Rethinking my professional online presence
I’ve been thinking a lot about my online presence for career and professional purposes recently; even before I received a terribly depressing ad for LinkedIn.
Like many in the technology space, I have defaulted my professional online engagement to LinkedIn. I’ll admit I haven’t hated all of it, and even made a few good connections to others in my specific profession along the way. However a lot of it is time filler content.
While there’s occasionally a good discussion around an interesting topic, that’s increasingly rare as attention seeking copycats reshare the same (often AI generated) drivel as someone else when they see it get engagement through likes and comments.
Sound familiar? LinkedIn is in many ways, the new Facebook.
And much like Facebook, LinkedIn is also quickly being drowned in political opinions; some of which is occasionally astonishing that they would publicly post such attitudes on any platform, let alone something that’s meant to be a professional forum.
Is a connection request really connecting?
As I’ve started to get involved a little more in professional events, online interest groups, the very rare in person meetup and conferences; I’ve started to wonder if engaging on LinkedIn and occasionally liking or commenting on each others posts really achieves anything meaningful.
I’ve recently started to engage in online catchups with a group of ITSM professionals that I have connected with via LinkedIn for at least a year. However, it’s only in the last few months since I’ve been more active in these online sessions that I’ve started to really understand not only what they do, but how they think about ITSM. Those perspectives outside of my usual colleagues have been very useful in breaking some pre-conceptions about certain topics that I have developed over the years. While uncomfortable, I like it when my thoughts on the topic are challenged by a differing opinion.
While we can have that in LinkedIn on occasion; I know at least one of these other participants has been posting similar thoughts on LinkedIn prior, which I have been reading and following. But it occurs to me that I may not be truly taking in the content of these posts among scrolling the feed.
Of course, a direct engagement with someone is always going to be more fruitful and informative than reading someone’s post; but it does feel like many of us are increasingly replacing one with the other.
The Networking problem
As someone who has seriously high levels of social anxiety at times, is not particularly good at small talk and is horrible at networking; it’s fair to say I can’t stand it. Times where I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone to try and improve it, I’ve felt myself be inauthentic and insincere somehow.
To be honest, my general feeling on networking still remains highly pessimistic in terms of the authenticity (or lack thereof) involved; and I also don’t think I’m alone here. It’s this perception that I feel maybe leading to an increase in using platforms like LinkedIn as a replacement to more traditional networking opportunities for a subset of individuals like myself.
Like most things, there’s probably a balance here. Many are effectively utilising LinkedIn as a platform to either maintain professional relationships or develop new ones; but in combination with other relationship building skills like direct catchups or professional engagements that I lack.
How I intend to engage better without LinkedIn
I’ve considered deleting my LinkedIn account.
Part of this desire is to force myself away from the increasingly annoying parts of the platform; the other part is forcing myself to engage in more productive and direct ways in my professional life.
I signed myself up to attend a national conference later in the year which I’m already dreading (but looking forward to a trip to another city).
Potentially without the crux of simply connecting with people I meet professionally via a LinkedIn request, to get lost in the sea of random posts among the algorithm and my (currently) 375 other connections on the platform; I’ll need to decide on the best way to keep in contact with people.
Not only will I need to get beyond the discomfort of giving out my personal contact details; but also the discomfort of actually following up with people afterwards and actively keeping in touch. This part scares the fucking shit out of me and triggers the anxiety just thinking about it.
In the end, I know I need to push myself on this. However, I also know that if somehow my lotto numbers come up many of you may never hear from me again :D
Personal audio toolkit for 2025
Personal audio has always been an interest of mine. With the proliferation of wireless audio products and types available, I’ve been on a quest to find the right combination of devices for my differing needs at any given time.
Here are my current essentials and nice-to-have options for 2025.
The Essentials
Everyday audio: Anker Soundcore Aerofit 2
While the newest edition to my audio arsenal, the Anker Soundcore Aerofit 2 have quickly become my go-to audio solution for the majority of uses during everyday activities.
The Aerofit 2 is an open ear headphone design, a niche which is increasing in popularity but has been tried in various forms over the years. Personally I’ve had a few different versions of the Shokz bone conduction headphones, the original Sony Linkbuds and the Samsung Galaxy Buds live just to name a few.
The Aerofit 2 (for me) combine the best aspects of open ear headphones: comfortable, secure fit with the design that allow you to be aware of your surroundings. Combined with excellent battery life (up to 10 hours rated) and great call quality from the microphones; these are spending most of the day on my ears. Connectivity is also solid with multipoint working well between my phone and laptop.
Music quality is decent for open ear headphones, but it’s always a compromise compared to regular earbuds or over ear headphones. However, I’ve enjoyed playing a soundtrack to my walks during lunch time. It’s like having a personal boombox with you playing background music that (for the most part) only you can hear.
Like with all open ear headphones, you do have to be wary of the volume and noise leakage in quiet environments. However, I can generally hear these perfectly well at 20-30% volume in those quiet environments; which isn’t audible to anyone but yourself. And in loud environments (like a busy city during lunchtime), I still rarely need to max out the volume in order to hear my audio over the surroundings.
General music listening & noise cancellation: Jabra Elite 10 (1st Gen)
The reasons I keep the Jabra Elite 10 (1st Gen) around are fit and comfort.
I’ve tested and owned quite a few noise cancelling earbuds now, and still own the 1st and 2nd gen AirPod Pros. The Jabra’s aren’t perfect. The oval shape ear tips are great for comfort but compromise fit and seal for many. I personally don’t have too many issues with the tips, however I did swap them out for some large Spinfit ear tips which do work better; particularly for fit.
The vented design, which does an excellent job to prevent the blocked ear feeling of other ANC earbuds, works against it in terms of noise cancelling performance of mid to higher frequency sounds. While it does a truly excellent job of cancelling lower frequency sounds of daily life, it’s easy to see some people thinking the noise cancelling on these are not as effective when those mid to high frequency sounds are not attenuated as much.
I’m going on a bit about the supposed downsides here. However IF they work for you like they do for me, you will appreciate the comfort of wearing these for long periods of time, the rock solid connectivity and multipoint, the warm relaxing sound signature, excellent battery life and compact case for travel.
Also, as practical as the stem design of the AirPods are for mic placement and controls, I much prefer the streamlined look of the Jabras.
Note: I don’t have them but I’ve seen a lot of reports about the Gen 2 of these earbuds having issues with connectivity (which is a strength with my Gen 1 pair) and compromised sound quality. Given Gen 2 was released by Jabra, who the immediately announced their exit of the consumer market, I do worry it was rushed to market before it was ready. That being said, I would still love to test them if I could get my hands on a set (they pretty much disappeared here in Australia after about a month on sale).
The Nice-to-haves
Intentional music listening - iPod Classic 5th Gen & Zero Audio Carbo Tenore earbuds
I’ll be honest, there’s increasingly little reason for me to have an iPod and seperate wired earbuds. While I’m not signed up to a music streaming service anymore, I have my personal collection available on Plex which I stream to my phone as needed. The convenience of wireless headphones and mobile connectivity trumps quality and deliberate listening most of the time.
However, there is still something nice about the quality and distraction-free nature of listening to music on a dedicated music device. For some, that could be a modern DAP or a retro Walkman. For me, it’s an old classic iPod with my Zero Audio Carbo Tenore earbuds.
If I want to listen to a whole album and truly lose myself in the music, this is the best option. It’s both a combination of the superior audio quality of wired earbuds over any wireless option, and the focused nature of the iPod as a music device and nothing more.
For me, the iPod is important as it hits a nostalgia note but also as the interface is restricted in a way that keeps my focus. I got a few 7th Gen iPod Nanos for my kids recently, and they have a custom touch screen interface with a volume rocker on the side instead of the classic’s scroll wheel. The scroll wheel interface has just enough friction for me to prevent aimlessly scrolling through my music and changing songs compared to a touch screen interface.
This iPod still has the original hard drive, which absolutely needs to be replaced. One day I’ll get around to modifying it.
Voice and video calls for work: Ray-Ban Meta Glasses
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses are annoying in how good they are. Meta are a shit company, but this is a great product.
Think of these as open ear headphones combined with glasses and a surprisingly capable P.O.V camera. The audio quality is excellent. The audio you hear is clear and very high quality for an open ear design.
However, its party piece is the microphones for audio and video calls. Flat out these are the best headset for taking calls in a noisy environment, and its not even close. Even the Shokz Opencomm with its noise cancelling boom mic are outdone by the mic pickup on these glasses.
As one example of many, I often work in a cafe a short drive from my house. This cafe is in an open space right next to a busy road with trucks, buses and motorbikes often driving through. Initially when taking video calls here, I would be wary of muting my mic when not speaking. When I was speaking and a motorbike rode past, I apologised for the background noise and my colleagues advised they didn’t even notice. Not that it wasn’t distracting but they still heard it, but that they didn’t notice it at all!
Since then, I’ve openly used these for calls in a number of noisy scenarios with no one being any wiser unless I told them (I’m very open about where I am with my work so I’m not hiding it). From the busy cafe, to train rides, to a kids play centre with my kids and even a busy IKEA warehouse floor. Not once has anyone complained about my voice quality or wondered where I was.
So, great open ear audio quality and microphone pickup; why don’t I use these as my everyday solution over the Aerofit? Well, two main reasons.
The main one is battery life. I did use these as my main solution for a while, but having to charge them in its case a few times a day was an annoyance. There’s no way you can just keep these on all day and have the battery last, even with minimal usage and turning all the (useless to me) AI features off.
The second reason is comfort; I tolerate the comfort on these for the features, but they are occasionally uncomfortable depending on the day for me. For myself, the nose bridge is the issue where some days I just can’t wear them without the pinching feeling causing discomfort. There are silicone pads that do help, however they eventually wear out and lose adhesive with heat and sweat, which happens often in Australia.
Again, Meta are a shit company and I’d rather not do anything to support them. However, if they released an updated model that addressed my fit issues and had truly all day battery life for audio usage; I would still consider buying a pair. They are that good!