Over the weekend I tripped over brain and sounded like a goof on Twitter while trying to engage a number of technology experts.

This ended up being a lesson in humility, and a reminder to think before you speak…or tweet in this case.

I wanted to share this simple reminder too those people out there who rush to reply and share an opinion rather than taking a moment to reflect before they speak.

Long Story Short

In my conversation with the creator of Chocolatey, Rob Reynolds, I managed confuse its machine package manager functionality with that of langugage-specific package managers like Nuget and NPM. Silly to most, but kind of embarassing considering I’m the one that brought Chocolatey into it.

At the end of the day, I tried to correct the situation by acknowledging my confusion and replying via Twitter, but it was too late and Simon Timms caught it and mocked me (rightfully so, might I add).

Lesson Learned

There are a few lessons I took from this experience, other than the obvious one that machine package managers are not the same as meant to be platform agnostic, being that they are machine package managers, which will depend on a machine platform.

Think Before You Tweet

Just like the title says.

If you think you know what you’re talking about, that’s great. But take a moment and know what you’re talking about before you hit enter.

In my case, I should have done a quick review of Chocolatey before I mentioned it in the conversation considering I have been living in my own platform agnostic paradise called JavaScript/HTML for the past year or two.

It turns out that technology evolves over time, and quickly for that matter.

Engage with Purpose

Although it might be exciting to have conversations with other experts via social media, it is important to make sure you know that your point is before you start engaging. If you don’t, you could get lost in the conversation and end up sounding like a goof.

In my case, I logged into Twitter to find that Cecil L. Phillip and Tugberk Ugurlu were discussing my post on ASP.NET replacing NodeJS and immediately wanted to engage.

Unfortunately, I got caught up in the excitement of engaging new professionals rather than actually making a point. This resulted in me confusing my words and ultimately getting Chocolatey confused with Nuget/NPM, and Simon Timms winning the day.

The Point

It’s simple: know what you’re talking about before you talk about it.

Being a speaker in the development community, people tend to look at you as an expert. When you speak publicly, know your point before you starting making them, or else risk misinforming people and ultimately losing a bit of credibility in the process.

Thanks for playing. ~ DW