Comment by Bubble_Pop_22 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Bubble_Pop_22 | Hacker News Reader

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> "The internet always highlights the first place winners, the billionaires, the award-winning artists, the best-selling authors, the largest philanthropists, the extraordinary. Their stories are ones of success, of inspiration"

The intro outlines the fact that the author is not familiar with the promotional industry.

Allowing for some rare exceptions all the people whose name you know are the people who want to be known and go out of their way to self-promote.

It's not about the quality of the work per se but the noise being generated around it. All those stories of mega-success are generated by PR and marketing firms and the person who is the protagonist most likely went for a stroll in Central Park after the meeting, and be sure that nobody genuflected or got on their knees to kiss the ring. Michael Bloomberg took the subaway every day.

This is a good point. The key to being 'successful' (in a fame and financial sense) isn't about being the best in a field. It's about convincing other people you're the best/one in the best in the field.

Which could in theory be an equaliser in itself. Not the best programmer or writer or musician in the world? Well, you can still be 'extraordinary' by convincing other people you're extraordiary and outmarketing those who are better than you. The person who gets the job isn't necessarily the best candidate on a technical level, but the one who can talk a better game in the interview.

The problem is that the ability to self-promote is inversely proportional to the promotee mental health.

You could in theory put a white blanket on your head and pretend to be a Saudi Sheikh to pickup chicks at nightclubs but come showtime you’d not be able to get hard due to lack of self-confidence which brought you to lie in the first place, so what’s the point?

The best is to be able to put together a certain initial capital and just outsource self promotion.

Every person who handles their own self-promotion are people who have mental issues, especially in the tech world. Compare it with how chill are those who outsource such as musicians. Rappers nowadays or rockstars in the 80s. Their managers have to drag them kicking and screaming away from drugs and parties to do media and promotion

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