It’s useful to broadcast your interests and passions through blogs, social media, podcasts, etc. It increases your “luck surface” and helps you connect with people and opportunities relevant to your goals. This is how you build a network of go-to people and enhance your ability to get things done. You have a running list of people to work with on various things.
It’s also useful to know what kinds of people you do not want to work with. There are a lot of time wasters and bad fits out there, sometimes parading as good fits worth your time because they use similar language. Building a mental blacklist – “Avoid working with or relying on these people” – can reduce a lot of wasted time and annoyance.
One way to do this is to Tweet a not-very-nuanced take on behaviors or beliefs that you find difficult to work with. The people you don’t want to work with will reveal themselves by jumping in to defend theoretical people in the comments.
For example, perhaps you’ve learned that people who think it’s perfectly ok to be flaky, or are more worried about what they have a right to do than what creates value for others are a pain to work with. Maybe some of these types are lurking in your network and you don’t know it. A Tweet like, “Being 5 minutes late is worse than not showing up at all” will reveal them quickly.
The take is extreme. Anyone with a brain can think of dozens of scenarios where it’s not true. But anyone who shares your distaste for flakiness and defense of less-than-excellence in time management will smile and click like because they get the vibe. They’ve felt it.
Those who do not have the same level of respect for other people’s time won’t be able to resist adding nuance or pointing out how this kind of attitude might be unfair or limiting. This doesn’t make them bad people, but it reveals to you who you don’t want to have to rely on in high stress professional situations.
People reveal themselves when given the chance.