We are all inundated with information coming at us. Threads. Emails. Teams. Notifications. Critical overload.
We are also getting a lot smarter. Understanding that our time is a commodity that we don’t give away like we used to. I’m purposefully load-shedding. I filter my personal emails and periodically look & dump all that builds up. I don’t sit in Outlook all day – Open it it a few times a day, check & respond to messages, then close it.
And in terms of the socials, I’ll admit that YouTube is my downfall. But, I try to keep my awareness with it. I try to use it as an educator, not an entertainer. Purposeful, responsible use of what’s there.
And now, as much as I hate to admit it, I have to: I don’t like LinkedIn like I used to.
I’m really sorry to say that because it’s one of the few platforms that I’ve promoted and endorsed over the years.
LinkedIn has always been a hub for me. A virtual business card where I can easily point industry people towards if & when they need to find me. It’s well-known. It’s easy to connect & interact. LinkedIn used to feed me with goings-on from people I know who are talking about subjects that interest me.
That’s why I’ve always liked it. But lately, I’ve noticed the shift.
LinkedIn has now pushed beyond where they were when I initially signed up in the early 2000’s. It’s morphing. I’m getting too many ads. I’m seeing people posting TickTock-like videos of nonsense that I’m not interested in. My feed is getting cluttered. It forces doom scrolling, looking for my friends’ and connections’ posts that used to just be front & center.
And I get SO MANY DM’s from people (or bots…) about non-engineering, non-construction stuff.
It’s turning into, like, the Money Mailer that we get in the house mailbox with coupons & adds for HVAC, roofing, siding, windows, car washes & oil changes.
To get to seeing the people I want to see, their posts & what they’ve got going on, LinkedIn is now forcing me to doom scroll. I don’t get forced to do anything that I don’t want to do without pushing back.
So I’m pushing back.
I’m planning on reducing my LinkedIn footprint. I’ll still be there. I’ll still be posting occasionally. But until the platform scales back on feeding me virtual junk mail, I’m not interested in wasting my precious time anymore
And listen, I’m not upset. I don’t pay for LinkedIn. They are a for-profit company that does what it wants with it’s people, capital and operating strategy. They don’t receive anything from me other than my time & eyeballs. I get it.
But, I don’t have to sit idle and not do anything about it.
Where does that leave me? How do I stay in touch with the people who are into the job like I am? How do I share insight, but not have my network scroll past it, or have it bypassed from their feeds without any means of prodding it to my peeps? Sure, I have a website and a podcast, but those are outward-facing efforts. Rarely is there feedback, or contact, or engagement with the readers/listeners/users of it.
So, I’m doing something about it.
Discord
Now, I’m a Neanderthal when it comes to new tech. I used to be able to keep up. Palm Pilots. TDS data collectors. But now in 2025, I’m lost. Things move so fast and my base knowledge quickly falling behind, I simply don’t have the inclination, given the pace at which new things come to market in 2025, to try to keep up on 100% of everything new.
I came to know Discord from Corley Moore at Firehouse Vigilance. Corley, on his podcast The Weekly Scrap, promotes a Patreon-based user group where he uses Discord to stay connected.
What’s Discord, you ask? Basically, it’s a chat room. Microsoft Teams for public, free use. My understanding is that Discord was created for gamers & streamers to be able to text/communicate outside of the gaming environment while playing. I’m not a gamer, but I can understand how & why it works.
What Corley did was created a Discord “Server” (as it is called…) for firefighters. I’m not a member of Corley’s group, but I understand what he did. Within the Server, he created different “Channels” for different topics, like firefighter training, information on upcoming conferences, a general chat channel for firefighters, etc.
Giving Corley complete credit for planting the seed with me, I’m doing the same for construction engineers.
The Tailgate on Discord
I’ve built a Discord channel (which is completely free to users) with several construction engineering-related channels. Here’s what it looks like:
My intention is for it to be a place where construction engineers can gather.
- Engage with other construction engineers
- Read posts from like-minded hard chargers who are into the job.
- Share posts, links, pdf references, manuals, checklists.
- Ask questions. Get help finding a solution to something you’re challenged with. If I can’t answer it, as the group grows, someone will
- Share What You Know.
- Share Your Experience.
If something has helped you, it’s likely to be able to help to someone else. If you have experience with something, you will likely be able to help someone else.
We need a place to be able to share what we do. There are “win-win’s” written all over this.
I’ve said on numerous Construction Engineering Show Podcast episodes that feedback loops in podcasts are tough to build. Nobody wants to take 15 seconds to post a comment or answer a survey question that I post on Spotify. And I get it: People are distracted & over-stimulated. Most would rather scroll to whatever the next thing is without taking time to engage in what they’ve just read or heard.
Most people. But not all people. People like you who’ve read this deep into this article.
So, the ball is in your court. If you want to join us, build a brother/sisterhood of construction engineers, I’ve built us a clubhouse. Bring whatever you’d like to the housewarming party and let’s see where this goes.
Hit the link and check it out. It’s free. You can bail-out at any time. I don’t make a dime from you using it. But I think this could be really cool for us. I hope to see you there.
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