I think this can be true, to a point. The danger is in getting lazy.<p>Time for my story:<p>Last October, I released a concept video of a next-generation desktop UI that garnered a surprising amount of blog coverage. Within a week, I had received emails from people at Google, Apple, and Microsoft, as well as a few startups.<p>As you might imagine, I was rather excited. This was exactly what I'd hoped might be a result of the video: I'd get noticed, talked about, and picked up by an industry leader.<p>Yet here I am, nearly a year later, still at my old job. What happened? I'd figured I had it in the bag, that all I had to do was put my best foot forward and I'd be well on my way to my dream interaction design career. In truth: I got lazy.<p>The interview at Google the next month went well, but a month after that, I got the bad-news call. Apple took me through a series of wide-spaced phone screens that never went anywhere, only to restart the recruitment process for a different division several months later, finally getting bumped by an internal candidate. Microsoft got lost in the shuffle, I went through some disjointed recruitment processes at a few startups with a bit of contract work, but finally, even that went quiet.<p>Where did I go wrong? I think I assumed I'd gone far enough for the time being, that this one video marked my arrival and that was it. But I lost my momentum. Lengthy recruiting processes can make it seem like you have time to kill, but you don't! I shouldn't have missed a beat; I should have doubled down on my concept and explored it even further instead of pinning my hopes on getting hired somewhere cool.<p>My advice to Feross or anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation: Don't stop now!
I've seen this sentiment expressed here, as well as a few other places.<p>[1]<i>Nothing</i> matters more to employers than seeing that you actually have a passion for building things. There are a lot of people who have got certifications up to their eyes, but don't really care too much about tech.<p>There is a huge difference between the person that goes home and spends their nights working on a building cookie-baking-robot, or the next big social-networking website, and somebody that goes home and watches the TV.<p>I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with watching TV, just that having somebody who likes doing the type of work you're hiring them to do so much that they actually do it <i>even when they don't have to</i> is going to go a long way towards motivating them. It also means that they, typically, are good independent learners. I imagine that this is a hugely important trait in an industry where doing things that might seem kindof insane (like running a data-store that hasn't even reached a 1.0 release yet) is considered normal.<p>[1]Obviously, within reason. If you've got a passion for building things, but you think that a server is somebody that brings you food at a restaurant, you might not be well suited to a system administrator position.<p>(Or maybe this is all just wishful thinking. I love building things, but haven't yet gotten my dream job.)
I can't agree with this enough. I'm kind of an old-timer web developer and have built about one new web concept every 3 or 4 years. While none of these ventures have made me a millionaire, each one did teach me new skills and lead directly to my next job.<p>Most recently it was a very fluffy "video sharing" rails app, built in 2007. It helped me get a good gig that buffered me through the first half of the great recession.<p>Now I'm back to doing what I like doing best... investing time in learning and build-cool-thinging. I really can't lose.<p>And, as a last note, building something is a very good cover for being, er, "in between jobs"... and a lot cheaper than grad school :)
This? Works so well, though not necessarily as written.<p>I built and launched Bill On Site about a year ago (<a href="http://www.billonsite.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.billonsite.com/</a>), and it's leading the top of my resume. I've gotten every job I've applied for largely based on the strength of having done that.<p>The fact that you can start AND finish a large project on your own speaks volumes over other guys who are basically unproven quantities without similar references.
I'd say kudos to the lad for his work. It's a fairly decent idea but I personally wouldn't use it. Never really like any of those "play something random" stuff. Someone out there might love this idea though. With Google Instant, I felt that the speed of change was quite drastic. Every single letter I typed caused the UI to change. Don't really fancy it now but we'll see!
I did go down this path with <a href="http://www.errorlevelanalysis.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.errorlevelanalysis.com/</a>, hoping that the development time would pay off and bring in future work. So far it's just been a tool that reddit and 4chan use to spur on comment wars.<p>Building something cool that has actual utility to someone, may be a better strategy.