Episode: 2421
Title: HPR2421: Project Interest
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2421/hpr2421.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 02:40:39

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This is HPR episode 2,421 entitled, Project Interest.
It is hosted by Lost in Drunks and in about 9 minutes long and carry a clean flag.
The summary is Lost in Drunks Wonder House and Project Sniper Rack of Interest.
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Hello, this is Lost in Drunks and today I just want to bring up a single question
and hopefully prompt some discussion either in the comments or on some form of
social media that perhaps someone has an answer or has thoughts and ideas
and might want to either reach out to me or to someone else who might have the same questions
or wonder about the same issue and basically it comes down to this.
Collaboration. Now there's an awful lot that people have to say about
projects and garnering enthusiasm for them in, say, open source software or other similar projects
like that. Some sort of open content project that maybe someone has come up with a grand idea
and they've whipped something together and they've gotten a lot of people behind them that have
interest in that. And I think that a fair number of developers either of games or application,
other applications or anything really it applies to almost anything. How do you go about
generating that kind of excitement in your vision, in your concept? And I've read a lot of talk
about over the years. A lot of people feel especially like say with an open source software project
you need to come up with something, something that kind of encapsulates the idea.
It doesn't have to be anywhere near finish. You just have to have something to show
that really does at least on some degree represent the idea you're trying to get forward
with your application. And if it's a good one people will gravitate towards it and contribute.
And I found that it's not that simple either with that sort of thing or with other types of
projects. Now this I'll openly admit this is all kind of selfish or self centered in a way
because I tend to be a loner on my projects. I tend to do everything on my own. But I have a
couple of ideas that simply cannot be achieved without the contribution of other people with
particular skills that I don't possess. And trying to attract that sort of attention has been a
challenge over the years. Now again that's me and that's a problem that I'm trying to deal with
and trying to wrap my head around. But I see other people going through the exact same thing.
They have a project idea. They come up with something, a prototype something that they show to
other people. Yet it just doesn't seem to grab anybody. Yet every time they mention it and they
talk about it everyone might say wow that's a great idea. I like that. Why don't you do something
with that? Well it's not for lack of trying right? What's involved? I tend to believe that
open source software projects, open content projects, artistic projects, all of those are a subject
to the pressures of human social behavior and charisma as any other aspect of human life.
If people can make their project look dazzling and reach out in a manner that seems exciting or
modern or new, it's that part of it that seems to grab people much more than the actual content
itself. You know it's the show not the tell if that makes any sense. I don't understand where
that comes from. I don't understand why that is important to people except that flash,
attracts. You know if you go fishing you might throw one of those flashy fishing reels out or
fishing lures out whatever I'm not a fisherman obviously but something flashy that flashes in the
water and the fish is attracted and they bite on it. You know if you put exciting buzzwords
in your content description a lot of times people fall for it whether or not the rest of it is
any good and over and over you see this that sometimes the very best projects just can't seem
to grab anybody and maybe it's because the people who are presenting it are not very good at presenting
it. They're really good at the idea they're really maybe very good at coding or writing or
you know making video or whatever the project happens to be. They're maybe they're very good at
that part but the part of actually dealing with human beings and selling this concept to them
is elusive. I am an author and I've written a kid's book and it needs illustration and I've tried
over and over and over to find an artist who would work with me on this but here's the thing
every artist wants to get paid. Now there's nothing wrong with that. I want to get paid too but the
fact is this will be a 50-50 project that is to say we put this thing together and then we put
it out there and see what we get right and whatever profits there are they get split right down
the middle. All right that's done that's what I've got going on and if anybody's interested by all
means you don't let me know or if you know someone who is let me know see that's the thing this
networking thing to let people know hey here's something cool here's something I think you might
like or here's something that's perfect for you and they pass it along there seems to be
some element that gets broken for many people myself included but other people that have projects
they have this thing going on and yeah maybe it's not quite where it would be if you wanted to grab
a lot of attention maybe it's partially broken but the potential is there right and yet the word
doesn't go out and people aren't excited and nobody grabs it because it isn't flashy it isn't
someone standing up and saying hey hey hey here's a song and dance and while you're here at my
medicine show why don't you buy some of my magic potion that's going to make everything perfect
sometimes it really is a magic potion and it does make everything perfect but most of the time
it's just another thing right and it's often not even the good thing the good thing is the one you
don't even see the one that's way back in the shadows projects that die by the wayside for lack of
interest even though the potential is tremendous and it's because whoever is fronting it doesn't have
the juice they don't have the showmanship the charisma to grab an audience and then it's gone
this wonderful concept this great idea all of this work it just goes away it just dries up and
blows away because of course the person who's got this idea maybe it's one of again we're talking
about an idea that requires other people to be interested in it you know and there are a lot of
those like I say I just talked about one that I have for that lack of interest they can't pursue
it because they need someone else who's good at some other aspect of coding who's maybe good at
building a website who's maybe good at maintaining a database whatever it happens to be right
is there a good way to make all of this function I don't know I think whoever comes up with that
secret sauce is going to change everything about projects and coding and open source anything
but I don't know that person and that's certainly not me so anyway this is just really a short
I won't even say it's a true episode because I don't have any conclusions I'm just hoping
that maybe we can start talking about how do we go about generating interest about what we're
most fascinated with what we're really really enthusiastic about because clearly being enthusiastic
yourself doesn't necessarily bring enthusiasm into other people it's about how we package this
it's about how we make it exciting to other people and I hope someone has a clue I don't think
anyone's got the answer but I hope someone has a clue about this because I could use one and I
think a lot of other people can this has been lost in Bronx take care
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