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Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

elliotcsmith.com

81–90 of 405 posts

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#81
The mediocrity (and "hacks" like LinkedIn broetry[0]) make it super-easy to stand out just by talking plainly about interesting stuff!

I have a (subjectively) high (self-imposed) bar for posting on my blog, but my bar is much lower for LinkedIn. I also have a much larger audience there.

I sometimes turn the LI posts I'm really happy with into blog articles, so they also serve as a kind of preprint for me.

Basically, I use it like I'd use Twitter if it still existed and allowed for somewhat longer posts, and BlueSky if it had any users.

[0] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/why-are-these-p...

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#82
post #22

> if they've seen your content 1,000x vs a couple of long reads. [..] From there, you can capture their email to touch them on another channel (inbox), push them to your YouTube / Twitter / community, etc. The endless game of catching people's attention. Focus on actual value creation? Nah, let's just mind-hack everyone into buying the product. It works, it's obviously a game worth billions, but I find it deeply depr…

It is depressing. There's nothing spiritual in it--nothing grander than just base greed and psychological manipulation.

To me what is _spiritually_disturbing (in the sense that it hurts my spirit) is the fact that I think that such behaviour is going to keep on happen and the world would get EVEN more polarized, less trustworthy overall.

Greed and psychological manipulation to me feels like they will always continue and I am a pessimist in that sense.

There is good, and then there is greed and greed creates psychological manipulation in most cases.

The most fundamental issues in our society stems from greed imo and this cycle will perpetuate like a cancer. Greed is cancerous. I don't know if I even can bring a change in this greedy world at a scale which can matter.

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#83

This reads like it was written by a developer 'who doesn't get marketing'. > Nothing you post there is going to change your career. I can attribute millions of dollars in revenue to LinkedIn, as can a lot of my 'LinkedIn friends' > Doing work that matters might. This is a pre-requisite for winning on LinkedIn. The kind of content that performs best are strong opinions informed by actual expertise. > Go for depth over…

>The kind of content that performs best are strong opinions informed by actual expertise. So... mediocre posts that combine a strong opinion along with a perceived position of authority. No actual knowledge needed. >Unfortunately that's not the way marketing works [...] they are much more likely to trust you, and therefore buy from you, if they've seen your content 1,000x vs a couple of long reads. LinkedIn rewards m…

What you quote could be summarised as "frequent small posts work better than long infrequent ones". I kinda agree that's an incentive for lower quality (since quality takes time), but it's still a bit tangential.

What LinkedIn rewards are posts that get a lot of reactions and comments, which in theory sounds like a good metric. But when a metric becomes a target, it ceases to be a good metric, and that's quite visible with all the cringe "comment $keyword to get my free guide" posts.

Personally, I take the conscious hit on my business and don't play that game. But I'm pretty convinced that I would be more successful if I played it, and I'm still looking for a way to do it that doesn't feel wrong to me.

At the end of the day, marketing is not about reaching people just like myself. It's about reaching potential buyers. And the key question to me becomes what the "LinkedIn" in "LinkedIn rewards mediocrity" really is. Is it the platform with its algorithms? Or is it rather the audience itself?

We all gotta find buyers. Sometimes in the form of employers, sometimes in the form of clients, sometimes consumers. But whatever we have to offer, we need to find people interested in it. And while I have a good network that got me buyers throughout my career, not everybody gets lucky like that, so I try not to look down on them for using LinkedIn to that end.

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Convincing people to buy your product _is_ value creation.

Convincing people to buy your rotten meat is value creation! Convincing people to buy a bridge is value creation! Convincing people to buy your Teflon pan that will seep into the environment for centuries is value creation! Because after all, nothing else matters. Value creation. Value. Creation. Consequences ? Thoughtfulness ? That's for the dumbasses not creating _value_

I searched some greed quotes and here's one I'd like to share

"As long as greed is stronger than compassion, there will always be suffering"

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#85
The only reason to have a LI is to have an online resume, but if that’s the only reason then make a website. You’re better off interacting socially or blogging on your own site, which may have a commenting feature. You can use agents to post your blogs to various places for exposure.

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#86
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LinkedIn is basically a marketplace for boomers. Facebook but for jobs pretty much. Im sorry to hear u think this highly of it, as its just a gathering of pretentious people.

This has been my experience. Just a bunch of ego stroking

Because ego's are fragile.

People might have envy for others success which would hurt their ego, but they are greedy enough to stroke someone else's ego, just so that they can get internet points or some "value creation" so that one day others can stroke their egos too.

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#87

This reads like it was written by a developer 'who doesn't get marketing'. > Nothing you post there is going to change your career. I can attribute millions of dollars in revenue to LinkedIn, as can a lot of my 'LinkedIn friends' > Doing work that matters might. This is a pre-requisite for winning on LinkedIn. The kind of content that performs best are strong opinions informed by actual expertise. > Go for depth over…

If something makes you money while being legal while its kinda promoted by saying the words like _career_oriented_ etc.

I felt the above statement from your comment and I mean I agree that its okay but I mean idk :/ lets just call a spade a spade.

Also I do understand why people will have such opinions. People say corporations are greedy, but I might suggest that people working at the top of corporations are just as greedy.

But sometimes it might not even be about greed but rather just need, you feel like you need millions of dollar, you deserve it... and by doing this, you actually get it. I feel like in this world, the needs and desires are getting blurred and its causing rise to greed and suffering.

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#88
post #22

> if they've seen your content 1,000x vs a couple of long reads. [..] From there, you can capture their email to touch them on another channel (inbox), push them to your YouTube / Twitter / community, etc. The endless game of catching people's attention. Focus on actual value creation? Nah, let's just mind-hack everyone into buying the product. It works, it's obviously a game worth billions, but I find it deeply depr…

To play devil's advocate here, can any value be created if no one knows about your product?

Re: Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

#89
post #31
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The boomers have retired.

are retiring lots of phenomena that get incessantly overtheorized and misattributed these days can be simply explained by this

50-60% have retired. The rest soon will. In any case the claim I responded to is absurd.

Your second line is a non sequitur.

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