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Comment by tkiolp4 | Hacker News Reader

I still think it’s about ego as well. If you happen to release a piece of software that is used massively, then you become a “rock star” (well, at least in the scope of the software engineering world). That means, you may not need to work for others anymore (if you get sponsors), or that you boost your employability by 10x (“Oh, he’s the author of X!”), etc.

So there are many devs out there that want to win the jackpot. I don’t blame them.

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> I still think it’s about ego as well. [...] So there are many devs out there that want to win the jackpot. I don’t blame them.

What I understand here is that you don't contribute to open source projects, but you think that you can understand the motivation of those who do. Let me be honest: I think you don't.

There are many reasons to contribute to open source, and those who believe they will get a salary from sponsors or become famous are naive beginners.

Notably very few plumbers do years of work for free in hopes of being branded the "Rockstar plumber".

To be fair, after having accidentally ended up with a tiny modicum of name recognition I'll say if you do earnestly want that, you're probably much better off chasing visibility than thanklessly grinding away giving away free stuff hoping people will take notice.

You need to write your own story for people to be aware of it. What most people who have any sort of fame have in common is that they're good at crafting a narrative.

What sets John Romero apart from the next level designer and game dev is that John Romero loves talking about John Romero.

Your blog is much more important than your git repo. I don't think talking is enough on its own, but it is extremely important to put yourself out there.

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