How to post when no one is reading

Work, money, and “do what you love”

• Many argue that “do what you love” is mostly available to people not stressed about rent; financial security changes how advice lands.
• Others push back: you can still write or create while broke, but it’s harder and often comes at the cost of rest or other goals.
• Distinction is drawn between:
  • Turning a passion into your job (often kills joy, adds chores and support work).
  • Keeping hobbies separate from income so they stay fun.
• Several propose a middle ground: don’t expect your deepest passion to be your job; aim for work that you “medium like” and that uses some of your strengths.

Why create when almost no one is watching

• Many treat blogs as diaries, personal notebooks, or long-term archives for their future selves and descendants.
• Writing is framed as a thinking tool: it forces clarity, exposes fuzzy beliefs, and deepens understanding, even if no one reads.
• Publishing—vs. just journaling—adds a sense of completion and occasional serendipity: rare but high-quality responses, job leads, or life-changing connections.
• Some explicitly say it’s fine to quit if creating feels like a grind purely for external rewards.

Attention, discovery, and the changing internet

• Older users recall a “small pond” web where posts on Twitter/Reddit or personal sites were easily discovered; now attention is fragmented and algorithmic.
• X/Twitter is described as hostile to thoughtful content and skewed toward ragebait and status games; some suggest leaving bad platforms entirely.
• There’s nostalgia for RSS and independent blogs, and interest in new RSS-like or “cozy web” experiments, gated communities, and BBS-style spaces.

AI as reader, scraper, and “audience”

• Some see a new twist on “no one is reading”: in the future, mostly LLMs may consume your work, not humans.
• One camp argues that being training data might be the largest societal impact most content ever has.
• Others object:
  • No compensation or credit to authors.
  • Human language is about shared experience with an identifiable author, which AI output lacks.
  • This may push people toward gated or private spaces.

Popularity, quality, and survivorship bias

• Commenters stress that views/likes correlate poorly with quality; many excellent posts stay obscure, while mediocre ones go viral.
• Success stories of “overnight” hits are seen as heavily shaped by survivorship bias; most creators never “blow up.”
• A recurring theme: measure success by personal growth, clarity, and the occasional deep connection, not by follower counts.