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A few thoughts... - I have written a book and the publisher obviously wants to spread the word. Do I want to spread the word? Yes, I also want to spread the wo

A few thoughts... - I have written a book and the publisher obviously wants to spread the word. Do I want to spread the word? Yes, I also want to spread the word. Why? Because I think it's a good book and it might help some people. So I try to create content to spread the word. This results in 80% of people coming across this content thinking "I don't need that, that's marketing", vs. 20% who might think "Great, I need that". - If I want to join a new company, a technical blog or active developer advocates help me decide. I can get a sense of a company culture through what they chose to post and whom they hire for their advocate roles. - Twitter, LinkedIn etc. are a complete waste of time for me personally. But again, other people build their presents their to sell you their ideas. Is it legit? Sure, why not. How else do you get informed about new ideas and thoughts? All of that means there is tons of noise, since everyone is using the same channel (s), and for you, the consumer, means you have to filter these channels _a lot_. I think in the current day&age, where computation and technology is part of every day life, your job description changes, and educating and "spreading the word" is part of it. But, this can be done in an authentic manner. You don't have to lie, or put up a big show. Writing and exposing your ideas can also help identifying who you are and getting in touch with people and the community can help shaping your thoughts and reflecting back on yourself. So all in all, these environments are great for narcissists and "bubble people" , which is "bad", but I personally just see these social media platforms as channels now of information, where I can get new insights, articles and ideas from. I personally restrict the usage of these platforms now to exactly this: Inflow of information. I am building actively a social network which is close to me, has nothing to do with being online. But I, every now and then, try to contribute to the online discourse through articles and blog posts. What I find liberating is seeing how other professions are doing this: I follow endurance sports and psychology on YouTube, and what they do is is basically teaching and answering questions.

throwtheheyaway 4y ago
> - If I want to join a new company, a technical blog or active developer advocates help me decide. I can get a sense of a company culture through what they chose to post and whom they hire for their advocate roles. Working with some of these over the last forever.. I don't in any way believe they share anything about the company culture, or frankly the correct usage of the company's technology as it wants. I very much see this as people who want to be fully-time developers, but aren't currently. Across orgs - I have yet to see this not be true, but maybe it's just me, and the others with whom I discuss this. Echo champers are very much a thing.
- recvonline 4y ago
  That's a very bleak outlook on another profession to be honest! I met a few who were developers for 10+ years and wanted to shift, some just wanted to work more client/customer facing but still enjoyed the technical work. I mean, if you look at everything from an angle of "Coding is the best, everything else is marketing crap and sucks", sure, you will find lots of evidence for it. But coding is a very small percentage of the work done by the population as a whole. Feeling superior is just damaging your mental health and is doing nothing to else. So yeah, I worked with dev revels. And with every profession I crossed path before: Some I liked, some I didn't. Some work I thought was necessary, some wasn't.
rdrsss 4y ago
> - If I want to join a new company, a technical blog or active developer advocates help me decide. I can get a sense of a company culture through what they chose to post and whom they hire for their advocate roles. I'm curious about this, how does this help you figure out culture? Is it a "what's their priority" type of thing? Have you been wrong before? What the company communicated public was not the reality? Personally I'm trying to become better at gauging this myself, and I've only ever been able to make a "culture" opinion during the interview process when I get to hang out and small talk with the actual devs I'd be working with.
- recvonline 4y ago
  Generally, the more technical the Dev Revels are, the more technical is the mindset of the company. If the DevRevel is promoting work culture 50% of their time, it‘s a priority for the employer and personally, for me, a small red flag (you might think otherwise). Each person you are in touch with from a company gives you a sense whom they hire and what the company agenda and priority is.

throwtheheyaway 4y ago

> - If I want to join a new company, a technical blog or active developer advocates help me decide. I can get a sense of a company culture through what they chose to post and whom they hire for their advocate roles. Working with some of these over the last forever.. I don't in any way believe they share anything about the company culture, or frankly the correct usage of the company's technology as it wants. I very much see this as people who want to be fully-time developers, but aren't currently. Across orgs - I have yet to see this not be true, but maybe it's just me, and the others with whom I discuss this. Echo champers are very much a thing.

recvonline 4y ago
That's a very bleak outlook on another profession to be honest! I met a few who were developers for 10+ years and wanted to shift, some just wanted to work more client/customer facing but still enjoyed the technical work. I mean, if you look at everything from an angle of "Coding is the best, everything else is marketing crap and sucks", sure, you will find lots of evidence for it. But coding is a very small percentage of the work done by the population as a whole. Feeling superior is just damaging your mental health and is doing nothing to else. So yeah, I worked with dev revels. And with every profession I crossed path before: Some I liked, some I didn't. Some work I thought was necessary, some wasn't.

rdrsss 4y ago

> - If I want to join a new company, a technical blog or active developer advocates help me decide. I can get a sense of a company culture through what they chose to post and whom they hire for their advocate roles. I'm curious about this, how does this help you figure out culture? Is it a "what's their priority" type of thing? Have you been wrong before? What the company communicated public was not the reality? Personally I'm trying to become better at gauging this myself, and I've only ever been able to make a "culture" opinion during the interview process when I get to hang out and small talk with the actual devs I'd be working with.

recvonline 4y ago
Generally, the more technical the Dev Revels are, the more technical is the mindset of the company. If the DevRevel is promoting work culture 50% of their time, it‘s a priority for the employer and personally, for me, a small red flag (you might think otherwise). Each person you are in touch with from a company gives you a sense whom they hire and what the company agenda and priority is.