[ineedtosleep]

IMO it's not just about being bite-sized, memeable content catering to the lowest common denominator. It's that nearly everyone making content is copying marketing strategies. Back then it was more of a show-and-tell vibe, now everything is trying to sell something.

[vitaflo]

Everyone has become a sellout. When I was growing up this was considered a bad thing. Today it’s a virtue.

[munificent]

Maybe less virtue and more necessary evil. It was a lot easier to not be a sellout in the economic boom of the 90s when you could find that paid the bills. The younger generation now is barely scraping by. They aren't into hustle culture because they love it, they do it because they're broke.

[a1o]

There's not incentives currently for the no money involved approach. Before, there was still some unknown promise of the thing you are doing being discovered at some point, and also you could still sellout - lots of creators did this eventually. The noise is really high today.

[greggsy]

I feel like the pendulum is swinging back. Interest rates, rent, housing and commodity prices are up, so discretionary spending will almost certainly be lower.

Could that reduce demand for marketing and advertising in general? Maybe the tighter market will drive up demand for more aggressive data capture? Where does all that leave social sites and content creators who but their empire selling fast fashion an overpriced gaming accessories during a time when access to money was easier?

[schnevets]

This is especially ironic since the original article was using nostalgia to sell his new codeblog service...

[Nasrudith]

Frankly it always struck me as kind of insane that it was considered a bad thing. Especially since the definition of selling out seemed to consist of any and everything while not being successful. Was it some hippie movement vestige or something?

[WastingMyTime89]

Yes, I think people miss the genuineness more than the fun. Everything happening nowadays seems to be geared towards selling you something. It seems to go further than the internet too. Reading the discussion on pubs closing on this site, some people seem to genuinely have internalised that they themselves are a product which should be optimised in some form of globalised meat market. Late stage capitalism is a bit depressing.

[egfx]

I’ve built something different that I blog about with a show and tell. I love my product but the weird thing is dev.to the perfect portal to blog about such things is shadowbanned on HN.