Hello Reader,

AI has made expertise increasingly commoditized.

For the last century or so, people were advised to learn one thing, be good at what you do, earn your craft through hard work, and you'll be fine.

That playbook is breaking down.

In the past few years, many traditional jobs are disappearing. More and more translators, front-end developers, designers... are no longer needed.

I wouldn't be surprised if data analysts, data scientists, and other jobs that used to be the "sexy jobs" of the decade, will be redundant or drastically changed.

If you were to survive this, you need to stand out.

Not only through your expertise.

But through having a personal brand.

This consists of all your public writing, projects, blogging, vlogging, or posting on platforms such as LinkedIn and Medium.

Why personal brand matters

The truth is: Your personal brand might well be the only career asset you actually own.

Not your job title. Not your employer's brand.

The underlying idea is simple: build yourself wider than your current role, so you're not entirely dependent on any one company or industry shift.

Okay, not everyone needs to have a personal brand, because it's a lot of work. And it's okay if you don't bother.

But there are many reasons why this would bring many benefits for your future self:

1. You stand out by just... showing up: Most of your colleagues and people you know don't write or speak or participate in public tech discourse. But you do. You must be an expert, right? 😉 When you are the 1% who create, among the 99% of people who only consume content, you automatically stand out.
2. Amazing things happen when you create stuff: When people learn something from what you publish, they remember you. They might even offer you opportunities like job offers, collaborations, speaking gigs.
3. You learn faster: Learning in public/ show your work is the FASTEST way to learn. There's a great blog post diving into this by Swyx, I'd strongly encourage you to read it.
4. You demonstrate communication skills. The ability to explain ideas clearly is an art. It's rarer than the technical ability itself. Putting your thinking out there proves you have both.
5. You build trust. Given two candidates with identical qualifications, one with a body of public work, one without. Which would you choose? The answer is quite obvious. Also, if you ever want to monetize your expertise by offering a service or product, you have a great foundation thanks to the trust you've built over time.

How to create a personal brand

This deserves a full deep-dive. But let me share what I think actually works.

A lot of people build a "brand" by posting hot takes on LinkedIn. "Coding is DEAD.""AI will replace everything." It gets views and likes. It's fine if you genuinely have something to say.

But in my experience, this strategy rarely builds real credibility.

Another way I think works better, is by asking "Is this really helpful for someone?"

Here are some ideas for creating useful stuff:

• Document what you do and what you figure out. This is my favourite approach. Write about cool concepts or libraries you tried, read, or came across. Most of my YouTube tutorials are just me figuring something out, and then filming it. You don't need to be an expert. You just need to be one step ahead.
• Create learning exhaust. Blogs, tutorials, cheatsheets, visual notes (people love this), conference summaries, meetup talks, YouTube videos, newsletters. You don't need to do all of these, pick one that best fits and just do it.
• Teach someone behind you. There's always someone two steps behind you on something. Teaching them is also the fastest way to find out how well you actually understand it. Be authentic and admit your limits, it only makes you more human and relatable.

For me personally, the biggest thing I gained from building a presence online was perhaps getting over myself, getting out of my comfort zone (I'm a huge introvert!).

That alone was worth it.

A friend of mine, Lan Chu, recently started posting more on LinkedIn. She told me she felt deeply uncomfortable - "who am I to post this stuff".

But here's the thing: she also started getting job offers and speaking opportunities.

The discomfort is a signal you're doing something right.

So just do it 😊.

Here's your challenge: share something you've learned recently. Write a quick blog post, record a short video, or just jot down something you've been thinking about lately. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be real.

Reply to this email and send it my way. I read every response.

Have a great week ahead! 🙌
Thu

P.S: Work with me:

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