could otherwise buy. I took up sewing, not because I want to sew the perfect shirt, but because men’s fashion sucks. That said, I sew stuff I can wear. So it needs to look at least as good as what I could buy. I don’t…

"I took up sewing, not because I want to sew the perfect shirt, but because men’s fashion sucks"

I applaud taking up this skill, but there absolute is stellar men's fashion out there, it's just not outwardly public AFA retailers and brands. I was a member of https://www.styleforum.net for many years and highly recommend it.

And you can get MTM custom clothing on the relative cheap. I've used https://www.divij.com/ in the past, a small family run business where they book appointments in major cities to do measurements and provide sample books so you can inspect the fabrics in person, then order online any shirts and suiting.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#124

Post by TrackerFF »

Software engineering aside, I've definitely noticed that in other sectors - especially on the creative side of things - there's this expectation of you not only to be a good craftsman, but also have a brand. Be a personality.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#125

Post by etrautmann »

Techbotch wrote: post #79

I disagree to some extent. E.g. I like to tinker, repair and build stuff and then blog about it. I put quite some effort into the writing part and every finished post gives me joy. Blogging has become a hobby in its own right. It also helps with getting projects done, because now the project is finished only when the post is out. All of my three regular readers like the results, too. Of course, earning money from tha…

Seems like the blogging is still primarily motivated by your own enjoyment which makes perfect sense and seems to agree with the article.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#126

Post by nickelpro »

yawboakye wrote: post #102
nickelpro wrote: post #99

Hard disagree with this as a polemic When I take photographs of my friends, it is incredibly important to me that they be in focus, sharp, with a good depth of field bokeh that brings out their face and presents an attractive image. I take a huge amount of pride when a photo I shot ends up as a profile picture or widely shared. That's a large part of why I take them, to share with others. Got my current job because o…

you talk about something else. sometimes, in fact most times, this imaginary and large audience (who also happen to be great critics) can beat anyone into inaction and kill whatever little flame we were nursing. it’s all in our heads, which means we end up defeating ourselves. it isn’t an ode to mediocrity, imo. if anything, practice and more practice is the best cure for mediocrity.

I don't understand the difference in what I and the OP are talking about.

The OP said, "In the end, find something you enjoy doing and just do it because you enjoy it. If you have to, make some goals for yourself, but never for your 'audience'"

Presenting to the audience is my goal. If you're telling jokes, your goal is to make your "audience" (friends/coworkers/family/etc) laugh. The only way you can get funnier is to try jokes out and see what gets a response, the measure of quality is external, not internal.

I don't tell jokes to myself in an empty room. I don't take photos just to look at them myself in Lightroom. I don't write open source code just to put it on a thumbdrive and throw it in the bin.

None of the activities I, personally, enjoy work without an audience. The audience is entirely the point. Without the audience I wouldn't enjoy them.

Saying "do things for yourself without an audience", period, without caveat, is wrong for tons of stuff.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#127

Post by blowski »

emotional_fool wrote: post #122
blowski wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simplicity bias, kind of like "bikeshedding". A large number of people can read this quickly, agree with it, and upvote it. Whereas articles about optimising machine code for the Apple Silicon CPU, or "Risks to the Glen Canyon Dam" are a lot more niche. Personally, I follow specific people who regularly submit interesting content, and pay less attention to the homepage.

Could you mind sharing those accounts?

I'd suggest going through https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders and looking at their submission history.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#128

Post by jongjong »

The problem is that if you do what you enjoy, it's very unlikely to correspond to what customers want.

I suffered from this a lot because I love coding. There's a point when you may want to adjust your priorities. Beyond a certain point, it becomes defeatist to always do what you want.

I get though that the industry can feel like a giant psyop though so maybe it is better to be defeatist... Not sure.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#129

Post by [deleted] »

snakeyjake wrote: post #57
sph wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I defiantly do not want to see people's typos move the language forward, especially when it's native speakers always making the same silly mistakes, for some reason (could of, they're/their, your's, etc.). I do like non-native speakers translating and incorporating their local sayings into English prose.

> people's The possessive apostrophe originated as a mistake or idiosyncrasy, credited to one of two people in the early 1500s depending on who's making the assertion, that became widely adopted. Possession should be, in static, unchanging, OBJECTIVELY CORRECT DON'T YOU DARE GO CHANGIN IT English, written "peoplees" (or something like that but you get the point). Merely calling "'" an "apostrophe" was a mistake for o…

[deleted]

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#130

Post by sph »

mns wrote: post #112
sph wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I defiantly do not want to see people's typos move the language forward, especially when it's native speakers always making the same silly mistakes, for some reason (could of, they're/their, your's, etc.). I do like non-native speakers translating and incorporating their local sayings into English prose.

But that's how languages evolved and will keep evolving. Whatever you take now as rules and whatever you write now thinking to be correct, was probably a mistake, shortcut or misunderstanding ages ago.

So what? 500 years later, a typo could be part of the English language taught in school. It doesn't mean that every single typo has to be accepted from day one as valid. Otherwise the mere concept of typo, or even the concept of English language itself, stops meaning anything.

I don't get the urge many English speakers have to justify any deviation (i.e. any typo) as valid and indisputable. There's grammar nazis, but there's also illiterate people :)

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