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It’s true, I can attest! The idea of “increasing your luck surface area” is real. You can create a lot of opportunities for yourself by being public about what

It’s true, I can attest! The idea of “increasing your luck surface area” is real. You can create a lot of opportunities for yourself by being public about what you’re up to. It got me a job working with Taylor Otwell, before his businesses took off, and now working at Fly to help with Laravel adoption. My side projects have made helped people learn, given me an audience, and earn extra income.

aarondf 4y ago
The concept of "luck surface area" changed my life, no joke. It's the best framing I've ever heard for it.
- abathur 4y ago
  I like the framing. I've been trying to blog more and publish more personal projects over the last ~4 years than I had before that, but speaking to the proverbial empty room is a little disheartening. I think it's because I'm pining for perspective, which is a fairly high-value thing. I can't say "luck surface area" has changed my life, yet, but I suspect seeing it that way provides a more stable and intrinsic (if small) motivation. I've thought for a while that I'll need a less-external motivation to be able to keep it up in the long term.
  - Frotag 4y ago
    Personally I use github issues / prs as documentation for future me. It's a happy side effect that it builds my portfolio (same for if someone actually finds it useful).
    - abathur 4y ago
      Within a project context? Or do you have a more ~personal/meta repo where you're doing this more broadly? If the latter I'd be curious to see an example (but don't feel pressured if you aren't comfortable dropping it in a busy thread).
      - Frotag 4y ago
        Nah, the first option, not a central repo. That's a cool idea though, maybe I should do that for irl todo lists. With markdown, it's probably easier / better than using notepad or discord or whatever.
        abathur 4y ago
        The projects beta will actually let you have a user project which would be easy enough to use that way. I am not sure, however, how public/searchable those are.
- cehrlich 4y ago
  Same, I can't remember where I heard it first but it changed my life. Would be curious if someone knows the origin of it.
  - aarondf 4y ago
    I think the first mention of the concept was on a podcast called TechZing. The author later wrote it down on his blog (referenced in the article) https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-sur...
ushakov 4y ago
as an open-source developer, i can confirm this is a real phenomena best gigs i’ve got are because of relevant contributions and from companies depending on my software if you have a strong open-source profile, many companies will skip the screener and invite you straight to interview (i believe this is called “red carpet treatment”) public work makes you trustworthy and you will stand out among other candidates
- abathur 4y ago
  Edit: I meant something more more like, "What would you say makes an OSS profile strong?", but I'll preserve the original question below so that the responses still make sense. :) --- Where would you say a strong OSS profile begins? (Feel free to give a fuzzy low-stakes answer. Haven't experienced this but curious where the ballpark is.)
  - ushakov 4y ago
    i’d say with exposure! most of the exposure you’ll be getting is from organic search you might not realize, but people are literally searching for solutions all the time companies also search for projects they want to build/use to see who’s already building it (this is where you can get hired) so, a good idea would be to work on your README so when your prospects describe the problem to the search engine your project comes up as a solution then make sure the technical side and the documentation are solid, so that people can depend on it a plus for you would be to have projects across multiple domains, this increases your exposure if you want to go a step beyond that, try to post your projects to relevant communities (note: this should come secondary after search)
    - abathur 4y ago
      Thanks--this gives me a good sense, I think. My emphasis was probably a little off. You might be answering something like "if my goal is a strong profile, where should I start?" I was a little more curious about "where do you think ~strong begins?" In any case, "people depend on it" and "projects across multiple domains" both seem like good-enough answers to the latter question.
michaelbrooks 4y ago
Not just sharing work, but sharing stories as well. I recently did a 3-peaks challenge for charity and tweeted about my accomplishments which has led to my next line of work. I also shared about buying my first house which led to 2 news articles and 1 podcast 30 second audio clip that have all paid money, and given me more exposure. It's been great!
- Kaos-Industries 4y ago
  Could you explain more about how buying your first house led to news articles and a podcast that all generated revenue? Seems like it would not be reproducible by many people but interesting nonetheless.

aarondf 4y ago

The concept of "luck surface area" changed my life, no joke. It's the best framing I've ever heard for it.

abathur 4y ago
I like the framing. I've been trying to blog more and publish more personal projects over the last ~4 years than I had before that, but speaking to the proverbial empty room is a little disheartening. I think it's because I'm pining for perspective, which is a fairly high-value thing. I can't say "luck surface area" has changed my life, yet, but I suspect seeing it that way provides a more stable and intrinsic (if small) motivation. I've thought for a while that I'll need a less-external motivation to be able to keep it up in the long term.
- Frotag 4y ago
  Personally I use github issues / prs as documentation for future me. It's a happy side effect that it builds my portfolio (same for if someone actually finds it useful).
  - abathur 4y ago
    Within a project context? Or do you have a more ~personal/meta repo where you're doing this more broadly? If the latter I'd be curious to see an example (but don't feel pressured if you aren't comfortable dropping it in a busy thread).
    - Frotag 4y ago
      Nah, the first option, not a central repo. That's a cool idea though, maybe I should do that for irl todo lists. With markdown, it's probably easier / better than using notepad or discord or whatever.
      - abathur 4y ago
        The projects beta will actually let you have a user project which would be easy enough to use that way. I am not sure, however, how public/searchable those are.
cehrlich 4y ago
Same, I can't remember where I heard it first but it changed my life. Would be curious if someone knows the origin of it.
- aarondf 4y ago
  I think the first mention of the concept was on a podcast called TechZing. The author later wrote it down on his blog (referenced in the article) https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-sur...

ushakov 4y ago

as an open-source developer, i can confirm this is a real phenomena best gigs i’ve got are because of relevant contributions and from companies depending on my software if you have a strong open-source profile, many companies will skip the screener and invite you straight to interview (i believe this is called “red carpet treatment”) public work makes you trustworthy and you will stand out among other candidates

abathur 4y ago
Edit: I meant something more more like, "What would you say makes an OSS profile strong?", but I'll preserve the original question below so that the responses still make sense. :) --- Where would you say a strong OSS profile begins? (Feel free to give a fuzzy low-stakes answer. Haven't experienced this but curious where the ballpark is.)
- ushakov 4y ago
  i’d say with exposure! most of the exposure you’ll be getting is from organic search you might not realize, but people are literally searching for solutions all the time companies also search for projects they want to build/use to see who’s already building it (this is where you can get hired) so, a good idea would be to work on your README so when your prospects describe the problem to the search engine your project comes up as a solution then make sure the technical side and the documentation are solid, so that people can depend on it a plus for you would be to have projects across multiple domains, this increases your exposure if you want to go a step beyond that, try to post your projects to relevant communities (note: this should come secondary after search)
  - abathur 4y ago
    Thanks--this gives me a good sense, I think. My emphasis was probably a little off. You might be answering something like "if my goal is a strong profile, where should I start?" I was a little more curious about "where do you think ~strong begins?" In any case, "people depend on it" and "projects across multiple domains" both seem like good-enough answers to the latter question.

michaelbrooks 4y ago

Not just sharing work, but sharing stories as well. I recently did a 3-peaks challenge for charity and tweeted about my accomplishments which has led to my next line of work. I also shared about buying my first house which led to 2 news articles and 1 podcast 30 second audio clip that have all paid money, and given me more exposure. It's been great!

Kaos-Industries 4y ago
Could you explain more about how buying your first house led to news articles and a podcast that all generated revenue? Seems like it would not be reproducible by many people but interesting nonetheless.