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My Lack of Attention

champonthis.de

41–50 of 99 posts

Re: My Lack of Attention

#41
post #7

So here's the thing. It takes work and effort to get attention. "if you build it, they will come". Never has one cliche been so exactly wrong. Programmers, myself included, believe(d) that the code is the product. That the code will speak for itself. That being "better" (for some definition of better) is enough. If I build it, they will come. The truth though, the code is about 10% of the effort to make a successful…

Yes I think you're totally right. That doesn't change the fact, that I just really don't like marketing and don't want to invest the time. Of course it's naive and not totally right, but to some point I would say, I am immune to advertising. If I need something, I do research if there is something valuable. If someone wants to sell me something, in the end I am even more skeptical about the product. Anyways, I didn't thought my post will get that much attention, it was more for my self-compassion. Because I know, how I at least COULD try to fix the issue. But I just don't want to. From another comment here:

> but they don't want take the required steps to get that attentions

In the end, it comes down to this. So yes, there is now solution. I want to get the benefit without investment because I dream of a world not existing where everyone would do research to find the best.

Re: My Lack of Attention

#42
post #13

> But I don't want to steal attention, so I cannot write comments advertising my app. I am not that kind of person. I get it. But this is the kind of advertising that's OK in my book. Exposing people who are clearly interested (rather than maybe interested based on, for example, previous shopping habits) to something they have not heard of. And of course you don't want to steal attention, but you can do it in a polit…

Yeah they want the attention but they don't want take the required steps to get that attentions. Sometimes it helps to reflect on our values. Yes you might get offended at the loud mouths that crave attention all the time but that doesn't mean there isn't some value in that activity. Putting yourself out there and selling yourself is important. We all have something to offer the world. The way to maximize that is to…

> but they don't want take the required steps to get that attentions

Yes, that's definitely right. As long as there is not something extremely unfair, I am very polite and don't want to offend anyone. I personally feel offended by let's call it "usual marketing techniques". They try to blend, discredit other's and so on. That's not me. In the current example with the GH app, it's also more complaining about the Reddit algorithm, but that one is also logically, like said, that someone with higher reputation get's more attention and back on: I don't want to post useless stuff. I only write, when I have something to say. Good example is a German news portal: There is a limit of 50 comments you need to write before you are allowed to post links. It's not about, if that is a good idea or not, my point is: It took me 9 years for this. Because I only wrote a comment, when I thought this has really value for others. So again, my reputation on this board is from an algorithm perspective really bad. Same may go for Reddit.

Re: My Lack of Attention

#43
Just want to mention, that I got this attention now, because a moderator here put my post to the second chance pool. In the end, this is exactly what I wish would happen everywhere: someone discovers something good and do the marketing. Very unlikely to happen, but I wish it happens more. They will be more people like me, doing stuff and don't want to or cannot invest more time in marketing etc.

Re: My Lack of Attention

#44
post #12

Marketing and networking are more important than most people realize. You can have an amazing feature set but if no one knows about it then it wont get used. It's the same with you as a developer. You can be the best developer in the world but you won't get paid like you are unless people know about you and you're in demand. Also that title reminded me of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi8ShAosqzI&ab_channel=Ko…

Thank you so much for sharing that youtube link, it made me laugh so hard

Re: My Lack of Attention

#45
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why do all social animals organize into hierarchies?

First of all, it is not correct statement about all social animals. And second, hierarchical organization does not mean at all quality is on top.

Which social animal does not organize into a hierarchy?

Social animals organize into hierarchies precisely because hierarchies bubble quality to the top.

Re: My Lack of Attention

#46
post #7

So here's the thing. It takes work and effort to get attention. "if you build it, they will come". Never has one cliche been so exactly wrong. Programmers, myself included, believe(d) that the code is the product. That the code will speak for itself. That being "better" (for some definition of better) is enough. If I build it, they will come. The truth though, the code is about 10% of the effort to make a successful…

[deleted]

Re: My Lack of Attention

#47
post #41
post #7

So here's the thing. It takes work and effort to get attention. "if you build it, they will come". Never has one cliche been so exactly wrong. Programmers, myself included, believe(d) that the code is the product. That the code will speak for itself. That being "better" (for some definition of better) is enough. If I build it, they will come. The truth though, the code is about 10% of the effort to make a successful…

Yes I think you're totally right. That doesn't change the fact, that I just really don't like marketing and don't want to invest the time. Of course it's naive and not totally right, but to some point I would say, I am immune to advertising. If I need something, I do research if there is something valuable. If someone wants to sell me something, in the end I am even more skeptical about the product. Anyways, I didn't…

In the last paragraph I think lies the key: attention makes you uncomfortable? So it sounds like you have an internal conflict where you both want and don't want attention at the same time.

Maybe I am similar, I am very reluctant to promote my work, I don't want too much attention.

I actually briefly worked a job doing social media marketing where it was my job to create attention grabbing content. I had some moderate success there, but the more I succeeded the more I was overwhelmed, I really did not enjoy having to deal with so many messages every day and gave up the work very quickly. Part of me liked the attention, but a bigger part didn't want it.

tl;dr: I am an introvert, sounds like you are too, maybe some successful introverts can share their advice with us.

Re: My Lack of Attention

#48
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ Quality always rises to the top. That's a law of nature.” That is definitely not a law of nature.

Depends on how big the quality difference is, if it is big enough then your product will grow exponentially via word of mouth, like Google did for example. That is just simple math, if you are good enough that people want to tell others about it then it will grow. Problem is that today most technological needs are already filled by good programs so adding significant new value to peoples lives is extremely hard, so i…

Google initially targetted a niche (geeks and nerds like us) with no-fuss, no-ads search experience where weight of the result depended mostly on how many citations it had. They were very present at conferences related to free software, for instance (which I'd consider investment in marketing).

And this group was the one in charge of "fixing their relatives' computers", so we were all too happy to tell them about Google: this is how word-of-mouth worked for them.

Re: My Lack of Attention

#49
totally get it.

i havent released much. and the quality is questionable. but i totally get it.

me and my SO discussed this briefly, her suggestion is to only do things for yourself.

my thoughts to that: yeah, sure. but working a dayjob _and_ working the dream, who is going to cheer me on? im bad at multitasking, so after a day or two of spinning my wheels i will most likely loose all drive, because i can see that i wont make it in the near future to the finish line. Also, nobody except me cares, but do i really care? there are projects i do care about a lot, but because i care so much i havent really put any deliberate concrete planing into it as to keep anything possible. this way i pick up small projects left and right, turn them over a couple of times in my mind and then drop them. big ones i just dream about ad infinitum... i hate it but i havent found the jenesaiqua to motivate myself to do anything really. much less so if i only do it for myself.

being cheered on by family always feels like "oh wow, that is a nice cat you drew" "its a horse" "oh yeah now i see it...(they never did)": empty encouraging words. blind eyes appreciating art. deaf ears praising the timbre of an instrument. v_v

at least when i cook a meal i can eat it and experience whether or not it tastes good. but with software? what am i supposed to make that will make my life a bit better: an automatic doomscroller? scoffs

I wish you well, lurkars, may your projects gain the recognition they deserve

Re: My Lack of Attention

#50
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what happened to it. Copyright issues?

Here is the statement from Esoteric Games to the story: http://esotericsoftware.com/gloomhaven-helper They declined to create a FH app and Cephalofair declined then to make any more money with GHH. So it was shut down.

that is very sad. I would not have thought that Isaac would react in that way. Communication on the Frosthaven updates did not sound like that.

Gloomhaven helper was a high quality product and improved playability by a lot. Esoteric games did Cephalofair a great service. Sad to see it end this way.

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