Social Media and Programming (opens in new tab)

Yeah right. Back in those days we had a page view counter RIGHT ON THE PAGE

And get thrilled when someone who in your "guest book".

The only thing all generations have in common is their despise for the following generations. But we keep on doing the exact same things. We just forget how it really was in our days while remembering only the good stuff.

I feel like a ton of people still just write code for themselves.

It's such a big problem that a common piece of advice for founders is "build something people actually want".

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As a counterpoint to myself, perhaps founders are constantly building things for a hypothetical third party, which may support the point OP is trying to make.