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I'm 55 and I just finished writing a couple of books. I felt that I had done so much and seen so many cool things that before I check out I owed the world a "bo

I'm 55 and I just finished writing a couple of books. I felt that I had done so much and seen so many cool things that before I check out I owed the world a "book report", whether anybody wanted to read it or not. So I wrote a couple. I don't think I could have done that even ten years ago. There's a perspective you get, kind of a postmodernism, where you both understand the topics and the common ways of addressing them, then are able to move past that. I guess geniuses reach that point in their teens. It might take a bit longer for the rest of us :) There's a thing I see with younger tech authors where they don't want to admit it, but they're for the most part chasing fame. That's a different kind of creativity. I never was good at that and it hasn't gotten much better, either. Perhaps you need a good foundation in order to "bloom" eventually?

alchemism 6y ago
I've seen discussion from time to time about there being two different types of genius which manifest at different ages. Especially as it applies to writers. https://qz.com/1606423/the-two-types-of-creativity-peak-at-very-different-ages/ https://qz.com/1606423/the-two-types-of-creativity-peak-at-v...
tenaciousDaniel 6y ago
I don't have as many years as you, I'm 36, but I can already start to see what you're talking about. I started out life as an artist, getting a bachelors in fine arts and imagining that I'd be a famous painter. In reality, I just didn't have a good enough foundation in order to build something truly creative. You just have to have a lot of varied experiences to draw from.
- moron4hire 6y ago
  I'm pretty sure becoming a famous painter has a lot more to do with who you know than what you know or do. I'm sorry, I didn't go to art school myself. I was alergic to art school culture, so I transferred to computer science. But I've been in and around lots of artist groups over the years. Even made a small business out of making installations for artists, for a short while. (That's a while other thing. Big Art artists often don't make their own things. They're more like producers or project managers than technicians). The one thing that struck as the big difference between the artists who were making it and the ones who were struggling was really just their social group. The ones who were making it came from rich families, knew art dealers, and were getting invited to the "popular" artist parties. At least, that was the case for "fine" art, artists selling a small number of high-value pieces. The other way to make it was to make a large number of populist pieces, for mass production, and then hustle hard on the craft fair circuit. If they could build a following that way and refine their process to cut costs to the bar minimum, then they could maybe explode selling online. But just going to art school, being really creative and a master of craft, and hoping someone will discover you... Never seen it happen. It's interesting, because I think it actually has a lot of parallels to open source software. You don't really get big in OSS by making a cool program. You have to market the shit out of it. And about the only way to do that in a way that OSS users aren't allergic to is networking on the public speaking circuit, knowing lots of other popular developers, getting them to use your software.
  - friendlybus 6y ago
    Maurizio Cattelan famous to for his satirical pieces like a banana taped to a wall and a solid gold toilet, was not born to a rich family. He also had no formal art training. Banksy did not rely on meeting people, quite the opposite. There's a documentary called the price of everything of a man who spent a decade with his wife in his secluded art studio producing a new art technique and came back in 2015-2016 to 'turn in his work' and made bank. There's more to art than nepotism.
    - SirLuxuryYacht 6y ago
      There's a where the rubber meets the road aspect to each of these artists. What happened to Maurizio Cattelan between being born and duct taping that banana? Who did the man and wife turn their art into? It seems that these things did not just happen one day and then they became famous. Clearly they all knew someone who lit the marketing fuse. Could've been a rich cousin or could have been someone on the street with a social media following.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - Hoasi 6y ago
      Those are perfect counterexamples. Although both these artists knew quite a bit about marketing and advertising, which is paramount in art, as noted by Warhol. > There's more to art than nepotism. Fortunately yes.
    - Broken_Hippo 6y ago
      Most things like this have outliers. It doesn't change the fact that being a successful artist mostly relies on having the right social network and sheer luck. The examples you gave had luck that got them to the right social circles - it'd have been easier for either one if they were born into the right sorts of families. The social circle thing is so prevalent that most artist I've met that sell regularly spend about as much or more time networking as they do making art. Most folks are just stuck having luck enough to sell from time to time, especially if they are outliers and not doing things that match many living rooms.
Babiker 6y ago
What are your books about and where can I check them out?
- DanielBMarkham 6y ago
  - I am not here pushing books. In fact, you won't find a link in my feed - Although these books are meant to help people who develop technology, frankly I'm not interested in what the average developer has to say about them. I wouldn't have liked some of my conclusions either had I read about them 20 years ago - I have deliberately priced my books to only sell to people interested and dedicated in reading them This is the only reason I'm replying to you: I wouldn't want somebody else to go find the books and then start a flame war based on my price. If you can't afford it but are dedicated to learning, ping me. We'll work something out. Otherwise yeah, it's crazy high compared to the "Learn You Some Javascript in Five Hours" free YouTube-based courseware. https://leanpub.com/u/DanielBMarkham https://leanpub.com/u/DanielBMarkham
  - DataCrayon 6y ago
    Have you found that people are willing to make the investment at that price?
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - hombre_fatal 6y ago
    I have to say, the preemptive defensiveness is quite a turn-off. Maybe you're replying to common, unfair complaints you've received in the past which have jaded you, but if you're going to take such an acidic route, you should just bite your tongue until you actually receive the comments you think you're replying to.
- patcon 6y ago
  My curiosity was piqued, so I checked it out and found this really helpful [archived] wiki on the LeanPub page (and a nice video by David): http://web.archive.org/web/20190407035722/https://wiki.info-ops.org/index.php/Main_Page http://web.archive.org/web/20190407035722/https://wiki.info-... And David, good call on the price. I wouldn't respect anyone who would begrudge you the price of your most hard-won knowledge, esp when it sounds like you do consulting.
ericmcer 6y ago
Interesting use of postmodernism. You are saying modern is now and “post” is being able to see beyond/around/through current notions? I think it works but postmodernism is a hotly discussed word that will break a reader from their flow. It definitely broke me out and made me think about how it could be applied here, so if that was your intent it worked. I always enjoy the tactical use of literary “flexes” like semi-colons, large words, etc. when they are done fully understanding their impact.
- ryanobjc 6y ago
  I think he means postmodern in the common sense of the postmodern movement. Modernism was a architectural and philosophical trend that peaked in the 50s. It really got started a few decades earlier than that. Think of uniform apartment blocks: modernist architecture in action. It was a sense that we were finding the universal laws of everything and we could make things equal and fair via uniform architecture for example. Postmodernism was a critique of that and a deconstruction. Modernist ideas didn’t work all the time and for everyone. If you’re referring to “now” the word you can use is contemporary. Meaning “along side”. This works for more things eg: “Albert Einstein corresponded extensively with his contemporaries.” Or “I dislike contemporary architecture”.
  - friendlybus 6y ago
    Modernism was also an art movement rhat favoured idealism over realism and produced a variety of new styles. Pointillism used tiny dots of paint to generate different colours when viewed from a far. Similar to a pixel, and more beautiful. There was a move to abstractions like cubism and modrian went out of his way to show off the most basic components of a cow in the abstract. It spanned from the 1860s to the 1970s. OP's use of the word postmodernism doesn't really make sense, as a general rule. Many people get to the end of a topic and don't fall into questioning and desconstructing our modern and historical narratives. Many people can see an end to a topic and seek to add onto it or move on without destruction, a natural completion. Being done with the topic for life. Maybe OP is showing an affinity for stepping outside our normal social bounds for a new perspective via pomo and I don't think he meant that.
  - 6y ago
mattgreenrocks 6y ago
> There's a thing I see with younger tech authors where they don't want to admit it, but they're for the most part chasing fame They'd see it as "making an impact [and standing to benefit from that]." Not casting judgment here. It's just that the motive really decides how you focus your time, which determines the outcome and the types of things you work on. HN seems to be preoccupied with this notion of whether something is relevant. Thing is, as you get older, that is less of a draw, as your life experience shows you how to evaluate things beyond what other people say about them.

alchemism 6y ago

I've seen discussion from time to time about there being two different types of genius which manifest at different ages. Especially as it applies to writers. https://qz.com/1606423/the-two-types-of-creativity-peak-at-very-different-ages/ https://qz.com/1606423/the-two-types-of-creativity-peak-at-v...

tenaciousDaniel 6y ago

I don't have as many years as you, I'm 36, but I can already start to see what you're talking about. I started out life as an artist, getting a bachelors in fine arts and imagining that I'd be a famous painter. In reality, I just didn't have a good enough foundation in order to build something truly creative. You just have to have a lot of varied experiences to draw from.

moron4hire 6y ago
I'm pretty sure becoming a famous painter has a lot more to do with who you know than what you know or do. I'm sorry, I didn't go to art school myself. I was alergic to art school culture, so I transferred to computer science. But I've been in and around lots of artist groups over the years. Even made a small business out of making installations for artists, for a short while. (That's a while other thing. Big Art artists often don't make their own things. They're more like producers or project managers than technicians). The one thing that struck as the big difference between the artists who were making it and the ones who were struggling was really just their social group. The ones who were making it came from rich families, knew art dealers, and were getting invited to the "popular" artist parties. At least, that was the case for "fine" art, artists selling a small number of high-value pieces. The other way to make it was to make a large number of populist pieces, for mass production, and then hustle hard on the craft fair circuit. If they could build a following that way and refine their process to cut costs to the bar minimum, then they could maybe explode selling online. But just going to art school, being really creative and a master of craft, and hoping someone will discover you... Never seen it happen. It's interesting, because I think it actually has a lot of parallels to open source software. You don't really get big in OSS by making a cool program. You have to market the shit out of it. And about the only way to do that in a way that OSS users aren't allergic to is networking on the public speaking circuit, knowing lots of other popular developers, getting them to use your software.
- friendlybus 6y ago
  Maurizio Cattelan famous to for his satirical pieces like a banana taped to a wall and a solid gold toilet, was not born to a rich family. He also had no formal art training. Banksy did not rely on meeting people, quite the opposite. There's a documentary called the price of everything of a man who spent a decade with his wife in his secluded art studio producing a new art technique and came back in 2015-2016 to 'turn in his work' and made bank. There's more to art than nepotism.
  - SirLuxuryYacht 6y ago
    There's a where the rubber meets the road aspect to each of these artists. What happened to Maurizio Cattelan between being born and duct taping that banana? Who did the man and wife turn their art into? It seems that these things did not just happen one day and then they became famous. Clearly they all knew someone who lit the marketing fuse. Could've been a rich cousin or could have been someone on the street with a social media following.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - Hoasi 6y ago
    Those are perfect counterexamples. Although both these artists knew quite a bit about marketing and advertising, which is paramount in art, as noted by Warhol. > There's more to art than nepotism. Fortunately yes.
  - Broken_Hippo 6y ago
    Most things like this have outliers. It doesn't change the fact that being a successful artist mostly relies on having the right social network and sheer luck. The examples you gave had luck that got them to the right social circles - it'd have been easier for either one if they were born into the right sorts of families. The social circle thing is so prevalent that most artist I've met that sell regularly spend about as much or more time networking as they do making art. Most folks are just stuck having luck enough to sell from time to time, especially if they are outliers and not doing things that match many living rooms.

Babiker 6y ago

What are your books about and where can I check them out?

DanielBMarkham 6y ago
- I am not here pushing books. In fact, you won't find a link in my feed - Although these books are meant to help people who develop technology, frankly I'm not interested in what the average developer has to say about them. I wouldn't have liked some of my conclusions either had I read about them 20 years ago - I have deliberately priced my books to only sell to people interested and dedicated in reading them This is the only reason I'm replying to you: I wouldn't want somebody else to go find the books and then start a flame war based on my price. If you can't afford it but are dedicated to learning, ping me. We'll work something out. Otherwise yeah, it's crazy high compared to the "Learn You Some Javascript in Five Hours" free YouTube-based courseware. https://leanpub.com/u/DanielBMarkham https://leanpub.com/u/DanielBMarkham
- DataCrayon 6y ago
  Have you found that people are willing to make the investment at that price?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- hombre_fatal 6y ago
  I have to say, the preemptive defensiveness is quite a turn-off. Maybe you're replying to common, unfair complaints you've received in the past which have jaded you, but if you're going to take such an acidic route, you should just bite your tongue until you actually receive the comments you think you're replying to.
patcon 6y ago
My curiosity was piqued, so I checked it out and found this really helpful [archived] wiki on the LeanPub page (and a nice video by David): http://web.archive.org/web/20190407035722/https://wiki.info-ops.org/index.php/Main_Page http://web.archive.org/web/20190407035722/https://wiki.info-... And David, good call on the price. I wouldn't respect anyone who would begrudge you the price of your most hard-won knowledge, esp when it sounds like you do consulting.

ericmcer 6y ago

Interesting use of postmodernism. You are saying modern is now and “post” is being able to see beyond/around/through current notions? I think it works but postmodernism is a hotly discussed word that will break a reader from their flow. It definitely broke me out and made me think about how it could be applied here, so if that was your intent it worked. I always enjoy the tactical use of literary “flexes” like semi-colons, large words, etc. when they are done fully understanding their impact.

ryanobjc 6y ago
I think he means postmodern in the common sense of the postmodern movement. Modernism was a architectural and philosophical trend that peaked in the 50s. It really got started a few decades earlier than that. Think of uniform apartment blocks: modernist architecture in action. It was a sense that we were finding the universal laws of everything and we could make things equal and fair via uniform architecture for example. Postmodernism was a critique of that and a deconstruction. Modernist ideas didn’t work all the time and for everyone. If you’re referring to “now” the word you can use is contemporary. Meaning “along side”. This works for more things eg: “Albert Einstein corresponded extensively with his contemporaries.” Or “I dislike contemporary architecture”.
- friendlybus 6y ago
  Modernism was also an art movement rhat favoured idealism over realism and produced a variety of new styles. Pointillism used tiny dots of paint to generate different colours when viewed from a far. Similar to a pixel, and more beautiful. There was a move to abstractions like cubism and modrian went out of his way to show off the most basic components of a cow in the abstract. It spanned from the 1860s to the 1970s. OP's use of the word postmodernism doesn't really make sense, as a general rule. Many people get to the end of a topic and don't fall into questioning and desconstructing our modern and historical narratives. Many people can see an end to a topic and seek to add onto it or move on without destruction, a natural completion. Being done with the topic for life. Maybe OP is showing an affinity for stepping outside our normal social bounds for a new perspective via pomo and I don't think he meant that.
- 6y ago

mattgreenrocks 6y ago

> There's a thing I see with younger tech authors where they don't want to admit it, but they're for the most part chasing fame They'd see it as "making an impact [and standing to benefit from that]." Not casting judgment here. It's just that the motive really decides how you focus your time, which determines the outcome and the types of things you work on. HN seems to be preoccupied with this notion of whether something is relevant. Thing is, as you get older, that is less of a draw, as your life experience shows you how to evaluate things beyond what other people say about them.