Recently I was attacked in Twitter by someone who took offense at my personal notes on GitHub (which are public) and then immediately attacked my personality and way of mentoring. A bunch of others jumped on the bandwagon following their apparent leader. That’s not a problem, I’ve been criticized more harshly by more important people before, but I know what I’m doing and that my method and personality are not for everyone.
These posts contained no names whatsoever (and never did), only frustrations and a collection of mannerisms and commonalities between them, mannerisms and commonalities that this person took to immediately and defensively to refer to themselves.
It is true that the person does some of those things, but not others. The truth is I had over a dozen specific people in mind when thinking about it, none of whom I named personally, most of whom, in fact, are on YouTube.
I’m doing my best to just keep on going, but I overreacted when I saw the Twitter post and got defensive myself. That was wrong of me. I’ve learned a lot from this person. I wrote about that as well, but that didn’t get called out publicly and by name with a clear attacking tone on Twitter.
The moral of the story? Just don’t read Twitter. ;) But more importantly, just don’t give a shit. Be your own person. People are always going to interpret what you put out there the way they want, they will lie about you, attack you, steal your money (recently happened to me), they bring their own background, insecurities, biases, and reality.
Yes, I am an asshole. I admit it. I’m not into perception management at all. It’s ruining our world, “influencers” and shit. But I’m usually the asshole looking out for you and not attacking people for no reason, or worse, an imagined reason that I really think is real.
I can do better. But I will not stop calling out shit as I see it, and immediately calling myself out when presented with new information. The difference here is that I will openly admit when I’m wrong and work to change. Many others will choose to double-down and never admit wrong. “Strong opinions, weakly held” is what I choose to strive for, even when I fail.
And to the person who will likely read this, well, I just removed that
last paragraph with dap, which I learned from you. ;)