It's okay to make something nobody wants • Hacker News Board

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#181

Post by araes » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 8:30 PM UTC

levi0214 wrote: post #156

Hi, I'm the author. Originally I didn't want to post it here because I hardly ever post anything on HN and guess no one would read it. But the feelings were strong and I really wanted to tell people what I was feeling. After I posted it on HN that day, it sunk quickly, and sure enough no one read it, so I didn't go back to HN to check on it. Until this evening, when I got a text from a stranger saying thank you for t…

Thank you for writing the article (admittedly unnecessary due to the topic, probably a koan there somewhere...) [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koan

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#182

Post by salawat » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 8:43 PM UTC

roody15 wrote: post #99

wzyoi wrote: post #93

It's hard to imagine how many people are doing something nobody wants in a busy corporate environment.

I find it fascinating. I cannot tell you how many complain about corporate structure, meaningless paperwork, and working on projects that are just money traps for consumers. When asked why do you work here ? Get the same blank stare. Somehow people appear to be easily influenced to end up working at corporations and on projects devoid of real meaning, passion or soul. Almost a depressed defeatist attitude like .. yea…

Otherwise, starve.

As it turns out, access to finance is tightly controlled by a (relative to the rest of the poulace) small population that sets the tone for the rest. Essentially, thry make the on-ramps.

You wanna change it? Good luck. Save up and do your best with the time you've got, because if it doesn't mesh with the overall tune, you're done.

Easy to put the blame on the individual when you don't take into account the rest of the environment.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#183

Post by kyawzazaw » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 9:41 PM UTC

SeanAnderson wrote: post #148

:) I'm making something nobody wants right now and it's going great. It's giving my life the most purpose it's had in a few years. It's a financial disaster, of course, but trading money for personal fulfillment is a sweet deal IMO. (and a shameless plug...) https://ant.care/ if you want to derp around with a digital ant colony for a bit. The nest devolves into a mess after a couple of days tops right now. If you thi…

My friend studies ants. I will share this with him

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#184

Post by pedalpete » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 10:36 PM UTC

Lately I've been thinking more about the craft of creating than the outcome of what people want.

This separation from creation to outcome is a nice feeling, and I think has let me be a bit more creative (though that has never been a big problem for me).

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#185

Post by johnalbertearle » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 11:16 PM UTC

hermannj314 wrote: post #81

I wasted a lot of my life being too scared to make something out of fear. This community especially can be very toxic to people that are starting out, that aren't geniuses, that didnt make every perfect decision for their product. Life is more enjoyable in a create-fail-learn loop than a consume-criticize-gloat loop. I wish I'd learned that sooner.

So very true.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#186

Post by MrVandemar » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 11:30 PM UTC

NateEag wrote: post #107

MrVandemar wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I understand passion projects and the article hints that might be the reason, but I just don’t understand why people would spend such enormous amounts of effort on such weird projects. There's a great side-effect to these quirky projects. There's a Christian/Bible story called The Unmoved Rock. Essentially God tells some guy to go push against a huge boulder and he damn well near kills himself trying to move it ove…

> There's a Christian/Bible story called The Unmoved Rock. Where did you learn this story? I'm curious, because it's a cute little anecdote/illustration, but I'm fairly confident it's not in the Protestant Bible, having read that several times.

No idea where I learned that story. I'm an athiest so it was something that bubbled up out of the broader culture that stuck, rather than a result of specific study. A bit like the footprints-in-the-sand story I guess.

It's called "The Unmoved Rock", and available on-line.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#187

Post by version_five » Sun, Sep 24, 2023, 1:30 AM UTC

keiferski wrote: post #126

davnicwil wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A negative reception to putting a product out there is actually a really great outcome. It shows you are doing something right if this happens. The expected and typical outcome is to be completely ignored - crickets. This is perhaps the main reason you should not fear shipping! I have a post which elaborates on this if it's interesting for anyone: https://davnicwil.com/negative-feedback-is-positive/

Unfortunately those two things often come together, in which the only bit of attention is a single negative comment. Social media sites (forums included) are optimized to reward criticism, no matter how small, instead of positivity. Supposedly this is because upvotes are intended to replace comments like "Great!" or "I really like this, good job." But obviously that doesn't work out in reality.

I see this on HN frequently. Someone posts their thing and you get some low quality banter about the name choice or hosting provider or whatever, and then the top thread is a big unsubstantiated criticism plus some pilers on. You never really know what to make of it but it feels pretty much the same as if the post was just ignored.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#188

Post by levi0214 » Sun, Sep 24, 2023, 2:20 AM UTC

SeanAnderson wrote: post #148

:) I'm making something nobody wants right now and it's going great. It's giving my life the most purpose it's had in a few years. It's a financial disaster, of course, but trading money for personal fulfillment is a sweet deal IMO. (and a shameless plug...) https://ant.care/ if you want to derp around with a digital ant colony for a bit. The nest devolves into a mess after a couple of days tops right now. If you thi…

This is interesting!

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#189

Post by levi0214 » Sun, Sep 24, 2023, 2:34 AM UTC

nullcipher wrote: post #57

fourthark wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like his point is the inverse: if you don't want it, how will anyone else?

there's plenty of people who cook for others when they don't like it themselves? like meat, eggs, seafood etc.

Usually they are mediocre chefs. Actually I don't believe that a chef who doesn't like what he's cooking can make it right, and almost every awesome chef I know demand more from the quality of their dishes than their customers.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#190

Post by levi0214 » Sun, Sep 24, 2023, 2:46 AM UTC

danielvaughn wrote: post #102

Bookmarking this to return to whenever I feel down on myself. I’ve been working on a side project for way too long, and I’m scared to publicize it because I don’t know whether it’s a terrible idea that everyone will hate. But all I know is that I don’t hate it; I find it super interesting. https://matry.design

I'm a developer, not a designer, but I also find your work very interesting!

Every time a new design tool came out I need to learn that shit, and my drawing was always uglier than real designers. If I could do this by describing, I'd love to do it.