Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
I had to double check that I didn't post this! I thought I was the only angry ranter on here! 🤣
The thing is, it is prevalent in any medium. Plenty of zero value posts on here get lots of attention.
I think you are looking at it backwards. Why is the low quality, high quantity mechanism working? Why is the clickbait and everything else working?
Society.
We have taught young people that everybody is perfect (Instagram life), you can be anything you want to be (general super positive rubbish) etc.
Couple that with the fact we are in an industry so overloaded with information that it is overwhelming (a new JS library every week, to fix the problem with the previous JS library but introduces 10 new problems that will be fixed by the next JS library) and everybody is looking for shortcuts and quick fixes.
You and I would be the same if we had been exposed to the same crap, we have just managed to develop a filter.
Imagine trying to enter an industry where every week there is a new platform to learn, where people think React is JavaScript, or that learning TailWind first is a good idea instead of the fundamentals.
Then imagine you see someone who tweets about JavaScript one day, Python the next, Ruby the next. Someone who seems to be creating a new library every week.
You and I have the experience to know that either: they don't have a job and have the time to do it all, or they have hired people to do it, or they have recycled something that someone else has done and claimed credit.
I probably could not have identified such things at 16.
So I would follow them, wonder how they do it all and hang on their every word. The second they recommend a book I would buy it. Doesn't matter how crap the book actually is, the person with 100k followers said it was good so I must learn it.
Grifters will always attract an audience, they have 100k followers so they must be useful. And they are, they are useful for knowing how to game the system, how to find retweetable and shareable content. Learn from them!
I am studying them with great interest, hoping to slip some real knowledge and truly useful resources under the radar, but you still have to play the game, get the following and then start making change.
It is why "imposter syndrome" appears every week in the feed. The feeling of inadequacy most people experience is down to the Instagram and Twitter façade of the perfect life and popularity.
The only thing you or I can do is to up our game. Create even better content, encourage others to do the same, and just hope that one day the people who are sucked in by the grifters and click bait realise that there is no value there. That there are no magic bullets.
Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
Society and its high expectations are definitely a problem. But it's easy to blame society for everything, it's an abstract entity (it's everyone and no one at the same time). Grifters are more defined entities. And taking advantage of people when they are in need is an ugly thing to do.
You are 100% right. We can learn a lot from them. They are great at marketing, gaming the system, and getting people's engagement (in general). But at this point, their post create more annoyance than curiosity in me. I unfollower/blocked a few of them these past weeks, and I'm tempted to unfollow/block some people that retweet them often.
I like your suggestion of upping up our game and create better content, and especially encouraging others to do the same. Will it make a difference in the long term? Worth trying.
Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
Long term - quality wins, but I think the reality is short term cutting corners to build a platform large enough to then share quality stuff is the route to go!
Do everything the grifters do (other than shilling crap products...by all means promote super quality stuff though) for a year, at 10k - 20k followers you have enough of a platform to pivot and still grow.
That is the dilemma I have been facing, accessibility gets no views, so I am pivoting to popular stuff and will drip feed the accessibility in as part of the content for a while, as I am going to launch a business next year and a large follower count is a good sales tool for investors! Plus a nice platform to announce from.
As for grifters I agree it is horrid behaviour!
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I had to double check that I didn't post this! I thought I was the only angry ranter on here! 🤣
The thing is, it is prevalent in any medium. Plenty of zero value posts on here get lots of attention.
I think you are looking at it backwards. Why is the low quality, high quantity mechanism working? Why is the clickbait and everything else working?
Society.
We have taught young people that everybody is perfect (Instagram life), you can be anything you want to be (general super positive rubbish) etc.
Couple that with the fact we are in an industry so overloaded with information that it is overwhelming (a new JS library every week, to fix the problem with the previous JS library but introduces 10 new problems that will be fixed by the next JS library) and everybody is looking for shortcuts and quick fixes.
You and I would be the same if we had been exposed to the same crap, we have just managed to develop a filter.
Imagine trying to enter an industry where every week there is a new platform to learn, where people think React is JavaScript, or that learning TailWind first is a good idea instead of the fundamentals.
Then imagine you see someone who tweets about JavaScript one day, Python the next, Ruby the next. Someone who seems to be creating a new library every week.
You and I have the experience to know that either: they don't have a job and have the time to do it all, or they have hired people to do it, or they have recycled something that someone else has done and claimed credit.
I probably could not have identified such things at 16.
So I would follow them, wonder how they do it all and hang on their every word. The second they recommend a book I would buy it. Doesn't matter how crap the book actually is, the person with 100k followers said it was good so I must learn it.
Grifters will always attract an audience, they have 100k followers so they must be useful. And they are, they are useful for knowing how to game the system, how to find retweetable and shareable content. Learn from them!
I am studying them with great interest, hoping to slip some real knowledge and truly useful resources under the radar, but you still have to play the game, get the following and then start making change.
It is why "imposter syndrome" appears every week in the feed. The feeling of inadequacy most people experience is down to the Instagram and Twitter façade of the perfect life and popularity.
The only thing you or I can do is to up our game. Create even better content, encourage others to do the same, and just hope that one day the people who are sucked in by the grifters and click bait realise that there is no value there. That there are no magic bullets.
We live in a society
We found the Joker! (double meaning!) 😉
Putting on my Grifter makeup right now
🤣
Do you want to know how I got these
scarsfollowers? Huh?My father was a grifter...and an influencer.
And one night, he start tweeting more furiously than usual.
Mommy goes to the plug for the Wi-Fi to stop him.
He doesn't like that. Not...one...bit.
So with me watching he takes his phone and starts taking selfies.
He points the phone at me. "Why no grifting?"
He puts the flash on and gets really close.
"Why no grifting?",
He adds a filter,
"Lets put a winking emoji on your face"
And...why no grifting?
Society and its high expectations are definitely a problem. But it's easy to blame society for everything, it's an abstract entity (it's everyone and no one at the same time). Grifters are more defined entities. And taking advantage of people when they are in need is an ugly thing to do.
You are 100% right. We can learn a lot from them. They are great at marketing, gaming the system, and getting people's engagement (in general). But at this point, their post create more annoyance than curiosity in me. I unfollower/blocked a few of them these past weeks, and I'm tempted to unfollow/block some people that retweet them often.
I like your suggestion of upping up our game and create better content, and especially encouraging others to do the same. Will it make a difference in the long term? Worth trying.
Long term - quality wins, but I think the reality is short term cutting corners to build a platform large enough to then share quality stuff is the route to go!
Do everything the grifters do (other than shilling crap products...by all means promote super quality stuff though) for a year, at 10k - 20k followers you have enough of a platform to pivot and still grow.
That is the dilemma I have been facing, accessibility gets no views, so I am pivoting to popular stuff and will drip feed the accessibility in as part of the content for a while, as I am going to launch a business next year and a large follower count is a good sales tool for investors! Plus a nice platform to announce from.
As for grifters I agree it is horrid behaviour!