I think you're agreeing with the article without knowing it. Because you're doing what you enjoy at the end of the day.

For example, I design logos and small branding for my (mostly) CLI tools which I write for myself first. Seeing these projects at completion levels comparable with other, bigger projects brings a lot of joy to me. A coherent README.MD, nice documentation and good written code is what I aspire to do, and I do it for myself first.

If others like it, that's great. If it doesn't get any attention, then it's OK, because I wrote that tool to fill my needs first.

The article wasn't saying "do what makes you happy". It was saying "if you do this you will not be happy". If I end up happy you don't get to loop back and go "Well that was the goal! You agree with me!". The author also forgets that the author is their own audience. That audience is what one imagines others might be. The pursuit of that audience's approval is valuable.

>A coherent README.MD, nice documentation and good written code is what I aspire to do, and I do it for myself first.

Did you conjure the definition of "nice" and "good" in this context from thin air? No. You defined good by what others told you was good. You're working for an audience. You're disagreeing with the article without knowing it.

> The article wasn't saying "do what makes you happy"

I disagree. Quoting the blog post itself:

    so stop optimizing for a non-existent audience and instead focus on what makes you enjoy the activity.

"Focus on what makes you enjoy the activity" means "do what makes you happy" in my parlance.

> Did you conjure the definition of "nice" and "good" in this context from thin air? No. You defined good by what others told you was good.

Absolutely no. I was always interested in visual design and set out to replicate what I saw and liked. I don't cater to anyone. My blog posts, coding style, and other things got negative comments, and I took note of them and thought about them, but I didn't agree with all of them, either. I only compete with myself and sharpen my axen the way I like. I'm chopping my own wood, so I don't need to optimize anything for others' wood.

In other areas of life, I have always chosen what to do, listen, watch and like. I don't yearn to fit in. In fact, I spent at least half of my life in a pretty opposite state.

I only half-disagree.

I also get a big kick out of sharing my work with the world. But I think it's quite easy to lose yourself in it. Whether you're conscious of it or not, you start optimizing for what you think the audience wants, and not what you want (which is what the article is getting at I suppose).

So, I make a conscious effort to work on projects that are "just for me" from time to time, and I try to make that decision up-front.

I think I get the most out of my "for the world" projects overall - it's where I really push myself, like you describe - even though they're "leisure activities". But I still need the just-for-me projects to stay sane.

Yeah. I've been a lone programmer for a long time. It's very difficult to maintain focus and motivation. Sometimes it feels like it doesn't matter and that there's just no point to it all.

Yet people somehow find my work and tell me what they think of it. One day I came to HN and saw my project on the front page. At first I thought someone else had had the same idea as me. Then I started getting emails about it, about my website. Every time it happens it's incredibly motivating. It feels like I finally reached out to someone.

Making things just for yourself and your own enjoyment can be a very lonely activity and you might find yourself with some kind of audience anyway even without trying. That experience can change everything.

Apparently you skipped that one: "Advice for myself around leisure activities."

depends on the project for me, but I'm totally with you

there's the things I do for me, because i would like for them to exist and have fun making it. But for anything that's not exactly that, having someone else care is extremely motivating

I was going to say something similar, but the blog is tagged with something like 'notes for myself' which is fair.

I do enjoy writing and editing.

Imagine you made a mug and nobody used it. That’s a bummer. Imagine you wrote a novel but can’t find anyone to read it. That’s a bummer too.

Art is there to create experiences for people. If somebody writes a novel in the woods, but nobody is there to read it, does it really make sound?

The advise is don't write a novel if you're motivated by the possibility of monetizing it, because nobody will probably read it. That's all.

Imagine you made a mug and wrote a novel! Not a bummer at all.

This frivolous article is not fodder for "hard disagree"-ment.