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There's nothing more disheartening than spending a great deal of time and effort building something that absolutely no one uses or even wants.

beebeepka 5y ago
That's rather hyperbolic in at least several ways. Doesn't most of what we humans do fall into this category? Some of the things I have done are used by millions. Doesn't make me proud one bit because I was paid to build other people's ideas, not mine. Pretty much nobody cares about the things that I've done/written out of love. It's no doubt sad and sometimes makes me slightly bitter but there's plenty of objectively worse stuff out there
- zach_garwood 5y ago
  Hey, sure, if you're making art, making something to foster a talent, or just making something because you personally want to see it exist, that feels really good and motivating! But if it's your job to build tools and products to make people's lives easier, and they don't, it's really difficult to feel good about that. It's not that a million people use it that makes it feel good (although that can certainly be a point of pride), it's the fact that you contributed something useful to society, whether it was you're idea or not, or perhaps helping others make thier ideas a reality is motivating. There are no doubt more objectively worse things that could happen in your career, but I doubt anyone sincerely wants waste their time and skill on some hair-brained product their project manager cooked up to pad their resume.
  - beebeepka 5y ago
    I understand the sentiment but it's somewhat ironic saying this on a site like this. Ads, tracking, military. Plenty of them around here
danjac 5y ago
I've lost count of the times I have built something that nobody used or wanted, or failed for reasons outside of the development work itself. While it can be disheartening, you can still take pride in doing a good job, you (hopefully) got paid for building it, and you learned some things and maybe wrote some useful code in the meantime that could be re-used somewhere else.
ilrwbwrkhv 5y ago
What's even worse is that any successful company often keeps making the same kind of unnecessary products again and again. Old project learnings are missing so often.

beebeepka 5y ago

That's rather hyperbolic in at least several ways. Doesn't most of what we humans do fall into this category? Some of the things I have done are used by millions. Doesn't make me proud one bit because I was paid to build other people's ideas, not mine. Pretty much nobody cares about the things that I've done/written out of love. It's no doubt sad and sometimes makes me slightly bitter but there's plenty of objectively worse stuff out there

zach_garwood 5y ago
Hey, sure, if you're making art, making something to foster a talent, or just making something because you personally want to see it exist, that feels really good and motivating! But if it's your job to build tools and products to make people's lives easier, and they don't, it's really difficult to feel good about that. It's not that a million people use it that makes it feel good (although that can certainly be a point of pride), it's the fact that you contributed something useful to society, whether it was you're idea or not, or perhaps helping others make thier ideas a reality is motivating. There are no doubt more objectively worse things that could happen in your career, but I doubt anyone sincerely wants waste their time and skill on some hair-brained product their project manager cooked up to pad their resume.
- beebeepka 5y ago
  I understand the sentiment but it's somewhat ironic saying this on a site like this. Ads, tracking, military. Plenty of them around here

danjac 5y ago

I've lost count of the times I have built something that nobody used or wanted, or failed for reasons outside of the development work itself. While it can be disheartening, you can still take pride in doing a good job, you (hopefully) got paid for building it, and you learned some things and maybe wrote some useful code in the meantime that could be re-used somewhere else.

ilrwbwrkhv 5y ago

What's even worse is that any successful company often keeps making the same kind of unnecessary products again and again. Old project learnings are missing so often.