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Imo this hits the nail of the head: > But fortunately I’ve found that just doing the thing that fulfills you the most also happens to be the fastest way to dis

Imo this hits the nail of the head: > But fortunately I’ve found that just doing the thing that fulfills you the most also happens to be the fastest way to discover other people who will celebrate your ideas and hard work. Even it those "other people" are only a "cohort" of 3 or 4 and not the metaphorical thousands, as long as those 3 or 4 persons are genuinely into what you're doing and, most importantly, they're doing/building most probably something similar to you (or following the same philosophy), then I find that that is very much worth it (i.e. "giving away" the attention of the multitudes for the "attention" of a few people from your particular domain).

angarg12 4y ago
I have a much more cynical and pessimistic view that's pretty much not on brand for HN. I spent 3 years working on a videogame as a personal side project. Although I was passionate about it, thing is it was a very niche idea. Sure, maybe I got literally 2 or 3 people that were super into it, but it never got any traction. So yes, doing something that you enjoy is it's own reward... to a point. I poured hundreds of hours in that videogame and led to me burnout once, jut to have a few hundreds visits. I don't exactly regret the experience, but I could have spent much less time and effort on it. Now I'm less "follow your passion" and more tactical about my efforts. I spent a weekend prototyping a game where you guess an emoji using a "hot/cold" system by comparing emojis based on their semantic similarity. When I asked for feedback it was universally panned, so I decided to drop it. Sure, maybe there is one person who'd love the game, but we only have so much time on this earth, so I have to consider the opportunity cost of building something that one person could love vs building something more people might enjoy.
neilv 4y ago
If your cohort is only 3 or 4 people, hopefully your sustainable livelihood isn't tied too much to that endeavor.
- paganel 4y ago
  That's part of the whole thing, that when you do something you love or which at least you're greatly interested in you don't necessarily do it for money, I'd say that in most cases you don't do it for money. That's what jobs are for (money, that is).

angarg12 4y ago

I have a much more cynical and pessimistic view that's pretty much not on brand for HN. I spent 3 years working on a videogame as a personal side project. Although I was passionate about it, thing is it was a very niche idea. Sure, maybe I got literally 2 or 3 people that were super into it, but it never got any traction. So yes, doing something that you enjoy is it's own reward... to a point. I poured hundreds of hours in that videogame and led to me burnout once, jut to have a few hundreds visits. I don't exactly regret the experience, but I could have spent much less time and effort on it. Now I'm less "follow your passion" and more tactical about my efforts. I spent a weekend prototyping a game where you guess an emoji using a "hot/cold" system by comparing emojis based on their semantic similarity. When I asked for feedback it was universally panned, so I decided to drop it. Sure, maybe there is one person who'd love the game, but we only have so much time on this earth, so I have to consider the opportunity cost of building something that one person could love vs building something more people might enjoy.

neilv 4y ago

If your cohort is only 3 or 4 people, hopefully your sustainable livelihood isn't tied too much to that endeavor.

paganel 4y ago
That's part of the whole thing, that when you do something you love or which at least you're greatly interested in you don't necessarily do it for money, I'd say that in most cases you don't do it for money. That's what jobs are for (money, that is).