In this conversation, someone on freenode complained how much he disliked Apple’s Swift programming language (which you may not have heard of) and I suggested he charge more - maybe 300 USD / hour - which he said no one can afford. Its name reminded me of Taylor Swift - a successful and popular singer, who has many videos on YouTube, some of which I am fond of and which many people praise. You probably heard of her. Now, I told him that she probably charges more than 300 USD/hour, but the fact of the matter is, she might perform even for free for something that is important to her, because performing is fun. Her videos, despite often being popular, probably do not offset their production value in YouTube ads. But they are good publicity, provide fodder for remixes, parodies and covers, and are fun enough to produce so she can afford to sustain the cost. She doesn’t work for money or even for a shitload of money. She works for fun.
There is likely a lot of fan fic, fan art, comments and idolisations of her on the Internet. She may not improve significantly, but she can derive inspiration and comments from them, and even if she is criticised or held in contempt, she can either ignore that criticism or learn from it.
If I wrote a Real Person Fan-fiction of Taylor Swift, she won’t be harmed or object. If I depicted her figuratively "kicking the ass" of the NSA in Summerschool at the NSA, it would not have harmed her reputation a dent, and it may have even give her good publicity and even fodder for songs or videos.
As an amateur, it would not have harmed her, and I would not have been considered a villain.
But I did not.