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

Stop Acting Like You're Famous

ajkprojects.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 282 posts

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#251

Post by badpun »

didip wrote: post #243
tr3ntg wrote: post #230

There are people out there so utterly brain-broken (myself included) who seek to monetize every little personal hobby. “Maybe I should start journaling” turns into “How can I be a thought leader on bleeping journaling?” And it ruins everything. I’ve done this multiple times and regret it. I’ve only recently adopted the mindset that this author is attempting to convey, which is simple: identify what you enjoy and why,…

What's wrong with monetizing every little thing? Our time is limited and capitalism is expensive. Just make sure you enjoy the process.

Most things are hard or impossible to monetize. It's much better to focus on monetizing things that are easy monetize to and bring in a lot of money (e.g. coding skills, via a full-time job), than trying to monetize writing, guitar playing, or whatever someone's hobby may be. There's just little to no money there.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#252

Post by abustamam »

Springtime wrote: post #115

> Anything you do or create will probably receive little to no attention, so stop optimizing for a non-existent audience [...] The most egregious thing you can do with any activity is daydream about how you can make money off of it [...] In the end, find something you enjoy doing and just do it because you enjoy it. I don't understand the equivalence the author is ultimately making in suggesting that creating somethi…

Photography / blogging don't need to be exposed to the internet. We can take photos offline (either with an analog/Polaroid type camera or with a digital one), and we can write offline (Journaling, or just using apple notes).

That being said, I agree with you. There's nothing wrong with making something pretty for oneself. Many men and women do this with haircuts, makeup, etc. I still get my hair cut even though I don't do video at work. Just because something is surface-level doesn't automatically make it superficial or vain, or done for profit, though there is certainly some overlap.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#253

Post by badpun »

keiferski wrote: post #96
dommrr wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are making quite the assumption there. There are quite a few among us focusing on creating the best possible work. And there are quite a few back then who did the opposite. Wouldn't you wonder where the conception that things were different came from?

As I said, I could be wrong. If you have an example of artists in the distant past lamenting the fact that they can’t do what they want and instead must make art for money, I’d be glad to read them. I didn’t say people today aren’t creating the best possible work, I said this focus on the juxtaposition between the market and the self seems like a recent thing to me.

Da Vinci perhaps did not lament, but hustled hard to minimize the amount of boring commissions people were most willing to pay for (portraits of noblewomen, of merchants' daughters etc.). And, when he did take a boring commission work, he could procrastinate on it for years, or never finish it at all.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#255

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #189
Brajeshwar wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now, you are having fun or making fun of us. With your list to experiences, I'm going to assume you are lot senior to me. ;-)

> Now, you are having fun or making fun of us. Yes ;). I have become somewhat… jaded , in my view of the current tech scene. I’m sure that some of it is just sour grapes, on my part, but that doesn’t make the problem any less real. I don’t really feel like going through my posting history, but there’s been a number of times that I’ve been “OK, Boomer”ed, here (I suspect that you’d need to turn on I See Dead Posts to…

Huh. I'm assuming that it's this reply that earned the thread a closure. As far as I know, it wasn't flagged (but I may not know that). It still has positive karma.

Was it because I mentioned a particular HN setting?

I would certainly appreciate knowing what I did to earn the Ire of The Gods.

I doubt it was mentioning ageism. We talk about that, all the time, and some folks get pretty insulting about it, without getting dinged.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#256

Post by winternett »

didip wrote: post #243
tr3ntg wrote: post #230

There are people out there so utterly brain-broken (myself included) who seek to monetize every little personal hobby. “Maybe I should start journaling” turns into “How can I be a thought leader on bleeping journaling?” And it ruins everything. I’ve done this multiple times and regret it. I’ve only recently adopted the mindset that this author is attempting to convey, which is simple: identify what you enjoy and why,…

What's wrong with monetizing every little thing? Our time is limited and capitalism is expensive. Just make sure you enjoy the process.

Monetizing passions is essential these days... The music studio doesn't really improve unless you generate money to build it up, computers, guitars, mixing tools, studio monitors etc., all cost an enormous amount of money. A hobbyist is far different from an enthusiast, and I think thats the distinction that many of people who say "I don't need to make money for my work" simply don't get... By spending money generated elsewhere on passions, you threaten your ability to survive by reducing savings and survival funds. It's not egotistical at all to expect for passions to at least earn back their investment because most creatives aren't born rich. I work to dispute that toxic & low aiming mindset every day. no one should ever have to work for no expectation of returns.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#257

Post by brailsafe »

winternett wrote: post #256
didip wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with monetizing every little thing? Our time is limited and capitalism is expensive. Just make sure you enjoy the process.

Monetizing passions is essential these days... The music studio doesn't really improve unless you generate money to build it up, computers, guitars, mixing tools, studio monitors etc., all cost an enormous amount of money. A hobbyist is far different from an enthusiast, and I think thats the distinction that many of people who say "I don't need to make money for my work" simply don't get... By spending money generate…

> It's not egotistical at all to expect for passions to at least earn back their investment because most creatives aren't born rich.

Egotistical is the wrong word perhaps, but it's an absolutely degenerate trap to accept, and a path to personal destruction if continually embraced. You'll have little to no authentic substance as a human if everything you do is predicated on how you'll make money from it, but only in situations where realistically it's a choice. People who get into this trap end up as amorphous blobs or empty husks. People need things in their life that they do for the sake of it first, with money coming as an ancillary benefit if at all.

I've only spent money in the last year (no earned income), laid off a year ago, and I'm grateful to have saved enough to last some of the drought of work. I have to be careful to modulate how much I'm spending, but if I didn't, I'd be wildly worse off now that had I not at all. Spend as frugally as necessary, but have some hobbies or passtimes that you do just for you, selling the result if you like, but don't predicate your participation upon whether it's valuable to anyone else.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#258

Post by ergonaught »

Sirizarry wrote: post #159
ergonaught wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comments here as elsewhere are overwhelmingly garbage, and generally worse than even the “bad” articles.

Your comment certainly fits that bill. Generalizing negativity sure is constructive…

Truth that you dislike remains true.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#259

Post by boznz »

I wrote my book for me to fix everything I thought was wrong with the books I was reading. Unfortunately, it was hard to write without writing for an audience and I think it made the writing better when I wrote it knowing my daughter would probably read it one day.

Happy to know I will never be famous but through my writings I will outlive my short time on this earth.

Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous

#260

Post by TacticalCoder »

arcastroe wrote: post #244
rietta wrote: post #239

I appreciate the author's perspective, but my approach in life has been based largely on two biblical verses that I memorized in childhood. Those are 1) "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters" (Colossians 3:23) and 2) "Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank" (Proverbs 22:29). The…

I like the overall message of the two passages, promoting hard work and valuing skill. But I dont like that both passages emphasize working for someone else. I agree with OP's sentiment of working for yourself, even if that means producing no income at all and learning your skills in a self-motivated manner as a hobby.

> But I dont like that both passages emphasize working for someone else.

Yeah. I was reading GP's interesting thoughts and was thinking: "At least I already got the part about not working for human masters right"!

Post reply on HN