People who don’t “build and show” in their free time do not necessarily have harder time getting hired, nor are they necessarily worse as hires.

Some people have circumstances or attitude where they prefer to get paid to build things. One can find oneself in demand by being good at networking, a capable and creative engineer, able to work autonomously, a good communicator and a pleasure to work with. I know some people like that.

If we are talking about valuable hires landing jobs, relevant qualities seem completely orthogonal to the inclination of building things as a hobby—if anything, the latter may imply a degree of unsustainability and/or tendency to flaunt responsibilities if it results in neglect of one’s personal life or previous job.

Thank you for this. I often feel poorly about myself because I've created so little (especially since leaving school), but between 13 and 31 I didn't have financial stability or basic safety, and even now I'm a disabled person who is the sole breadwinner and caretaker for my also disabled sister, who can't work (I have MS, she has bipolar [which obviously takes some mental energy to handle]).

I've just been so tired trying to feed + shelter myself and escape abuse that my building urge was completely extinguished until the last year.

I always beat myself up for it, but it turns out that I just couldn't get into the flow state needed to build things when I was constantly stressed-out, hungry, cold, and scared.

Not to take away from people building things - I love seeing what people come up with! It's just a pleasure to know that not everybody will consider those decades as me being lazy.

I've met plenty of people who have built nothing, but are good enough at talking to people that they can get jobs.

As for your last point, how can someone tell if they're talking to the right person?

> I've met plenty of people who have built nothing, but are good enough at talking to people that they can get jobs.

Sure. I don't think the author would claim that this approach is the only way to get noticed and/or a job. I certainly won't. But this one is cool, because at the very least you did something and you honed other important skills along the way.

> As for your last point, how can someone tell if they're talking to the right person?

What I meant and could have made clearer was: As the ones building and showing, it's entirely our choice to be honest about it. When it comes to spotting someone who is not, having more experience in doing and showing also helps on that front.

Yeah they know how to build relationships.