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I tend to worry about criticism and whether my things are actually useful enough for others to be worth the trouble. So I've never actually published anything.

I tend to worry about criticism and whether my things are actually useful enough for others to be worth the trouble. So I've never actually published anything. When I was a teenager I made a bunch of games for which I created level editors and the like. This was before there were free alternatives that I knew of which fit my needs. When I started with graphics programming I made a library with OpenGL helpers for setting up shader programs, textures, double buffered textures, etc. configurable via configuration files. I ended up using it for a number of private projects and my master's thesis. I've also made a Vim plugin for handling projects: setting up working directory, loading session files, setting a number of project specific paths and compiler options, etc. I wanted it to do enough little things that it was difficult to find a ready solution. I once had a number of video files with subtitles which were out of sync, so I made a command line tool to resync them. It only took me a few minutes so it felt worth it and was very satisfying.

bredren 5y ago
I encourage you to publish some of the things you’ve worked on. One way to reduce some of the concerns you mentioned would be to publish it using one or more anonymous accounts. So long as your readmes have reasonable keywords, someone may just stumble on your project. If they don’t like it well it still won’t be attributed to you and you don’t even have to respond. Either way, the practice of releasing and dealing with the weight of that is something that gets easier over time. You may find you enjoy it.
- Agentlien 5y ago
  Thank you, I have thought about this before and might do so in the future. At work I routinely make things which I know are used by millions of people and I've never had a problem with that. In fact, I'm quite proud of my work. And I've long since gotten over worrying about others reading my code. I'm also a big proponent of code reviews. But the code being public still feels really scary, even though there's so much worse code out there which doesn't get sneered at.
  - bredren 5y ago
    You’re welcome. Those are good points and indicate this is likely a trick of personal psychology. I felt the same way and it prevented me from releasing in the past. There are a variety of ways to overcome this, but the absolute best is to just release something and find how little sneering happens. In time you’ll realize that the gatekeeping and holier than thou view toward code can only be expressed by those who release even more. If they hope to stay in the game, those who do will do provide feedback on your code do so with positivity. Leaders know it takes teams of talented individuals capable of action to get stuff done. And they know abuse is anti ethical to recruiting talent. So if it was someone you might want to impress judging your code unworthy, they’ll either offer constructive criticism or say nothing at all.

bredren 5y ago

I encourage you to publish some of the things you’ve worked on. One way to reduce some of the concerns you mentioned would be to publish it using one or more anonymous accounts. So long as your readmes have reasonable keywords, someone may just stumble on your project. If they don’t like it well it still won’t be attributed to you and you don’t even have to respond. Either way, the practice of releasing and dealing with the weight of that is something that gets easier over time. You may find you enjoy it.

Agentlien 5y ago
Thank you, I have thought about this before and might do so in the future. At work I routinely make things which I know are used by millions of people and I've never had a problem with that. In fact, I'm quite proud of my work. And I've long since gotten over worrying about others reading my code. I'm also a big proponent of code reviews. But the code being public still feels really scary, even though there's so much worse code out there which doesn't get sneered at.
- bredren 5y ago
  You’re welcome. Those are good points and indicate this is likely a trick of personal psychology. I felt the same way and it prevented me from releasing in the past. There are a variety of ways to overcome this, but the absolute best is to just release something and find how little sneering happens. In time you’ll realize that the gatekeeping and holier than thou view toward code can only be expressed by those who release even more. If they hope to stay in the game, those who do will do provide feedback on your code do so with positivity. Leaders know it takes teams of talented individuals capable of action to get stuff done. And they know abuse is anti ethical to recruiting talent. So if it was someone you might want to impress judging your code unworthy, they’ll either offer constructive criticism or say nothing at all.