Enough about me

We’ve all been trapped in a conversation with that person.

You know the type. They dominate dinner parties with stories about themselves, then throw in a token “But what about you?” before immediately steering it back to their own drama.

There’s a scene in an old Bette Midler movie Beaches that captures this perfectly. Her character goes on and on about her latest show, her reviews, and her career moves—basically a one-woman monologue about how amazing she is.

BTW, how old is this reference? Old enough that you can buy this antique on Etsy (and probably have nowhere to play it):

Anyway, Bette Midler’s character catches herself mid-sentence and delivers this perfect one-liner:

“But enough about me, let’s talk about you… What do you think of me?”

The joke lands because we’ve all met that person. The one who pretends to care about your opinion but really just wants more validation.

It’s funny in a movie. Less funny when your blog posts do the same thing.

A few specific types of technical content frequently fall into this trap:

• Recap of an event the company attended
• Product changes and updates
• Interviews with a community or team member

You may defend these pieces as a way to engage your existing audience.

But the reality is… every dev wants you to frame your content around what they most care about, which is not your product or company (sorry!).

The most successful technical content flips this script with a ​simple three-step framework​:

1. Begin with the developer’s context: What’s their world like right now?
2. Explore the technical challenge: What specific problem are they wrestling with?
3. Demonstrate solutions: Show them how to solve it (without pushing your product first)

Only after you’ve proven you understand their world can you naturally mention how your product fits in.

Your event recap becomes an analysis of industry trends you spotted. Your changelog is actually a story about solving a common developer pain point. Your interview highlights the insights about the problem space, not just praise for your product.

Less navel-gazing and more finding the story that matters—to your existing AND future technical audience.

You’ll be the wind beneath developer wings. 😉

For Twilio being caught navel-gazing and some actions to fix these content types, read ​Please Don’t Write Another Event Recap​.

I’d ask you to tell me what you think, but enough about me.