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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 s
by 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 agoEven 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 agoI love writing. I definitely wrote things that brought in no money when I was worried about making the rent.
- johnnyanmac 1y agoYeah, 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 agoHuh... 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 agoWhat's you websites URL?
- sircastor 1y agohttps://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 agoAgreed, 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 agoTo 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 agoI 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 agoDo 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 agoIs it possible to share your blog ? I can't see it on your profile.
- sircastor 1y agohttps://aaroneiche.com https://aaroneiche.com
- DavidPiper 1y agoThis 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 agoTo 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 agoYes 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 agoI'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 agoFrom what I've read most novelists HATE writing.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 1y ago“Slit your wrists and pour yourself onto the page”
- sph 1y agoThis 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 agoyou'll still get CDs handed to you if you walk around downtown NYC
- skyyler 1y agoOften as part of an intimidation scam where the person that hands you the CD demands payment. But yes, that does happen.
- abhaynayar 1y agohahah.. just reminded me of mr. robot..
- adolph 1y agoIf 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 agoWould you mind sharing your site?
- sircastor 1y agohttps://aaroneiche.com https://aaroneiche.com
- mattslip 1y agoRecently 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 agoI'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 agoMaybe 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 agoThanks 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 agoFor whatever reason which I can't put my finger on, I did more things I liked when I had less money.
- munificent 1y agoAbout 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 agoIt'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 agoYeah, 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 agoThe 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 agoI 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