I’ve spent a lot of time on LinkedIn recently for various reasons. If I’m honest, I can’t say I’ve found the experience enjoyable. If you spend any amount of time on the platform, you soon come to realise one thing: there is a lot of noise. Algorithms shape what we think a “good life” looks like, with our worth often implied by how many connections we have.

Recently, I’ve found myself noticing how LinkedIn tends to surface the same dominant voices again and again. The algorithm appears to favour those who project confidence, momentum, and measurable success, while more thoughtful or humble perspectives struggle to break through. To me, it feels as though there is a cultural pressure to be successful by certain ages, and that identity becomes heavily tied to job titles and income. It’s all too easy to lose yourself as you navigate this online space, and it raises questions about which voices we’re being trained to listen to.

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
Mark 8:36

By contrast, the Christian life speaks of something entirely different. The Christian view of worth is rooted in being, not achieving, and vocation is understood as more than a career or a salary. Think about this: you wouldn’t expect to see someone on LinkedIn describing themselves as a “full-time Christian” in their experience section, would you?

The Christian life turns our definition of success upside down, inviting us to faithfulness over visibility. This is something I really struggle with as an academic, where identity and public profile often seem to mean everything.

But for those who wrestle with identity (like me), and with what it means to be rooted and built up in Christ (as Colossians 2:7 reminds us), our life and wellbeing are not conditioned on our job title or our salary.

• Police briefly enter court as tempers flare, benches clear

• Hornets coach Charles Lee later tossed for arguing call

A fight between the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets in the third quarter of Monday night’s game resulted in four player ejections.

Charlotte’s Moussa Diabate and Miles Bridges were tossed, along with Detroit’s Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart. Hornets coach Charles Lee was ejected in the fourth quarter after he had to be restrained from going after an official while arguing a call.

Lack of response shows security law and harassment by authorities have muzzled ‘critical voices’, say experts

• The rise and fall of Jimmy Lai, whose trajectory mirrored that of Hong Kong itself

Hong Kong’s once-vibrant media outlets have responded with silence or celebration to the 20-year jail sentence handed down to Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media tycoon and critic of the Chinese Communist party.

Lai, 78, was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison after being convicted of sedition and colluding with foreign forces under Hong Kong’s national security law. The charges were widely seen as being politically motivated and designed to silence one of Hong Kong’s most influential pro-democracy campaigners.

Decision to grant Grade II status marks turnaround for what was once voted ‘Britain’s ugliest building’

The Southbank Centre, once voted Britain’s ugliest building, has been granted listed status, in a decision hailed by campaigners as the coming of age of brutalism.

Successive governments have resisted six separate proposals to list the centre – a set of concrete buildings made up of the Hayward Gallery, the Purcell Rooms and the Queen Elizabeth Hall, plus a makeshift skatepark in its basement.

Story of Eleisa ‘Elli’ Aparicio and Thomas ‘Tommy’ Wolter’s love began surfacing after their cameo

They celebrated their one-year anniversary as a couple in February 2024. And roughly just two years later, they said, “I do,” in one of the most watched Super Bowl half-time shows ever.

Details of Eleisa “Elli” Aparicio and Thomas “Tommy” Wolter’s love story began surfacing through news reports and social media sleuthing Monday, a day after the Los Angeles-area pair all but shed their anonymity by getting married amid Bad Bunny’s sensational performance on the field at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, during the intermission of Super Bowl LX.

The Associated Press contributed

PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox, PC; Grasshopper Manufacture/Marvelous Inc
After some dumb fun hacking at zombies, legendary developer Suda51’s first original game in a decade sadly only delivers a host of incoherent disappointments

Ever since he baffled GameCube owners with 2005’s Killer7, Japanese game director Suda51 has had a reputation for turning heads. From parodying the banality of open-world games with 2007’s No More Heroes to collaborating with James Gunn for 2012’s pulpy Lollipop Chainsaw, his games often offer a welcome reprieve from soulless, half-a-billion-dollar-budget gaming blockbusters. It was with considerable excitement that I fired up Suda’s first new game in 10 years.

The game kicks off with a slick cartoon that shows our hero, Romeo Stargazer, being eaten by a zombie. Hastily resurrected by his zany scientist grandfather, Romeo returns from the brink imbued with new powers – and then we’re off. Almost immediately I am bombarded by an impenetrable wall of proper-noun nonsense. It’s like this for the next 20 hours.

​Terwijl zijn omgeving zich dit weekend hult in dierenpakken, maskers en foute pruiken, heeft Jeroen (37) gekozen voor een radicaal andere aanpak. De Tilburger gaat met carnaval verkleed als iemand die thuis op de bank een biertje drinkt en rond half elf naar bed gaat.

"Ik wilde iets herkenbaars, maar ook origineels", zegt hij, terwijl hij zijn joggingbroek alvast klaarlegt. Volgens Jeroen bestaat het kostuum verder uit een hoodie, sokken, een comfortabele stoel en mogelijk een speciaalbiertje uit zijn koelkast. "Al heb ik nu volgens mij alleen 0.0 bier koud liggen en dat vind ik eigenlijk ook prima."

Hoewel hij daarmee zelf het onderwerp 'bier' aansnijdt, gaat de betekenis van carnaval voor hem verder dan alleen drank: "Klopt, voor mij draait carnaval ook heel erg om muziek. Ik heb een prachtige plaat van Led Zeppelin thuis liggen die ik zaterdag ga luisteren. Verder vind ik lekker bijslapen heel belangrijk, dus dikke kans dat ik tussen tien uur en half elf als eerste het licht uitdoe."

"Mijn vrienden reageren wisselend op de outfit", vertelt Jeroen tot slot. "De meesten zijn strontjaloers."

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Mensen die iemand met dementie verzorgen, moeten zich de houding van een empathische speurneus aanmeten, vindt Peter Peltzer, die al veertig jaar met mensen met dementie werkt. „Het brein van mensen met dementie werkt als ‘de tapijtrol des levens’. Het laatste dat iemand heeft geleerd, is als eerste weer weg.”