LinkedIn is a critical part of my professional life. Early on, it saved my company by leading me to connect with a business opportunity that I otherwise would n

LinkedIn is a critical part of my professional life. Early on, it saved my company by leading me to connect with a business opportunity that I otherwise would not have known about. And it's become the worst user experience on the web. The primary, and I'd say only, value it has is maintaining current contact information of professional colleagues that I've accumulated over a lifetime. I'm connected with people I first met 50 years ago (no kidding). Facebook can provide that, but after 11 years of linking, the equity in that feature alone is too great for me to abandon. Like myself, my LinkedIn contacts have grown in their professional life and now have more responsibility and more resources (VPs, CEOs, technical domain experts) that could be useful for future hiring needs and business endeavors. On a more whimsical note, I've thought about making a bucket list item to buy coffee for everyone in my LinkedIn network after I retire. Given that they are strewn about the globe, and how many there are, it could be challenging and engaging way to spend retirement. Still... it's the worst user experience on the web.