Ask HN: How to Handle an 'Overnight' Success? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to Handle an 'Overnight' Success?

4 pointsnamanyayg10 comments

I recently wrote about AI's impact on programming skills. Things went crazy:

- 1M+ views, 3500+ Reddit upvotes, 500+ on HN - Elon Musk commented on it - Deedy (500k subs), ThePrimeagen (700k subs) covered it - Got translated to multiple languages

I'm a dev who's been coding since 13. I've been blogging on and off for over 14 years so I feel very grateful for this recent 'overnight' success.

The attention is great, but I'm not sure how to convert this into real opportunities.

How would you leverage this moment? Looking for concrete advice on:

- Building connections - Growing from here - Monetization strategies

I value HN's advice the most, would love to hear from you all.

View on HN

With all due respect -- I'm not really sure how one viral blog post means you've had an 'overnight success.' That's very cool, but typically, an 'overnight success' here would be if you were selling a product that went viral and you were able to use that moment to kick off and maintain a successful business model years later.

If you're wanting to capitalize on the virality of the event, you're probably too late, imo.

Sobering and real! This is why I love HN. Keygen is awesome btw, loved your "no calls" article recently.

Any tips on how to get podcast appearances or how to get mentioned by bigger publications?

ty! And I have no idea -- nobody invites me to podcasts. :)

Great! You're in a place where Elon might read your tweets! You should keep trying to get more interactions by guessing what he'll like, then the revenue sharing should flow. Many people are making a living from this. It's even a great way to grow your brand if you don't need the money, has worked great for YC people like pg and Gary Tan.

What people usually do with a popular tweet is to simply reply and plug-in whatever they're selling. I don't really like that and I am not sure how well it works. If you don't have a product, usually people promote the "follow me on XYZ..."

This is your chance to promote your personal shitcoin! /scnr

Not touching that with a 10ft pole

Not sure if that's really success or how to handle it, but I've been preparing 13 years for an overnight success...

Just enjoy the moment. If you try to monetize attention after the fact, you end up just looking at best like an over-zealous self-promoter, at worst completely delusional for not understanding that everyone get their 15 minutes of fame, and that was yours.

Then just keep writing. Engage with your audience. Worry more about conversations you have with people than about analytics on your traffic. As you probably realized, none of those numbers actually changed your life. Your words may have changed theirs, though - be satisfied with giving value to others, and moments that that feel fulfilling.

Thanks, those are great points. You're right, the numbers are not meaningful.

I'll try to focus on the value I can give and try and make genuine connections.

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