this year I’ve drastically increased the number of podcasts and events I’ve done

and one thing I’ve noticed is that uhh

some events/podcasts say something like

oh no no we try to avoid having devrels on the show/schedule

and some are the opposite like

oh no no we’re mainly interested in having devrels on the show/schedule

and I’m guessing that one of these statements surprises you, depending on who you are. but when pressed on “why”, then both statements are made for essentially the same reason: devrels tend to be talkers

they can “talk the talk” and give a “performance”, and that might be a good or bad thing depending on the kind of vibe or thing you’re trying to create

or at least, that’s people’s incorrect and biased assumptions

the funny part, for me, is that I’ve somehow managed to get asked onto to BOTH kinds of events. and so that leaves me asking the question “am i a devrel or not?”

both the progressive ones and the backwards ones

you see, when i hear people saying one of those two statements i just smile and nod sheepishly.

whatever you need to hear man. maybe I’m a devrel, maybe I’m not. whatever works for you, it doesn’t matter to me

but what’s the truth?

am i a devrel? or am i not?

well on my contract I’m not. I’m a “software engineer”. and in my side gig I’m a “researcher-in-residence”.

but hey, titles don’t mean much. there are all sorts of titles given out that sound fancy or something, and don’t actually mean anything. it could be the same here, my title could be inaccurate (like calling a fish a dead fish)

or even so, even if my title is accurate, i think that “devrel” can be viewed as some sub-category or “software engineer”, so uhhh, yeah it’s a much broader category than people realise. both are.

so my “title” doesn’t really give us any information in either direction

we’ll have to look beyond …

let’s duck-type it.

“if it walks like a devrel and quacks like a devrel then it must be a devrel”

I mean, it’s hard to say exactly what a devrel “walks and quacks like”. it’s such a broad role and field and you can’t pin it down to one uhh

but we can pattern match it the other way round! we can take a single person and ask the question, “do they walk and quack like a devrel?”

when duck typing devrel, P != NP

with that approach, I think it’s fair to say that I do walk and quack like a devrel. I make demos and share them online, and I fly around the world showing what the tldraw library can do.

however, when people call someone a “devrel”, I think that … uhh.. what they usually mean is that devrel is all that person does, and they don’t do any other kind of work. and in my opinion, “devrel” is often said as an insult, as in:

you’re not a real programmer. you don’t do any real programming. you’re just a devrel.

there’s a level of disrespect towards the role.

hmm. when someone has a public-facing role, people wrongly assume that they can see everything that they do. (that’s my theory.) but of course you can only see a tiny fraction of what I do, and you don’t know me at all. you only see the small slice that I choose to make public.

I “seem like a devrel” but does that mean that I “am a devrel”? not necessarily

If we try to duck type devrel work, we get loads of false positives. I think most startup founders and CEOs would trigger the “devrel detector” if we did it: they travel around, speaking to people about how great their thing is. they set the voice and tone of communications with developers. they’re devrels! Ha! Hmm

i don’t think the allegory worked there..

but wait! even if the only thing you do is devrel work, is that really so bad?

I’ve lost count of the number of times someone at a meetup or event or whatever has made a disparaging comment about devrels. it’s seen as “lesser work”, for a range of reasons I think.

one reason is that they’re seen as sales people, who want to sell something. and this is looked down upon. people look upon this practice with skepticism.

they only care about getting sales, about money! they’re not in it for the craft! those filthy devrels

other engineers get to hide away in their hidey hole and “just build stuff”, for the love of the craft, right? they’re so different to devrels, right?

no no i don’t think so

ok, devrels typically blindly serve their monetary overlords sure. they “do their job” to make money and sales or whatever, they “spread the good word” about the product/tool whether they believe in it or not. but this is NO DIFFERENT from nearly all workers engineers in our VC-startup-hellscape. you are doing your job for money, most likely, despite what you might tell yourself. and you serve the same capitalist cause as those devrels. just because you’re further away from the point of sale, it doesn’t mean you’re any “better” than them, morally or otherwise. you’re just more hidden.

there is no need to get all high and mighty about devrels when you serve the exact same purpose as them.

you think devrels are “fake”? you think devrels are “not genuine”? ok, go and insult your own employer on social media. go and tell everyone how bad it is. unless you don’t want to, either because you wouldn’t believe it, or you’d get in trouble. and that’s no different to devrels. you’re no different to a devrel.

we’re all flesh and blood

some of my most satisfying “devrel work” was for no money at all.

when twitter started crumbling, there was a large movement of people towards mastodon, and Elk was built by the Vite gang and the community. and I did some promotion of Elk on social media, and got involved in a bunch of the community conversation. and I didn’t think much of it, but Matias Capeletto thanked me for my “devrel” work a couple of times

I guess it’s possible to do devrel as an open-source contribution, just like it’s possible to do engineering or design or any work as an open-source contribution. They don’t have to be in service of some investor or shareholder or job. The acts themselves are neutral, they can be used for both bad and good.

being the way i am doesn’t make me any better or worse of a person, it’s just the way i am

let’s talk about SEXISM

when I started my current job, people warned me that the proposed role sounded like devrel and that’s often what “people who aren’t men” can get stuck in.

woah woah woah hold up a second

I’ve been coding and making things for a long time now. and people have followed along, and and and

and they’ve tried to make sense of what i do. in comments and at events they ask me “what are you?” and it doesn’t matter at all to me but it does seem to matter, it seems to matter a lot, to them.

and in their questions they reveal something, not something about me, but something about them, and their mental model

what are you? some kind of devrel?

so you’re a researcher?

you’re starting a company, right?

what are you? an artist?

It’s more than not knowing: I don’t care, but you do. You do, yes you do. Oh yes you do. And if you don’t, you haven’t made your voice known. you’ve let the conversation become dominated by people who do care

I don’t think it’s entirely cynical of me to notice a difference in how people have changed how they categorise me as hormones have sunk in more and more.

I’ve been doing the same thing for years and years now, long before I even started posting on youtube. and people tended to think i was some sorta creative coder or researcher or experimental engineer. and nowadays, more and more people tend to think that I’m a devrel, and in my mind, my work hasn’t changed that much, but my name and face has changed A LOT, and I don’t think it’s entirely cynical to suspect that sexism and queerphobia has a role in that

i was “serious” before and now I’m “silly”

or the reverse

“But what do YOU want to be, Lu?” is what people ask me. and my answer is always the same in that i don’t care what you call it, but you do, and i only care what i do. i am trying to do great things, on my own terms and measures, i am trying to be the best in the world(!) and you can call it what you want, because it won’t change anything about me or what i do

of course, this is all a gigantic allegory for being non-binary and/or trans. so now you can re-read the entire blog post again, swapping out every mention of “devrel” for “woman”, and “software engineer” for “non-binary person” and “researcher” for “man” and it’s still all true

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