rantymcrant

I think someone going from normal smell ability to no smell ability might feel differently. One of the top joys in my life is eating and a large portion of that experience is smell. Take it away and I'd expect to lose a lot of what I enjoy. Not just as I eat it but even before, the smells of prep. Smelling garlic being fried or the stink of shrimp paste knowing delicious things are arriving soon. The smell of baking bread that makes my mouth water. Etc....

Another example which might seem the opposite for most. I don't personally understand the appeal of stinky tofu (yet). (all over China but most of my experience with it were Taiwan). To me it tastes like a savory tofu dish where someone set a bowl of steaming hot feces on plate next to you while I you eat. In other words, to me, nothing is added by the smell. Take it away and it would be a standard savory tofu dish. But, all of my Taiwanese friends crave this stuff and I think the smell is part of it.

I've known plenty of people like that where is was an issue. The parents can't rely on neighbors because they can't communicate. Don't have as many friends. Have trouble at local stores, doctors, agencies, etc...

> However, the "Show HN" phrase is only used for self promotion I think, so even without the "I", anyone familiar with the convention will know it's self promotion.

I think that's an extremely cynical view though a common one. I've never thought of "Show HN" as self promotion if it doesn't include "I" unless I go through to the actual product/library/post and find it full of self promotion. I agree with you that a post that doesn't include "I" can be self promotion but I don't think it always is even if the person made/worked on it.

"Show HN: XYZ and LLM library in rust" to me is informational. It's point is, more often than not, to inform people of something they might get use out of. I know that's true when I've posted something like that. It's meaning is "here's a useful resource that was just created". Sure I get pleasure from knowing I helped people with something but I'm not trying to promote myself, I'm trying to promote the library/post/info.

"Show HN: I made an LLM Library in rust" to me is self promotional. It might be useful to others but it's intent was clearly self promotion given the subject is "I", not the library/post/product.

I'd like to see an analysis of the rise of self promotion on HN.

I define self promotion on HN as a "Show HN: I ..." post vs "Show HN: Something ..."

Examples from the top 100 right now

* "Show HN: Exploring HN by mapping and analyzing 40M posts and comments for fun"

* "Show HN: Browser-based knitting (pattern) software"

These are not self promotional titles. The subjects are the exploration and the software respectively.

* "Show HN: I built a non-linear UI for ChatGPT"

* "Show HN: I created 3,800+ Open Source React Icons"

These are self promotional titles. The subject of each is "I"

My own simple check just via algolia search results checking for titles that start with "Show HN: I" gave these results for years starting April 1st. Graphed divided by the total number of results for that year

    2023 ****************************************
    2022 ***********************************
    2021 ***************************
    2020 **************************************
    2019 *************************
    2018 *************
    2017 *******
    2016 **********
    2015 ********
    2014 ************
    2013 *********************
    2012 *****************
    2011 *********
    2010 ***

I feel like maybe I grew up in a time when generally, self promotion was considered a bad character trait. Your actions are supposed to be what promotes you, calling attention to them is not but I feel that culture is changing.

I wonder if the rise in self promotion (assuming there is a rise) has to do with social media etc...

I perceive a similar rise on Youtube but I have no data, just a feeling from the number of youtube recommendations for videos of "I....."

I see "I made X that does Y" as self promotion. You're not prmmoting X, your prmoting the fact that "I" made it. You're smart. People should take you seriously. They should offer you jobs and/or praise. Of course you're secondarily promoting X but only in the cause of promoting yourself

I see "X, an app that does Y" as promoting X and sayuhg "reader, you might find X useful if you want to do Y"

The purpose of the posts are entirely different.

Your observation on "We" is interesting though I suspect that teams are more likely to write "X, and app that does Y" because "We made X" doesn't achieve the self promotion goals in the same way as "I made X"

Checking the years those types of post have increased several X over a few years ago (the year starting april 1st)

    2023 416
    2022 307
    2021 232
    2020 252
    2019 158
    2018 87
    2017 42
    2016 45
    2015 39
    2014 42
    2013 68
    2012 40
    2011 28
    2010 10

That's just "Show HN: I made" and doesn't include all the similar "I built ..." and similar braggy titles.

This may be very cool but I'm here to rant

What is it with "I made a _______" posts? Those seem new to me and very braggy. I see them on youtube as well. I feel like if I could check all the posts to HN I'd find a trend of instead of just "Show HN: A tool/app/site to do X" there's a tread of adding "I made" in front. Is that a result of social media conditioning, that you must brag that "I" made?