Skip to content
0:00 / 0:00

#dariuskazemi#sideprojects#survivorshipbias

Darius Kazemi, Tiny Subversions - XOXO Festival (2014)

XOXO Festival

25K subscribers • 1 video on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 7 people: 7 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2015 to 2023.
  • Presented by Darius Kazemi, internet artist and programmer
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

81K views12 years ago7 recommendations

Tools and practiceCareers and interviewsDeveloper productivityStartupsCreative coding

Darius Kazemi shares his experience of releasing 72 side projects in one year, explaining the role of luck and volume in creative success.

Most people are lucky if they finish a couple side projects in a year. Last year, Darius Kazemi released 72, averaging one every five days. His projects fall under what he calls “weird internet stuff” — bots that generate random Amazon purchases, surreal metaphors, rap battle lyrics, pickup lines, and everything in between. In "How I Won the Lottery," Darius explains how he became a successful lottery player, and with hard work and a little luck, how you can too. Recorded in September 2014 at XOXO, an arts and technology festival in Portland, Oregon celebrating independent artists using the Internet to make a living doing what they love. For more, visit xoxofest.com. Video thumbnail by Ian Linkletter: flickr.com/photos/linkletter/15317573695/ Intro Music: Broke for Free, "Only Instrumental" bit.ly/xo2014broke

Why it's here

7 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended for its realistic take on survivorship bias and how to approach side projects by focusing on volume.

wmeredithon Hacker News • Recommends

On “How to Get a Job in the Tech Industry”

This falls under the category of "how I won the lottery" vs. "how to buy tickets". The former isn't useful, the latter is. You can see an excellent talk about the difference here: link to this video

peterlkon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Evidence on how to find the right career”

…you just need to keep doing stuff. Also, one of my favorite illustrations/cartoons of all time2 speaks to this point. Basically, if you pursue the same career for your entire life, you're probably wasting your time. once you have your x,000 hours of work in, do something new where you can cross-apply that knowledge into domains that need it. 1 link to this video 2 link Edit: sloppy link formatting…

psvvon Hacker News • Recommends

On ““”Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice””

I'm surprised I don't see a reference yet to Darius Kazemi's iconic 20141 talk, which is basically riffing on this joke for 10 minutes: link to this video A key takeaway I've kept with me this whole time is the idea of there being two kinds of creative advice: (1) how to buy more lottery tickets, and (2) how to win the lottery. The former is useful, the latter not so much. 1 Wait, 9 years ago? That can't be right.

didntreadarticlon Hacker News • Recommends

On ““”Here's the number I used to win the lottery“ –Entrepreneurs giving advice””

Darius Kazemi - "How I Won the Lottery" - a talk at XOXO Festival (2014) link to this video brutally hilarious

neilkon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Match Group Buys PlentyOfFish for $575M”

Darius Kazemi did a talk on a similar idea. link to this video Kazemi is more of an programmer-artist or -comedian, but he releases dozens of side projects a year, all relatively low effort. He uses himself as a test case and also examines KickStarters and how unpredictable their success is.

skrebbelon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Survivorship Bias”

If you like this comic, you'll appreciate Darius Kazemi's talk "How I Won The Lottery". link to this video

namuolon Hacker News • Recommends

On “A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k”

Here's a funny satirical antidote for "bet the farm" success-story fantasies like this one: link to this video

leejoon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Survivorship Bias”

When I saw the comic in my feeds this morning I immediately thought of Darius Kazemi's XOXO talk: link to this video

mogigomaon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Survivorship Bias”

That comic strip is similar to the talk Tiny Subversions by Darius Kazemi at the 2014 XOXO Festival: link to this video

weard_beardon Hacker News • Mentions

On “The fishy death of Red Lobster”

I don't think you're thinking of this in the right way. Crafting media and creative products of all kinds is like playing poker. You can go all in or you can make little bets where you think you can win. You're making the assumption that the way to win is to GO ALL IN. When in reality whether you're making AAA games or a small indie digital artist like Darius Kazemi... link to this video (Went to high school with him. Amazing guy. His senior project in the electronics lab was a teddy bear that could detect seizures.) You are just buying lottery tickets.