I had an epiphany yesterday. I know some (many?) people perceive me as overly and naively critical of tech, even though I myself of course love tech and have since I started programming on my Sinclair ZX81 in 1982.
A great deal of my content often turns out to be about calling out harm done unto others. Because that is something I detest and am disappointed to see being such a big and overt part of the industry I love. Human rights issues are very dear to me.
So an unbalanced amount of what people see from me is the criticism.
What people don’t tend to see, and what I think I've been bad at internalising, are all the ways I am actually working to help people and organisations find ways of designing and developing tech that avoids and mitigates negative impact to wellbeing.
I do talks, I teach courses and workshops, and I consult for months at a time with amazing organisations that see the immediate value of efforts placed on foresight, inclusive design, risk management and monitoring systemic effects.
Organisations that truly see how they are accountable for the things they make and want to make sure they do not contribute to harms like prejudice, abuse and inequity. Who are okay with stumbling along the way but will keep moving towards that clear vision.
In the end of course most of us are just people with all the challenges of being human in many different contexts of a complex life. So when people get upset with me for calling out tech problems, I have to remember they’re not seeing all of me.
And I should perhaps do a better job of balancing my messaging.
The reason for my epiphany was that I started writing my own bio related to *maybe* producing an online course. I realised all the fun and awesome ways I am using tech to streamline my work and communicate better. A whole other side of what I’m doing that I could teach to help others improve their relationships with digital services.
And my bio certainly wasn’t reflecting the full extent of my ambitions. And just changing a couple of sentences made me see myself in a new light.
Imagine that, being stuck in my own limited perception of myself.
So here’s my concrete advice: have a look at your bio. How are you describing yourself? How is that description perhaps limiting how others, but more importantly you yourself, think about your work?
The summer is a great time to reflect. Reflecting on and changing your bio description in various places may actually change the way you approach work, and how you feel about yourself. You may want to do it together with someone else.
When was the last time you looked at and revised your LinkedIn bio?
Give it a try and let me know what happens!
P.S. About to enter my own period of summer reflection and rest so this was a good gateway to that. My intent is to take a break from digital platforms for a few weeks. I’ll obviously let you know how that goes 😅 And then my 3-week course in design ethics at Nackademin takes off in August. Yay! ❤️