> "HackerNews is the worst place on earth to share a side project, specially on its early days."
Depends on your expectations.
A lot of online forums are hobbyist cheerleading groups. You get a flood of likes and heart emojis, but when it subsides, you're left with very little that would actually help you improve your craft.
HN is closer to the style of brutally direct criticism you get in art school (I know because I went to one). When professionals are tearing your work apart, it definitely doesn't feel good. But artists know they need to train themselves to receive that kind of feedback and process it beyond the initial rush of defensive emotions. The other people aren't necessarily right in what they say, but they decided to tell you something you didn't want to hear even though it would have been more comfortable for everyone to stay quiet. (And it's always possible that some negative feedback is simply active meanness — but that's also a useful lesson because every profession has that kind of people. You need exposure to different feedback styles to filter out what can help you grow.)
Depends on your expectations.
A lot of online forums are hobbyist cheerleading groups. You get a flood of likes and heart emojis, but when it subsides, you're left with very little that would actually help you improve your craft.
HN is closer to the style of brutally direct criticism you get in art school (I know because I went to one). When professionals are tearing your work apart, it definitely doesn't feel good. But artists know they need to train themselves to receive that kind of feedback and process it beyond the initial rush of defensive emotions. The other people aren't necessarily right in what they say, but they decided to tell you something you didn't want to hear even though it would have been more comfortable for everyone to stay quiet. (And it's always possible that some negative feedback is simply active meanness — but that's also a useful lesson because every profession has that kind of people. You need exposure to different feedback styles to filter out what can help you grow.)