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Comment by jwr | Hacker News Reader

No, it's not! If you don't like the super-monetized over-optimized AI-generated walled garden we've-got-you-hooked experience —

just don't participate in it and do your own thing.

Start your own blog. Without ads, not to be "monetized", just for the fun of it.

Write for yourself, not for "engagement".

Do your thing.

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What does this accomplish? You could always write some words on a paper and then throw that paper into a fire, you don't need the internet to do that.

The whole appeal of the internet was that you could write about some random niche thing you liked and reliably find other people who liked the same thing. It was never about screaming into a void or otherwise "doing things for yourself". It sucks now specifically because whatever you "do for yourself" is now far less likely to be seen by anyone else who cares than it has ever been before.

That hasn't been my experience. The problem is do you expect it to be seen by thousands upon thousands of people? That wasn't a thing back then and it's not now either. You get a handful of hits, as you always did. The big numbers are the algorithm's game, though for many people, they've become normalized. If 1000 people see your niche little project, that's a failure by modern standards. That was huge success for a noname nobody 20+ years ago.

I feel like we're talking about fundamentally different things here. I'm not talking about Show HN style "look at my project, everyone!" stuff. I'm talking about literally just speaking to other like-minded people about your interests, on an equal level, without any expectation of garnering attention for yourself.

I think this cynicism is more borne out of a despair for the average person stuck in all that. They often don't know that there's something else, that you can just Do Things.

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