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A legendary hacker. > In February 2009, antirez's friend David Welton helped him share Redis to the world on Hacker News. The response was pretty muted; apart

A legendary hacker. > In February 2009, antirez's friend David Welton helped him share Redis to the world on Hacker News. The response was pretty muted; apart from David, only four people responded. Three of them said there were already similar projects out there, and only one person responded positively and offered to help. So don't worry if you don't immediately get traction.

samwillis 3y ago
Here's that first thread: > Redis - 23 points by davidw on Feb 25, 2009 | 11 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=494649 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=494649
- cortesoft 3y ago
  I love the comment with the ruby implementation, which became the official ruby lib I am still using today!
- 1024core 3y ago
  Upvoted! ;-)
  - revskill 3y ago
    Too late.
- sillysaurusx 3y ago
  That thread went really well. Whoever said it went badly was way off. Fantastic work.
  - gus_massa 3y ago
    I agree. 2009 was really a long time ago. 23 points was enough to be the #22 most upvoted article of that day https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-02-25 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-02-25
    - sillysaurusx 3y ago
      That was before the front page was logged — those are just sorted by upvotes. I wish it were possible to time machine it. Luckily, thanks to Dan, maybe someone will be able to time machine your new project once it gets mega popular. :)
      - sillysaurusx 3y ago
        (I'm not sure what my point was here, since you were correct that it was the 22nd most upvoted article that day. Sorry.)
davidw 3y ago
Oh... hey, I remember that. antirez and I used to work together at Linuxcare Italy. He's always been a bright guy, and also just a really pleasant person to hang out with.
- antirez 3y ago
  Thank you so much for your kind words, David. I hope soon or later we will meet again :)
capableweb 3y ago
> The response was pretty muted; apart from David, only four people responded. Three of them said there were already similar projects out there, and only one person responded positively and offered to help. It's still pretty useful, as an outsider, as then the creator can hopefully explain the difference, if it's not already outlined in whatever gets submitted. https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-02-25 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-02-25 It was also still on the frontpage, so not sure I'd say muted. I'm sure it led to many people trying it out, some giving feedback, others eventually contributing. The effect can be bigger than just comments in the submission itself.
mathgladiator 3y ago
> So don't worry if you don't immediately get traction. There's so much truth to this. I've got a wacky project that is a crazy platform ( https://www.adama-platform.com/ https://www.adama-platform.com/ ), and I've started to test my thesis by hiring a few contractors via upwork. I found this great kid that just got to work and made a game! It feels fantastic just to see someone use something that I made as a creative tool. I've got a lot to work on, but I'm keeping the faith going strong.
- lelanthran 3y ago
  Very off-topic, but ... > I've got a wacky project that is a crazy platform ( https://www.adama-platform.com/ https://www.adama-platform.com/ ), I don't think you realise just how many of your posts link to this project. It doesn't seem like you are able to respond to a HN comment/post without linking your project. IOW, you aren't able to hold a conversation without reference to your project. This is probably not healthy - I mean, surely you have opinions that aren't colored by your project, and you have interests that aren't linked to your project?
  - mathgladiator 3y ago
    I mean... it's a big project that overlaps with many areas? I do realize because I'm a shameless self promoter looking for like minds.
  - thaumasiotes 3y ago
    If his self-promotion is on topic when he posts it, as it was here, I don't really see what the issue is supposed to be.
    - lelanthran 3y ago
      > If his self-promotion is on topic when he posts it, as it was here, I don't really see what the issue is supposed to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about his promotion. Look at almost every regular poster on HN - they all have more than one type of comment. GP has only one type of comment (his project). I dunno if it is really healthy to obsess over only a single thing, especially (IIRC) GP made a HN post some time back about burnout.
kbenson 3y ago
I think this also points to something a bit more subtle, but obvious now that we're looking back on this in hindsight an calling antirez a legendary hacker. That is, sometimes it's not what you do but how you do it. Redis would not be where it is today were it not for his incredible effort to keep the quality high and the code performant. It's entirely true that a lot of what redis did was already done at the time it was released. It's also true that in the end that's not what mattered.
quickthrower2 3y ago
I also like how this was born in Italy, just getting stuff done for work, far from the crazy world of SV, yet it generalized to the needs of fast startups, and now it is a standard piece of infra. Too good to ignore springs to mind.

samwillis 3y ago

Here's that first thread: > Redis - 23 points by davidw on Feb 25, 2009 | 11 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=494649 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=494649

cortesoft 3y ago
I love the comment with the ruby implementation, which became the official ruby lib I am still using today!
1024core 3y ago
Upvoted! ;-)
- revskill 3y ago
  Too late.
sillysaurusx 3y ago
That thread went really well. Whoever said it went badly was way off. Fantastic work.
- gus_massa 3y ago
  I agree. 2009 was really a long time ago. 23 points was enough to be the #22 most upvoted article of that day https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-02-25 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-02-25
  - sillysaurusx 3y ago
    That was before the front page was logged — those are just sorted by upvotes. I wish it were possible to time machine it. Luckily, thanks to Dan, maybe someone will be able to time machine your new project once it gets mega popular. :)
    - sillysaurusx 3y ago
      (I'm not sure what my point was here, since you were correct that it was the 22nd most upvoted article that day. Sorry.)

davidw 3y ago

Oh... hey, I remember that. antirez and I used to work together at Linuxcare Italy. He's always been a bright guy, and also just a really pleasant person to hang out with.

antirez 3y ago
Thank you so much for your kind words, David. I hope soon or later we will meet again :)

capableweb 3y ago

> The response was pretty muted; apart from David, only four people responded. Three of them said there were already similar projects out there, and only one person responded positively and offered to help. It's still pretty useful, as an outsider, as then the creator can hopefully explain the difference, if it's not already outlined in whatever gets submitted. https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-02-25 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2009-02-25 It was also still on the frontpage, so not sure I'd say muted. I'm sure it led to many people trying it out, some giving feedback, others eventually contributing. The effect can be bigger than just comments in the submission itself.

mathgladiator 3y ago

> So don't worry if you don't immediately get traction. There's so much truth to this. I've got a wacky project that is a crazy platform ( https://www.adama-platform.com/ https://www.adama-platform.com/ ), and I've started to test my thesis by hiring a few contractors via upwork. I found this great kid that just got to work and made a game! It feels fantastic just to see someone use something that I made as a creative tool. I've got a lot to work on, but I'm keeping the faith going strong.

lelanthran 3y ago
Very off-topic, but ... > I've got a wacky project that is a crazy platform ( https://www.adama-platform.com/ https://www.adama-platform.com/ ), I don't think you realise just how many of your posts link to this project. It doesn't seem like you are able to respond to a HN comment/post without linking your project. IOW, you aren't able to hold a conversation without reference to your project. This is probably not healthy - I mean, surely you have opinions that aren't colored by your project, and you have interests that aren't linked to your project?
- mathgladiator 3y ago
  I mean... it's a big project that overlaps with many areas? I do realize because I'm a shameless self promoter looking for like minds.
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  If his self-promotion is on topic when he posts it, as it was here, I don't really see what the issue is supposed to be.
  - lelanthran 3y ago
    > If his self-promotion is on topic when he posts it, as it was here, I don't really see what the issue is supposed to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about his promotion. Look at almost every regular poster on HN - they all have more than one type of comment. GP has only one type of comment (his project). I dunno if it is really healthy to obsess over only a single thing, especially (IIRC) GP made a HN post some time back about burnout.

kbenson 3y ago

I think this also points to something a bit more subtle, but obvious now that we're looking back on this in hindsight an calling antirez a legendary hacker. That is, sometimes it's not what you do but how you do it. Redis would not be where it is today were it not for his incredible effort to keep the quality high and the code performant. It's entirely true that a lot of what redis did was already done at the time it was released. It's also true that in the end that's not what mattered.

quickthrower2 3y ago

I also like how this was born in Italy, just getting stuff done for work, far from the crazy world of SV, yet it generalized to the needs of fast startups, and now it is a standard piece of infra. Too good to ignore springs to mind.