Comment by sova | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sova | Hacker News Reader

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For example, you could comment on someone starting a garden without having tried to start one yourself. Or you could start a garden yourself and have lots of interesting takeaways and constructive feedback to share. Lots of people make things, sure, but just because I make a boat does not make me qualified to comment on bridge building, or garden making. So I would think someone who has relevant experience in making whatever the thing is would be a "maker" and other people would not. I don't think the audience of "who you're making things for" is nearly as relevant, because sometimes you make things for yourself, or your partner, or your friends, and sometimes those things are useful and more people want them. Discovering product demand is an iterative process. On the other hand, there are people who do not make things for themselves or anyone in need, or to address any need, so although they might have a lot to say it might not be all that helpful or relevant if they have not tried to build whatever it is the maker built, or something close to that.

Can we not pretend that we're talking about gardens and bridges, or that the article author is just making things for himself, his partner, and his friends? I really don't think these are useful analogies.

Who is commenting on gardens? Who is commenting on bridges? I mean, if a bridge collapses, then a lot of people will comment on it, deservedly so. "Yes, people died, but don't criticize, go off and make your own bridge!"

Yes but the article is not about crises and disasters... it's about people sharing their work with the world, and the observation that it's much easier to comment and criticize on something without knowing the difficulties in building or creating it than it is to actually set off and attempt to build the thing. What I got from the article was that if you have actually given it a shot your feedback is more valuable and you probably ought comment because you'll have something to say that will help the builder. Maybe we are looking at different uses of the term "comment." Yes, naturally anything anyone says in response or as a reaction is a "comment," but I think the author was coming from a place of sharing one's work on the internet, he pretty much said as much in the article.

> I think the author was coming from a place of sharing one's work on the internet, he pretty much said as much in the article.

Did he?

"I’ve mostly stopped sharing unsolicited “helpful” just-a-thoughts and comments at work. I save them for Twitter"

This is why I said it's not even clear what exactly the author is talking about. I actually have no idea, but everyone else seems to think they know, despite the fact that they have very different interpretations of what it is.

Yes, he did, in paragraph 2 under "Making is so much harder."

>At internet scale, simply by doing anything, you expose attackable surface area to furor you never imagined.

>Most people are shocked and drop out of making things, preferring to stay safe.

>Those who make it through often look like startup founders, battle-scarred and tone-deaf from being attacked for so many years.

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