The Importance of Promotion

Richard Hamming, You and Your Research:

…it is not sufficient to do a job, you have to sell it… [T]he fact is everyone is busy with their own work. You must present it so well that they will set aside what they are doing, look at what you've done, read it, and come back and say, "Yes, that was good." … If they don't stop and read it, you won't get credit.

…

Question: What kind of tradeoffs did you make in allocating your time for reading and writing and actually doing research?

Hamming: I believed, in my early days, that you should spend at least as much time in the polish and presentation as you did in the original research. Now at least 50% of the time must go for the presentation. It's a big, big number.

Brian DeChesare, How I Started This Site (My Life Story), Part 1: 2007 — 2008:

I spent 90% of my time on marketing, promotion, and contacting other sites back then and only around 10% of my time on creating content here – which was a very wise decision in retrospect.