Curiosity Traps | Hacker News Reader

Curiosity Traps

autodidacts.io

115 pointssurprisetalk16 comments

And, it's on us to engage with the curiosity doorknob that others have laid out!

The first time I emailed someone on the internet about something they made that I liked, I was rather hesitant about bothering them.

The first time someone emailed me for the same reason, it made my day!

I'll often reach out to bloggers / open source devs via their email if I have feedback, a question or just otherwise want to compliment them on their work.

If you feel like you have something worth saying, even if just a compliment, it's often worth the email.

(I will say please don't ask to set up vague meetings, or create stupid github issues, however haha)

I've always found it interesting how much easier it is to appreciate receiving a random thoughtful email than to convince yourself it's okay to send one

exactly!, and the article and your statement reminds me that I need to re engage with a small number of people who's work I find inspiring and meshes with stuff I am doing anyway. personaly I have learned to focus on doing some things in a pragmatic linear fashion, but though it seems to then store up my general creative autodiadactic, dislectic, absurdist tendencys, and then release them in a distilled concentrated burst, that unlike other things,luckily does not effect motor function or judgement.

I love this description of the search to find one’s people.

But to keep it 100 with you all, nobody has touched my doorknob in a while. How might I improve the odds of finding my people?

What should we look at?

Maybe the trick is to be more specific rather than trying to reach more people

When I heard the term "trap", I immediately thought of XKCD's Nerd Sniping[1]

These are more like a beacon or a "dog whistle" (though that word has taken on a new meaning).

Attracting like minded people is best done by ignoring your self critic and putting your self out there - a curated interesting personality is not something you can produce by trying hard.

[1] - https://xkcd.com/356/

[2] - https://xkcd.com/214/

Yep, was about to go here and say the same thing :)

Am I blind or is it another curiosity trap that I can't find the turtle in the footer of waitbutwhy.com? (neither in current version or in the linked archived version)

It's not actually in the footer - it's floating around in the whitespace below the content (and above the footer). Took me a bit to find it too.

I've gotten so many interesting comments and emails from my personal blog. And sometimes just little ego-boosts, like someone saying some random post helped them years after I'd made published it purely for myself, not really expecting anyone to find it.

Interesting post !

I am an aspiring author and since I still enjoy living, I sadly need an (more or less) unrelated dayjob. With a kid at home, time is the great filter I have towards my goal of being a regular author.

Having a blog, building an audience, all-this all-that...are things I considered on par with the goal of being an author. But I never thought about my blog being just...a place to let my weirdness hang out. Maybe it should only hang out in my novel(s), I thought. But maybe not ?

Anyway, food for thought. Thanks !

"Curiosity Traps" are the benevolent cousin to "Nerd Sniping Traps": https://xkcd.com/356/

My brain also immediately went there when he was talking about the T-shirts :)

This is an interesting concept around becoming a magnet for your kind of people. I think it works because the economics of it are such that they're deliberately niche.

They're not trying to maximize viewers and deliberately filter for the types of people they want to attract.

I've also noticed that the most wholesome, supportive communities are usually in activities/interests that promise zero status or money.

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