Sell yourself, sell your work

I'll add that "sell yourself" has (Unfortunately) negative connotations in a Western context. (Possibly in other contexts as well, but I don't know.)

We teach children modesty. We correct people who brag. We emphasize the "everyone is equal " approach. Which are are correct things to do as children. Children's work is encouraged (regardless of quality) and is discarded.

But this mindset can work against adults. Primarily because the work is expected to be fruitful, not discarded. And for work to be fruitful it must not just be fine, it must be seen.

At my company we have a saying "if it's not documented, it's not done". (I write software libraries.) If I don't write docs, build examples, publicize new features, then no one will use them. That's a waste of my output, and a waste of the money the company spent for me to make it. This is not a "modesty" thing, it's a "that's my job" thing.

Now, can you write code on your own time, stick the result on the fridge, and admire it yourself? Of course yes. You don't have to publicize it. It's perfectly OK to have a hobby. Frankly it doesn't matter if it's good or bad. It'll serve its purpose and be forgotten.

"Selling" in this context may be the wrong word. "Documenting" or "Publishing" would have served a similar purpose without the stigma. But the author wants to stress test there's a "persuasion " aspect here as well.

My library might be better, faster, more secure, and so on, but there are other libraries our there competing for users. If I won't "persuade" others to try it, who will? If I'm not prepared to stand up and advocate for it, what that does that say about my perspective of the work? If I don't believe in it, why should they?

If you don't think your work is worth talking about, so be it. Just don't expect anyone else to talk about it either.

I do not understand the negatives. It is along the lines of what I was thinking. At least in my experience, "sell X" is often understood as "go borderline lying about how good it is". "Sell yourself" triggers kind of a negative image. What works for me is just to talk about what I have done, and do not underestimate the achievements. But selling is like a step too much. At least in my cultural/social circle.

When I some says "sell X to Y", I hear "explain how X will solve Y's problem or otherwise make their lives easier". Because that's fundamentally what selling is.

I can talk for days about how marvellous the new iPhone is, the beautiful technology behind it, the marvellous processor and the high resolution screen that are, in their own way, feats of engineering that equal or surpass the Pyramids at Giza.

But that's not why people buy iPhones. They buy iPhones because having a portable device with internet that can make phone calls and take pictures and video and has GPS is actually really handy.

That's what "selling your work" is about.

"Hey guys, I made this open source operating system. If you're looking for an OS than enables you to completely control your machine, maybe you'll like it more than Windows." vs "Hey guys, I made this open source operating system. I wrote it in Rust because I like Rust."

tangentially related, Ryan Dahl's I hate almost all software: https://tinyclouds.org/rant

> The only software that I like is one that I can easily understand and solves my problems.

selling is talking about your work with the end user in mind, rather than going on about the details of what you learned/how you did it.

That said, the latter approach is also interesting and useful, in that it helps others learn from your process.

<< Children's work is encouraged (regardless of quality) and is discarded.

I hesitated a little bit, because I agree with most of the post and what I am about to post is a bit of a tangent. That said, some of work can and will be discarded for sure, but our family unit is now looking into some way of preserving my kids work to show the progress made. I think it will be a fun memento.

I'm a parent and sure we posted the children's art on the fridge etc. We even kept some of it as momentos.

But of course it has no value beyond the sentimental- the nostalgia and so on.

Of course your child's work means something to you, but the work itself isn't the value. It's the reminder of what they were.