Life Is Not a Dress Rehearsal: Why I Pounded My Own Keyboard (With a Sore Hand)

Authentic thought, AI "word salads," a sage intern, and breaking a hard winter in Croatia.

The Pause, The Quote, and The Truth

This was stuck in my head on repeat. It is my mentor Steven J. Manning’s core mantra, and it’s why I stopped posting. On 27th February, I stopped posting because I felt that I just did not have anything honest to say.

I paused my Substack and LinkedIn for good reason. Productivity had become a challenge, life was a challenge. Despite a number of consulting firms being interested in MONDAY INFLUENCER® and a publisher wanting me to write a book, I had to pause posting. I had to be honest with myself and my network and—despite not being a coder—I had to focus on building a new platform to maximize subscriber value.

It took me 30 minutes to decide what on earth to post today. Yes, I discussed it with Gemini and Claude after explaining the situation with my LinkedIn and Substack. But I actually typed it myself.

Sage Advice From My Intern

Fortunately, my intern suggested a pause on LinkedIn (she is very good at that).

She wanted me to post one short video per day on Instagram and TikTok. No excuses. This was the most important thing for me to do. I decided to follow her sage advice, despite the fact that she was almost 30 years my junior. Why? Because sometimes, those least immersed in the established pattern have the clearest view of the exit.

Killing the LinkedIn Experience

We need to talk about the “Word Salads.” This is a phrase my mentor Steven coined and uses, and it is a defining characteristic of our current echo chamber.

With these language models, AI-generated content machines, and fake influencers—word salads are spewed up like bile from everyone with no thought, no planning, no time, and no effort. These slapdash, generic prompts are, frankly, just killing the LinkedIn experience for many. We have become an echo chamber, like the music production companies using AI to replicate more of those same styles. There is no originality, no thought, and, frankly, no substance.

Every playbook being passed around was to create a prompt to write the content. While that can be true for some people, it just did not feel authentic or right for me.

Breaking the Winter Grind

This is my first newsletter post since February. It was a hard winter for me here in Croatia. I felt direction needed focus, and many things were not working in life, so I decided to knuckle down.

I wrote this post with my own fingers, typed on my actual keyboard, despite a sore hand from MMA training. Yep, I do that, at the ripe age of 49, and I’ve found it therapeutic. More about that in the coming weeks, and my Jiu-Jitsu journey to purple belt, which just began again.

No speech-to-text, no AI-generated paragraphs—just me.

Signal Over Noise

When I want signal instead of noise, I read Finger on the Pulse. I want to learn to write better and to think deeper about the current situation in the world. Since Steven J. Manning has written content for over 50 years, I, of course, make sure to listen to him and read his work. His writing is not a word salad. It is a lesson in observations stripped of sentiment.

I choose signal. This is my return to that lane.

Join the conversation: Do tell me what you think about the current state of content on LinkedIn and Substack—and the world you see. Because the world you see is, of course, totally different to mine.