…and I won’t back down. Ok, so this is a little off my usual thread, but it does have some learning in it. What I’m talking about is using your attention and your money as a way to express your values. It’s what I’m increasingly doing, and there’re lessons in it. So let’s talk about standing up for what you believe in.
It may be that I’ve stood too much on principle in the past, and paid the price. I left a (probably) secure position at a university to come back to the US to be closer to our aging parents. A job at what was positioned as a secure startup appeared to be a good choice..but I didn’t properly account for ego and greed. I even was a bit cheeky about a possible position, to my long-term shame. Consulting then, I joke, went from a euphemism for ‘unemployed’ to a way of life. I’m fortunate, that despite my lack of business nous, my curiosity and inclination to share learnings has proven to be moderately valuable. Somehow, this hasn’t been enough to dissuade me.
As I theoretically get wiser, I’m being more forthright. I’m relinquishing my accounts on platforms that have demonstrated a lack of accountability, for instance. I’ve left a few places in the past few years. I stay on LinkedIn, because it’s not awful (though getting worse), and it’s the place where folks connect for business. I’m on a few other social networks, one that is built to be able to stay independent, and one that, so far, is seeming to have good principles. That latter one I’m willing to abandon if that changes.
I’m also avoiding technologies with misrepresentation, and calling out such claims. Not always, of course, I want to educate, not punish. Still, I strive to let what science tells us to serve as a guide, not what folks want you to believe. Their intentions may be simply misguided, or worse, they may not care. It’s important to be careful, which is why we (Matt Richter and I, e.g. the LDA) wrote the research checklist, for instance. (May require membership, but it’s free!) I even avoiding indulging in an opportunity to watch an activity I enjoy, because it was part of a trend I think is harmful overall (e.g. supporting increasing compartmentalization).
I’m also shifting my purchasing. I’m trying to shop more local, and use sources that aren’t aligned with the most problematic providers. This isn’t always easy, as the ‘long tail’ means certain things are hard to come by. There are consequences, including paying more, and doing with less. Tradeoffs.
Similarly, I try to do business only with those who have approaches I favor. For instance, I’ve avoid positions where I receive compensation for promoting a product, because that would bias my recommendations. I (perhaps wrongly) believe that having that unbiased opinion (and stating when I have conflicts) is of value. I am now am working with Elevator 9, but that’s because they have demonstrated that they care about learning science.
None of this is perfect. For one, there are barriers to completely shifting. Some services you just can’t get without aligning with one platform or another. Certain products are basically just impossible to source any other way. Not everyone you know and care about will go along. You do what you can, and live with the results.
There’s learning from this. It’s harder than not. I’ve learned that trusting what people say, particularly those with vested interests, isn’t a good bet unless they’ve earned your trust in other ways first. Acquisitions, for one, rarely go the way that the acquirers promise! Also, it’s pretty obvious that this stance is an effort that not everyone can, or is willing to, make. There’s risk, for instance. On the other hand, it’s rewarding. You do feel better that you’re doing things to support what you believe.
Note that I’m being relatively opaque about my intentions. I think they’re pretty obvious, but still, the principles hold regardless; vote with your attention and your dollars. Align your actions with your values. Standing up for what you believe in is a way to show what you believe so others can see what others think. It’s a way of learning ‘out loud’ I suppose. Or maybe ‘living out loud’. Still, I won’t back down. What think you?
(And now, back to your regularly scheduled posts. BTW, my intent is to keep Tuesdays for my thoughts; if I’m touting something I think you should know about, I’ll try to keep to Thursdays. And rare. ;)
I think it’s an excellent principled stance.
I’m a bit laxer. I don’t refuse to have a Facebook account, because it remains the most reliable way to get news about some of my friends. I simply refuse to use it for any other purpose. I have an account on which I have never followed anyone but personal friends, never liked anything but posts from same, and ruthlessly block posts from anyone I don’t personally know. I also unfriend people who I personally quite like, but who are in the habit of repost-spamming; I still like those folks, but that’s not what I want to use the platform for. Between that and the FBP addin, I see almost nothing in my feed but posts written by people I know. Similarly, I try to buy things locally, but will use online services if something I want isn’t available otherwise. I check for 3rd-party sources for ebooks, but buy from Google or Amazon if that’s the only way to get what I want to read; it usually is. I’ll use WhatsApp to talk to the people who use it as their primary communication, but I don’t encourage use by giving it to anyone who doesn’t ask. In fact, LinkedIn is pretty much the worst of the lot I have left, because it relentlessly hammers me with emails no matter what I do with my settings. Fortunately, gmail has filters.
I fully understand that my approach doesn’t work for some of the things people like to use social media for. Following famous people, or wider networking with casual acquaintances, or getting news. I feel like those are a case of the wrong tool for the job. If you’re hammering in nails with a wrench, and you smash your thumb, maybe the problem isn’t the design of the wrench? If you’re not happy with the integrity of the news you get from Facebook; why are you reading news on Facebook again? And of course, if that was all you wanted it for anyways, then there’s no reason to keep the account. But it _is_ possible to separate the personal from the public (though it may require a new account…)
Absolutely! Good call. It seems to be a scary move to let go of people, places, and social networks that have been rewarding in the past but now are just sapping our energy. I will take your lead. Life is too short to waste on those who push us further down into servitude to reward the few at the expense of the many.
Great to hear from you, hope all’s well! And fully agree: “life is too short…to reward the few at the expense of the many”.
Rob, yeah, it’s not easy. I did hate losing touch with some folks I only had connection with Facebook. But the experience was getting pretty bad; I wasn’t seeing everything from folks, and I was seeing a lot of garbage. I don’t regret it, all in all. I also try to buy locally, but for instance recently had to get a book, and someone else had given me a reward of Amazon $$, so it cost me less. But overall I’m trying to avoid big biz where they’ve demonstrated problems (and I do try to use the ones who have resisted). I have troubles, of course: there are three cell coverage providers here in the US, and they’re all bad! LinkedIn is getting worse (AI and short-term returns are ruining it now that it’s been brought under the Microsoft shroud), but it’s still the place to show up. I didn’t read news or anything else on FB, just for personal connections, but didn’t want to allow my eyeballs to benefit Zuck’s pocketbook, and it was something I could leave completely (all of them, closed my whole Meta account, though I’d never used anything but FB; just a bit of a Luddite I guess ;). I’m reining in a lot, but of course there are still some things that I can’t avoid. Do what you can, live with what you can’t, eh?
“Do what you can, live with what you can’t, eh?”
Absolutely!