> The world would be quite miserable if "perfectly legal" would be what everyone optimizes for.

what you will find is that this is what corporations optimizes for. Therefore, you as a person, cannot compete with the corp.

That's why you need to become like a corp, or make the rules "socially acceptable" the same as "legal" (which is the best option).

Self-promotion is encouraged in my social circles and anyone who says otherwise is weak minded so their opinions don't matter. What are they going to do about it?

They're probably jealous that they never had the guts to do it themselves and prefer to rely on friends in high places or daddy big media to promote their shit for them.

Standing behind your work is good and wholesome. Fear of self-promotion is weakness.

I often talk myself up and promote my work. Especially face-to-face. If your work actually measures up to the talk then you have nothing to apologize for. You're actually educating people and doing them a service.

Don't let yourself be bunched up with snake oil salesmen who didn't actually do the work. If you did the work and nobody noticed, then it is your duty to talk it up.

The fact that a maker can't also be a seller is dumb. You can switch modes. You have to do whatever it takes to fulfill your mission.