README that got more attention than the project

I wrote a README last month. Not because I had to, but because I was putting off the actual work and documentation felt like progress.

It got shared more than anything I have ever built.

People starred the repo, quoted the intro, sent it around. Almost none of them used the project. They just liked the way I had written about it.

I cannot decide if that is a win or a warning. On one hand, the words worked. On the other hand, the words worked better than the thing they were describing, and that is not a comfortable place to be.

Have you ever had the packaging outperform the product? And did you fix the product or just enjoy the attention?