13 ms·

How to post when no one is reading

• justmarc 1y ago
  Excellent advice. I find that it even applies to software. Thank you.
• chistev 1y ago
  [flagged]
  • LaundroMat 1y ago
    Please don't do this here.
  • deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
• sircastor 1y ago
  For a variety of reasons I wanted some notoriety when I was younger. I wanted to be “the guy who’d done that thing” I became a lot happier with myself when I stopped chasing that and just decided to post the things that I like and the projects I wanted to do. These days I like to think of my website as part of the “old, good internet”: No ads, no demands, just whatever I like and wanted to write. It’s worth recognizing that that comfort came around/after I was making decent enough money that I wasn’t also trying to figure out a side hustle. It feels to me like “do the things you like” is a luxury of someone who isn’t anxious about paying all their bills.
  • cornfieldlabs 1y ago
    >It feels to me like “do the things you like” is a luxury of someone who isn’t anxious about paying all their bills. Couldn't have said it better. I really didn't get to "do things I love" until I escaped poverty.
    • didgetmaster 1y ago
      Even if you are lucky enough to find something you really enjoy that also generates some income; unless it is almost trivial, there will be parts of it you don't enjoy. Side projects might be fun to code, but bug fixes, tech support, and documentation might be a real chore for you. I have one of those that I can't wait to sit down and code a new feature; but sometimes have to force myself to do the tasks that make it more 'user friendly'.
    • themadturk 1y ago
      I love writing. I definitely wrote things that brought in no money when I was worried about making the rent.
    • johnnyanmac 1y ago
      Yeah, that's always been the case. There's lots of things I want to do in my free time. Learn Japanese, learn some art, take a brisk hike. But right now I'm mostly thinking about a portfolio to appeal to get a full time job after 2+ years out.
    • chairmansteve 1y ago
      Huh... I used to live in poverty in order to do the things I loved. Now I have a very comfortable life, but not much time to do the things I love.
  • m4rc3lv 1y ago
    What's you websites URL?
    • sircastor 1y ago
      https://aaroneiche.com https://aaroneiche.com
  • KolibriFly 1y ago
    "Do what you love" advice always sounds great, but it hits differently when you're also worried about rent
    • 0xEF 1y ago
      Agreed, and I've always hated that phrase since it seems like it has two different meanings, depending on who is uttering it; 1. People who use "do what you love" to mean "love what you do," as though you can force yourself to enjoy anything. This is only true for people who lie to themselves and compromise regularly against their own interests. 2. The Lucky Ones™ who happened to accidentally align an enjoyable hobby with a career and think because they "did it," anyone can, without acknowledging that they were simply in the right place at the right time with the right skills, or that the stars don't exactly align the same way for the rest of us.
      • brabel 1y ago
        To add to that: people like some messed up things, or truly inaccessible things. And while you can try to focus on "some good stuff" that you like, you can't really pick the things you like the most! If you could, wouldn't the world be a much easier place (just like the things that make the most money, or are the most accessible, in other words, the things offering the best cost-benefit... but of course no one can really do that... no one would ever suffer heartbreak - just like the person who likes you, and if they change their mind, just stop liking them and like someone else! Such genius!)?!
        • 0xEF 1y ago
          I get what you're saying. It's difficult to convey this to some people. I've been through a lot of jobs in quite a few different fields over the decades and have the appearance of being restless if I am not careful about how I craft my resume. I've been asked "okay, but what do you _like_ to do?" which just puts me in a position to have to explain that I have a passion for learning new things and experimentation, but nobody is going to pay me to read books and play around in a workshop all day, since those jobs are few and definitely already filled. So, it's a hobby, instead.
  • neom 1y ago
    Do what you're good at and not what you lust and you'll alway have resources to chase something called love.
    • deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  • begueradj 1y ago
    Is it possible to share your blog ? I can't see it on your profile.
    • sircastor 1y ago
      https://aaroneiche.com https://aaroneiche.com
  • DavidPiper 1y ago
    This rings so true. Financial freedom is one of the lenses through which you always have to filter life advice from all sources.
  • brazzy 1y ago
    > It feels to me like “do the things you like” is a luxury of someone who isn’t anxious about paying all their bills. The real lesson is that you should not rely on popularity-based success to pay your bills, because there is no knowing how long it will take until you have any success; it may in fact never come. It's that kind of thing that should be the side hustle. You'll have only limited time for it, but at least you know how to pay your bills and can do it the way you want. The other option is to be a starving artist who also feels bad about compromising their vision to make something marketable.
  • Corey_ 1y ago
    [dead]
  • pards 1y ago
    > It feels to me like “do the things you like” is a luxury of someone who isn’t anxious about paying all their bills. I encourage my kids to keep their hobbies as pastimes, not as income sources. As soon as you try to make a living from your hobby or passion, it sucks the joy out of it. Make money from your job; derive joy from your hobby. Separation of church and state.
    • Cthulhu_ 1y ago
      To add, don't think you'd enjoy producing if you enjoy consuming. Many kids these days aspire to become a youtuber or other kind of influencer, only few actually put in the work, and fewer still succeed because I'm convinced you need to have certain specific characteristics to do that kind of work (or hobby), and only a minority of people enjoy recording themselves. Probably more today than 20 odd years ago but still.
    • triceratops 1y ago
      Yes but if there's zero joy in your job, you probably won't be very good at it. Sprocket sales sounds like a gray, drab career, but the successful salespeople chase the thrill of closing. Pick something you medium like that someone will pay you money for. Life is too short to work on something you have no emotions about.
    • socalgal2 1y ago
      I'm pretty sure most movie directors love making movies. Most novelistics love writing. Most indie video game developers love making video games. Most musicians love playing music.
      • bookofjoe 1y ago
        From what I've read most novelists HATE writing.
        • 0cf8612b2e1e 1y ago
          “Slit your wrists and pour yourself onto the page”
  • sph 1y ago
    This is good advice in general, but lately the Internet had grown so large it is healthier to expect no one will ever see your creation. Many of us grew up when the Internet was a pond, today it is an immeasurably large ocean; there is a good chance your audience won’t ever find you, and your chances get shorter every day. Incidentally I also believe one would have more chance to market their own creation in the real, physical world than the Internet. I believe we’ll eventually see leaflets and indie books being distributed to passersby for free like 100 years ago. In any case, create for yourself. Create without ever expecting an audience. If this doesn’t sound fun, you probably just like the publicity rather than the act of creation itself.
    • kevindamm 1y ago
      you'll still get CDs handed to you if you walk around downtown NYC
      • skyyler 1y ago
        Often as part of an intimidation scam where the person that hands you the CD demands payment. But yes, that does happen.
      • abhaynayar 1y ago
        hahah.. just reminded me of mr. robot..
      • adolph 1y ago
        If it worked for AOL, why wouldn't someone continue today? (other than a lack of optical reading devicen in most compute). Maybe AOL would be better off today if they kept mailing and just added NFC and QR-code. In 2011, AOL CEO Steve Case took to Quora to reveal just how successful all those free trials were. “At that time I believe the average subscriber life was about 25 months and revenue was about $350,” Case wrote. “So we spent about $35 to acquire subscribers.” Because that $35 had a gigantic return, AOL was happy to keep pumping money into free CDs. Marketing manager Reggie Fairchild chimed in on the Quora thread to claim that in 1998, AOL used the world’s entire CD production capacity for several weeks. https://www.vox.com/2015/5/12/8594049/aol-free-trial-cds https://www.vox.com/2015/5/12/8594049/aol-free-trial-cds
  • blahaj 1y ago
    Would you mind sharing your site?
    • sircastor 1y ago
      https://aaroneiche.com https://aaroneiche.com
  • mattslip 1y ago
    Recently broke out of the mentality you described myself. When you have a chance to step back and find yourself it’s actually funny how much we can let others from keeping us from doing what we want. External validation is a drug when you don’t know how to value yourself.
    • nuancebydefault 1y ago
      I'm much a people pleaser and I constantly seem to yearn for validation. I see life as a web of relationships and I want all of them to be good. Especially when someone doesn't respect what I do for them or say to them in good faith, this is very hard for me to take in. I wonder how to get out of this cycle of needing validation. I also wonder where this need comes from. If anybody can shed a light, i would be grateful.
      • polishdude20 1y ago
        Maybe if you see this web of relationships connected to you and your job is to please everyone, how about zooming in and picturing the web that is inside of you? Have you heard of parts therapy? It operates on the idea that we "contain multitudes" that all are trying to do their best for us. If you learn to include parts of yourself in this web of relationships, where different parts of you are distinct "people" that need pleasing, you may start "pleasing" yourself more often? Like, I'm imagining zoomed out, there's nuancebydefault4's circle in the middle and everybody in your life is also a circle. You're connected by lines in this web. But zoom in and you can see that inside your circle, is a web of relationships of different parts of you. The part that needs love, the part that needs intellectual stimulation, the part that needs rest etc. Anyways just a post run thought Im having while the endorphins are kicking in...
        • nuancebydefault 1y ago
          Thanks so much, definitely a track to explore!
  • robertlagrant 1y ago
    > It feels to me like “do the things you like” is a luxury of someone who isn’t anxious about paying all their bills. I don't think this is a feeling; it's a fact. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is related to this.
  • socalgal2 1y ago
    For whatever reason which I can't put my finger on, I did more things I liked when I had less money.
    • munificent 1y ago
      About a decade ago, my main "hobby" was writing. I finished and self-published two books that ended up way more popular than I expected. I understandably was fairly burned out by writing after that. I also tend to cycle out hobbies. So I got into making electronic music for a bit. (Fun but hard.) Lately—a surprise to me—the hobby that's been the more rewarding is knitting. I think I just really needed a more tactile thing to do in my free time. I've been really enjoying knitting and it's so much fun picking up a new skill. But the whole time, there's a little voice in the back of my head going, "You know, if you spent this time working on a new book, you'd get more money and recognition..." Hitting middle age and starting to really feel the finite nature of time definitely doesn't help. I wonder if it's something similar for you where it's easier to sink time into random projects before you start thinking of your time as a finite economic resource.
      • sodaplayer 1y ago
        It's easy for me to quickly idolize the authors of books and blogs I have read—yours included (thanks for writing GPP)—and it's often I think I fall into the trap of feeling like I need to dedicate all my free time into practicing and learning software and computer science topics. I also got a small collection of synths and grooveboxes, so seeing you start your Tiny Wires channel was a nice reminder that even those authors have things outside of software. One of my favorite moments lately was just hanging out with my wife in the living room after setting up all my synths there and just jamming with her present as she also worked on her hobby.
        • munificent 1y ago
          > One of my favorite moments lately was just hanging out with my wife in the living room after setting up all my synths there and just jamming with her present as she also worked on her hobby. That sounds so nice!
  • gravez 1y ago
    Yeah, agree. The self-pressure to write a good post for others, for lead-gen, for brand awareness, all take away from "things you like". Something that's been working for me lately is to choose the topics where you have something to say. It's a bit broader than the things you like and allows you to just react to an inner spike to respond. Helps train the muscle for writing
  • vitaflo 1y ago
    The interactions I get when people send me messages from my site are also more meaningful. They tend to have searched the info out and the dialogue can be really beneficial for both parties. I had a popular site once 25 years ago. Popularity is fun but it’s also demanding and draining. I much prefer a slower pace online now that I’m older. I’ve also shifted from trying to be “smart” or insightful to just documenting random niche things that don’t have a lot of other info about online. Everyone has something like this in their life/career however seemingly insignificant. That makes the few connections I get from my site even more special.
  • godelski 1y ago
    I also think that often others benefit more when people write like this. I think of it like how we say it is good to be lazy. Not lazy as in do no work, but lazy in be efficient and don't put off what is easily done now but hard later. When writing for yourself you are writing for people like you. People with interests in similar topics, that are facing similar problems, and probably think somewhat like you too. After all, most of us really aren't that different. It's easy to notice small differences because we're similar. Instead, when you write for others you don't chase those things that make you unique you chase what you think a more average person (in whatever niche) wants. You distance yourself from them just as you distance from yourself. You become more likely to just create more of the same stuff that's already out there. You follow instead of lead. There's tons of exceptions of course and the qualifiers shouldn't be ignored. All I'm trying to say is that the different approaches come with different biases. You should definitely be writing code documentation to general audiences but your blogs? Imo, that should be you. Not everything needs to be work. Just be the fucking nerds that you are
• cornfieldlabs 1y ago
  [dead]
  • anonym29 1y ago
    >Human-Crafted Content (Not AI-Generated) This fails the sniff test. Anyone who's used Claude 4 Sonnet for any period of time generating front end web content immediately recognizes the style of the bubble around that text, the emoji in the text, the general layout, etc. That said, I love the idea. The only issue is, I'm the kind of person who doesn't use that kind of social media at all. Users like me may love it, but I suspect all the "normal" people with iPhones and Spotify subscriptions that go to Starbucks are going to fail to appreciate the benefits while acutely noticing everything that's "missing" compared to their regular social media.
    • cornfieldlabs 1y ago
      Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it I wrote the content myself but the code for the page was written using Gemini. I don't even use Claude, only Gemini. I dumped all my thoughts into a Google doc then asked Gemini to convert it into a waitlist page without changing the content. I guess this will become a problem in future where humans need to actively prove that their content is not AI generated > "Normal" people Yeah you are right, normal people don't care. I just wanted a social network I liked. text posts force people to write instead of posting a low effort photo from a trip etc which reduces the amount of content generated i.e. the "updates" a user needs to look at. This will serve a niche. My friends are using it so I consider that a win. Thank you for the feedback again Edit: one click account deletion also was missing in almost every website or "app" I tried so I added it as well. This website is not unique or anything but there's nothing else that combines the specific features I want. I still want updates from my friends but I don't want to go to an infinite scroll thing to get it. I wish there was a way to know what's happening without the doom scrolling
• ganiszulfa 1y ago
  If it's not tied to your income, I agree. But I can't imagine the stress when your readership numbers determine whether there's food on the table or not.
  • florbnit 1y ago
    I personally think that this would almost never the case because of the extremely skewed distribution of income in the sector. Almost everyone will be making so much less that it’s never even possible that you would be able to pay for dinner with your income and a few are making so much more that it’s never a question if dinner will be paid or not.
• PetrBrzyBrzek 1y ago
  I find this especially difficult on X, where almost no one sees my posts. Especially when I compare it to LinkedIn or Reddit, where it’s not that hard to reach thousands or even tens of thousands of views.
  • cornfieldlabs 1y ago
    Verified users seem to get more views. I opened an account and "to the point" tweets don't get any engagement. Only ragebaits, pretentious "I am very smart" type of content wins. I am sick of my "For you" page and there's no way to reset the suggested content (Instagram has it)
    • PetrBrzyBrzek 1y ago
      Yeah, I agree. I’m verified and even tried a higher tier, but it didn’t make any difference. The For You tab feels almost like scrolling TikTok – total brain rot. My strategy now is to repost all content everywhere. But X consistently gives me the worst results.
      • yusina 1y ago
        Well, look at the CEO of X, tells you all you need to know about that platform.
    • immibis 1y ago
      Have you guys considered just... quitting that platform? You're not obligated to use bad platforms. Most of the people who still insist on only reading X are people you don't want to reach, or spambots.
  • liotier 1y ago
    > I find this especially difficult on X, where almost no one sees my posts This December 2024 article mentions several publishers telling their poor return on Twitter: https://www.emarketer.com/content/bluesky-surpasses-threads-x-referral-traffic-source https://www.emarketer.com/content/bluesky-surpasses-threads-...
• jackdoe 1y ago
  I think there is a new nuance on "no one is reading", where _actually_ no one will be reading and only chatgpt will read your work and spit out few tokens to its user. Now there is a chance of us actually reaching your blog/video etc, like right now on hackernews. Sometimes we will like it or not, sometimes people will share it. Now google and bing prioritize scraping it because it is linked from here, it will be indexed fairly quickly, and chagpt will be able to find it. Soon, when every open platform is just tokens and everything is generated, we will probably move to gated communities and directories, and it will be very difficult for the chatgpt to discover your content. And even it can actually find it, I am not sure you want everything you create to be seen through the lens of a language model.
  • TeMPOraL 1y ago
    > I think there is a new nuance on "no one is reading", where _actually_ no one will be reading and only chatgpt will read your work and spit out few tokens to its user. Ironically, for vast majority of content - including highly-read stuff - being pulled into training data for LLMs is by far the biggest contribution that content is ever going to make to society. (IMHO, people who actually care about what they wrote being useful (vs. pulling ad money) should be more appreciative of this, not apprehensive.)
    • throwaway71271 1y ago
      I am not sure. For example now I am writing a book for my daughter, I would like to share it when done, it is not written for ad money, example chapter, just so you know what kind of content I mean: https://punkx.org/projekt0/book/part1/interpreter.html https://punkx.org/projekt0/book/part1/interpreter.html Is it going to be useful for language models to train on it? I think so, and I don't mind that. As long as they develop better world models and understand human language better. The problem I have is with humans reading generated tokens. Human language is shared experience, the evaluation and interpretation of the symbols depend both on the author and the reader (even though many times they are the same entity). When a person with HPPD says 'The sky is black', when the symbols enter your mind they are superimposed with your experience and their experience to create meaning. (HPPD is a disorder from damaged filters on the visual system, it seems that raw information from the eye sensors are entering the brain, and they can see the inside of their eyes when they look at the sky, so it looks black, as if the whole sky is filled with 'floaters) When you read AI generated content, you are both the judge and executioner, the symbols mean whatever you want them to mean, they have no author (in the human sense). So, I want to write for other humans to read :) Even if nobody reads it.
• ZYZ64738 1y ago
  Exactly what I want to read on Monday mornings: it describes and confirms my experience from different areas of life, whether it's coding, yoga or DJing; your life is for you and it's supposed to be fun. Then it's original and, with a bit of luck, others will enjoy the things you do too. However, if you do everything just to please others, then you are enslaving yourself to them, copying things that already exist and your originality is gone. My humble opinion...
  • KolibriFly 1y ago
    Funny how doing it "for yourself" often ends up resonating more with others anyway
  • CoastalCoder 1y ago
    > your life is for you You may feel differently if/when you have children.
    • brabel 1y ago
      While I thank my parents for having invested so much of their lives in me, I do hope that they had the chance to do most of the things that they liked while bringing me up, and I surely hope they do that now that we're all grown up and independent (unfortunately, in my case, one parent is dead and the other doesn't really have the energy anymore... I wish she would just have fun and enjoy life, but it's easy to say when you're young and healthy).
      • graemep 1y ago
        One of my kids is grown up, the other is nearly so. The thing I most liked doing in my life was bringing them up so I did the thing I most liked. It WAS fun and enjoying life.
    • TeMPOraL 1y ago
      In several different ways at the same time. One moment, it's obvious your life is for your children; another, you're thinking in frustration that it should be for you, at least a bit. Gets tricky to find a balance, but balance is needed, because your children learn from example; if you sacrifice 100% of your own self to them, they'll never learn how to live.
• uptownhr 1y ago
  "if you build it, they will come"
  • politelemon 1y ago
    They, in this age, are usually the AI crawler bots.
    • esafak 1y ago
      If you are okay with that, then you can rest knowing that the whole world is a little bit influenced by you. Look at the outsized impact of Nigerian English reviewers on ChatGPT!
  • immibis 1y ago
    This was the case when people were looking for built things to come to (that sounds dirty). In this newer era that, 100% of people's attention is already captured and you're fighting with a billionaire with a marketing team and engagement team to move some of it over to your thing.
• TheEdonian 1y ago
  It's just impossible to get your content out there at the moment. 10 years ago, you would just post on twitter or reddit, and people would catch it. Now, twitter and bluesky are wastelands, and Reddit works if you're in the right subreddit (I say that as my main read/post subreddit just went private this morning without warning). There are also blogroll communities, but I don't think they are all that popular (if they even let you in). I heard getting on mailing lists works, but I have no way to even know how you get to that stage.
  • BeetleB 1y ago
    > It's just impossible to get your content out there at the moment. Not sure what you mean. Create a blog. Write a post. It's out there. Everything else you wrote in your comment seems almost the antithesis of the submission: Do things that you like, and sometimes the world will agree.
    • TheEdonian 1y ago
      I've read so many posts that say: Just write because you like to write, do it cause it's fun. To me that's only part of the truth. I write because I like it sure, but it's also very unmotivating to just "scream in the void". I want to share idea because I want to hear other opinions on my ideas. I want conversations, not monologues.
      • nchmy 1y ago
        Perhaps it would be useful for you to shift your perspective. Consider your writing to be just notes, a journal, a scratchpad, etc... Its just a place for you to identify, refine and articulate your ideas. It doesn't have to be for anyone else but you. I have literally millions of words of writing that no one else has seen. Some of it is a rambling mess, some of it is fairly polished. But having done this has served me extremely well in many areas of life - I am more self-aware, articulate, etc... THAT is the motivation, not whether people have seen the ideas. Perhaps someday I'll refine it further and share it publicly. Though, I'm regularly drawing upon it all when I have conversations - be it in real life, or in places like this. Why does the "conversation" have to be in the comments section of your own site?
• dt3ft 1y ago
  Songs with 3 listens? [x]
• tobystic 1y ago
  My take away from this is that you wanna keep posting your work regardless. It’s not when you “blow” that you wanna start doing that. Enjoyed the Mike Posner reference. As a big fan of James Blunt, JB talks about this in some of his posts . His fans know “You are beautiful” is not even one of his top 5 works. Thanks for posting . Enjoyed it
• KolibriFly 1y ago
  Really appreciate the reminder that chasing what you think will succeed tends to kill both quality and motivation. Creating stuff you genuinely enjoy not only makes the process bearable, it probably makes the output better too.
• Two_hands 1y ago
  I think the best thing I realised was to post what and when I want, with little expectations regarding the number of readers. This way I produce the best content and any reader who does stumble across the posts will get the best read. I suppose my content is sort of nice too, so if I focused on readers my content would inevitably stray from what it is at the moment (sucking the joy out of it for me along the way)
• Klaus_ 1y ago
  [dead]
• jarbus 1y ago
  Beautiful. It’s what I’ve been telling myself as well, and it’s gotten to the point where I like what I do so much that I feel bad for the people who never bother to give me a shot. Not just for posting, but for community building and stuff too. I think that goes a long way. When I was at my lowest, I got a message from a 14 year old guy who I’m 90% sure was an FBI agent with access to my search history. They said they really liked my posts, and that one little message gave me so much life.
• litlyx 1y ago
  This is a beautiful article, really curated! Thanks.
• saqibtahir 1y ago
  Writing (and especially posting it) needs to be promoted more. I run a small community and I tell them time and time again, writing is not to attract fame, it is to get better at what you do - and having a log of it. I think as you grow, in career, or in general, folks who get writing always do better than who don't give all things equal. Keep posting!
  • sailorganymede 1y ago
    I love this. I don’t write but I think this advice applies to anything creative. Can’t get better if you don’t do it!
• atoav 1y ago
  The most important letters and messages I have written in my life have never been sent. A important thing to realize about writing (especially given the current technological advances) is: Writing is more than just the production of text for other peoples consumption. Writing is an excellent tool to structure thoughts and feelings. Writing isn't just you formulating messages with intent, it is also the text radiating back at you while you write. LLMs are great to lift the burden of writing bullshit texts or as a (hopefully critical) sparring partner, but we need to realize that a lot of the value of writing is that we structure our thoughts and feelings through it and letting someone else do it takes something from us.
• bryanhogan 1y ago
  Good post! I also post about things I enjoy. I dislike the idea that every online content is made as part of a competition with the only goal of getting bigger numbers, online content and social interaction (/social media) don't have to be a competition. Nonetheless, getting zero views is definitely demotivating. But by keeping at it, you will learn what can increase this number, and also what increases this number in a way that you care about. I found it immensely joyful to share and talk about content I had made with friends, or bringing it to them when relevant. So don't overfocus on how many people see it, but rather who.
• ChessviaAI 1y ago
  There’s something strangely liberating about writing when no one’s watching. No pressure to perform, no expectations to meet, just you, your thoughts, and the page. And yet, I won’t lie, having a reader, even just one, feels like sunlight breaking through fog. You don’t need it to keep walking, but it sure makes the path warmer. I think I’m learning to live in that space, to write for the freedom of it, while still holding space for the hope that one day someone will stumble across the words and feel a flicker of recognition. Until then, it’s just me, showing up. And I’m learning to be okay with that. Thanks for putting language to a season so many of us quietly live through.
  • immibis 1y ago
    However, on today's Internet we do have the expectation that everything we post will be sucked up by algorithms and used against us in the future. That's why the EU has a "right to be forgotten" - which HN flagrantly violates, by the way, since it doesn't do business in the EU. (HN's owners, being billionaire VCs, are less scared of the law than random site owners who think if they don't block all IP addresses of RIPE NCC it will count as doing business in the EU)
    • graemep 1y ago
      The "right to be forgotten" is not about preventing information from being sucked up by algorithms as stopping people from finding information about someone easily. It is more complex than that: https://gdpr.eu/right-to-be-forgotten/ https://gdpr.eu/right-to-be-forgotten/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten#European_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten#European... In many cases URLs have been removed from search results but remain on the original site. I have seen far more small sites blocking UK users because of the Online Safety Act than I ever saw blocking EU users because of the right to be forgotten.
  • Gerardox 1y ago
    Beautifully said! Care to share your site?
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• DyslexicAtheist 1y ago
  every sentence you write is first and foremost for yourself. it helps you to tidy up and sharpen your thoughts. every hour you write for others could have been spent reading, or practicing your art. Are you balancing that time wisely? something should also be said about the quality of content that is published for the sake of gaining followers vs the quality of content that is intended for yourself. also keep in mind that every page you publish competes with the existing canon that your readers could have spent their time on instead. also: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/schopenhauer-parerga-and-paralipomena/on-writing-and-style/B3D5AD0252DBE14D1D145179854F9DB1 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/schopenhauer-parerg...
• fennecfoxy 1y ago
  Easy. Think of it as a diary. I wish I wrote about stuff more often, I imagine it'd be the same feeling as coming across old photos or things I wrote (when I used to write) like 10 years ago. It's an awesome feeling, like rediscovering your old self, comparing & contrasting to today. I definitely feel that over the years, we lose memories and other bits of ourselves that we can bring back this way.
• biofox 1y ago
  I used to follow dozens of blogs back when most sites supported RSS. I love reading thoughtfully crafted content, but I don't want my inbox filled with email alerts, and I don't have time to check every blog's website to see if they've posted anything recently. Will RSS ever make a comeback? :(
  • layer8 1y ago
    There are tools like https://github.com/dgtlmoon/changedetection.io https://github.com/dgtlmoon/changedetection.io that allow to create your own RSS feeds from website changes.
  • econ 1y ago
    I had a good few feeds that had errors that prevented them from parsing. I examine the flaws and parse them anyway. Then one day I discover a website had dropped rss support long ago but I had it in my aggregator?? I open the feed url I was using and it just redirected to the index.html took a minute to realize what was going on. If it couldn't find <item> or anything like it it would look for anything similar, if it couldn't find <link> or <guide> it would search for <a>, if it couldn't find a <title> it would take the text from the <a> or use the url and lastly if it couldn't find or parse <pubdate> it would look inf the item url had something like /2025/ in it, prerably /months/ and /day/ with it. So that was what was going on. It could find links on the frontpage and it could parse titles and dates from those. You apparently don't need feeds. No AI required.
  • entuno 1y ago
    A surprising number of sites still support RSS even though they don't have an icon or a link to the feed in the UI - so it's worth checking the page source to see if there's a feed URL. It's one of the big things I'll credit Wordpress for - they enable RSS by default so a lot of sites support it without even meaning to.
  • brabel 1y ago
    Lots of websites still have RSS... even I have RSS on my website, took me half a day to figure out how to do it all by myself. The site is generated using code I wrote myself... and it was quite easy to generate the XML needed from all pages - which is all you need for a RSS feed.
• aaron695 1y ago
  [dead]
• theodric 1y ago
  I know a lot about this! I've been on Twitter for 18 years, post frequently, and have about 5-10 people who read my posts based on the metrics. (Significantly more followers, but they're all fake/bots/dormant). You're either posting for the love of posting/keeping a journal/getting ideas out of your head, or you're posting like it's going to the gym because you want to be an influencer. Having a searchable 18-year database of my thoughts has been helpful to me on many occasions. I also used the dataset to fine-tune an LLM to shitpost like me. Recreational narcissism!
• skeptrune 1y ago
  I have been wanting to make life more interesting by trying new things in side project time and am trying to make blogging them a habit. Most likely less than a handful of people will read it, but it can't hurt. Always good to have links of previous work to refer back to.
• edent 1y ago
  Having early success is daunting (what if I never reach that level again?!) but can also be liberating. There's an interview with Matt Damon where he discusses how winning an Oscar at such a young age freed him. He was no longer chasing that (probably unobtainable) goal and could focus on doing what he wanted.
  • brazzy 1y ago
    > Having early success is daunting (what if I never reach that level again?!) but can also be liberating. Reminds me of a "where are they now?" article I read about a football team that won the world cup. They had achieved the highest possible success in their sport, most of them in their 20s. One managed to go to a world cup again as a coach and reach the final. Some of became TV commentators. Many became coaches, often in lower leagues. Only one left the sport entirely, invested his money and lived in Florida.
    • TeMPOraL 1y ago
      Makes me think of Nobel laureates and the claim I saw a few times, that getting the award is usually the peak of one's career. The reasoning goes, even though the award is proof of competence + a door opener, and should lead to even better results in the future, constantly worrying about living up to the reputation puts a brake on one's work. I've heard similar things said about novelists, too.
• eth0up 1y ago
  My efforts go almost entirely unseen. Despite having some exclusively relevant material on specific subjects, the search engines will often provide a million or so completely unrelated results before including mine. Whether seen this year or the next, or only ones past, I consider it documentation. And perhaps no one will ever see it directly. But the LLMs will (and already) have integrated all the bits into their strange brain. That it's there, seen or unseen, and free of spam, is what the internet is to me. Perhaps some day it will all come together again (or for the first time by self determination) with the greed and slop having withered away, yielding a public domain where people no longer litter and shit in the digital halls of collective knowledge. It's definitely worth the effort.
• susam 1y ago
  Recently, I reached a personal milestone: completing 200 content pages on my website. [1] I wasn't really keeping track, but yesterday, I noticed I had published 200 pages on my website. It just quietly happened over the years. Only took 24 years! By content pages, I mean stuff like blog posts, articles, notes, tools, web games, geek art, etc. (not stuff like index pages, tag list pages, and so on). I mostly write for myself. I do often share my posts on HN and sometimes they get some attention, but most of the time, they do not. All these pages (posts, tools, games, etc.) serve as a personal record of my journey through various technical interests, from the early days of solving mathematical puzzles and writing assembly programs in MS-DOS with DEBUG.EXE, to my current study of algebraic structures and the quirks of Python programming. Each page is like a snapshot of a phase of my life. Sometimes, I browse my own website just to enjoy the journey it has captured and to remind myself of the things I've learnt over the years. [1] https://susam.net/pages.html https://susam.net/pages.html
  • ctxc 1y ago
    Your latest article raises a very interesting point! There are mechanisms that treat URLs as IDs, I didn't really think about feeds tbh :) You wrote your 200th, I wrote my...I think 4th today :D
    • susam 1y ago
      Yes, although it is possible to disable that mechanism by setting isPermaLink="true" on the <guid> element: https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification#ltguidgtSubelementOfLtitemgt https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification#ltguidgtSubelemen...
      • susam 1y ago
        Correction: I meant to say, isPermaLink="false".
• maurits 1y ago
  I've had a self-hosted blog with slice of life pictures, for almost 20 years. Its my own little corner of the internet, not beholden to any social app or company. Something to look through when i'am 80.
• Aziell 1y ago
  I've written things before that no one really read, but I still felt they were worth putting out there. Sometimes the only reason I hit publish is because it means something to me. Even if I'm the only one who reads it, that's enough.
• jgrahamc 1y ago
  I just write up stuff I've done or have been working in. I try to do it in a clear manner so that others may learn something from it if they are unfamiliar with whatever it is I'm up to. And I hope that people who do know a bit about what I'm writing will make suggestions. My latest post is exactly that: https://blog.jgc.org/2025/06/it-was-time-for-dim-bulb-current-limiter.html https://blog.jgc.org/2025/06/it-was-time-for-dim-bulb-curren... It's very niche, wasn't written up for SEO or whatever, and is just something I'm working on.
• undebuggable 1y ago
  Think of it as a digital index fossil.
• tempaway43563 1y ago
  There's a weird 'blogging is good' mentality around here but the truth is writing a decent blog post takes a lot of time and gives very little return. Highlighting people who unexpectedly rose to fame is no use, thats just survivor bias, for every Mike Posner there's millions of musicians who spend years trying to make it with no success. 'Write content for your future fans' is also survivor bias advice. In the attention economy most blogs will just be ignored forever. So here's my advice: Its ok to give up. I think 'never give up' is terrible advice. People can waste years of their lives due to 'never give up'. There is wisdom in knowing when to give up and spend your time on something else. For most people, blogging is a waste of time and they'd be better off going for a nice walk.
  • elliotec 1y ago
    Maybe usually it’s just for personal fun or learning. I think “your audience” can be you and that’s enough. I’ve personally written articles for nobody but myself and “the world” and I’m shocked by how much traffic they get over a decade later. Sometimes the little esoteric things you record for nobody in particular shows up for those particular nobodies and it matters.
  • dirkc 1y ago
    > There's a weird 'blogging is good' mentality around here but the truth is writing a decent blog post takes a lot of time and gives very little return. I think the argument is 'writing is good'. But writing in isolation provides little feedback or upside, so there is some desire / pressure to publish what you write. As to why - writing forces you to formulate thoughts in a linear fashion to communicate them with an audience you might not know. I personally want to better develop that skill!
    • lapcat 1y ago
      > But writing in isolation provides little feedback or upside, so there is some desire / pressure to publish what you write. This is like saying that that personal hobbies provide little feedback or upside. The upside is that you enjoy the activity and what it produces. That's also the feedback. Are you claiming that nobody should write a diary without publishing it to the world?
• drakonka 1y ago
  I feel a little stupid (or naive, maybe) each time I read one of these types of posts, because I've always just taken for granted that people don't need convincing to write if they feel like it. And if they don't feel like it or don't think it brings value to them, it's really not that deep - maybe they simply shouldn't force themselves to do it. Then I pause and realize we need instructional blog posts on how to "persevere" or explainers on why writing is valuable even without an external audience.
  • weitendorf 1y ago
    I think a lot of people are just inherently predisposed to Posting Thoughts on the Internet but it's not really that common in the real world. And it does feel a bit different doing so in a dedicated blog on your own website with your real name, vs under a pseudonym replying to someone else on a giant site. > realize we need instructional blog posts on how to "persevere" or explainers on why writing is valuable even without an external audience Definitely don't think we need another 10,000 Kubernetes Tutorials published on Medium.com but I think the idea of writing for yourself or just without "having" to do it is something most people don't actually have exposure to. It's really not that common in most communities or people's lives, and most people grow up only ever doing it as schoolwork or an obstacle to a job or something. It's been like this since well before the Internet. In fact, I'd bet that well over 90% of people do not personally know a single person who regularly writes for themselves or just for fun.
• Brajeshwar 1y ago
  I heard or read somewhere, “Write for yourself but like writing to a stranger future of you. Your future self is likely to forget what you know now.” Once you start feeling comfortable writing for yourself, and for the future you, things begin to become fun.
• giordanol 1y ago
  Publishing early work feels pointless until you look back and realise the later stuff couldn't exist without it. Same goes for any expressive work. Sounds like a platitude, but it really is all about the process.
  • Cthulhu_ 1y ago
    It's related to survivorship bias or whichever; successful writers have written for years already, but you / the potential writer only discover these when they're already established. Few people will actually have followed them as they progressed through the years. Anyway, point is, you read a good post whose goodness was in part due to the thousand posts before it, then think "I need to be as good as this" and you'll fail. I'm sure there's a word for that too.
    • giordanol 1y ago
      Bamboo growth pattern - years of invisible growth underground, then it suddenly shoots up 90 feet. Easy to forget how long the roots were forming.
• weitendorf 1y ago
  I most write without publishing, and while it does give me a nagging feeling that I ought to be doing that, it's underrated how useful it can be to think through a problem and validate your own thoughts. I believe that smartphones are occupying a huge portion of the time people used to spend just thinking, and the nature of work/modern living has us out of the habit of doing lots of "meditative" tasks that used to be much more common. I almost never hear anybody suggest spending more time thinking over something but constantly hear advice along the lines of "talk to more people" or "see what other people are doing/did and figure out how you can do that". A lot of what we do think we "think" comes from the increasingly large time we spend consuming hyper-targeted media optimizng for watch-time, or conversing within our social tribe. When I sat and wrote this post, I was able to think about this stuff for 10 entirely uninterrupted minutes without anything else competing for my attention. It sounds like nothing, but how often do we actually occupy ourselves purely with our own thoughts without either being interrupted or reaching for our phones out of habit? The only other ways I'm able to sustain that kind of focused thought are by taking walks and programming very late at night. But the extent to which I as a person differ in personality or ideas from an average of my peers is almost entirely from those moments.
  • npodbielski 1y ago
    Probably even worst than that. People used to think for themselves because they had to. Now they just read whatever someone else wrote. Which may cause replacing your thoughts for someone else's. When you think about it that way it is kind of terryfing.
• shaggie76 1y ago
  I get just as many likes from spam bots than real people and it makes me wonder how the numbers would be skewed if the AI-scrapers dropped a like when they absorbed my content.
• ark4n 1y ago
  It is sad and interesting that the thousands (millions?) of blogs with few/zero readers will ultimately end up as a dot inside an LLM. Serving a wide audience just not in the original form, and without success/credit for the original author.
  • palata 1y ago
    This. If the only point of blogging is to have some kind of portfolio when applying for a job (which I believe is valuable), then why publishing it at all? I'm tempted to not publish my blog. Write it for myself, and send it as a portfolio when applying for jobs. So that those damn LLMs don't benefit from it.
    • jodrellblank 1y ago
      > "send it as a portfolio when applying for jobs. So that those damn LLMs don't benefit from it." What when it goes into GMail, Office 365, or some SaaS email filtering system or some SaaS email archiving or SaaS email backup system?
  • jaydenmilne 1y ago
    “Writing is its own reward” ― Henry Miller (1964). “Henry Miller on Writing”, New Directions Publishing “… and now its Sam Altman’s reward too!” ― Jayden Milne (2025). “About”, https://jayd.ml/about https://jayd.ml/about
    • paulpauper 1y ago
      maybe it's own reward, but accolades and money are nice too
  • jasonthorsness 1y ago
    Honestly if the LLM finds and reads my blog and its essence imprints itself permanently on a set of weights to live forever it's sort of cool and way better than just being abandoned! I wonder - what is the path toward LLMs keeping around material that has since been removed from the internet? Do the companies building them keep the scraped content around forever?
• rednafi 1y ago
  I've been maintaining my tiny corner[^1] of the internet for around six years and the lack of readers never bothered me that much; nor did the influx of LLMs. I write when I feel like it, when I have something to say, or when I think it's something my past self would read. Sure, there have been times when some of the articles hit the front page of Hacker News but most of what I write gets little attention and that's perfectly okay. Some of my least favourite write-ups on my blog have thousands of views, and conversely many of my most favourite ones rarely got any. Chasing views and writing stuff that has any substance beyond HN rage bait are completely two different things. [^1]: https://rednafi.com https://rednafi.com
• zkmon 1y ago
  Well, all this sounds inspiring, motivational, puristic or platonic etc. But the reality hits. You are connected to the world around you. That means you need to make deals with it, interact with it, please it etc. The feedback (or the lack of it) from the world does affect you. If you don't care about the feedback, then there is no point in posting. Sing it in your shower. So you really expect some future fame. In more likelihood, it may not come. Does it affect you? I know, you have some belief that it will come. But is that belief rational and practical? Does it justify the investment you make right now? Face it. Blogging, or for that matter any online creative content, is becoming extremely low-rewarding effort. First, no one pays for content any more. Next, they don't even have time to clap, or grasp the quality. And then, there is this AI slop. About 30 years back, I spent days on an abstract art, perfecting it's shading using only an ink pen. It looked a bit geometric. When I showed it to my college hostel mates, they could not believe it was hand-made. Some of them claimed that they know the instruments which can be used to make it, and dismissed my entire effort.
• huksley 1y ago
  The journey of building in public can be tough when starting out! DollarDeploy went through similar early stages. One thing that helped us was focusing on delivering real value for developers - making deployment simple and cost-effective. Happy to share our experience growing the community if you're interested!
• Caelus9 1y ago
  Creating when no one’s watching can feel incredibly free. But I totally understand the pressure. When rent is due and people keep asking, “So, can you make a living from that?”, it’s easy to feel like that freedom is slipping away. To me, the ideal is having a small space that’s just for you. Somewhere you can make things without expecting it to pay your bills or win attention. That’s the kind of space where creativity can breathe. Of course, some people do turn their passions into full time work and even build amazing careers. But before that happens, there’s often a long stretch of uncertainty. It’s not easy to keep going. Most people won’t. The ones who stay are usually those who can protect a quiet flame inside, even when no one’s looking.
• ryukoposting 1y ago
  The toughest pill to swallow in our engagement-addicted web culture is this: there is no correlation at all between the quality of the content someone produces, and the amount of people who engage with it. Likes and followers tell you how many people engage with some material. They don't tell you if that material is any good.
• AndrewStephens 1y ago
  I have a scattershot blog with infrequent posts and random projects. While I enjoy attention I have found that chasing views is a losing game. Now my goal is to write the posts I would like to see. One trick I have found to maintain focus is to not announce that you are going to write a particular thing. Somehow publicizing a forthcoming work means that I am less likely to actually complete it.
• TomMasz 1y ago
  Hey, that's me! I'm long past caring now and have no intention of stopping. Honestly, having no audience expectations is nice. There's no pressure to deliver anything, and I can take breaks without worrying my followers will abandon me.
• jimkleiber 1y ago
  I think the original title—"Thrive in obscurity"—better articulates the purpose of the essay than the current HN title. For me, the former is a much deeper message than just posting.
• self_awareness 1y ago
  > Look at Van Gogh - an incredible artist who died unappreciated & broke, in a mental asylum. All of his fame came after his death. I'm not sure this sounds attractive to most people.
• OfflineSergio 1y ago
  I'm not writing, I'm building and this post and these comments is exactly what I needed to read this morning.
• Oleksa_dr 1y ago
  I'm thinking about starting a blog. I often write detailed comments, but they are often limited because I can't add many images, or just the number of characters is limited, I can't add graphics. I mean, I'm already generating some content, but it's drowning somewhere in the comments. And then I can't find what I wrote myself. I prefer to use it as my own library, but share some research with others. Most (though maybe not all) tech sites will publish a post about the release of the next motherboard and so on 20 times a day, but there will be no news about, for example, PCIe 7.0 and Molex, and if there is such a post, it will be just dry, here is the release and that's it. All the additional information is about it and why it will be useful to incite the audience to expectations, and possibly wishes for potential use. Even on the relevant branches or subreddits where it would be useful, no one even mentions it. Everything is aimed at a quick release, getting paid for the publication, and that's it. The further I go, the more I look for small blocks and re-read them once a month. How much news did you see about another motherboard or GPU with a modified bezel and how much news was there about the development of microled (with its many applications). And in the last two years, something new and interesting has been happening in the microled field. But where are the tech sites before this... it is better to consider another QHD OLED screen, which is not far from FHD. It's just the same old, same old every day, week, month.
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• ednite 1y ago
  The best advice as others mentioned and the one that hits closest to home, is to write for yourself. Do it for the love of the craft, not for the clicks or metrics. The rest may follow, or it may not, but either way, it’s worth it. I’m just starting as a blogger and recently wrote about how creativity can feel like a curse, the kind that won’t let you rest until you get the words out. If you’re thinking of pursuing a creative path (or any passion, really), I have one simple word for you: Start.
  • joshstrange 1y ago
    Writing gives me a great way to organize my thoughts. I've lost track of how many times I went to write something down and changed my opinion or was forced to dig deeper into something. "X things always happens" Hmm, does it actually always happen? What about if I try doing X+Y? What about.... And the questions go on. I feel like I take a lot of shortcuts in my brain or have established "facts" that don't hold up under scrutiny. It's the same idea as rubber ducking a problem, or for me when I get 2 paragraphs into a slack message and realize I've identified the problem and just clear out chat box without ever messaging for help.
• mrkramer 1y ago
  TikTok and Substack showed that the problem is not lack of quality content creators but that the problem is lack of good discovery engines. Google is probably the first internet company that fell victim to the enshittification; once they started prioritizing commercial content and commercial websites the game was over for indie content creators. We need better internet platforms for discovery of content creators and their content.
• testmoreoften 1y ago
  [dead]
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• curlcntr 1y ago
  github, youtube posts, for my hobby have small visibility. Doesn't matter. I enjoy the project for fun of creating and building.
• paulorlando 1y ago
  Is posting when no one is reading different from writing and not posting?
  • rchaud 1y ago
    Indeed it is. Posting something means it is out there and "complete", can't be changed retroactively. It is a set of ideas that stands on its own and will be judged for it is, good or bad. It frees you up mentally to move on to doing the next thing. "No one is reading" is not true. You read it, and you made the call as to when it was "done". Sure, everything can be improved, but then nothing would get "done".
• KronisLV 1y ago
  > How do you keep hitting that publish button, over and over again, knowing there’s no one on the other side? > I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure it out. Realistically, by just writing something and hitting the publish button. There are things I do to put food on the table, where reputation matters, at least within the org (e.g. "that person who shipped code that works and is maintainable" vs "that person who keeps shipping code that breaks prod"), where things often take a lot of time, effort and planning, and where I expect a specific payoff. Everything else I do in my free time is not that. If I want to do silly things like write a blog post about how Docker is supposed to lead to mostly reproducible builds but sometimes defies reason and how Spring DI is evil, or maybe a blog post about how the Windows bootloader is actually pretty swanky despite me doing some rocket surgery on my drives, or maybe a blog post about how a dual GPU setup is almost good but not quite and how we can't have nice things despite offloading things to a dedicated device being the rational thing to do, then I can do that. It doesn't even matter if I have all of the details down correctly, whether there is a lot of polish in the thing I'm making, or if anyone bothers to read or interact with it. All of that is ego stuff. Chasing after that validation and obsessing over the details will only give you writer's block or keep worrying about things that matter less than you'd think in the grand scheme of things. It's not about building a brand, it's not about revenue, it's not about reputation, I write because I feel like it and sometimes even to "rebel" against the status quo because sharing my experiences and my own lived truth feels good in of itself. Furthermore, if they ever become relevant, I can reference my findings with a link. A bit like writing a diary would be like, but in a more public setting.
• joshstrange 1y ago
  I think this is great advice and something I have to keep re-learning over and over. I have the same problem with programming side projects. Almost every personal project of mine that failed was because I tried to make it "scalable" or solve silly problems (like potential abuse) before I had even 1 customer (myself). Similarly I can get very hamstrung when I start writing a blog post then get caught up in how it will be received, how I can make it more interesting for others, what if I'm wrong, etc. Not that those things aren't important, they are, but I get hung up on that way too early in the process. The number of blog post drafts that are 2-3 paragraphs long before I gave up because I was swamped with trying to make it "perfect" is high. I know I'm not a great writer, and that's not really my goal, but I'll never get better without practice and that include publishing. I know how many of my projects and blog post never saw the light of day because I was too scared to show off what I had done, I'm sure there are many other people out there in the same boat. It's sad to think of how many great ideas or projects exist on a single hard drive (or maybe in a private repo) all because someone is scared to put it out into the world.
• komali2 1y ago
  I realized, when reading old journals, that basically every story I told and the vast majority of things I can remember, are things I'd written down in my journal. Similarly, I've also noticed that the subjects I can teach very well or explain very well are things I've blogged about, and the motorcycle routes I can describe from memory are the ones I've published videos on. I'm not sure if this is a sort of chicken/egg situation e.g. the memorable experiences are worth writing down, but I'd have remembered them any way, but in any case it certainly doesn't seem to hurt. I think I have like 100 subscribers to my youtube, just checked and looks like my blog got 133 visits last week. Oh well. It's also really nice that I can easily send a video to someone when I'm recommending motorcycle routes, or if someone asks me for the millionth time why I moved to Taiwan or some other question I've answered in my blog, I can give a short and polite answer with a link to a blog post or two if they want to know more.
• ggambetta 1y ago
  No one is reading until someone is... I published both Computer Graphics from Scratch[0] and the Fast-Paced Multiplayer series[1] for no concrete reason, they went unnoticed for a long time, and then both led to things I couldn't have planned. I've also published stuff that gets little attention and leads nowhere, like Emulator-Backed Remakes[2] or ZX Spectrum Raytracer[3], and I'm totally fine with that. I make these things primarily for my own amusement ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I don't know how many people visit my website. I have analytics, but I rarely check them. [0] https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch https://gabrielgambetta.com/computer-graphics-from-scratch [1] https://gabrielgambetta.com/client-server-game-architecture.html https://gabrielgambetta.com/client-server-game-architecture.... [2] https://gabrielgambetta.com/remakes.html https://gabrielgambetta.com/remakes.html [3] https://gabrielgambetta.com/zx-raytracer.html https://gabrielgambetta.com/zx-raytracer.html
• ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
  No one reads most of my stuff. That's OK. Writing it, helps me to focus my thinking. Publishing my work as ship-Quality open source (even when not necessary), helps me to ensure that all my work is top-Quality. > We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit. - Inaccurately attributed to Aristotle.
• exuberantly01 1y ago
  This really hit home. I’ve wanted to start blogging for a while, but I have dyslexia and often feel like my writing isn’t good enough or that no one would care. Another problem is I have so many scattered interests, I don’t even know where to start or how to stick to a topic. How do you decide what’s worth writing about, especially when your brain jumps between ten things a day?
• liuxiansheng 1y ago
  It's interesting how these articles/posts about how being authentic and building for yourself regardless of outcome is meaningful, generally use examples of people who have already achieved success (defined in terms of popularity, money, views). In this case Mike Posner is still a very successful artist despite the unevenness of his career. The median experience is that there is no "success", but you wouldn't know with how often the opposite case is showcased. I do agree with the OP, in that one should write for one-self for the numerous beneficial reasons such as self-improvement, fun, archiving. However, I think his example has some conflicts with his message.
• jasonthorsness 1y ago
  I've maintained a blog semi-consistently for a few years and most articles go unnoticed. The ones that seem "worth the effort" regardless of readership years later are sincere documentation of things I'm interested in or projects I've invested significant time into. For these the audience of my future self and if I'm lucky my descendants seems like enough. The articles I regret writing or that feel like a waste are any that seem insincere/designed for one-sided promotion of something. Which I've (mostly) kept off of my own site. Running a blog just for the purpose of driving more traffic or engagement I think would sap all the joy out of it completely.
• joshdavham 1y ago
  I recently had to make a multilingual profanity list for my vocabulary testing app. It’s honestly a really hairy problem as there aren’t many good lists out there and they tend to vary wildly in what is considered offensive.
• agcat 1y ago
  I agree! the moment i switched my narrative to do it for myself building and writing content gives me more joy and fulfillment
• tinyhouse 1y ago
  Great post and a bit ironic that it ends up at the top page of HN... A comment about the Youtube example: > This is why YouTubers with millions of followers have hundreds of thousands of views on their first few videos. Those videos didn’t get any views when they were first published. They were revisited after they became famous, by their most loyal fans. This is a nice example but it depends on the content. If you write an AI blog, readers are probably not going to bother with reading old posts that are no longer relevant. You see it with research papers as well -- if you have an author you follow, you're less likely to read their old stuff. Maybe it's a good idea to write content that don't become stale quickly.
• renjimen 1y ago
  The imbalance between content and consumers on the internet is huge and just getting larger with AI. My advice having just started creative writing: Don't publish on the internet. Share with family, friends and colleagues if you want. Heck, even share with an LLM. But, if even a small part of why you create is for internet points with random strangers, then you're not going to get as much meaning out of it and you'll end up disappointed (even when you do get some internet points).
• timcobb 1y ago
  I'm more interested in > How to post when only AI is reading
• nate 1y ago
  Been out for a few years but Seth Godin's "The Practice" is a good, easy read in this spirit. tl;dr I think of that book is just get used to showing up and doing stuff. Outcomes are fickle. But developing a love of good process can be enjoyment enough and mentally more stable. And can sometimes lead to some good outcomes.
• bios444 1y ago
  This is exactly about me. I am just making my absurd.website project for years with zero audience. Now I start to recieve first feedbacks and they (audience) looks at all of your work.
• rorylaitila 1y ago
  I used to really burn out before I ever got any traction. Basing motivation on any external reward is just too hard, too much of the time. I work now on multiple business projects that interest me. Short term my paying clients, medium term tools I build for myself and clients that I can also sell, long term hobby that might turn into something (adretro.com is my fun). Before the VC carnival money era, this is probably the default way to build.
• deepsun 1y ago
  The article dogmatically assumes that you need to do it at all. No explanation of why. "If you don't have to write, don't write."
• vzaliva 1y ago
  I wrote a blog post today which according to stats was read by 1 person so far. I consider this a positive outcome. Seriously.
• karaterobot 1y ago
  This article seems like it's telling you to keep writing even though nobody is reading right now, because some day they might, and you've got to be ready for that day. I think writing is worth doing for its own sake, or not at all. The economics of writing these days are such that I would never tell someone to keep doing it with the hope that one day it will pay off. Instead, write because you have to say something, or because you need to exercise your critical thinking, researching, planning, or just your follow-through, but not because you think you might get rich and famous for it.
• tdhz77 1y ago
  Great, visit my lovable bad blog — tylerharpool.fly.dev
• msmagh 1y ago
  Thrive in obscurity is much better title that current one
• vojtechrichter 1y ago
  Very relatable, and I agree to some extent. At least part of the things you're pursuing should be fun to you, because if they're not, why even bother? I've been stuck in this mindset that I need to find a niche people care about, a problem people have, but none of this is gonna get any results (most likely), if you're not passionate about the topic. So just do what interests you, what you find cool, and the world will adapt.
• rand17 1y ago
  Are words shouted into the void a "book"? If you rip the literary system apart and keep a single malicious reader, a machine, that extracts your knowledge and runs with it, can you still call your work an essay, a novel or a book?
• shuvarek 1y ago
  [flagged]
• shuvarek 1y ago
  [flagged]
• sahil_sharma0 1y ago
  [dead]
• giorgioz 1y ago
  I love the sentence "After 10 years of hard work, it was an overnight success". The great paradox of spending years working without an audience/product market fit and suddenly an overnight success. So it's very true that since you will be ignored for a long time, you can only build something that you love even with no-audience. Ikigai is also a complementary concept to this.