Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

pcmaffey.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 466 posts

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#171

Post by smt88 »

distances wrote: post #111
42_ wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that I think about it, most of my complaints about LinkedIn is about the "news feed". Its full of mostly useless content by wannabe thought leaders drowning out a few posts which may have been insightful/relevant. Job search and add/message connections are the only features I have found useful.

It's easy enough to block the feed in your browser. I've done exactly that with Facebook. I haven't deleted my FB account as I still get some random messages from old acquaintances that don't have my phone number, but I removed the feed with uBlock to make sure I'm not exposed to that.

FYI your Facebook profile and Messenger account seem to be decoupled now. I deleted my profile but still have a Messenger identity that people can message.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#172

Post by pnako »

take_a_breath wrote: post #140

LinkedIn jumped the shark when they started heavily promoting their skill endorsement section. I remember receiving a notification that my mom endorsed my ability to perform discounted cash flow analysis. She didn’t know what a discounted cash flow was, but endorsed me all the same. This is the moment it became spam. I do still use it for job searches.

Your mom probably knows you better than any of your colleagues.

Did you lie when you wrote you have the ability to do a DCF analysis?

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#174

Post by smt88 »

cylinder wrote: post #123
distances wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy enough to block the feed in your browser. I've done exactly that with Facebook. I haven't deleted my FB account as I still get some random messages from old acquaintances that don't have my phone number, but I removed the feed with uBlock to make sure I'm not exposed to that.

I did that manually on Facebook exactly four years ago. Unfollowed everyone one by one so I have no feed. Now I rarely log in to FB at all and have forgotten about so many people I had no business remembering but only did because of the Facebook news feed.

Before I deleted my profile, I fixed my feed by unfollowing all pages and all news. I unfriended people who were not true friends.

My feed went back to being social rather than emotional manipulation or clickbait news. It was amazing.

Eventually the site lost its value for me because 75% of my real friends deleted their profiles, so it was an awkward/depressing ghosttown. I eventually deleted mine because of ethical qualms.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#175

Post by pnako »

anthonybennis wrote: post #110
ThePhysicist wrote: post #28

From a professional standpoint LinkedIn gave me a lot of value for free so I'm mostly feeling positive about it, but I agree that like any social network it has downsides and can lead to psychological stress. Personally I live by the mantra that "scrolling is dangerous", i.e. I try to never interact with social media or news platforms that incite me to scroll down a feed of algorithmically curated news or updates, as…

I always exit HN with a positive mental head space. The discussion is generally informed, balanced and insightful . I wonder how the positive and respectful space here may be reproduced in other social media platforms.

That's precisely what I hate about the LinkedIn feed. It's way too positive.

The fake kind of positive. I don't understand why people do that. They're trying to fool other human beings by pretending that everything is awesome, positive, etc.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#176

Post by dghughes »

felipemnoa wrote: post #151
artsyca wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First thing I did was block the usual mega influencers and it got super quiet.. Not to mention any names but you know who I'm talking about.

>>Not to mention any names but you know who I'm talking about. Not trolling but I'm willing to bet that the majority here in HN, including me, do not know who you are talking about.

To me it seems like (in no particular order): Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, Richard Branson, Guy Kawasaki.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#177

Post by ghaff »

Nextgrid wrote: post #45
ThePhysicist wrote: post #28

From a professional standpoint LinkedIn gave me a lot of value for free so I'm mostly feeling positive about it, but I agree that like any social network it has downsides and can lead to psychological stress. Personally I live by the mantra that "scrolling is dangerous", i.e. I try to never interact with social media or news platforms that incite me to scroll down a feed of algorithmically curated news or updates, as…

LinkedIn has value as a rolodex and should've stopped at that. The social media features are, just like any mainstream social network, a cesspool. If you want to use LinkedIn and keep your sanity, I suggest disabling all notifications except the email notifications for new messages and then don't log back in unless you get an e-mail and you need to respond to that person.

Other companies tried the more or less just a Rolodex thing. The thing is that they still had the same incentives to try to expand your network.

But LinkedIn is basically fine as a way of keeping track of people and potentially contacting those you're not directly connected to elsewhere. I go through my connect requests once a month or so and ignore about half of them. I ignore any messages trying to sell me something or recruiters that are pitching something that's not remotely my thing. (In all fairness, my profile isn't really filled out so it would be hard to know what I actually do or have done.)

I do similarly with respect to notifications which is a good rule of thumb in general.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#178

Post by moksly »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #28

From a professional standpoint LinkedIn gave me a lot of value for free so I'm mostly feeling positive about it, but I agree that like any social network it has downsides and can lead to psychological stress. Personally I live by the mantra that "scrolling is dangerous", i.e. I try to never interact with social media or news platforms that incite me to scroll down a feed of algorithmically curated news or updates, as…

LinkedIn is the only social media that has had a positive impact on my career. I’m being followed by possibly future employers, networking with peers and talking about shared issues, planning working lunches at conventions and getting job offers.

I never scroll through the news feed.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#180

Post by ghaff »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #167
stared wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's similarish. While I don't like it too much, when I consider hiring someone it is the first place for a background check. It saved me once from a really, really bad hire (due to common colleagues). At the same time - I am an independent consultant, and yet - I am not sure if there were a single contract that came through LinkedIn directly. Quite ironically, Facebook was much more productive with that respe…

You’re saying you 1. Look at a candidate’s LinkedIn 2. See common colleagues and reach out, unbeknownst to the candidate 3. Hear negative feedback and just trust it’s true (or at minimum develop a strong bias against the candidate based on hearsay) with no due process for the candidate 4. Reject the candidate / omit them from interview processes to begin with. I’m sorry but that’s just awful. I have great references…

So I should just take the feedback of your handpicked references?

ADDED: And I hate to break it to you but companies do this all the time with or without LinkedIn. On numerous occasions, I've been asked if I know do-and-so because we worked in the same space. Sometimes I don't know them. Sometimes I give an enthusiastic recommendation. And sometimes I tell them to run away fast.

Post reply on HN