No one actually likes the question, “What do you do?”.
I’m a student, basketball player, wanna-be dj, and my own financial advisor. I’ve had success as a music manager, software engineer, teacher, diversity and inclusion strategist, panel host, startup advisor and investor.
My polyworking influences
“Body Of Work” by Pamela Slim has a huge impact on my career. Pamela describes the modern career as a collection of brush strokes that make up the painting that represents your entire body of work, rather than a linear resume.
I’ve taken this concept to the extreme; if my career was a painting, it’d look like Kandinsky’s Composition VII. Focusing on one role, project, or deliverable doesn’t make a ton of sense. Take a step back and each decision fits into an ongoing masterpiece.
Finding a place to accurately describe my body of work online has been tough. LinkedIn is great for searching for mutual connections, and formal resume-like bullet points. But it doesn’t feel like the place where I can ask if someone wants to practice Spanish next Tuesday. I owe a lot of my network to Twitter. I feel comfortable posting all of my announcements, asks, and opportunities (thoughts, opinions, and what I had for lunch too). But Twitter is best for keeping up, not keeping track. One must be active on Twitter in order to catch moments of serendipitous connection. I ain’t got time for that.
Solving the connection problem
Polywork solves this problem. It combines the value of LinkedIn with the serendipity of Twitter. The platform is the perfect canvas for describing my body of work to the outside world, and keeping up with everyone else’s paintings. I have the flexibility to highlight progress, projects, asks, and calls to action. Eachhighlightrecords a brush stroke that adds to my personal and professional Kandinsky.
Better yet, Polywork makes it easy to find opportunities to collaborate with others. I can label highlights in a way that allows my network to search my resume for the things that are meaningful to them.
Curious about my writing on Diversity and Inclusion? Searching de&i does the trick. Looking for my thoughts on raising a seed round? Searching venture capitaland voila! My Owning Our Future series will come up. Like something you see? Send me a message, and let’s figure out how to connect. Polywork is a deceptively simple and superior way to network with intention.
I’m very excited about the future of my new favorite social media. More and more, our generation is realizing that work is non-linear.
Polywork doesn’t just embody this evolution, it’s a platform built toexpressit. I’ve never had a great answer to the question “What do you do?”. Describing my body of work to people is a tongue twister. Now I do, “I polywork.”.