I am out of X

I’m completely out of X. I still keep my account there so no one takes the handle or in case someone wants to reach me. We’ve done the same with the Tuist account.

For my personal account, leaving was easier than I expected. Sure, my account held value through the connections and reputation I’d built over the years—but so what? In the end, that value is abstract and can evaporate overnight. The constant pressure to build a reputation and stay active for the sake of “growing a brand” was seriously affecting my mental health. I was barely present in my real life because most of my mental energy was spent figuring out what to post next. These past weeks off X have been the healthiest and most present moments I’ve had in a long time.

Tuist’s account was harder to step away from. Every company in the developer tooling space seems focused on building their reputation and brand by throwing money at the problem—buying badges or paying for visibility in someone else’s feed. Since we’re working to get a business off the ground, the thought that haunted us was: Will we be forgotten? But the more we reflected on it, the clearer it became that there are other, better ways for people to discover us. In fact, those ways align more closely with the values we want our company to represent. A side benefit is that we’re not contributing to a platform that’s causing harm to society. Sure, as a business, making money is important—but we believe moral and social responsibility are equally important and should hold the same weight.

So, we decided to do the same for the Tuist account. We’re now active on Bluesky, Mastodon, and other platforms, as well as our community forum. These alternatives are SEO-friendly and eliminate barriers, making it easier for anyone to find our content and ideas without being manipulated by algorithms. We’ve noticed some players in our space adopt tactics similar to insurance companies, pressing the buttons of fear and other primal emotions. We’ve chosen a different path: putting out good content, being open about the problems we’re solving, and inviting people into the process. We trust that approach—and the people it reaches—to spread our message naturally. We don’t need an X account for that.

Personally, I plan to use this blog more actively too. I’m considering building a small Phoenix publishing tool to create internet “digital gardens”—simple, personal spaces that support syndication and other formats, like photos or save-for-later articles. It would be fun to work on and a great way to share ideas.

The internet is amazing without walls. We’ve decided we won’t contribute to building them or making society worse.