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Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

trungphan.substack.com

221–230 of 290 posts

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#221
post #56

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.

I love the Gervais Principle, but only as a cynical joke that can sometimes be applied to real life. There's really no need to read the book. If you're interested in a laugh, just see the blog post [1]. The gist of it is that there are only three types of people who work in organizations: 1. At the top of the food chain are the sociopaths. Executives. 2. Below it are the clueless, the mid-manager who works nights and…

This is like half way there to David Graeber's realizations that lead him to writing Bullshit Jobs

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#222
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…

Yep, this is called feeding your narcissistic ego and making other people feel bad by inflating your stories ala instagramification of Linkedin :)

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#224

My two cents. I can't stand all the humble bragging. "I came from nothing and now I'd like to announce that I've accepted a position at your favorite FAANG, and I am so humbled to make more money than you, and to have had a degree from a brand-name university. #betterthanyouall"

"What's that? I can't hear you over how much money I'm making"

I pretty much only look at messages or invites once per week and don't use it for anything else anymore. The constant self-congratulation is indeed exhausting. Whether it's people graduating from something, or finding their "dream job" (watch them change dream jobs a year later). The main feed is very facebook-like as well, its gotten very low quality. I suppose LinkedIn likes it that way, but for me its kind of lost its shine.

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#225
post #25

The main cause behind Linkedin being cringe is because it's fake and phony. There's so much fake positivity, humbleness, appreciation, virtuousness and empathy from every part of the corporate world now. This used to be at least guarded amongst upper level management, who endured this garbage but at a great financial gain. Now this corporate cringe has penetrated the general public. People who are making peanuts are…

"Disruption" is such a ridiculous nothing word. I had a recruiter solicit me for a job at a place that would be "disrupting the aviation industry." The company she represented? Fucking Boeing.

Was the job related to the 737 Max MCAS system?

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#227
post #158
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…

What makes nonsense like this work is that there really is a percentage of people who actually completely buy into the nonsense and find it all very "inspiring".

To be fair -- any religion could be described the same way, even by religious people (describing a different religion than the "correct" one, of course).

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#228
LinkedIn is just a rolodex for ex colleagues for me, and a way to let recruiters know enough to contact me if necessary.

I once tried paid LinkedIn when I was job hunting, and all I could see were a bunch of unemployed people on there spending far too much time on it rather than looking for a job.

Re: Why is LinkedIn so cringe?

#229

I feel like TeamBlind is the exact opposite of LinkedIn -- no positivity, no one cares about mission or whatever, the #1 thing is TC and WLB, and everyone is anonymous. And yet its posts are much more honest, candid and just overall useful than those of LinkedIn.

A little too honest, at times. To the point where when you interact with your coworkers in non-anonymous settings, you start to wonder if each person is actually one of the sexist/racist/homophobic/transphobic/anti-vaxxer people you've seen on Blind.
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