Are you disengaging from tech?

Tuesday. June 25, 2024 - 2 mins

It felt like a strange question.

The morning had been spent writing software. Whilst heading to a web developer meet-up that evening, a tech startup was helped to solve a burning issue en-route. After the meet-up, another contribution to open source software was made.

The following day was to be spent planning the academic offer for hundreds of software engineering students, whilst supporting a different startup in the breaks. Any downtime over those travelling days was spent upping my c++ skills or tinkering on a client project. The entertainment for the voyage was served from a self hosted server. Spare moments filled with reading up on latest developments within deeply technical topics.

I certainly don’t feel disengaged from the industry. In fact I’m swimming in the Kool-Aid.

So why did it come up?

The conversation in question was about a potential project. In this instance, the work was politely turned down. In the following conversation, our original question was posed.

That doesn’t mean I’d disengaged from Tech.

Part of the conversation was around the reduction in use of social media, and the reasons behind it. Even when on a platform, generally it’s not filled with marketing gumpf. This is where that statement originates I’d suggest.

You see, I don’t follow companies on social media. Nor use it anywhere near as much as previous. I also don’t subscribe to newsletters, nor live in my inbox.

Well. . . that’s not strictly true. I subscribe to one newsletter and follow 7 social accounts that aren’t people.

But anyway. Both things are part of a wider strategy to protect my focus in order to better direct it at things that make a difference. Both originating from the 500 days of lockdown, inspired by the information diet suggested by Tim Ferris almost a decade prior in the 4 hour workweek. The consequence is that if an organisations output is solely via social media and newsletters, they might as well not exist.

This is true in many cases.

The result is a blank stare when the most exciting thing in a orgs existence is brought up. It has not crossed my mind. If it were that exciting, an org’s connections would be talking about it and it would be caught on the odd visit to social land. Things rarely do surface though. Tim Ferris was right after all.

It’s a shame that curbing an unhealthy addiction equates to being disengaged. Especially seeing as I live and breathe the world of tech, and dedicate so much time to shepherding others into it.

In the days since, one question keeps coming to mind. Why do techies have to talk constantly and publicly about our skillsets in order to be engaged?

Answers on a postcard folks.