/compete

Multi-Platform Bio

Purpose

An engineer needs many bios — GitHub one-line, LinkedIn About, X 160-char, conference 50-word, long 200-word. They must be coherent (same person across platforms) yet calibrated (each platform's length, tone, and reader expectation). This reference defines the canonical bio family and the platform tuning rules.

Scope Boundary

• IN scope: bio length budgets per platform, tone calibration, derivation chain (positioning → variants), social-proof placement, photo guidance, refresh cadence.
• OUT of scope: positioning statement / Topic DNA (brand topic-dna), portfolio site IA (brand portfolio), full LinkedIn or GitHub profile structure (brand profile), CFP authoring (brand content), microcopy / error strings (delegate to prose).

Core Concepts

One Canonical Source

All bios derive from one Master Positioning Statement (the output of brand topic-dna). Without a single source, bios drift over months and visitors meet a different person on each platform.

Master Positioning Statement (one sentence)
   ↓ derive
GitHub one-line  ←  Twitter 160  ←  LinkedIn About 275  ←  Conference 50  ←  Long 200

Update the master, propagate to variants. Never hand-edit a single platform without updating master.

The Bio Family

Length Budgets and Why

Truncated bios with the payoff cut off are the most common bio failure.

Derivation Chain

Start from master, expand or contract:

[15-25 word master]
   ↓ tighten further; drop verbs of being
[60-160 char GitHub one-line]
   ↓ add 1 specific action / interest + emoji optional
[160 char X bio]
   ↓ add geography / role title
[220 char LinkedIn headline]
   ↓ expand: 1 sentence what + 1 sentence why + 1 sentence call
[275 char LinkedIn About first fold]
   ↓ continue: 2 paragraphs of context
[2,600 char LinkedIn About full]
   ↓ shape narratively for speaking voice
[50 word conference]
   ↓ extend with 1-2 anchors (book, talk, project) and humanizing detail
[200 word long bio]

Tone Calibration by Platform

The same person should sound consistent in what they're known for, but appropriate for the platform's social register.

Person Voice (1st vs 3rd)

3rd person on /about is older convention — modern engineer sites use 1st person more. Pick one and stay consistent.

Social Proof Placement

Don't stuff every bio with all proof — looks insecure. Strongest proof front-loaded.

Photo Pairing

Bios live alongside photos. Coherence rules:

• Same photo across platforms (or 2 max — formal + casual).
• Updated within last 2 years.
• Eye contact.
• Clean background.
• Smiling or focused (not both).
• Square crop for avatars; landscape for hero.
• Consistent color treatment (same tonal grade across platforms).
• Accessibility: alt text describes person + context, not "headshot".

Refresh Cadence

Quarterly drive-by reviews catch stale role / recent-talk references.

Common Failure Modes

Standard Anti-Phrases

Cut on sight:

When Personal Detail Helps

A single specific personal detail at the end of a long bio humanizes:

• "She bakes sourdough on weekends."
• "He's slowly learning bouldering and losing badly."
• "When not coding, she's volunteering at a local cat shelter."

Rules:

• 1 detail max in long bio; 0 in short bios.
• Must be specific (not "loves food").
• Must be actually true.
• Should not actively contradict your professional brand.

Workflow

1. Get master positioning from brand topic-dna output.
2. Derive GitHub one-line (60–160 chars).
3. Derive X bio (160 chars + location + 1 link).
4. Derive Bluesky bio (256 chars; warmer).
5. Derive LinkedIn headline (≤220 chars; role + DNA).
6. Derive LinkedIn About first fold (≤275 chars: hook + DNA + call).
7. Expand LinkedIn About to 600–1,500 chars total with narrative.
8. Derive conference bio (50 words, 3rd person + 1 humanizing detail).
9. Derive long bio (200 words, 1st-or-3rd-person; with social proof).
10. Derive press bio (100 words; for journalist quoting).
11. Audit anti-phrases — strip clichés.
12. Verify photo coherence across platforms.
13. Set refresh date (quarterly drive-by).
14. Document master + variants in one canonical artifact.

Output Template

multi_platform_bio:
  master_positioning: "I help fintech teams keep Postgres fast and audit-clean at high scale."
  variants:
    github:
      length_chars: 92
      text: "Postgres performance for fintech. Maintainer of pg-bloat-tool. Tokyo. she/her."
    x:
      length_chars: 158
      text: "Postgres perf for fintech. Maintainer of pg-bloat-tool. Conference speaker (PGCon, RubyKaigi). Tokyo. /sarahchen.dev"
      pinned_link: "sarahchen.dev"
    bluesky:
      length_chars: 240
      text: "Postgres performance specialist for fintech systems. Maintainer of pg-bloat-tool. Speaker at PGCon and RubyKaigi. Writing about query plans, replication, compliance, and what it takes to keep a 12 TB cluster honest. Tokyo."
    linkedin_headline:
      length_chars: 188
      text: "Postgres Performance Engineer for Fintech | Maintainer of pg-bloat-tool | PGCon Speaker | I keep multi-TB OLTP clusters fast and audit-ready"
    linkedin_about_fold:
      length_chars: 268
      text: "I help fintech teams keep Postgres fast and audit-clean at high scale. Currently consulting on a 12 TB OLTP migration. I write monthly at sarahchen.dev about query plans, bloat, and compliance. Reach out: hi@sarahchen.dev — I reply within 48h."
    linkedin_about_full:
      length_chars: 1100
      text: "<full text>"
    conference:
      word_count: 50
      voice: third_person
      text: "Sarah Chen is a Postgres performance engineer focused on fintech systems. She maintains the pg-bloat-tool open-source project and has spoken at PGCon, RubyKaigi, and Postgres London. Sarah lives in Tokyo and is slowly losing to her bouldering wall."
    long:
      word_count: 198
      voice: first_person
      text: "<full text>"
    press:
      word_count: 96
      voice: third_person
      text: "<full text>"
  social_proof_distribution:
    awards: [long, linkedin_about_full]
    talks: [long, conference]
    employer: [linkedin_headline, long]
    newsletter_size: not_yet
  photo:
    primary: avatar_v3.jpg
    used_on: [github, x, bluesky, linkedin]
    age_months: 8
    alt_text: "Sarah, mid-30s, smiling, navy sweater, neutral background"
  anti_phrase_audit: PASS
  refresh:
    last_updated: 2026-04-25
    next_review: 2026-07-25
  handoff:
    portfolio: about_page_long_bio
    github: profile_readme
    linkedin: profile_full_optimization
    conference: cfp_authoring_prep

Anti-Patterns

• Different person across platforms — visitors lose trust.
• Hand-editing one platform without updating master — drift.
• Master positioning that's longer than 25 words — collapses every variant.
• "Passionate about" / "rockstar" / "ninja" — cut.
• Award claim without naming the award — empty.
• LinkedIn headline that's just job title without DNA — wastes search-rank.
• LinkedIn About fold that buries the hook past 275 chars on mobile.
• Conference bio over 50 words — gets cut by event organizer.
• Long bio with 4+ humanizing details — looks like over-compensation.
• Same emoji on every platform — homogeneous; doesn't tune.
• Photo more than 2 years old or different on every platform.
• No link / CTA in space-permitting bios.
• All third-person everywhere — feels distant.
• All first-person everywhere — bad for conference / press.
• Bio that mentions an employer no longer current.
• Bios with no refresh in 18+ months.
• Bio that contradicts your portfolio's hire-readiness signal (e.g., bio says "open to consulting", site says "not available").

Deliverable Contract

A multi-platform bio package is complete when:

• Master positioning is one sentence ≤ 25 words.
• All bio variants derive from master.
• Length budgets respected per platform.
• LinkedIn About first fold ≤ 275 chars.
• Conference bio = 50 words.
• Long bio = 200 words.
• Tone calibrated per platform.
• Voice (1st / 3rd person) consistent within a platform.
• Photo coherent across platforms.
• Anti-phrase audit passes.
• Social proof distributed appropriately.
• Refresh cadence set (quarterly drive-by).

References

• Patrick McKenzie, Salary Negotiation — bio framing for hire-readiness.
• David Heinemeier Hansson — example of consistent multi-platform voice.
• Linus Torvalds — example of curt, on-brand bio.
• Sara Soueidan — example of strong long bio + conference bio coherence.
• LinkedIn 360Brew Topic DNA — About-section length and 80% pillar guidance.
• Jason Fried, It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work — calm-brand voice example.
• Maggie Appleton, Long-form bio reference on personal site.
• Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media — bio length / engagement research.
• Carmine Gallo, Talk Like TED — speaker-bio conference conventions.
• AP Stylebook — third-person bio standards.
• Reuters Handbook of Journalism — bio attribution norms for press.
• IndieWeb wiki — h-card bio microformat.