Stop Acting Like You're Famous
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Stop Acting Like You're Famous
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Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous
#2Agree with focusing on doing it because you enjoy it, something gets lost when we try and impress others; I'm sure we can all remember being a child and doing things purely because we enjoyed it.
However, I disagree with the personal style part of things, or trying to make things look good. These things don't have to be about impressing an audience. It can be just as much about enjoying the process.
Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous
#3This is excellent advice, but there is one exception: on the internet, behave as if your username was your real name and everyone was in the room with you. Don’t use the cover of anonymity to be mean. Act as if people knew you and remembered you.
Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous
#4Agree with focusing on doing it because you enjoy it, something gets lost when we try and impress others; I'm sure we can all remember being a child and doing things purely because we enjoyed it. However, I disagree with the personal style part of things, or trying to make things look good. These things don't have to be about impressing an audience. It can be just as much about enjoying the process.
The way I read “personal style” was, don’t make it your whole personality.
And making things look good is in the eye of the beholder. If you like design and want to make pretty things, do that and don’t worry about the criticism.
For me, pretty is my code, I couldn’t care less about the UX because I’m the only user.
Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous
#5That's easier said and done when half of the population between 15 and 45 are addicted to Instagram.
Even if a small percentage of them, say 5%, decide to emulate the famous people they follow we will have too many people who believe they are important.
Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous
#6Agree with focusing on doing it because you enjoy it, something gets lost when we try and impress others; I'm sure we can all remember being a child and doing things purely because we enjoyed it. However, I disagree with the personal style part of things, or trying to make things look good. These things don't have to be about impressing an audience. It can be just as much about enjoying the process.
I think the sentiment is ok, but like you, I think the overall message is completely nonsense. It’s obviously fine to do things you aren’t enjoying as part of a process of to achieve your goals, and that doesn’t need to be about outside validation at all. I’m not very good at design, I don’t too much enjoy the process. Well I do enjoy parts of it when the hyperfocus sets in, but as a whole I don’t enjoy the process. I still do it, not because I care what anyone else will think about the end result but because, I, care about what, I, will think about it.
I’m sure the author is doing some sort of simplification of things. A lot of learning processes aren’t necessarily enjoyable and almost none are enjoyable all the time. I spend years learning how to airbrush while absolutely hating the process because I wanted to be able to do certain things. Now that I can actually make the stuff I envision I enjoy the process, but sucking at the beginning? Yeah that sucked. Hell, even if your end goal, is, outside validation… go for it!
But I do agree with the whole “life is short, so what you love” sentiment. It’s just that you could put it so much better and less condescending than the author does here.
Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous
#7Agree with focusing on doing it because you enjoy it, something gets lost when we try and impress others; I'm sure we can all remember being a child and doing things purely because we enjoyed it. However, I disagree with the personal style part of things, or trying to make things look good. These things don't have to be about impressing an audience. It can be just as much about enjoying the process.
The way I read “personal style” was, don’t make it your whole personality. And making things look good is in the eye of the beholder. If you like design and want to make pretty things, do that and don’t worry about the criticism. For me, pretty is my code, I couldn’t care less about the UX because I’m the only user.
But the second you want to make things for anyone else is when UI/UX matters.
Some people (and many people on HN) take graphic design for granted, but it's the first thing they seem about your product. It matters. Your app can work flawlessly but nobody will use it if the text has poor contrast or the buttons are comically small, for example.
Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous
#8This is excellent advice, but there is one exception: on the internet, behave as if your username was your real name and everyone was in the room with you. Don’t use the cover of anonymity to be mean. Act as if people knew you and remembered you.
Also these accounts will probably be de-anonymized at some point, between leaks and style matching. We aren’t famous, so mostly it is the same as anonymously yelling on a crowded street corner, but then most of our IRL interactions are similarly anonymous-by-obscurity…
Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous
#9That's easier said and done when half of the population between 15 and 45 are addicted to Instagram. Even if a small percentage of them, say 5%, decide to emulate the famous people they follow we will have too many people who believe they are important.
Instagram likes and GitHub stars are exactly the same mechanism as far as someone who owns the content is concerned. Doing something 'to get famous', be it for your pouting selfies or your open source work, is basically the same, and anyone making a repo for the wrong reasons should heed the advice in this article. It is directly applicable to what they're doing.
Re: Stop Acting Like You're Famous
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
The way I read “personal style” was, don’t make it your whole personality. And making things look good is in the eye of the beholder. If you like design and want to make pretty things, do that and don’t worry about the criticism. For me, pretty is my code, I couldn’t care less about the UX because I’m the only user.
But the second you want to make things for anyone else is when UI/UX matters. Some people (and many people on HN) take graphic design for granted, but it's the first thing they seem about your product. It matters. Your app can work flawlessly but nobody will use it if the text has poor contrast or the buttons are comically small, for example.
that's the point of the article- that you shouldn't be worried about making things for something else if they're unlikely to care either way
with that said, I agree with your overall point, if you're determined to make something popular you shouldnt skimp on design