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We’re actively encouraging peacocking. It’s no surprise since it’s the current pattern in social media, and obviously it was bound to seep into tech. ‘Keeping
by runawaybottle 5y ago
We’re actively encouraging peacocking. It’s no surprise since it’s the current pattern in social media, and obviously it was bound to seep into tech.
‘Keeping up with the Johnsons’ scaled like hell in the digital world. We all know it’s bad, but here we are. If you can’t beat them, join them, and let’s just keep making the world shittier.
The main reason why this line of advice (original tweet) is bad is because it is self promotion for the sake of self promotion.
Here’s a quiet solution:
Have a small website and a projects page. Describe a few of the projects and what’s interesting about them. Then send it to the company. It’s no one else’s business.
- simonw 5y agoMy point here was meant to be that you DON'T need to invest a huge amount of effort in peacocking. Just a small amount of effort in ensuring there are public examples of your work out there is all it takes to get a boost against other candidates who haven't done that. A small website and a projects page is exactly the knid of thing I'm suggesting here.
- runawaybottle 5y agoBut the active promotion via the social channels is what sets off the ‘keeping up with the Johnsons’ effect. Some people are so shy that they would never consider advertising like that. The peer pressure builds, and suddenly you have a generation of self conscious people maintaining appearances.
- cratermoon 5y agoMichael H. Goldhaber foresaw this in 1997, in his presentation, The attention economy and the Net[1], see the section "Further Expectations" 1 https://firstmonday.org/article/view/519/440 https://firstmonday.org/article/view/519/440
- cirrus3 5y agoI need to add "peacocking" to my HN bingo board asap.