sure, there's just two things to bear in mind.
creative recognition is a matter of luck. you can spend hours crafting a post, only to find out that the time you posted "neon genesis eggbugellion" is now in a post chain 12 people deep.
if you want your stuff to do the rounds, if you want to do numbers—you gotta just keep making things and seeing what sticks, there's no real trick but persistence
the other thing to note is that popularity isn't all it's cracked up to be. turns out a lot of notifications stops being fun eventually, and sometimes a "hit post" will drown out the other things in your life
i'd advise to post what makes you happy, over catering to an audience. the mad scientists doing css crimes are likely doing just that, unleashing a horror with a cackle.
personally i've yet to do css crimes, but i've had a few posts pop off: a stupid joke (people love nostalgia) a half-assed computer post (people love learning new things) and stirring the fediverse pot (people love a bit of tongue in cheek flamebait). for me though, i don't post to get clicks, i post to talk at length about my hobbies, or i post to remember something later on, plus the occasional bad joke.
i'm not saying "just be yourself and you'll be popular" but "be yourself, you'll have more fun doing it—you never really know what's gonna resonate in advance". hobby posting might not get you all the attention but it will help you meet other nerds to bounce ideas off.
As a prolific creator who has a lot of experience "working the system" to go viral I have lots of experience related to this. My credentials here are that I've frontpaged Hacker News more than most people despite never using Hacker News, so I understand pretty well what makes social media "tick".
