Hacker News Reader

Comment by overtone1000 | Hacker News Reader

I take the parent comment's meaning to be that disentangling the journey from the destination isn't so easy in practice, especially if you're robbed of the community that was journeying alongside you.

If you were running a marathon and, halfway through, everybody just hopped in a cab and drove to the finish line, you'd be disappointed.

View on HN

Strongly agree. Thinking of music — you reap enjoyment from practicing by yourself, then collaborating with other musicians as craftspeople, then performing for an audience. All three feed into each other.

So when the audience has moved on to synthetic music (stretching the analogy now!), and musicians have as well, it's still possible to continue on your own, for the pure enjoyment of it. But much has been lost with the global transition.

but you should not let other way of doing affect your happiness

You talking like what you doing is happen to appease people

The example came to me because I did indeed go from playing music collaboratively & publicly to largely playing by and for myself. Don't get me wrong, I still find fulfillment this way. I understand both sides here, and I think it's still fair to say that there are dimensions that are lost.

> You talking like what you doing is happen to appease people

What's wrong with that? Appeasing people is part of what being a community is. That's the human element. I could write a grand novel for the fun of it, but I still want people to read it and talk about it. To give me feedback, to discuss its themes. If that's taken away due to technological advancement, it's a sad thing.

It is not a binary between doing what you like because you enjoy the craft or being happy that people engage with your output. Both of those things feed into each other. An old neighbour of mine used to craft bracelets and give them away around the neighborhood. Why would she spend the additional time to walk to my apartment and hand me a bracelet? Did she only make the bracelet to get the neighbourhood's approval and didn't actually enjoy making it? Of course not. She made it cause she likes doing crafts, AND she likes people enjoying what she made.

The unfortunate part is that LLMs are addictive and they remove a lot of the complex thinking one has to do (in many cases), which lowers that community engagement that occurs in software circles.

Plus, in the finish line, the attendance is acting like if riding the car and running made no difference. By the time you get there, sweating and exhausted, the organization is already packing and the few remaining in the crowd look at you with puzzling face.

> If you were running a marathon and, halfway through, everybody just hopped in a cab and drove to the finish line, you'd be disappointed.

Were you running the marathon to beat the competition and win a medal? Or were you running the marathon to improve your personal record?

For coding: Are you writing code to be the first to solve a certain problem and win community recognition? Or are you writing code to solve a problem you personally have?

I think the dichotomy is false.

You could run a marathon because you love running and want to do it with other people who love running. Similarly, you could share code-based projects with a community because you love it and want to do it with people.

The ideas you mention aren't separate from community or from each other. You can have friendly competition within a community that pushes all parties to improve and be their best.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com