There is a big difference between people who tell you what you CAN do, and people who try to tell you what you SHOULD do.
I can't decide which is more aggravating -- that somebody many people respect is out there, in public, trying to shame me by claiming that I'm not living up to my potential... (that my dreams aren't big enough, that what I do isn't good enough for the world, blah blah blah).
Or that the person doing it seems to be ignorant of what I'm actually about and what I actually do, and why, and what my future plans are.
Should I defend myself by explaining myself, or should I just fight the very idea that anyone should expect me to explain myself -- especially after insinuating something so rude, that I was "duping credulous customers" into buying trendy crap?
After some reflection, I'm going to stick to the latter course.
By the way - why me? Wondered that? Me too. I wonder if it had something to do with the fact that, many moons ago, al3x approached me to design the first preview version of BankSimple. It didn't work out, and I always figured that's because they really wanted a full-time designer and I was definitely unwilling to devote more than a little bit of consulting time to it, because I was committed to my own products.
KirinDave is going to come on here and try to skewer me, imply I'm lying and that story is untrue, etc., etc., so I'll just pre-empt it here and state that that is his viewpoint.
FTR: I think BankSimple is going to be really awesome, as well as beautiful, and that al3x is very, very, very smart. Yet this whole brouhaha is extremely confusing to me.
- I understand how it hurts to be unjustifiably attacked for doing what you love. But I believe you'll only benefit from this, because your work will be exposed to more people as a result of his attack. No one here seems to believe that you are duping people.
- I don't have any way of knowing this for certain, but from the way how Alex writes, I get the impression that he doesn't really know what it means to be broke as hell. If he did, he'd probably consider lifestyle businesses as the saving grace for many people out there, rather than a manifestation of small ambition.
- Lifestyle businesses can become empires with time. It's just a different approach to reach the same end goal of creating stuff you love, and doing something that matters.
I can't decide which is more aggravating -- that somebody many people respect is out there, in public, trying to shame me by claiming that I'm not living up to my potential... (that my dreams aren't big enough, that what I do isn't good enough for the world, blah blah blah).
Or that the person doing it seems to be ignorant of what I'm actually about and what I actually do, and why, and what my future plans are.
Should I defend myself by explaining myself, or should I just fight the very idea that anyone should expect me to explain myself -- especially after insinuating something so rude, that I was "duping credulous customers" into buying trendy crap?
After some reflection, I'm going to stick to the latter course.
By the way - why me? Wondered that? Me too. I wonder if it had something to do with the fact that, many moons ago, al3x approached me to design the first preview version of BankSimple. It didn't work out, and I always figured that's because they really wanted a full-time designer and I was definitely unwilling to devote more than a little bit of consulting time to it, because I was committed to my own products.
KirinDave is going to come on here and try to skewer me, imply I'm lying and that story is untrue, etc., etc., so I'll just pre-empt it here and state that that is his viewpoint.
FTR: I think BankSimple is going to be really awesome, as well as beautiful, and that al3x is very, very, very smart. Yet this whole brouhaha is extremely confusing to me.