#using linkedin effectively

[getmoneymethods]

Leveraging LinkedIn for Business

Maximize your LinkedIn impact! Find out how to leverage this powerful platform for your business. 

#MaximizeLinkedIn #SocialMediaForBusiness #DigitalSuccess 🎥 

Watch: https://youtu.be/2qmqHFbmHYg"

[collgeruledzebra]

been a while since ive had a spell of anxiety bad enough i genuinely can't tell how much im overreacting

[fluziofashion]

Mahesh KS - Founder and CEO of Fluzio Fashion

As the Founder and CEO of Fluzio Fashion, I am driven by a relentless passion for innovation and a global vision that transcends borders. My entrepreneurial journey is rooted in the belief that with dedication, perseverance, and a clear focus on your goals, dreams can be transformed into reality, creating a lasting impact both nationally and globally.

Indian Entrepreneur: A Story of Ambition and Resilience

Early Life Born and raised in Kaigonahalli, Mandya, Karnataka, my upbringing was deeply influenced by a strong sense of community and unwavering familial support. Despite modest beginnings, my family instilled in me the values of dreaming big and working diligently—principles that became the foundation for my future endeavors.

Education and Early Interests My educational journey began in local institutions before I moved to RJS PU College in Bangalore, where I developed a profound interest in commerce and mathematics. These formative years fueled my entrepreneurial spirit, leading me to explore the dynamic intersection of technology and business.

From Vision to Reality: The Birth of Fluzio Fashion In 2017, amidst the bustling cityscape of Bangalore, I founded Fluzio Fashion with a vision to revolutionize the fashion industry by merging cutting-edge technology with creative design. As the Executive Founder and CEO, my mission has always been to create a platform where technological innovation meets high-quality fashion, offering an exceptional shopping experience to customers worldwide.

Overcoming Challenges: The Startup Struggle and Breakthrough The journey of Fluzio Fashion was not without its challenges. From securing funding to developing a robust platform and gaining market traction, the path was fraught with obstacles. However, our unwavering dedication and innovative approach enabled us to overcome these hurdles. Through perseverance and a commitment to excellence, Fluzio Fashion quickly emerged as a leader in the e-commerce industry.

A Revolution in Fashion E-Commerce Fluzio Fashion's success is a testament to our revolutionary approach to online shopping. By integrating advanced cloud computing solutions and creating a user-friendly platform, we have offered a personalized and convenient shopping experience that sets us apart in a competitive global market. Our distinctive features and exclusive fashion collections continue to redefine the fashion e-commerce landscape.

A Vision for the Future Under my leadership, Fluzio Fashion is poised to set new standards in the fashion e-commerce industry. Our focus is on global expansion, exploring emerging fashion trends, and enhancing the customer experience. My vision is to position Fluzio Fashion as a global powerhouse, driving innovation and growth in the fashion industry.

Current Life and Future Goals Based in Bangalore, I am fully committed to expanding Fluzio Fashion and exploring new business ventures. My ambition extends to growing our brand on a global scale and making significant contributions to the business landscape both in India and internationally.

Conclusion From humble beginnings to leading Fluzio Fashion, my journey is a testament to the power of hard work, perseverance, and vision. As an Indian businessman with global aspirations, I encourage others to seize opportunities, forge their own paths, and persist through challenges. With dedication and a clear focus on your goals, you too can achieve your dreams and leave a lasting impact on the world.

[felassan]

IGN: "Key Dragon Age developers have announced they are leaving BioWare after the developer restructured to focus on the next Mass Effect." Michael Douse, publishing director of Larian Studios: "*laid off I wrote more but then deleted it because I’m not about to ruin a long weekend. Something something $30 billion corporation operating for decades unable to provide the necessary economic foundation from which to support a big RPG. But again, I deleted it. It is possible not to layoff large parts of your development teams between or after projects. Critically, retaining that institutional knowledge is key for the next. It’s often used as an excuse to ‘trim fat’ and to an extent I understand that under financial pressure, but doesn’t that just highlight how needless the aggressive efficiency of giant corporations is? I’d understand it if they were pumping out hit after hit - perhaps you could argue it’s working - but clearly the aggressive streamlining (layoffs) aren’t. It’s *nothing but cost cutting* in the most brutal sense. It’s *always* people lower down the food chain that suffer, when it’s *clearly* strategy higher up the food chain that’s causing the problem. On a pirate ship, they’d toss the captain overboard. Video games companies should be run like pirate ships. The delta between VC and unemployed game developer is fascinating because where one falls upwards the other in parallel velocity tumbles downwards. You can tank an entire multi-billion dollar initiative and head upwards, while an incredibly talented artist, engineer, QA, etc can head into poverty. I don’t have LinkedIn btw 😬 Just in case any of this annoys you, just imagine I meant the exact opposite of it and you’re the best. Have a great weekend ✌️ "[source]

Michael Douse: "To make it absolutely clear, what I hate about the way layoffs are carried out is that they are done *before* decision makers know what do do with a studio, and not as a result of figuring out a direction. This is consistently true. It is a short term cost saving measure at a huge human expense that doesn’t solve a long term problem. (A lack of a viable strategic direction defined at an executive level). You can probably figure it out if you trust your developers instead of firing them. On a positive note, I’m seeing a slight shift in this direction. In the low-stakes arena of remasters and remakes, but they are the foundation of something bigger." [source]

[senipsenipsenip]

I’m a little obsessed with the idea of Ford making himself the most involved support network he can for Dipper and Mabel when they go off to college. Like weekly phone calls even if it’s just for five minutes to say “hey how are you you’re not alone I love you”. He knows what it feels like to be isolated, adrift in a new environment. He knows it can be hard to reach out, so he wants to make sure his niblings know he’s always reaching out already should they ever need him.

He makes sure he’s keeping up with what Wendy, Soos, Fiddleford, and the townsfolk are up to so that he can relay it to Dipper and Mabel, which has the (unexpected for Ford but unsurprising to anyone else) side effect of Ford gaining his own network of companions. If the kids are having trouble with their homework he does his best to help, but if it’s some subject he’s not versed in he’s quick to go to his college yearbook and find the name of someone he knew who majored in that field and tells Dipper and Mabel to look them up on the internet because “I hear you can do that now. You can find anyone but Stanley and D.B. Cooper. That’s because your uncle is technically dead and last I saw D.B. Cooper was in the Alibi Dimension.” Dipper reaches out to the alumni sometimes. He becomes sort of pen pals with this old guy who got his film degree at Backupsmore in his forties. The guy’s older than Ford, still works as a professor, and is thrilled to talk with a young, excitable student like Dipper. Mabel reaches out to ANYONE with fashion, dance, music, or any other liberal arts degree. She’s got about 400 LinkedIn connections and a lot of invitations to some family potlucks.

Sometimes even if Ford knows the answers, he still asks Fiddleford to help. It makes Ford happy to visit his friend and hear him proudly explain something that he helped Dipper solve over the phone. Ford tries so hard not to think of a world where this conversation is different, where Fiddleford has clearer eyes and is telling him all about how proud he is watching his Tate grow up.

“No use dwellin’” Fiddleford would say. “Not while we got years ahead.”

And Ford would say “Alright.” And after catching up with his old friend he would excuse himself because it was Friday and the kids would each be expecting a call. He would walk back home and scroll through his phone looking for the kids’ numbers, marveling at how long his contact list has become. How odd, to have lived in a town so long and only now be discovering the people. Oh well. No use dwellin’. Besides, Gravity Falls was full of odd things.

Odd, and often wonderful.

[genericpuff]

holy crap okay so

I'm two episodes into Kaos

normally I keep my expectations pretty minimal because, let's be real, the Internet - and especially Tumblr - has a tendency to severely overhype new series to be way better than they actually are and it often leaves me sitting there like "that's it? that's what people were freaking out over for weeks?? that was just a bunch of cheap ships and tropes that i've seen 123785902380 times before" LMAO

BUT thankfully compared to other series like Hazbin Hotel and The Amazing Digital Circus, I haven't been worn out on excessive fandom exposure prior to watching Kaos, so I didn't really know what to expect going in besides what folks have told me so far - it's a modern-day Greek epic, and it stars Jeff Goldblum as Zeus (which is, unsurprisingly, peak casting).

That said, I'm very pleased to say that so far, the show is absolutely blowing me away. The set designs, characterizations, weaving of all the players into a central narrative led by a very coy narrator, all of it feels both refreshing and respectful to the source material at the same time.

so uh yeah that LO animated TV show... we have reason to believe now that it's gotten picked up by Amazon Prime, at least according to the showrunner's LinkedIn and posting history from February of this year that seems to imply LO may have been picked up by Amazon-

(but still, nothing's really been confirmed because they're being so tight-lipped about this you'd almost think it's because there isn't a show happening at all cough)

But even then, that means at best we still won't see anything of the LO TV show adaption for another 2-3 years, depending on how production goes.

Why am I talking about LO right now? Well it should be obvious - Kaos double-whammied LO by beating it to the punch at its own game.

I mean, just look at the creative choices alone in the design of the Underworld and its rulers, our beloved Hades and Persephone.

And yes, the entire Underworld is color-graded like this, something so simple and yet effective in communicating the nature of the Underworld and what it stands for - a place where the past lives on through the dead, paused in time, devoid of the vibrant color grading found in Olympus - or "Olympia" as its been named in this retelling - which is, by the way, a visual treat to take in every time it's featured.

(and yes, that is S-tier-companion Billie Piper on the left, but I will not tell you who she's playing, you actually really should go into this show as blind as possible for the thrill of figuring out these characters as they're introduced <3)

That's not even getting into the narrative structure of the plot itself or the phenomenal casting and acting, but again, I don't want to spoil too much as the show is quite new, and I want to actually finish watching the show myself before I get more into the details of its story and how it delivers it (I'm very much hoping I will still be singing this show's praises at the end of its 8 episodes, please for the love of god don't jump the shark, I don't think my heart can take that kind of pain again.)

All that's to say though, Kaos is, so far, exactly what us disappointed fans of LO deserve after all these years, and frankly, I feel like whatever is coming for the LO animated TV show is really gonna have to step up to the plate to both live up to the bar that Kaos has set as well as stand on its own without being affiliated as a cheap Amazon knockoff living in its shadow. Sounds a little familiar and a bit ironic, doesn't it?

[taikeero-lecoredier]

RECENT UPDATES ON THE BAD INTERNET CALIFORNIA BILLS:

Sadly, both AB1949 and SB976 passed and are now on their way to the governors desk.

We need him to veto them so they dont become Law.

If you havent Heard of the danger of those bills for the Internet , this post explain it thoroughly :

- Post doing a deep explanation on those bills here

I CANNOT emphasize enough how these would have a global effect on the Internet given that most websites and apps originates from California and not all of them could afford either following those bills or moving states.

Now, as the bills are on their way to the governor, we need Californian citizens to voice their oppositions to those bills to the Governor Gavin Newsome HERE

(Non California peeps, we are urging you to share this as well!!! )

Please keep in mind that calling with phone is much,much more efficient.

You can also send faxes with Faxzero

Here are scripts you can use as arguments : (text/alt version below the read more )

Than you for reading. Even if youre not from California, please spread the word anyway ! Make posts,tweets,etc

REBLOGS ENCOURAGED

TEXT VERSION :

AB 1949

Hello, my name is (INSERT NAME HERE) and I'm one of the Senator's constituents from (INSERT CITY HERE). I'm calling to urge the Senator to vote NO on AB 1949, the amendment to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2020. While this bill's intent is to prevent the sharing and sale of minor's information under the age of 18, the method it would intend to do so by is written far too broadly for it to be safely and reasonably implemented.

While this bill retains a safer standard of the business requiring actual knowledge of a consumer being under the age of 18 to be held liable for the sharing or sale of personal information, its wording is still too broad to exclude a default usage of age verification by online businesses in order to protect themselves from liability. Taking measures such as age verification, age assurance, or other data collection and analysis to determine the age of users. Even though measures like this have been proven to be vulnerable to data breaches no matter how secure they proclaim to be. Such as this year's largest discovered breach of AU10TIX, which supplies age verification to companies like TikTok, X, Uber, LinkedIn, Paypal, and many others.

As it stands, this bill is far too broad in its wording and enforcement of its age-specific measures to be considered a safe piece of legislation. Which is why I urge the Senator to vote in opposition to this measure.

Vote NO on AB 1949.

---------------------------

SB 976

Hello, my name is (INSERT NAME HERE) and I'm one of the Assembly member's constituents from (INSERT CITY HERE). I'm calling to urge the Assembly member to vote NO on SB 976, the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act. Although this bill has intent to protect the mental and emotional health of California's youth, the method this bill would intend to use could be counterproductive to that goal, or even endanger them further.

One of this bill's primary measures includes requiring verifiable parental consent to allow websites to display “addictive” feeds to minor users. However, the ways “verify” the identity and age of a responsible parent are often invasive and dangerous. Especially since these methods have proven repeatedly to be vulnerable to data breaches that can leak sensitive information to bad actors. Such as this year's largest discovered breach of AU10TIX, which supplies age verification to companies like TikTok, X, Uber, LinkedIn, Paypal, and many others. To determine if this is necessary at all would also require collecting even more data on minors and non-minors alike to determine who would even require these measures to be set in place. Especially when it would have control over someone's access to a website or application based on the time of day, as this bill would require in order to “reasonably determine” the user is not a minor.

The vagueness of this bill's text at all is dangerous as well. The broad-spectrum definition it gives of “addictive internet-based service or application” could cause an unintended censorship effect where minors and adults alike could be blocked from accessing information purely because some part of a website or application uses a “feed” which could arguably fit the bill's definition of “addictive”

With all of this in mind, I urge the Assembly member to vote in opposition of this measure to protect the privacy and safety of California's minors and adults alike.

Vote NO on SB 976.

[sgiandubh]

On Europe Day, it's about all of us

I just love flashmobs - there is something about that feeling of surprised excitement (or lack thereof) that I find endlessly fascinating. And I think people's reactions are not only revealing of the way they control (or not) their own emotions, but perhaps also of their own values and the overall political climate.

I find this Europe Day Catalan flashmob (from a while ago) quite a fitting metaphor for what the EU must urgently remember to become again. Not the remote, arrogant Brussels Technocrats' Club, but a harmonic reality for each and every one of us:

Europe is being able to grab your troller suitcase, pack two T-shirts and have your Friday dinner in Athens, or Barcelona, or Budapest, if you feel like it. Europe is being confident that solidarity will see you through a flood in your backyard, or a pandemy, or worse - that would be a serious security threat, like a war on your doorstep. Europe is about having the opportunity to study abroad, whoever you are and wherever you live. Europe is about taking that better job you found on LinkedIn, without staying in line at the police station for a work permit. Europe is about your own, perhaps reluctant government being effectively pressured to provide better health care, build better roads and protect your basic rights and interests abroad. In other words: be less tempted to twist or breach the social contract it symbolically signed with you, the very day it was installed in office.

This is about you and me and all of us, who were born in this battered and bruised Old Land. And who still find this puzzling, endearing, annoying, formidable and worrisome. All rolled into one, every single day.

Europe is not just about statistics. It is about a strange creature devised in the Enlightenment's incandescent crucible: the Citizen. Not just a 'subject' and perhaps more than 'the people'. An individual aware of their own worth in the world, but who also knows that it is only together that we can shape our future.

[seafoamreadings]

week of april 20th, 2025

these are written predominantly for the *rising* signs but they are also intuitively "channeled" enough that they should work for any dominant energy you have! (try your sun if you don't know rising, or more advanced readers can try moon, anywhere you have a stellium, etc and see what works best for you!)

aries: this week's new moon in your 2nd house means good vibes for your money, your resources, and the things that you value in life. if you are behaving in ways that are not in alignment with your integrity and your ideals, it's time to adjust those behaviors.

taurus: while overall watery vibes give way to fire, venus, your sign's ruling planet, still is near saturn and the nodes in pisces all week. you are finishing out some major venus-retrograde themes and lessons, either leaving them behind entirely or refreshing your vantage point.

gemini: the more mercury gets back up to his usual speed, the more relaxed you feel. by this time you are more or less back in a normal swing of things. remaining glitches are not so hard to iron out.

cancerians: the moon, the luminary who makes her home in your sign, is emotional throughout the week, and by the weekend settles into a new moon phase to quiet down and stabilize. in a similar fashion, feel your feelings, be kind to your inner child, and take a break on the weekend to withdraw as needed.

leo: use this weekend's new moon to boost your public image, or your career if you're career-oriented. perhaps you're not the career kind. but it would be a joke to pretend you care nothing for your status or reputation in the world. anything from tidying up your linkedin page to just changing your social profile photos to making grand gestures in public are auspicious. maybe a particularly glamorous haircut is even in order.

virgo: venus in prograde motion *is* smoothing out any relationship hiccups you had in her retrograde, but the presence of the north node and of saturn so close to her can have things still rather... weird. don't expect to stick to conventions, you really can't when fate is this braided into your partnerships. but what you want to last can now be built to last, or reinforced to withstand as much time as you like - or longer.

libra: your benefic lovely ruling planet is still having a profound effect on your health and wellness - physical, mental, and in every way. don't forget that you can never be quite fulfilled until all your routines are sacred rituals. this is also a great week for shadow work and magic - especially after friday.

scorpio: you handle the fiery vibes much better than many water signs and on top of that you are more at home with a sun-pluto aspect than practically anyone. the sun-pluto square this week is tense and *in*tense especially in your relationships and home life but that sort of growth catalyst is where you thrive, like an extremophile.

sagittarius: there's very little going on that affects you strongly at this time so you can mostly lean into having a good time - the other fire signs are activated so you can travel, have fun, get deeply philosophical, run away and join a convent, whatever floats your boat :)

capricorn: an endlessly benefic pisces venus conjoins with your ruling planet saturn this week. in fact she hasn't strayed far from the old god of time in a while due to her retrograde, she is just perfecting the aspect again this week. this helps make your work feel pleasant and also is great for your cheekbones, clavicles, and anti-aging endeavors.

aquarius: pluto is squaring the newly taurean sun this week from your sign. there may be disruptions to your home life, your family, or perhaps upheaval regarding your ancestors. this is like an ego wound, where some family secret comes to life bringing someone shame for example. meanwhile, protect your physical heart too.

pisces: venus in your sign wraps up her last few aspects before heading back for aries after a pretty long retrograde cycle involving your sign. this week she is in dalliance with the nodes and saturn for big fun karmic, timeless, wyrd energy.

watch the transit posts in real time to have the best guide through your week. want a little more? have a look at my patreon or ko-fi.

check out my etsy for a private reading or fill out this form to set up a reading through venmo, cashapp, or paypal.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Elsie Carson-Holt at LGBTQ:

Jack Daniel’s has joined a growing number of brands that have cut their commitments to diversity, after conservative influencer Robby Starbuck threatened to make the company his next target. Last week, it was Harley Davidson, and before them it was Tractor Supply Co. and John Deere. Starbuck’s method of rallying his online followers to deluge companies social media with complaints about their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and donations to social justice organizations has proven effective.

Jack Daniel’s, the whiskey company, is the latest. On August 21, Starbuck posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) “Big news: The next company we were set to expose was Jack Daniels,” but that the company had ended several initiatives and partnerships.

Starbuck said, “They must have been tipped off by us going through employee LinkedIn pages” and that the company had “just preemptively announced” changes to DEI programs. Starbuck had obtained an email from Brown Forman (Jack Daniel’s parent company) saying that “the world has evolved” since launching a DEI campaign in 2019. The company said that since January, it had been evolving the current program to a “strategic framework,” which includes ending its partnership with the Human Rights Campaign and its Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which tracks how large employers treat their LGBTQ+ employees through various policies.

Jack Daniel’s is the latest company to shamefully cave into right-wing faux outrage artist Robby Starbuck’s bad-faith campaign against DEI and LGBTQ+ initiatives in workplaces by ending their participation in Human Rights Campaign’s CEI program and diversity initiatives.

[toskarin]

hey rin, a friend of mine enjoys composing music digitally and has a lot of respect for you as someone with more experience with that sort of thing. he has a hard time convincing the people around him to listen to the things he makes, in both the "finding an audience" way and "getting the people around him to give him their opinion on something he's working on way," and he wanted me to ask you if you could speak on your own experiences with those problems and how you've dealt with them. less related, he was also curious about your inspirations for the music that you make. i know this is a lot to cover, so if it would be easier for you to speak with him directly then please let me know

so I'll open by saying that, as far as people who can give good advice on this go, I'm probably not one of those. a lot of what I do only works because of some specific problems with my brain that are oddly adaptive to this sort of thing

that being said, this is a bit of the "tough love" kind of advice for surviving as an artist, so I'll make a second reblog for the second half of the question

this is either advice that will work or a ramble that will lead your friend to making his life unbearable, so look before you leap

-

The Easy Section, or "You've Gotta Be a Bit of a Tradie"

let's go over the business stuff quickly before I start rambling at length about the boring stuff

learn to love the work itself. "find a job you enjoy and you'll never work a day in your life" is garbage, but creative work really is the one area where you should double down on this. kick back and bump your own album on release day, thinking about how every second of it is something that didn't exist before you put it together. this is what's gonna keep you above water when the wind is dead

get on bandcamp. there is nowhere better for small musicians right now. bandcamp is basically the last remaining website with an effective suggestion algorithm that caters to people who want to actively engage with music and buy it

consider getting on instagram. in the majority of places you're likely to live if you're reading this, the local music scene is on instagram. probably don't use your personal instagram for this

consider getting on soundcloud. you won't make sales through soundcloud, because it's a streaming-focused site (more on that in a moment) with a focus on passive listening, but it's pretty decent for networking, especially with digital music production. soundcloud is linkedin for deadbeats

stay off spotify. streaming generally isn't worth the trouble these days unless you're playing concerts or are otherwise already established. if you aren't uttering the words "you can find me on..." more than once a month, it's probably not worth pursuing a spotify presence to end that sentence with

self-promote. if you have platforms, use them. find the subreddit for your genre and post yourself on the self-promo day. consider posting some bandcamp album codes when you do this, not just so you can get word of mouth, but because someone having an album in their collection means you effectively have a permanent zero-cost advertisement for your music which will only show itself to people who are verifiably looking at something similar. companies pay dizzying sums for ads that couldn't dream of being this targetted. this is a big reason why bandcamp is THE place to be for small musicians

cross-promote and collab. work with your friends. if you don't have musician friends, go make some and then help each other out. "independent" music is a misnomer

blind yourself to the metrics. do not look at engagement metrics. pay them no mind at all. don't look at them unless you're trying to see how effective a specific, deliberate course of action was and already know what you want to find

remember that strangers are unknowable. people do things for arbitrary reasons. if you don't have someone giving you written feedback, don't make any assumptions at all about why they did something. skipped tracks and minimum-price pwyws mean nothing at all

present your stuff in a way that gives it context. why should someone care about your stuff? give them a reason. carve out an hour to really work on a nice album cover, go the extra mile and include track-by-track narrative with your dungeon synth album, or just describe what you're expecting people to buy. I firmly believe that NOMAD/VIRTUE was successful in large part because of its presentation

gimmick. gimmick gimmick gimmick. discount codes are more fun than automatic discounts, free album codes are more fun than free albums, contests are more fun than giveaways, so on so forth. lacking any physical goodies to bundle in, you should still endeavour to give people Something To Do that makes them feel like they're really engaging with your music

zero expectations, zero overhead. do not rely on the whims of complete strangers to justify whether or not you end up in the red. if you ever find yourself saying something like "I can afford to pay for a session musician because I'll just make it back" you can't afford to pay for a session musician. you're probably never getting bailed out if you eat a loss, so try not to put yourself in a situation where you can eat a loss to begin with

someone else's expectations, someone else's overhead. if someone else is paying you to make this music for a soundtrack or something, if (and ONLY if) you have the money in your hand and know you have it, you're no longer gambling. at this point, you can start to look at expenses as investment

now onto the less fun stuff. here's where I ramble for like an hour at you.

-

if there's one thing I've really had hammered in over my decade-odd as a somewhat commercial artist (in all the disciplines I've worked with, which is most of them), it's that you have to be a bit of a bitch about it sometimes

that nagging fear in the back of your head that you're annoying? it's stopping you from doing what you need to do: annoy people

with that being said, this next section is kind of...

The Rough Section, or "You've Gotta Be a Little Hard-headed"

at the end of the day, you'll often find that you are your only advocate, and that means you kinda have to get your foot slammed in a few doors if that means holding them open. this also unfortunately means that you've gotta convince yourself you're pretty good. you don't have to think you're great, but confidence is a trade skill

the last opinion people see before the first time consciously engaging with your work (which here means "the thing that primes them for how they feel about it") is yours

which brings us to the first uncomfy rule

absolutely no cutting yourself down before anyone else even gets a swing

you can be modest if you want (you don't have to), but you absolutely cannot prime people to see the flaws in your work. if 50% of people are discerning enough to notice a flaw, why make that number 100%? what do you gain from that?

if something isn't as finished as you'd have liked it to be, but you've pushed it out the door anyway (which you will sometimes have to do), you absolutely cannot prime people to consider it unfinished

if the thing is still being worked on, there's nothing wrong with being forthcoming about that, but the fastest way to make someone think of something as "inferior product" when they otherwise would never have reached that conclusion is by telling them it is

and that, of course, leads us into a bit of an inversion of the previous rule

absolutely do not take the majority of your validation from strangers

doing this is bad for a million reasons, but I see the worst of this in visual arts, where artists double down on what gets them the most engagements and lay themselves at the mercy of complete strangers who have no actual investment in them

of course, it's normal to desire validation and approval from people you respect, but if you put yourself in a position where it's possible to enter a negative feedback loop that crystallises into you no longer making art from the default response of neutral apathy from strangers, it's not a matter of when: it's going to happen to you one day

so what's the move here? spend 8 years making music you don't release like you're in a compressed time chamber? probably not. I did it that way, but I didn't get much out of it, so you probably won't either

the actual answer is that you've gotta network. you need an inner circle. you need people with shared interests so that you can gas each other's stuff up

just like everyone else, you need your friends

you need to have friends who care about you, about what you're doing, and you need to care about them and what they're doing

this is because, while self-confidence is important...

the majority of your external validation as an artist should come from your friends and peers, not strangers

it's important to have artist friends, because then you can encourage each other in ways that are personally meaningful, but having your friends behind you, whether or not they're musicians, is so incredibly important

if you're motivated exclusively by success, however you're choosing to measure that, what you're actually doing is forming a nightmarish parasocial relationship with the concept of a crowd. not even a real crowd! a fictional group that materialises when you've created "the conditions for success"

there is no such thing as a truly independent artist. if your understanding of artistic success requires competition against others, you're going to lose that competition and then explode (unfortunately common)

finding your audience as an artist (and mind you, art is a social field) is very much a process of networking, but it feels gross to say it that way, so I'll just leave that at "if you want to be known by others, you need to be willing to know others"

anyway, this doesn't really terminate in a complete sentiment. I was just transcribing a train of though

if I were to boil this down to a shorter, snappier answer that I could read comfortably read out, it'd be...

TL;DR

the process of finding an audience is so much less about actually finding one than it is about learning to create happily whether or not you have an audience. developing an audience is the largely incidental byproduct of long-term creative efforts coupled with self-advocacy and interpersonal networking

if you want to be found by a scene, you have to participate in a scene, and if you want to participate in a scene, you need to be in the scene. so on so forth

as stupid as it might sound when I put it into words, the truth is that you can't build any kind of audience in isolation. someone has to find you somehow, and it's a lot easier to be found if you're actually somewhere that people might look

[mariacallous]

Employees at the Social Security Administration (SSA) were informed on Thursday morning that new rules forbid them from accessing “general news” websites, including those that have been at the forefront of the reporting on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort.

In an email reviewed by WIRED and addressed to “all SSA employees” from a mailing list called “internal communications,” the agency informed employees that it was “implementing additional restrictions to the categories of websites prohibited from government-furnished equipment. Effective today, March 6, 2025, the categories include: Online shopping; General News; and Sports.” The headline read “Internet Browsing from Government Equipment.”

The email did not specify which websites in particular were to be blocked. However, WIRED has confirmed with two sources inside the SSA that Wired.com is no longer accessible today, though it was accessible previously.

The sources also confirmed that the websites of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and MSNBC were inaccessible. However, the sources were able to access other news websites including Politico and Axios.

“Local news blocked,” says one source at SSA, who was granted anonymity over fears of retribution. “So if there was a local shooting or something, I wouldn’t be able to see.”

It’s unclear who has implemented the block list or what criteria were used to populate it, but it appears not to be based on ideological grounds, as Fox News and Breitbart are also blocked.

On Friday, weeks after DOGE engineers were installed at SSA, the agency announced plans to cut 7,000 employees. Many of the agency’s most senior staff have resigned. This includes former SSA commissioner Michelle King, who has decades of experience within the agency. She was replaced by acting commissioner Leland Dudek, a mid-level staffer who claimed in a LinkedIn post, reviewed by WIRED, that he had been punished by King for helping DOGE engineers when they first arrived. Musk and Donald Trump have also continued to push the conspiracy theory that millions of dead people are continuing to collect social security benefits, despite the fact those claims have been debunked.

In the hours after the initial email was sent about blocking news sites, some employees received another email from their managers providing instructions on how to disable news showing up on the Edge landing page. This was not a requirement but a recommendation to help employees resist the temptation to click on news links, a source who had received the email told WIRED.

Those trying to visit Wired.com were greeted with a page replicating much of what was in the initial email. It also listed a “URL Reputiation” score, though it was unclear where that score was being sourced from, or if it has a bearing on site access. Different blocked news websites were given different scores, according to screenshots viewed by WIRED.

SSA employees typically use computers with Microsoft’s Edge installed as the internet browser. The default landing page on that browser is set to show news headlines, according to several sources at SSA.

“Employees with a legitimate business [sic] should submit an exception SAM request for their supervisor's review,” the email continued. “These additional restrictions will help reduce risk and better protect the sensitive information entrusted to us in our many systems.”

On Reddit, multiple members of the FedNews subreddit who said they worked at the SSA claimed that accessing news in a timely manner was an essential part of their job. Others pointed out that being able to make purchases online was a core component of their work.

After this article was published, an SSA spokesperson told WIRED that it implemented the restrictions because “employees should be focused on mission-critical work and serving the American people.”

It did not respond to requests for comment on why some news websites were blocked and others were not.

Employees at several other US government agencies contacted by WIRED said similar blocks on news pages had not been implemented on their networks.

[aloneandforsakenbyfateandbyman]

Why is corporate culture so cult-like?? I always feel guilty to quit. Like a Jim Jones or Charles Manson suicide cult victim escaping the compound.

I think about making a LinkedIn, doing a course, going back to uni, coping that somehow there’s a job out there that isn’t soul sucking etc. Convincing myself to stay in my current job to “build my resume.” Awaiting that proverbial pat on the back, a good performance review, a raise, a positive reference, all those asinine wagecuck benchmarks. While still being permanently broke.

When I work, I’m different than the relaxed hippie I am while unemployed. Now, I’m once again addicted to grandiose purchases and shallow consumerism.

I fantasize about saving up for a rhinoplasty, botox, an electric car, lip injections, designer bags, jewelry, apple products, and so on. I end up spending $10 on bubble tea, then go home and sleep for 20 hrs after watching softcore p*rn movies from the 70s while living in my parents’ house at nearly 30.

Working ourselves to death to buy bimbo products, funding exotic escapist trips bc we’re unable to pay rent in any western metropolis, and unable to move to a bumpkin hick city bc there’s no jobs there and it’s too lame. Boomers judge us, but what option do we really have?

When I work, I feel like a programmed Heaven’s Gate cult member! I’m performing capitalism through my bodily movements. I’m part of the system until I quit once again and stop paying taxes. I guess it’s just the effects of the 5G and fluoride which are preventing us from releasing our inner Kaczynski!

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Trump has nominated a longtime oil and gas industry representative to oversee an agency that manages a quarter-billion acres of public land concentrated in western states.

Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Colorado-based oil industry trade group Western Energy Alliance, was named Bureau of Land Management director, a position with wide influence over lands used for energy production, grazing, recreation and other purposes. An MIT graduate, Sgamma has been a leading voice for the fossil fuel industry, calling for fewer drilling restrictions on public lands that produce about 10% of US oil and gas.

If confirmed by the Senate, she would be a key architect of Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” agenda alongside the interior secretary Doug Burgum, who leads the newly formed National Energy Council that Trump says will establish US “energy dominance” around the world. Trump has vowed to boost US oil and gas drilling and move away from Joe Biden’s focus on the climate crisis.

The former interior secretary David Bernhardt relocated the land bureau’s headquarters to Colorado during Trump’s first term, leading to a spike in employee resignations. The bureau went four years under Trump without a confirmed director.

The headquarters for the 10,000-person agency was moved back to Washington DC under Biden, who installed the Montana conservationist Tracy Stone-Manning at the bureau to lead his administration’s efforts to curb oil and gas production in the name of fighting the climate crisis.

Sgamma will be charged with reversing those policies, by putting into effect a series of orders issued last week by Burgum as part of Trump’s plan to sharply expand fossil fuel production.

Sgamma said on social media she was honored to be nominated.

She said she greatly respects the agency’s work to balance multiple uses for public lands – including energy, recreation, grazing and mining — with stewardship of the land. “I look forward to leading an agency that is key to the agenda of unleashing American energy while protecting the environment,” she wrote on LinkedIn.

But environmentalists warned that Sgamma would elevate corporate interests over protections for public land. “Kathleen Sgamma would be an unmitigated disaster for our public lands,” said Taylor McKinnon at the Center for Biological Diversity, adding that Sgamma has “breathtaking disdain for environmental laws, endangered species, recreation, or anything other than industry profit”.

Trump nominated Brian Nesvik to lead the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which also is under the interior department and helps recover imperiled species and protect their habitat.

Nesvik until last year led the Wyoming game and fish department, where he pushed to remove federal protections for grizzly bears. That would open the door to public hunting for the first time in decades after the animals bounced back from near-extinction last century in the northern US Rocky Mountains.

The Biden administration in its last days extended protections for more than 2,000 grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, a move that was blasted by Republican officials in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

[the-most-humble-blog]

<meta subspecies="homo interruptus"> <script>ARCHIVE_TAG="WELL_ACTUALLY_PROTOCOL::SOCIAL_PARASITE_DETECTION_001" EFFECT: eye-roll release, buzzkill neutralization, psychological immunity granted </script>

🧠 WELL, ACTUALLY — THE MOST UNBEARABLE HUMAN SUBSPECIES EVER DOCUMENTED

---

Let’s talk about a certain kind of Homo sapien. Not the worst. Not the best. Just the most tragically self-absorbed.

I’m talking about the Well, Actually creature.

The corrector. The party derailer. The unsolicited citation sprinkler who shows up in joy like a raccoon in your open lunchbox.

You know them.

They don’t comment. They intervene.

They don’t enhance. They invade.

You’ll be vibing — joking, storytelling, spiraling through joy — and they appear like a pop-up blocker in a dream sequence:

> “Well, actually…”

And just like that, the spell is broken. The party air deflates. Your thread now smells like expired Wikipedia breath.

Let’s be clear:

They’re not always wrong.

But that’s the horror.

60% of what they “correct” is more incorrect than the original comment.

But facts aren’t the point. They never were.

The Well, Actually subspecies doesn’t serve accuracy. It serves itself.

It doesn’t aim to elevate — it aims to interrupt.

To wedge itself into attention like a toddler who just learned what a firetruck is.

They don’t listen. They scan. For openings. For joy. For weakness.

They don’t wait for a question. They declare.

> “Actually, it’s pronounced—” > “Technically, that’s not entirely—” > “Did you know that in the original version—”

Brother, shut up.

We are literally talking about chicken nuggets and heartbreak and you brought a peer-reviewed dissertation to a healing circle.

Their defining trait?

> Total lack of vibe calibration.

They cannot read the room. They cannot feel the flow.

They believe the purpose of speech is to prove that they exist.

And that, my friends, is why they must be stopped.

Do not argue with them. Do not “clarify.”

Do not attempt to out-fact the factory.

Because the Well, Actually variant doesn’t care about truth.

It cares about being the one who got to say it.

Even if it’s wrong. Even if it kills the moment. Especially if someone attractive was laughing before they spoke.

In ancient myth, they were the scribes who interrupted war councils to point out grammar errors in the death chants.

In the digital age, they are the reply guy who responds to a poem about grief with, > “Technically, mourning isn’t a form of emotional labor.”

Let that sink in.

Then let it drown.

They are buzzkill made flesh.

They are the audible equivalent of asking the host where the recycling bin is during a toast.

They are anti-lore.

Every moment of enchantment you’ve ever had? There was a Well, Actually lurching in the shadows, waiting to footnote it until it stopped breathing.

Let them correct silence. Let them annotate themselves. Let them publish their LinkedIn corrections to a void that never asked.

You?

Keep telling your stories. Keep spinning your chaos. Keep mispronouncing names that no one in the room knew anyway.

The world doesn’t need more accuracy. It needs more rhythm. More resonance. More fearless joy.

Let the Well, Actually fade into their own echo chamber where their corrections chase them in circles like ouroboros spelling bees.

And the rest of us?

We vibe.

Uninterrupted.

🔁 Reblog if you’ve ever watched a conversation flatline from a correction no one asked for. 💬 Comment if you’ve had to spiritually CPR a group chat after someone said “technically…” 📎 Save this post to slap the next fact-sprinkler mid-buzzkill.

🛑 Don’t explain. Don’t correct. Don’t derail. Just shut up and let people have their f*cking moment.

</div> <!-- END TRANSMISSION [AUTO-MUTE IN: 00:07:07] -->

[anghraine]

I hadn't even thought about LinkedIn for years, but uhhh I just got this email:

I've copied the text below this cut if you can't/don't want to read a screenshot:

Hi Elizabeth,

You’re receiving this email because we’re making updates to LinkedIn’s User Agreement and have provided you more information in our Privacy Policy.

While we encourage you to read both, here’s a quick look at what you should know:

Updates to the User Agreement, which are effective on November 20, 2024, include more details on content recommendation and content moderation practices, new provisions relating to the generative AI features we offer, and license updates designed to help creators expand their brand beyond LinkedIn.

As our product evolves to leverage generative AI, we have given you more information in our Privacy Policy by adding language on how we use the information you share with us to develop the products and services of LinkedIn and its affiliates, including by training AI models used for content generation (“generative AI”) and through security and safety measures.

At this time, we are not enabling training for generative AI on member data from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. For those outside these regions, we’ve proactively made available an opt-out setting for any members who choose not to make this information available for this purpose.

For more information, please visit our frequently asked questions, or our post on LinkedIn. By continuing to use LinkedIn, you are agreeing with these terms.

We remain committed to being transparent about our practices and keeping you in control of the information you entrust with us.