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Six, and the art of staying in the game

Six, and the art of staying in the game

8 comments

·February 20, 2025
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tarr11

Is there a version of the Fred indeed job postings list that goes before 2020? I wouls be interested to see similar data since 2000 or 2010

The narrative that software engineer jobs are going away is confused by cherry picking the start of covid as the start date.

ctkhn

I'm surprised Guided by Voices doesn't come up at all in the musical examples

kevmo314

The article is arguing that effort and outcome are disconnected and that

> When outcome is impossible to predict, the best strategy is volume.

but it concludes that

> Because in a world of blockbuster or bust, the only thing that matters is staying in the game.

So which is the thing that really matters? Staying in or volume? Everything in the article actually suggests volume is what matters, why does how long you stay in matter? If volume is the main thing that matters, produce a bunch of low-quality work at high volume and you're good to go.

I agree with the premise of the article but effort still has a place. In fact, both skill and luck are necessary, lest we accept that AI slop is the future.

arnvald

I think the article suggests both - you need to consistently produce high quality output to get a chance at success. Low quality stuff has no chance to succeed (or very low), while high quality work has some, though low, chance.

4ndrewl

I assume that your ability to produce volume is directly related to (or constrained by) time.

kevmo314

Producing low-quality work takes less time than high-quality work even under that assumption.

4ndrewl

That's the whole point of the article?

bitwize

Recently, Imogen Heap -- likely your favorite pop singer's favorite pop singer -- charted for the very first time with her song Headlock -- which was written and recorded twenty years ago. The driver for Headlock's success was a trend of using it as background music for streaming the video game Mouthwashing.

We are truly in a weird time. A time when social media has led to increased need for social proof, much like Japan, where hits hit HARD and the thing you need to be into is the thing that everyone else is into. But hits can come from anywhere and have weird paths to success.