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Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

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381–390 of 466 posts

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#381
post #63

I really consider getting rid of my car. I bought it a year ago, but it's only ever sat in the driveway, I never use it. The funny meta-thing about his post, is that the content he feels adds 0 value, is in fact his own post. He is literally making a post about a tool he doesn't use. It's the equivalent of a person making a blog post about a tv series they don't watch but have seen the trailer for; no actual value to…

It's not that he feels the content adds 0 value, it's that he feels the content has negative value. By discussing leaving LinkedIn, he's in fact talking about a way he brought positive value to his life by removing a cost.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#383
post #97

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…

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.

LinkedIn has a news feed, and you actually look at it? There’s your problem. I’ve set up an OnMyCommand macro so that when I select some text and right-click, it will search for the selected name:

open "https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=__OBJ_...

Apologies to non-Mac users. OnMyCommand is at http://www.abracode.com/free/cmworkshop/on_my_command.html, though for beginners I will immodestly suggest my fork of the ReadMe: https://github.com/abra-code/OMC/pull/9/files

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#384

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…

> From a professional standpoint LinkedIn gave me a lot of value for free i'm curious what others see as value from the platform. in my narrow view: - i have a list of connections id most likely be able to contact off platform - a feed full of virtue signaling and mostly useless content - messages from random recruiters. usually the full extent of the interaction is: phonecall, redo resume and send over, ghost (40+ i…

The value I see in LinkedIn:

1. My linkedin contact list is >300 people that I worked closely with over the years and all have seen me kick ass. I have actual email addresses for 2. I can browse my list and see where they are currently working. "oh gee, Mary works at coolCo, I should reach out to her because I' like to work for/with coolCo."

3. When I want to let them know that I started a new business venture, I can send them a message that is less obtrusive than an email.

4. If I give a prospective client my linkedin, they can see a) a brief summary of my resume, b) that I have a lot of contacts in x space, and c) that they may know some of the people I have worked with over the years. These all give me some measure of credibility.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#385
Heh, I have my Hacker News profile listed as a main contact on LinkedIn.

Recently a recruiter who didn't get a response on LinkedIn itself wrote an email, which began:

I'm writing because I found your Hacker News profile from your LinkedIn...

That just felt right somehow.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#386
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is valueless content. I disagree. It poses several questions about the value of LinkedIn. And it spurred a discussion. If anything your comment really adds nothing here.. (Maybe some discussion, but a useful one?)

I read that because hn showed it on spot 1. I think it was a waste of time. I also started to think in this direction more the last few years: If we as a socity would be better of creating less but better, we would not have facebook or linkedin feets full of waste. We would have perhaps 10 hn articles per day, 10 world news, 1-2 local news and thats it. I would have the rest of my time 'free' of the burden of trying…

While the content itself is just another round of "I deleted X for reasons I, J, K," I certainly resonate with you mentioning commenting less.

As with the barrier to entry to any tech-oriented platform (any dev remember their first time posting on StackOverflow?), there is an underlying fear of rejection, or even worse, providing no value whatsoever. I've lurked on HN for years, but only recently have actually started engaging.

Not sure if anyone else feels those kind of emotions, but the article did mention that many people are living in fear -- regardless of the external stimuli is that causes that fear. It's not any different than engaging with communities like SO, HN, forums, etc.

Also like you, I doubt this adds any value beyond giving a couple minutes to type this response to a comment buried halfway down the discussion page on the post. It definitely entertained, and more so distracted me, for the duration of this experience.

For that, I thank you.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#387

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.

> my mom endorsed my ability to perform discounted cash flow analysis I mean, that's really quite charming. She loves you! The first time Linkedin jumped the shark for me when they suggested I add the random dude I sold a couch too on craigslist to My Professional Network. I'd used a throwaway email and only texted the dude 1x. I only randomly remembered who he was after Linkedin suggested him to me because his first…

I remember getting LinkedIn connection recommendations for girls that i had awkward dates with in college.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#388
He says people switch jobs around the 2 years time frame, which is surprising and short. Is that true, an avg say in tech? I have been doing that but I didn't realize it was that common. In SF I've heard staying a year is the goal to get stock, then after that look for the next thing.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#389
I never had a problem with LinkedIn. Sometimes I get recruiter emails, but those are easy to deal with. I actually got my last job via LinkedIn, so it has helped me get a job.

As a hiring manager, I immediately get red flags when someone doesn't have a LinkedIn. Its easy to create and keep updated, so to me it seems like they are hiding something. Not that its an instant deny, but it is a part of the decision.

Re: Finally, I Closed My LinkedIn

#390
post #97

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…

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.

The news feed, like many of them, is worthless. I rarely scroll.

I'd really love to see others job updates there, or job openings. But mostly its just drivel.

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