[sjclemmy]

I don’t think it’s about ability or interest. It’s about presence. There’s loads of developers out there with a range of skills. I work with devs who are great who you’ve never heard of and others who aren’t so great who you’ve never heard of. I’d consider myself in the 99%. I aspire to market myself but I’ve got lots of interests and I’m quite a private person so I find marketing myself in conflict with that aspect of my personality. But get me one to one and I’ll happily talk about my latest interest (which by the way is Directed Graphs).

[Davertron]

Same. I'm just horribly bad at self-marketing and generally have zero interest in getting attention. I used to think that as long as I was doing good work people would notice, and sometimes if you're lucky that can happen, but there are lots of situations where you're doing yourself a major disservice if you're not selling yourself and your accomplishments. You just shouldn't depend on any one else to advocate for you.

That doesn't mean it's easy though. I still hate it and have to make a conscious effort to market myself.