Skip to main content

It’s OK to repeat yourself on the internet

Written by markozivanovic on . Posted in Opinion. No Comments on It’s OK to repeat yourself on the internet

I was talking recently with two fellow engineers who are actively writing on their blogs and occasionally on social media. We discussed how much garbage is floating around the internet, and dumbed-down and AI-generated fluff gets more impressions and engagement than genuine and original content. It can be frustrating to see your posts get buried under clickbait and fluff (let’s assume your posts are neither). But here’s a tip: repeating yourself online is totally okay. It’s usually the smartest people I know who are too shy to share their ideas more than once. This post is for you! 🙂

People Miss Things: People online are always skimming and clicking around. Even your biggest fans might miss some of your posts. Repeating your key ideas gives everyone a better chance to catch and remember them.

Reinforce Your Message: Repetition helps people learn. When you revisit important topics, they stick better. Plus, complex concepts need time to sink in. Don’t be afraid to review the same points to ensure your audience gets it.

Stay Consistent: Consistency builds your personal brand. People start associating you with those topics when you repeat your main ideas.

Reach New People: The internet is constantly changing, with new users joining all the time. Repeating your key messages helps you reach these new readers. What’s old to you might be new and valuable to them.

Improve Your Content: Repeating doesn’t mean copying. Each time you revisit a topic, you can refine and update your message, making your content even better over time.

Cut Through the Noise: With so much junk out there, repeating your insights helps ensure your voice gets heard. Stick with it, and you’ll help raise the bar for online content.

Bottom Line

Don’t get discouraged by the noise. Repeating yourself isn’t redundant—it’s smart. It helps people remember your ideas, builds your brand, reaches new audiences, and improves your content. So go ahead, repeat yourself. Your insights deserve to be heard and remembered.

The roaming office: Don’t be *that* remote worker

Written by markozivanovic on . Posted in Opinion, Productivity. No Comments on The roaming office: Don’t be *that* remote worker

I probably (most definitely) sound like an old man yelling at a cloud, but if your work consists of many online meetings, try to plan so you have a stable internet connection and quiet surroundings during the meetings.

There are exceptions. You’re absolved if you often travel for work and spend most of your time on the road by design! It’s totally fine if you’re heading for a conference or a client/stakeholder meeting, and the only way to unblock the others is by tuning in from a busy train or café.

I have a bone to pick with the other group. The ones who forgot they’re conducting business meetings, so they treat them like Facetime with friends.

I’m writing this to raise awareness. I know it’s easy to lull yourself into thinking it’s okay to do what you’re doing. You were doing some chores one day and wouldn’t make it home in time. So, you did one meeting from the road. No one said anything, so you did another the next Wednesday. Fast-forward a few weeks, and you’re running a two-hour workshop from a busy bar.

OK, I’m also writing this to vent a bit, but raising awareness is a big part of the reason. I promise! At this point, I’ve really seen a lot since 2020.

  • I did (well, tried to do) a job interview with a candidate who couldn’t hear me properly because they were in a park surrounded by a bunch of people
  • I sat through a meeting where a person tried to share their screen who knows how and do a presentation while walking
  • I had a meeting with someone who was on a beach, with people playing volleyball in the background

I support giving people as much flexibility as possible while doing the work. I’m trying to get across the point that we shouldn’t forget there’s a line between work and play, and that line should be a bit clearer when one’s actions impact other people’s time.

If you plan to work from a place other than your home, coworking space, or any other space where you have proper working conditions, make sure in advance to ensure:

  • The Internet connection is stable enough for the type of work you’re doing (people usually don’t ask that; they just see that the hotel/motel has a working connection and then realize it’s not sufficient after the fact)
  • The place you’ll be working from is quiet, and you can have a private space if needed, depending on the nature of your work
  • You will not be disturbed or must leave/change the space during the meetings

If you work in a place that’s supportive of remote work and flexible about how and when you work, don’t take it for granted. Don’t be that person because of whom we all can’t have nice things.

I’ll take it slow today

Written by markozivanovic on . Posted in Opinion, Productivity. No Comments on I’ll take it slow today

It’s one of the trends that came with WFH being more accepted (hello, COVID, my (old) friend) in the workplace.

People will often show up online and say something like, “I’ll take it slow today,” “I’m not 100%, but I’ll try to do something,” or they will just put a battery icon with almost depleted energy as their status, followed by some text along the lines I mentioned previously. It’s supposed to mean that even though the person is not feeling great, they’re not feeling that bad, so they can’t do their work. The only caveat is – that no one knows for sure what it means.

Have you noticed the trend? Are you one of the “I’ll take it slow today” people? Don’t worry; I’m not judging. I want to tell you why this may not be a great idea. Even though it’s probably used with the greatest intentions, the whole “taking it slowly” thing is disruptive for both sides—the one taking it slowly and all the others who usually interact with that person.

Here are some reasons against it:

  1. Expectations are not clear. What does your status mean? Should people not contact you or set new meetings with you? How long will it take you to respond to the messages? Can your coworkers still count on your pre-agreed workload being finished while you’re taking it slowly?
  2. You’re creating an unhealthy culture. By sending out a message that you’re working while not feeling well, you’re normalizing working while being sick. It’s even worse if you hold a more senior position in the company. Remember the “lead by example” motto.
  3. The evaluation period is not divided into slow and regular days. There’s no “working slowly” option in the management’s calendar. No one will adjust your evaluation to account for you not being 100%. Even worse, you risk making mistakes when you’re not feeling well. It’s a lose-lose situation for your career progression.
  4. You make others feel guilty. People see your status, and they evaluate whether their request is important enough to bother you while you’re not feeling well.

If you’re not feeling well enough to work, don’t. Focus on recovery and return to work when you can handle your tasks as you would regularly. If you decide to work even though you’re under the weather, clarify your availability and scope of work. If you choose to follow that path, here’s an example of how to handle that communication.

“Hello [team, person]. I’m not feeling that great today, but I’m OK enough to take the meeting with our stakeholders, as it’s a big pain to reschedule. I will be online from 11:30 to 13:00 to see that through and create the meeting notes. After that, I’ll take time to recover, and I’ll be offline. I’ll keep you updated on my status!”

When it comes to communication in the workplace, try to be as precise as possible. Also, take care of your health, mental and physical.

You’re not dumb, the prerequisites are bullshit

Written by markozivanovic on . Posted in Opinion. No Comments on You’re not dumb, the prerequisites are bullshit

There’s a chapter you can find in almost all technical books you’ll ever open. I hate it with a burning passion. It’s the chapter titled “Who this book is for,” usually found in the book’s preface.

Authors (actually publishers) use that chapter to list the skills you should have to keep up with the book contents. More often than not, it’s misleading, downplays the expertise you need to have, and it sets the bar unrealistically low.

But why do they do it? To try and sell more books, of course. If you can broaden your target demographic, chances are you’ll sell more copies of the book. In the end, it’s hard to prove that it’s misleading because experience is subjective. What’s the difference between being a novice and an intermediate Java developer? It’s open to anyone’s interpretation. That’s the beauty of the scheme.

Once, in what is now a distant past, I was gullible enough to believe the contents of that chapter. I would usually skim through the book’s first pages to find the prerequisites needed to follow the text. I would buy the book, happily breeze through the first few chapters, and I would get that nice rush you get when you learn new stuff.

Then, I would come to a chapter that made no sense to me at all. It’s like the author went from some basic arithmetic to a deep dive into complex topics on the mysteries of the universe. At that point, I would get frustrated. I would ask myself if I’m dumb. Stubborn as I am, I would spend hours reading other sources on the subject and then return to the book to prove that I could master the topic and finish the freaking thing.

I don’t think it should be like that. It would help if you were honest about the level of knowledge that your readers should have before explaining some concepts to them. Dear publishers, rethink how you’re writing the “Who this book is for” chapter. You may lose some readers, but the ones you’ll get will be grateful for not feeding them bullshit.

The downward spiral of digital beggars

Written by markozivanovic on . Posted in Opinion. No Comments on The downward spiral of digital beggars

There’s a really annoying trend on social networks, where people will post an update only to ask for more followers, or likes (or whatever the term for upping the imaginary reputation number is).

I use Twitter, so I see it daily there. Tweets are always written in a form similar to the following:

  1. I need one more follower to 1000, please, please help me out guys!
  2. Arrgh, my current number of followers is messing with my OCD! Can you do something about it, pleeeeaseeee?
  3. Monthly follower goal: +10k. Let’s do it! #hustle

By doing a quick internet search, I found there’s an existing definition of a digital beggar in the Urban Dictionary. This is the definition, written by ‘Anti Digital Beggars’:

dig·it·al beg·gar dij-i-tl beg-er

Function: noun

  1. a person who asks for free stuff, swag and even meals on the internet, usually over public social media sites like Twitter or Facebook. Usually shameless and feels he/she has a right to ask
  2. a blogger/twitter-er who demands to get invites to all the events organized around his/her area – regardless of whether he/she can make it or not

This definition was added to the Urban Dictionary in 2010. How things have changed… Ten years ago, people were digitally begging for shirts, mouse pads, and events where they could eat and drink.

Now, I can understand that. Using the internet to modernize the begging process, and make it more “21st century”. That I can make sense of. Asking for food and shelter, which was done for thousands of years, only now it’s digital.

What I can’t make sense of is begging for a like or a follow. It goes against the whole point of those indicators; it’s spam, and it’s hugely distasteful. It also feels so cheap, and totally not something worth begging for.

  1. People tend to gravitate toward good and/or interesting content. That kind of content sells itself. Share what you do, even ask your friends to help you out, but don’t beg!
  2. Building an online following without having anything to say is wasted energy. If you need to beg for more followers, it means you’re probably doing something in the wrong order.

Note: I didn’t go through my entire public online history, but I’ve asked for retweets and/or shares on a few occasions. Privately, I did the same.

I believe there’s a fine line between asking your friends to help you make something you care about more visible, and begging for likes and followers when its only purpose is embellishing the social stats.