naki,
look around, there're so many numbers!
likes on youtube, amount of reposts on X, stars count on github. views number, after all
one might get used to this, one might start liking it. but... have you ever thought of them?
i mean, it feels like these numbers are something important: a lot of stars on a github repo means it can be trusted; a lot of likes on a youtube video make authors be more happy, cuz they think likes mirror an opinion of society
maybe this is true. but what is also true is authors start think of the actual art less. views count invites them to think that they should create content that is viewed by more and more people
this can cause something probably good, such as quality improvement. but this also leads to loss of a soul. popular formats become more important than what author likes
i'm sure that there's nothing wrong with having not a lot of people consuming one's content. every content will certainly find its reader (or viewer, listener etc) and there's no much need in promotion
it's true, though, that finding enough readers to start earning money from them to live is hard if the main goal is to do art. i suppose that in this case stats help authors to make their content "better"
i'm unsure, though, whether this betterness really worths it. i'm sure that doing art is more valuable than doing something to get money: so i prefer to think more about joy