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Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

trungphan.substack.com

31–40 of 290 posts

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#31
For me, the worst cringe was when I was “recommended” for skills the recommenders didn’t understand. Being recommended by people even one level below you is cringe. Work is not like being a TA.

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#32
There is a huge irony to Twitter using LinkedIn as a punching bag. Twitter is full of people pretending to be cool and popular and witty by doing things like making fun of LinkedIn posts for being fake.

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#33

The thing that's been around the longest that always bugged me was: Getting endorsed for skills by people who have no ability to evaluate my competency at those skills. It's so shallow and badly designed at its job. But like every social network out there, it's buoyed by its inertia and network effects, and will last far longer than it should given its quality beyond the size of its network of users.

I have an endorsement for HTML by a salesperson at a publishing company I did some IT work for during college.

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#34
post #12

Why is this article cringe? The problem is not LinkedIn, it’s people.

LinkedIn has been doubling down on this though. In the past week I've been hearing this new podcast ad from them about how "LinkedIn helps you be you real self". It's pretty bad. Can't find it right now but I've been hearing it non stop for a few days now.

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#35
Well the reason the posts are cringe, is because they're all written by the people who think posting to linkedin is a good idea.

A bit like Facebook - except you don't actually like any of them.

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#36
post #20

Having office-shared with a recruiting firm, and having worked in several startups that have a "long-sales"/"closer" department.. I can attest that LinkedIn is exactly what it is like in the day-to-day jobs in the flesh, too. Lots of gongs/bells/claxons, always followed by _so_ many high-fives and a round of applause. Everyone knows it's bullshit, but this kind of toxic/fake positivity is demanded, and weirdly, it wo…

Reminded me of the emails we constantly got with the subject “BANG A GONG!!!” at my last work place. It was only for sales achievements, and I never saw an email like that for any other department. It was nice they used the same subject every time, so I could filter them out.

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#37

I never understood why I always got so depressed reading LinkedIn, until I read The Gervais Principle by Venkatesh Rao. And then I saw that LinkedIn consists almost entirely of clueless people talking to other clueless people, and exclusively in posturetalk (these are Rao’s terms - “clueless” means something specific). And if you haven’t read The Gervais Principle, I highly recommend it, although it may bum you out.

Posturetalk. Like the term.

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#38

The thing that's been around the longest that always bugged me was: Getting endorsed for skills by people who have no ability to evaluate my competency at those skills. It's so shallow and badly designed at its job. But like every social network out there, it's buoyed by its inertia and network effects, and will last far longer than it should given its quality beyond the size of its network of users.

Yeah it makes little sense. I have my primary school teacher endorsing me as a derivatives expert. Seems to not bother LinkedIn, weighs the same as an actual colleague endorsing me.

I think nobody really cares though, they see it's a cheap signal and adjust accordingly.

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#40
post #7

LinkedIn probably has a net benefit for your career by keeping up to date and checking the messages once a week, but I cannot get over the awkwardness of seeing total BS stories and thousands of replies saying "YES! AMEN!". "I was running late to an interview this morning but stopped to help a man who fell off of his bike and fixed it up for him. Afterwards I bought him a coffee and talked about life. He mentioned ho…

I always feel compelled to reply:

"I was rushing to an interview still drunk from the night before. I hit a cyclist, but just turned on my wipers and got there in time. After waiting 30 mins they told me my interviewer had been involved in a tragic accident, but as I was here would I like their CEO job?" #KeepClimbing #PressureWashYourFender

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