Networking is Overrated

I think there's a necessary asterisk here: Networking is overrated for people trying to start a business.

Networking provides a crucial career-entry function for people who are qualified but unproven, by allowing another proven person to "vet" that you're capable, and therefore qualify you for an opportunity that may not have been open to your resume alone.

For most, networking is primarily about finding likeminded people who will ultimately point you to a well-fitting job opportunity. If you're running a startup, you've already got a full time job, and have less to gain from these types of relationships.

That's not to say that finding yourself in a room full of similar people is a bad thing for a founder. There's still a lot of insight to be gained from people who have won or lost in the arenas you currently occupy.

The recreational / downtime aspect shouldn't be overlooked.

There's nothing wrong with taking time off for non-productive activities like dinner/drinks/hanging out. Living to work is a completely meaningless and pointless life. The problem with rationalization about time off is its a non-productive activity squared.

Just admit it, wanted to hang out and goof off, and talking about work a bit made it not feel as inappropriate. No need to submit everyone else to illogical rationalizations.

It takes a certain level of bravery to just say "One night, I wanted to drink, eat, and hang out, and that's OK"

There are other, in some cases highly toxic, reasons to go on about networking. One scenario is dude at the bottom of the primate dominance hierarchy takes a night off from his 120 hour work week therefore is a worthless slacker who's not worth his salary, but if the boss at the top of the primate dominance hierarchy takes a night off from his 120 hour work week, he's a "professional networker developing leads". I'm not even remotely implying this is the case in the related article but I have seen this specific behavior in several other unrelated situations.

One way to identify pathological behavior is to list specific concrete results. Not metrics or vague feelings. "Its helped me in the past" or "I've met people and talked about things" is a strong indication of uselessness. "I have 50000 followers on twitter" is a strong indication of uselessness. On the other hand a concrete result like "I met my current tax accountant at this mixer" or "I hired two guys I met at such and such con" are examples of non-pathological specific concrete results. This paragraph has to be read with respect to the "nothing wrong with occasional recreation" because if you have a side hobby of collecting twitter followers, no matter how useless that is, if it makes you smile that's all the justification you really need. Just don't make the rest of the world sit thru illogical attempts at rationalization about a hobby or recreation or faith or whatever.

"Networking is for people who don't know what they are doing and who don't have better ideas regarding what to do with their time and energy. "

Wait, what ? No. That's not what networking is for. You don't network only because you have nothing better to do and you are at the bottom of the food chain but because networking helps you create influence in a world where ultimately, everything comes down to human beings. Do you believe that successful people don't network anymore ? You are talking about "networking" as if it is a negative last resort kind of thing for losers. Not quite. I bet if you interview any successful person, they will tell you that people skills/networking is one of the most important aspects of success. Go read the book "how to win friends and influence people" to understand what networking is all about.

Networking is not a one time event. It is a continuous process regardless of whether you are rich or poor, success or failure

On the other end of the spectrum, the best developers a startup can hire will probably come from their network. Not from recruiters or random people submitting resumes. Early hires are incredibly important and actively seeking the first few hires through networking is certainly a worthwhile endeavor.

I think the lesson is that networking isn't a goal per se. Networking should be done with a purpose in mind; it should be a byproduct of getting stuff done. Networking for the sake of networking will get you nowhere fast.