4 ms·

Basically all the comments here are just critiques. My 2 cents: excellent work, its extremely hard to stick with something for 3 years, especially with people'

Basically all the comments here are just critiques. My 2 cents: excellent work, its extremely hard to stick with something for 3 years, especially with people's constant criticism and worries it isn't "big enough". The attitude of the developer seems quite wise and seasoned. Hearing things like "I'm making tools I use" and "I'd rather be small and opinionated" or "I'll take paying customers over droves of free users" makes my heart warm. Congratulations and good work -- ignore haters and people with "suggestions" after their cursory 30-second glance at your work you've been eating / breathing for 3 straight years. My go-to response to such things has become "wow in X years I didn't think to google 'note taking app', thanks for that amazing suggestion!" :P (end salty solo-dev rant)

thanatropism 7y ago
This attitude you applaud is Emersonian self-reliance. I agree it's refreshing to see it.
- gooseus 7y ago
  Indeed, I was wondering what familiar sense of righteousness was stirring while reading this comment: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm#SELF-RELIANCE http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm#SEL... Always worth a(nother) read.
mixmastamyk 7y ago
I'll agree, however even rude critiques can often be useful if you can disengage your emotion chip.
- GuiA 7y ago
  Critiquing is a skill. The onus is as much on the critiquer to formulate their critique in a constructive, actionable way as it is on the critiquee to take the critique in stride. That said, good crit skills are very hard to develop, and environments where effective critique sessions can be carried out very hard to build (because it’s fundamentally about trust). And it’s skill that is just not taught in engineering; people familiar with critique will be mostly people who went to art school, and even then many art schools do a pretty bad job at teaching it (I had a design teacher who, during critiques, would make students... vote on their favorite /facepalm).
  - mixmastamyk 7y ago
    Sure. However, to get feedback for a new project you probably need all you can get. Getting any at all can be surprisingly difficult. Therefore one rarely can throw out the negative comments. Perhaps copy them to a file of notes and edit them to their core essence to minimize the sting.
    - GuiA 7y ago
      Feedback from total strangers is overrated. You have no clue where their feedback comes from (are they a prospective user? Some grumpy programmer who just wants to rant about your choice of framework? A product designer used to operating in a certain environment that just doesn’t apply to you? etc). Separating the wheat from the chaff from anonymous posters is tricky business. Thinking of it as good feedback vs bad feedback based on the feedback itself is also not the right way to go in my experience. Good feedback is anything that observes the way a particular problem was solved, and proposes an alternative way of solving it, or reframes the problem altogether (identifying a problem that was not solved can be valuable too, although the line is blurrier). Bad feedback tends to be, well, anything that is not that. But hey in the end, whatever works for you.
      - mixmastamyk 7y ago
        You’ll still have to filter it on other criteria as well, agreed.
sriram_malhar 7y ago
Your note made me confront my own self-doubt. Time to dust off that old code-base
- gerbilly 7y ago
  You don't need to get all the customers, you just have to find your customers. As long as you find enough of them, you'll be ok. You are wise to avoid trying to make an everything for everyone app. No one will want to use it.
  - yyhtotyuou 7y ago
    You just have to duck your own trick, that is the key to it, and also the conclusion of the parent post above. Keep it simple my fellow truck riders
  - yyhtotyuou 7y ago
    As opposed to parent you don't VB have to stuck your own crock 24/7 to get any results. Keep it simple and humble. That is my advice. Amen.
- jason_slack 7y ago
  and good for you! I have so many projects that have never seen a customer but I spend time polishing and creating them anyway. I don't build things for other people. I build them for myself. If someone buys it great, if not, it doesn't matter. I did this for myself.
darkstar999 7y ago
> Basically all the comments here are just critiques. Welcome to hacker news!
dang 7y ago
> Basically all the comments here are just critiques. That's not how the thread looks now at all. The contrarian dynamic strikes again? https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22contrarian%20dynamic%22%20objecti&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

thanatropism 7y ago

This attitude you applaud is Emersonian self-reliance. I agree it's refreshing to see it.

gooseus 7y ago
Indeed, I was wondering what familiar sense of righteousness was stirring while reading this comment: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm#SELF-RELIANCE http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm#SEL... Always worth a(nother) read.

mixmastamyk 7y ago

I'll agree, however even rude critiques can often be useful if you can disengage your emotion chip.

GuiA 7y ago
Critiquing is a skill. The onus is as much on the critiquer to formulate their critique in a constructive, actionable way as it is on the critiquee to take the critique in stride. That said, good crit skills are very hard to develop, and environments where effective critique sessions can be carried out very hard to build (because it’s fundamentally about trust). And it’s skill that is just not taught in engineering; people familiar with critique will be mostly people who went to art school, and even then many art schools do a pretty bad job at teaching it (I had a design teacher who, during critiques, would make students... vote on their favorite /facepalm).
- mixmastamyk 7y ago
  Sure. However, to get feedback for a new project you probably need all you can get. Getting any at all can be surprisingly difficult. Therefore one rarely can throw out the negative comments. Perhaps copy them to a file of notes and edit them to their core essence to minimize the sting.
  - GuiA 7y ago
    Feedback from total strangers is overrated. You have no clue where their feedback comes from (are they a prospective user? Some grumpy programmer who just wants to rant about your choice of framework? A product designer used to operating in a certain environment that just doesn’t apply to you? etc). Separating the wheat from the chaff from anonymous posters is tricky business. Thinking of it as good feedback vs bad feedback based on the feedback itself is also not the right way to go in my experience. Good feedback is anything that observes the way a particular problem was solved, and proposes an alternative way of solving it, or reframes the problem altogether (identifying a problem that was not solved can be valuable too, although the line is blurrier). Bad feedback tends to be, well, anything that is not that. But hey in the end, whatever works for you.
    - mixmastamyk 7y ago
      You’ll still have to filter it on other criteria as well, agreed.

sriram_malhar 7y ago

Your note made me confront my own self-doubt. Time to dust off that old code-base

gerbilly 7y ago
You don't need to get all the customers, you just have to find your customers. As long as you find enough of them, you'll be ok. You are wise to avoid trying to make an everything for everyone app. No one will want to use it.
- yyhtotyuou 7y ago
  You just have to duck your own trick, that is the key to it, and also the conclusion of the parent post above. Keep it simple my fellow truck riders
- yyhtotyuou 7y ago
  As opposed to parent you don't VB have to stuck your own crock 24/7 to get any results. Keep it simple and humble. That is my advice. Amen.
jason_slack 7y ago
and good for you! I have so many projects that have never seen a customer but I spend time polishing and creating them anyway. I don't build things for other people. I build them for myself. If someone buys it great, if not, it doesn't matter. I did this for myself.

darkstar999 7y ago

> Basically all the comments here are just critiques. Welcome to hacker news!

dang 7y ago

> Basically all the comments here are just critiques. That's not how the thread looks now at all. The contrarian dynamic strikes again? https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22contrarian%20dynamic%22%20objecti&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...