I was delighted to see this headline and post. The remedies he suggests are unfortunately 86% marketing! Only one line suggests real work, but done by others:
"Find someone that can poke holes in your work, then go address them."
The underlying issue is widespread in OSS projects. Increasingly it is all about features (for which those who are paid to "work" on projects are rewarded). Others spend 10x the amount to fix the features or leave the projects or are driven out by the corporate developers.
This is a a very "programmer" view of the world that the work is when code is being produced, and everything else (especially anything involving people) is not actually productive.
You can have enormous impact with that other form of work.
Marketing is huge, even for open source projects, even hobby projects. It very directly affects your ability to have an impact on the world. If you do zero marketing, the only impact you have is what you do with your hands, which is not a lot in most cases.
Blogging and talking about what I do (=marketing) has opened doors to the extent that I've been able to quit my job and do full time work on what was once a zany hobby project to pass the time during covid isolation. That is, investing some time in marketing in the past let me spend more time "working" on code in the present.
The impact has been kind of insane. I've been in The New Yorker because of this. I've done radio interviews. Nothing of this would have happened if I wasn't constantly writing about my projects, constantly making rings on the water stretching farther and farther out. It takes a while to get going and pick up momentum, but the accumulated effect can get very strong.
This is marketing. It doesn't have to be shallow and corporate and SEO optimized and pestering users for newsletter subscriptions. It can be authentic and personal... but it's still marketing. If anything, that's the best sort of marketing. I believe what I write, I stick to my principles and I'm not trying to bullshit anyone. That stuff shines through.
> The remedies he suggests are unfortunately 86% marketing! Only one line suggests real work, but done by others:
Marketing _is_ real work. Software is only useful if it's being used. Now, it's up to the author (or PO/PM) to define _who_ the users are. If it's an internal team, a slack message to that team's channel saying "hey I made X do y" is marketing, but necessary. Sending a PR to an OSS project is marketing. Updating the docs to show how to use your new thing is marketing.
> "Find someone that can poke holes in your work, then go address them."
What does "address" them mean?
If starting from scratch on a fresh project is the easiest way to factor out the design flaw at the heart of my whoopsie, does that count as addressing the problem at a higher level, or blowing off my current whoopsie at 90%?
"Find someone that can poke holes in your work, then go address them."
The underlying issue is widespread in OSS projects. Increasingly it is all about features (for which those who are paid to "work" on projects are rewarded). Others spend 10x the amount to fix the features or leave the projects or are driven out by the corporate developers.