Slop

LinkedIn has become appreciably worse. Or perhaps it’s just my algorithm. You’ve probably noticed it already.

That’s not to say it was good in the first place, but at this point even the human-written content reads like it was written by a machine.

Every second post has some bullshit like “it’s not just X—it’s Y”. Ironically it’s a signal that they lack attention to detail, reflecting poorly on them as an employee—the opposite of what you’re meant to use LinkedIn for. Broken english or typos make you sound authentic, but corny marketing statements make you look lazy. Do they not know that em-dashes have more uses than cliché juxtaposition?

It’s as if the author is on stage at a TED talk with a pseudo-profound insight. When did half my professional network become Simon Sinek¹?

I worry about whether my own content comes across as sanitised. It makes me want to be “more authentic” by simplifying my writing workflow: put some thoughts down, brief proofread, undraft, publish. I thought that by having Claude proofread my articles my writing skills would improve, but I now realise two things.

1. A personal blog is meant to be fun… there shouldn’t be so much pressure, and I shouldn’t try too hard to make things perfect.
2. I want the satisfaction of getting good at things. That means I need to practice. Letting Claude proofread my articles robs me of the skill of proofreading articles.

Allow this article to be the first of many slop-free blog posts. I’m going to adopt a more casual tone of voice. Any future articles that use generative AI will explicitly mention Claude as one of the authors. If it’s riddled with typos then you’ll have to deal with it.

Shitposting over slopposting!