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people really be flocking from the other place ☕️ not convinced on being overly present anywhere yet, or even if there's a desire to be honestly, social media was a covid experiment that got a little out of hand for me

prior to that, i jus' built things because i could and i like doing it that is still the case somewhat but at some point the scale flipped and it almost became like an obligation. "need to build, need to post, need to feed the algorithm"

think my end goal would still be: do that full-time build education material full-time on building UI it's a double-edge sword, being "social" only helps with those goals

but the insight gained over the last couple of years from becoming what i thought would be "great", is ultimately, exhausting

don't get me wrong, i'm very grateful for the support and everything that's come with it over the last few years heck - even gained a family through it which was unexpected

my goal in 2020 was something like "grow an online presence" after hitting 1K X followers in Jan 2020 fast-forward and it's like 100,000+ which is an achievement for sure but ultimately for what gain? what cost? it's hard to get the head around had some great roles, traveled the world, met my wife

at some point, you have to draw a line and be like "what am I doing here? what's my purpose? goal?" at some point, the scales kinda flipped for me don't regret any of it and all the opportunities have been unreal 🙏 but it isn't sustainable 💯

I’ve only recently found your stuff online, but it’s personally given me a newfound zest for building cool things again, after more than 20yrs of being a developer. So thank you Jhey. You have to do you, and when it becomes a chore/job rather than just fun, it’s a good time to reflect on time/value

appreciate this Owen 🙏 tbf - this is a great example of why I do it in the first place that's always been a big thing because it's a win-win. often I'll learn some things and others get something out of it just at that point where I need to try and bottle that up for people

but i'm quite goal-oriented which i'm sure a lot of people are i'm always like "what's next?" but with social media, there isn't an end

this is in part, why i don't appear at many conferences anymore too my goal was "be one of those people who speaks at a conference" (@joshnesbitt.dev gave me that chance and happened to meet my wife too 😅) then I ended up speaking at 15 in as many months... but then only did one this year

that said, i haven't closed the book on events, i will still do them but i'm way more selective about it now i've been fortunate to speak at the ones i wanted to and without a CFP 🙏 will always help friends out and still do the odd one like Figma Config this year