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Today: we're gonna talk about industry "friendships".Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 22 Retweets ❤️ 74 Favorites 2016 Sep 2 Mood 0
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
When you work in this field, and you're relatively visible, a lot of the people you get to know are straight-up internet friends.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
These people deeply care about the same things you do. It makes for easy conversation & a world of shared favs & RTs and whatever the fuckPermalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
And it spreads pretty easily. You hang out at conferences and meetups. You are invited over to each other's houses.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
This creates a situation where your friendships are insular.On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
You are all involved in your local meetups or your twitter circles and irc chats and one of your billion slack rooms.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
With these connections, all of these friends become coworkers or future coworkers or past coworkers and maybe even business partners.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
And this is where everything gets all fucked up.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
Say you work at a highly visible startup where a lot of these people use the product.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
Say you make a decision to focus on making some money - that thing that allows you to continue making this product.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
Say that some of those decisions to not match the business needs of these friends. You realize, quickly, that these friendships fall apart.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
Did you need funding to continue running a meetup and get it from "the wrong source?" Welp.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
Did you have a bad bug that was affecting some friends but your eng team can only focus on 1 thing, so they're left dealing with it? WelpPermalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
Did a popular tool that a friend built not serve your exact purposes so you built a competitor and it happened to take off? Welp.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
I watch this happen, over and over and over again. To other friends, to myself, to coworkers...Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
Anyway, make some friends outside of the industry - people who don't rely on you to make their money.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
Or, realize that capitalism destroys everything good and pure in the world eventually.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
The end.Permalink On twitter.com
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…in reply to @jefflembeck
I started thinking about this stuff a lot after watching @IvanaMcConnell's talk at CascadiaJS. "Identity labor" is wrapped up in this.Permalink On twitter.com