# Value Gates Cadence Consistency only compounds into authority when every drop teaches something. Rizel Scarlett's frame inverts the usual "post more often" advice: "consistency without value is just noise — publishing every week does not automatically make my work useful." Cadence is downstream of value, not a substitute for it. The currency that makes the value real, for a developer audience, is technical depth: "why would a developer trust me if I don't know what's going on?" — advocacy is not influencer work, and the audience can tell. So the move isn't to publish more; it's to earn the right to be anticipated, at whatever frequency you can sustain quality. Cadence can even be slow (monthly) if the audience learns to expect fire: "you're about to drop some fire… they will be there." Two supports: recognition is built through repetition, so a dip in engagement after switching companies is expected and temporary (SME status accrues by association over time), and owning your platform — a podcast or livestream rather than only guesting — compounds both audience trust and your own learning from guests. ## Why This Matters For **[[DevRel MOC]]**, this names the quality gate on the consistency advice everyone repeats. "Be consistent" is true but incomplete; *value gates cadence* is the correction — frequency without substance is noise that erodes trust faster than silence. For a technical advocate, depth isn't a nice-to-have credential, it's the precondition that makes any cadence worth maintaining. It also reframes the "switching companies tanks my numbers" anxiety as a feature of repetition-based recognition, not a failure — authority is a slow-built asset, and the response is to keep delivering value, not to panic-post. ## Counterpoints to Hold - **"Slow cadence is fine if it's fire" assumes you already have the audience.** For someone building from zero, frequency *is* how you get discovered; the luxury of monthly-but-great comes after recognition exists. - **Depth and reach can trade off.** The deepest technical content often has the smallest audience; "technical depth = trust" is true for the developers you keep, not necessarily for the growth the org is measuring. - **"Own your platform" is survivorship-flavored.** The named exemplars are household names; for most, guesting on bigger platforms is the faster trust-borrow. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Links - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Rewarding AI Usage Manufactures Usage Not Value]] — the same Goodhart shape: optimizing the visible metric (posts, usage) detaches it from the value it was supposed to proxy. ## Open Questions - How do you measure "value delivered per drop" before the audience votes — is there any leading signal, or only lagging engagement? - Where's the line between "earned slow cadence" and "I post rarely and call it quality"? ## Source - [Reader: My approach to DevRel has always been outside the box](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kv1vrm5hfwvv8f7fre344yyn) — Rizel Scarlett (blackgirlbytes); consistency-without-value-is-noise; technical depth as trust currency; own your platform - See also: [[DevRel MOC]]