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    Sell yourself, sell your work

    (www.solipsys.co.uk)
    449 points ColinWright | 13 comments | 25 Mar 25 21:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.5s | source | bottom
    1. sashank_1509 ◴[26 Mar 25 02:04 UTC] No.43478104[source]▶
    I’m always reminded of the essay: Isiah’s job by Albert Jay Nock. https://mises.org/mises-daily/isaiahs-job

    Publicizing your work, will certainly let it be known to the masses, but aiming for the masses means that the half life of your work is in years. Work that stands the test of time, does not need publicizing. People of a high caliber will find it and proceed to further honor you for your work, your focus should be only on excellence which truly matters in standing the test of time.

    replies(6): >>43478270 #>>43478291 #>>43478401 #>>43478810 #>>43479451 #>>43480456 #
    2. rrr_oh_man ◴[26 Mar 25 02:33 UTC] No.43478270[source]▶
    > People of a high caliber will find it and proceed to further honor you for your work

    That's a fantasy which is just not true.

    replies(1): >>43479882 #
    3. yomismoaqui ◴[26 Mar 25 02:36 UTC] No.43478291[source]▶
    That is called "doing a Van Gogh", right?
    replies(1): >>43478662 #
    4. akoboldfrying ◴[26 Mar 25 02:56 UTC] No.43478401[source]▶
    > People of a high caliber will find it and proceed to further honor you for your work

    This is a romantic notion, made even more appealing by the fact that it has actually happened a handful of times throughout history, and they loom large in our collective memory.

    But the cold, hard, distasteful reality is that most useful work does not rise to the level of brilliance, and even that which does might never find appreciation among people of any calibre, even after death. Disdaining self-promotion is a conceit available to a select talented few.

    replies(1): >>43479120 #
    5. bruce511 ◴[26 Mar 25 03:41 UTC] No.43478662[source]▶
    Van Goughs work is only popular now because after his death his sister in law. [1]. She spent her life promoting and selling his work. And it took decades to do. Without her, his work would average simply disappeared.

    Van Gough of course didn't sell his work. He lived in poverty (by choice I guess) and got whatever satisfaction he needed simply by painting them. (Now There's a rabbit hole to go down, given the nature of his death, which I'll avoid.)

    So if you're hoping your work will be discovered by "the world " while you live in obscurity, then I'm not sure Van Gogh is an example you should emulate.

    [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanna_van_Gogh-Bonger

    6. ◴[26 Mar 25 04:11 UTC] No.43478810[source]▶
    7. memhole ◴[26 Mar 25 05:26 UTC] No.43479120[source]▶
    Survivorship bias at its finest. For as many people have been lived before ourselves there’s only a handful that get remembered on any scale.
    8. rocqua ◴[26 Mar 25 06:44 UTC] No.43479451[source]▶
    The article wasn't saying to aim for the masses. It was saying, do at least some documentation, and make it pleasant to read for your peers. That way, they can find your work, understand it, and build uppon it.
    9. MrMcCall ◴[26 Mar 25 08:03 UTC] No.43479882[source]▶
    Plus, am I the only one who is disgusted by the idea of Shell/Exxon/... using OSS in their operations?

    Sharing technically-excellent software with parasites seems to be a net negative for the world, because many people are just takers who will ruin the world to make themselves a few more dollars.

    OTOH, I love for regular people to have free quality SW to use for their lives.

    How to strike the balance?

    replies(1): >>43480102 #
    10. xandrius ◴[26 Mar 25 08:47 UTC] No.43480102{3}[source]▶
    Make it GPL then.
    replies(1): >>43480378 #
    11. MrMcCall ◴[26 Mar 25 09:39 UTC] No.43480378{4}[source]▶
    That will not prevent them using it for free.
    replies(1): >>43483812 #
    12. imtringued ◴[26 Mar 25 09:53 UTC] No.43480456[source]▶
    This type of inaccessibility often has the opposite result. Your work will be seen as elitist, esoteric or cultish.
    13. xandrius ◴[26 Mar 25 16:16 UTC] No.43483812{5}[source]▶
    Yeah but it often prevents them from being able to actually use it (unless they open source everything it touches).