[manuelmoreale]

> So these things are the 'what's different'.

If you consider those part of the recipe then I guess yes.

> but no-one is going to care about your project as something useful or interesting, quite rightly.

Which is totally fair and I think part of the article argues that there are situations where that's absolutely fine.

[Dylan16807]

The article isn't just saying it's "absolutely fine" to make software for fun/practice, it's complaining about other people having utility-focused questions and evaluations. Assuming that "show it to your friend" is supposed to be an analogy for more general showing off, reactions like that are plenty reasonable. If it's software nobody is intended to use then that should be made clear up front.