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Sell yourself, sell your work

(www.solipsys.co.uk)
449 points ColinWright | 1 comments | 25 Mar 25 21:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.37s | source
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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.

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yomismoaqui ◴[26 Mar 25 02:36 UTC] No.43478291[source]▶
That is called "doing a Van Gogh", right?
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1. 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