From 819567e8bb84fc60eeb030d40bfa4175ef3af0cd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Xe Iaso Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2023 17:19:46 -0500 Subject: a lesson i learned about online feedback Signed-off-by: Xe Iaso --- blog/lesson-online-feedback.markdown | 41 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 41 insertions(+) create mode 100644 blog/lesson-online-feedback.markdown diff --git a/blog/lesson-online-feedback.markdown b/blog/lesson-online-feedback.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d6e6a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/lesson-online-feedback.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "You don't have to engage with people on the Internet" +date: 2023-01-18 +--- + + + +This is a lesson that was very hard for me to learn and I feel I should share +this here for everyone to take a moment and consider. You don't have to engage +with people on the internet. You don't need to hop into the comments section. +You don't need to reply to that email. + +You can just sit back and let people be wrong. Especially when it's about your +employer. + +Chances are, if you are reading this article you are on a development team or +are in some position where you are not one of the primary spokespeople for your +employer. You don't need to engage with the discourse if you don't want to. You +don't need to reply to those comments. You can avoid it. + +There is no good way to add oxygen to a +tire fire. + +Sometimes people will engage in performative angst in comments about companies +as a way to signal they are part of the "in-crowd" that totally hates everything +corporations have "ruined". These views are not representative of the larger +world. It is just them trying to get upvoted because they care about the +internet point number. + +You really don't have to engage with such things. Even if you are a formal +spokesperson for a company, you don't have to engage. Engaging can make people +feel validated in their feelings and can sometimes make problems a lot worse +than if you just said nothing. + +This has been a hard lesson for me to accept because in the moment it feels so +_right_ to want to correct some person based on your lived experience. Those +other people are coming from their lived experience and as such given the same +inputs there will be drastically different outputs. + +You don't have to engage with people on the internet. It's okay to let people be +wrong. It's not worth the psychic damage. -- cgit v1.2.3