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Why is LinkedIn so cringe?
- 908087 5y ago
- joezydeco 5y agoCan someone explain the people that post gushing thank you posts on their way out of the company? I don't care what amazing next step of your journey awaits you, I want to know if you quit or if you were fired.
- le-mark 5y agoI’ve noticed that to, in my case it’s generally people leaving one particular large local company.
- rad_gruchalski 5y agoWhen you add a contact and they come to see your profile, that’s most likely because they came to unfollow you. Do the same. But all you are left with is an advert stream.
- throwaway22032 5y agoLinkedIn has the atmosphere of working at a 200K employee multinational that even the CEO isn't really energized by. It's honestly amusing how similar it is. Whenever I go on there I think of a job I had once in which people tried to one up each other for "most robotic". Beep boop. The policy section 5 b says you have used Beep 7 of your allotted holiday days. Boop Please report your time sheet (my old manager, living being)
- walrus01 5y agoPLEASE DRINK A VERIFICATION CAN https://i.imgur.com/dgGvgKF.png https://i.imgur.com/dgGvgKF.png
- xerox13ster 5y agoHoly mother of god are you my coworker? I swear to god I went through this not two weeks ago. Please report your time sheet was downright triggering
- projectileboy 5y agoI 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.
- ljm 5y agoThis post, verbatim, would go viral on LinkedIn.
- Spivak 5y agoI sincerely hope it’s intentional because it captures exactly the intersection between HN and LinkedIn. 10/10 self-aware unawareness.
- labrador 5y agoC'mon, everyone gets a chance to speak in class without being laughed at. Be nice.
- projectileboy 5y agoWow, this little subthread… the irony meter of talking about HN culture just folded in on itself.
- muzani 5y agoI'm tempted to steal this and test it out.
- duxup 5y agoDo it man.
- aj7 5y agoPosturetalk. Like the term.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- walrus01 5y agoLinkedIn is what happens when people from the sales/marketing department get promoted into C-level positions running other parts of a company.
- chrisseaton 5y agoI would guess that way more people are on LinkedIn than Twitter. Most of the work-force is on the former, mostly only technologists, journalists, and artists on the latter. I have friends in the traditional London banking community who absolutely don't know how to engage genuinely with social media and probably aren't interested in learning, but they're there on LinkedIn, talking in the traditional corporate language that they live in.
- LAC-Tech 5y ago> mostly only technologists, journalists, and artists on the latter. Ah so that's why twitter is so insufferable
- exdsq 5y agoLinkedIn 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 how he had to go to work but was touched by meeting me, he said we had a real connection. I go to the interview and guess what! The man was my interviewer! He immediately offered me a job at 1.5m a year plus bonuses and is fast tracking me to become a regional director. Remember to be a nice human #Hashtag #Human #WEAREPEOPLE #ConnectWithMe" It's just a giant circle jerk.
- warent 5y agoEvery community slides into its own stereotype like becoming a caricature of itself, but it's not objectively a bad thing, just strange to outsiders while the regulars are just fine with HN as it is. Oops, I mean LinkedIn.
- er4hn 5y agoShow HN: LinkedIn created over 1 weekend (written in Rust, uses CSS instead of JS)
- willhinsa 5y agoThe thing that's been around the longest that always bugged me was: Getting endorsed for skills by people who have no ability to evaluate my competency at those skills. It's so shallow and badly designed at its job. But like every social network out there, it's buoyed by its inertia and network effects, and will last far longer than it should given its quality beyond the size of its network of users.
- whimsicalism 5y agoThey also have stack ranked tests you can take to demonstrate skills, which seems like a relatively fair way to do it.
- version_five 5y agoOne day linkedin proposed a test to me (it was Python) so I tried it because I was curious what kind of questions they ask. It was like 10 questions, with some random stuff about syntax, maybe how to use a dict for example. And then I got a badge. I have no idea how I would use that when hiring, it tells nothing about the candidates actual ability or experience with the "skill"
- ornornor 5y agoHave you seen the questions though? Ridiculous, useless trivia.
- whimsicalism 5y agoI disagree. It is only 15 questions so obviously can't be a comprehensive test, but it does test whether you understand various mechanisms in Python
- ornornor 5y agoThe JS "assessment" was all trivia and no substance.
- LAC-Tech 5y agoI like the idea of linkedin. In that, I like to have business focused discussions/news. It does tend to veer into this weird territory of everyone marketing to each other. Anyway add me on linkedin.
- Wavelets 5y agoWhat an excellent post. LinkedIn seems to be getting worse and worse, merging in the worst aspects of the every-photo-is-staged "influencer" culture from Instagram and the stupid/not-inspirational/definitely-not-true meme story posts from Facebook. It really is so cringe.
- faangiq 5y agoWhy is this article cringe? The problem is not LinkedIn, it’s people.
- ehsankia 5y agoLinkedIn has been doubling down on this though. In the past week I've been hearing this new podcast ad from them about how "LinkedIn helps you be you real self". It's pretty bad. Can't find it right now but I've been hearing it non stop for a few days now.
- ozim 5y agoWhat if people really want to be like that and go "wHOO AMAZING success HIGH FIVES!!!" but all the cynical people stop them from doing so?
- version_five 5y agoI think linkedin, while it's always been pretty fake, is getting close to a point where it is either going to get overhauled or collapse completely into an empty wasteland going beyond embarrassing self promotion and into even more absurd cliches of what "professionals" should share. It serves an important function, and I have used it to find work and connect with former colleagues. But I think by ratcheting up the social media style attention algorithms, the company has been strip mining their credibility, and there is not much left
- Jenk 5y agoHaving office-shared with a recruiting firm, and having worked in several startups that have a "long-sales"/"closer" department.. I can attest that LinkedIn is exactly what it is like in the day-to-day jobs in the flesh, too. Lots of gongs/bells/claxons, always followed by _so_ many high-fives and a round of applause. Everyone knows it's bullshit, but this kind of toxic/fake positivity is demanded, and weirdly, it works even though everyone knows it's fake.
- ok_dad 5y agoReminded me of the emails we constantly got with the subject “BANG A GONG!!!” at my last work place. It was only for sales achievements, and I never saw an email like that for any other department. It was nice they used the same subject every time, so I could filter them out.
- rcurry 5y agoHeh. Reminds me of this time a startup I worked for got acquired by a big financial firm in New York City - we roll into work the first day and at like 10:00 AM this woman starts ringing an actual cowbell and shouting “Standup! Standup Everybody!” They would literally call the developers into the daily standup like they were a herd of cattle.
- andrewnicolalde 5y agoI cannot stop laughing! Was the standup even about stuff developers would care about, or did they force you to listen to entirely unrelated financial status updates?
- tdeck 5y agoOne of the few HN comments that doesn't need more cowbell.
- nitrogen 5y agoOne week at one of my jobs they went around the place with a megaphone shouting at everyone before a weekly company all-hands. "It's all hands time!" etc. I walked out the door instead.
- gnu8 5y agoCringe is a verb, not an adjective.
- function_seven 5y agoThe Dictionary disagrees with you: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cringe https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cringe
- SeanLuke 5y agoAh, the Urban Dictionary. Where non-words go to die.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- shrimp_emoji 5y agoEnglish prescriptivism is cringe.
- seattle_spring 5y agoUsing it as an adjective is perfectly cromulent.
- ugh123 5y agoVisit https://www.reddit.com/r/LinkedInLunatics https://www.reddit.com/r/LinkedInLunatics to see how this really looks from the outside
- throwawayrev3 5y agoThere's also https://twitter.com/BestofLinkedin https://twitter.com/BestofLinkedin Edit: Nitter https://nitter.net/BestofLinkedin https://nitter.net/BestofLinkedin
- justinlloyd 5y agoWho do I have to bribe to get one of my cringey posts on that? Think of the follower boost!
- jsnk 5y agoThe 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 talking about "synergy", "innovation" and "disruption".
- aj7 5y agoThe work world is a bloody mess today compared to the world I joined in 1979. It almost resembles an environment where you have to join a gang, but threats can come from anywhere. And people wonder why old people, obviously closer to death, are happier.
- seattle_spring 5y ago"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.
- ffwacom 5y agoWas the job related to the 737 Max MCAS system?
- karmasimida 5y agoCringe yes, but at least it is less toxic TBH.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mLuby 5y agoLinkedIn's social network is as necessary as Venmo's, which is to say just barely. User engagement's siren song is irresistible to data-driven product orgs. Is there a Law yet (like Zawinski's) that any app with enough users will attempt to become a social network?
- aj7 5y agoFor me, the worst cringe was when I was “recommended” for skills the recommenders didn’t understand. Being recommended by people even one level below you is cringe. Work is not like being a TA.
- selimthegrim 5y agoWell this explains why my TA deleted my LinkedIn recommendation I left him a few years later
- underwater 5y agoThere is a huge irony to Twitter using LinkedIn as a punching bag. Twitter is full of people pretending to be cool and popular and witty by doing things like making fun of LinkedIn posts for being fake.
- dalmo3 5y agoAnd the irony goes one level deeper... (Or two if you're reading this)
- underwater 5y agoI'm playing the role of the the smart one who thinks they have it figured it all out, and you're playing the pedantic one, right? I definitely adopt a Hacker News voice when commenting here. But in my experience both HN and Reddit are different from most social products because I engage in lots of disparate conversations rather than having to to present a consistent personality and be building a brand and set of followers.
- goldcd 5y agoWell the reason the posts are cringe, is because they're all written by the people who think posting to linkedin is a good idea. A bit like Facebook - except you don't actually like any of them.
- gumby 5y agoGreat article, but as far as I can tell its feed is the thing that appears and you ignore while typing a search into its search bar.
- aj7 5y agoThe only interesting thing I’ve gleaned from LinkedIn is how some fairly marginal, mediocre technical managers have gotten promotions and steady work over the years, simply by keeping their noses clean, diplomacy, and ‘good’ behavior. And how tempestuous the careers of the creative, talented people can be. That was a useful observation, but alas, too late.
- rramadass 5y agoGood observation and hits a little too close to home. It is interesting to see the career graphs of people you know from "Real" life and map it to their retelling on LinkedIn. While some are legitimate salesmanship (you are allowed to present only your best face and exaggerate a little) others are downright fiction. Used strictly as a "professional" network rather than a "general social" network LinkedIn does provide a lot of value. Just be moderate with your image projection and remember that most people can easily see through any obvious posturing.
- bumblebritches5 5y ago
- dplgk 5y agoPretty good article, actually. It nailed a bunch of reasons I can't stand linked in but didn't realize it. It really comes down to a very odd version of phoniness. Yes, it exists in all social networks but the linked in version is more cringe. I love this fake Linked In status update: > Yesterday was walking to an interview. There was a starving dog on the road. I stopped to feed him & missed the interview. The next day got a call asking to come in to do the interview. was surprised, but went. Then the interviewer came in. He was the dog.
- wchar_t 5y ago> Very few insurrections planned on LinkedIn Ho hum.
- subpixel 5y agoLinkedIn shares something with Facebook, in that it is a giant clusterfuck of additional bullshit on top of a few key features, and a critical mass of participants, that fulfills the promise of social networking. 100% owe my career to LinkedIn, despite having never posted or commented or liked or joined a damn thing. The access to people and information is, unfortunately, worth the cringe.
- subpixel 5y agoLinkedIn shares something with Facebook, in that it is a giant clusterfuck of additional bullshit on top of a few key features, and a critical mass of participants, that fulfill the promise of social networking. 100% owe my career to LinkedIn, despite having never posted or commented or liked or joined a damn thing. The access to people and information is, alas, worth the cringe.
- rcurry 5y ago“Worth the cringe”, ha ha. That sounds like a slogan Don Draper would save the day with in an episode of Mad Men.
- jakub_g 5y agoInterestingly, I started following a few tech people on LI who create interesting content (no cringe) and use it similarly as Twitter, but without the 280 char limit. As a result, my LI feed is now probably more interesting than FB feed. (To be clear: It doesn't say much good about LI itself; rather the bar going really low due to FB becoming a deserted place and ads machine / self-promotion factory.)
- shell0x 5y agoVery true. It’s a lot of bullshit but just filter the noise and extract the good bits
- PaulHoule 5y agoI love the idea of shitposting in protest.
- jakub_g 5y ago"I've been interviewing someone for the last 5 years. The person doesn't even know" is peak LinkedIn
- benatkin 5y agoIt's ironic to see this on Substack, which attracts its own brand of cringe.
- pupdogg 5y agoGive ShlinkedIn (a LinkedIn parody) a try @ https://www.shlinkedin.com https://www.shlinkedin.com
- labrador 5y agoOmg, this is either really funny or I'm really stoned. Could be both. I'm trying a new flower.
- fartcannon 5y agoIn my opinion, it's because a lot of work culture behaves like kingdoms and these people are either trying to pretend they have a kingdom, protect their kingdom, or signal that they'll be good servants.
- buttocks 5y agoSo forget about the feed. Really, who cares about that stuff? I am not an apologist for LinkedIn but I got my last three jobs through recruiters that found me that way and think it is an awesome tool, for free.
- emerged 5y agoJust imagine a world where LinkedIn didn’t exist. Countless other companies could’ve formed to build something far better. But because of network effects we get stuck with whatever horrible design won because they were first and scaled up.
- ghaff 5y agoOn a personal basis--and leaving aside the marketing benefits that companies see--it's basically a self-updating Rolodex. I selectively accept invites, haven't updated my sparse resume in over a decade, and use it to check where people are or what their titles are.
- SerCe 5y agoThe hardest (or saddest) part of being on LinkedIn is not seeing cringe posts by half-strangers but seeing how people you know well in real life change their behaviour or tone drastically on LinkedIn.
- kk6mrp 5y agoThere should be a term for this in the same vein as 'virtue signaling'.
- spacemadness 5y agoAnd describe the job they left as “an incredible journey” when you know the real story.
- aksss 5y ago"Incredible Journey" like where the dog, cat, and goldfish had to walk 250 miles barefoot in horrible conditions just to find their real home at the end or something? Sounds apt.
- ryandrake 5y agoEveryone is excited too. "We're excited to announce..." and "We're excited to hire..." and "It's so exciting to work at..." and "So excited by the release of..." It's like everyone takes a dose of Adderall with their coffee before posting.
- glandium 5y agoIsn't it how workplaces look like in the US? (at least in corporate messaging)
- geodel 5y agoAbout true. 1 day late delivery: the house is on fire, lets do a root cause analysis right this fucking weekend. On time delvery: This is the best , most awesome delivery ever! It could be agile innovation/ digital transformation or something like that.
- ryandrake 5y agoLinkedIn would be so much better if it was just a web interface for your resume and a rolodex for your networking contacts. Like basically all other "social" sites, the feed is what makes the site awful and turns it into a "how can I promote myself" cringe-fest. Get rid of the feed (and messaging, and job board, and notifications, and news) and it would be great.
- stuxnet79 5y agoBut you forget that that's LinkedIn's entire business model. The newsfeed as a product is exceptional at hooking users and is the lifeblood of many an internet company. You need some way of getting access to eyeballs on some regular cadence to inject ads. It's basically a money printer.
- kumarvvr 5y ago> LinkedIn would be so much better if it was just a web interface for your resume and a rolodex for your networking contacts It is. But some section of people, especially, those with average skills and questionable capabilities, tend to pad their profile with bullshit posts. I know I am being too unkind, but many people I know who are in that groove, post these cringe content to "look good". The talented ones? They use it as an online resume. Of course, LI exacerbates the cringe with its auto generated posts.
- sys_64738 5y agoThis is generally what most use it for I assume. All the cruft on the stories posted on the blog feed is a garbage dumpster. Messaging is how I keep in contact with past work colleagues.
- Tagbert 5y agoThat’s all I use it for. Resume and professional Rolodex. I stopped paying attention to any of the tacked-on social features years ago.
- jjav 5y ago> LinkedIn would be so much better if it was just a web interface for your resume and a rolodex for your networking contacts. It is that and that's how I treat it. Super useful. I don't read the post feed or post anything myself, that'd be a waste of time.
- loudtieblahblah 5y agoBc it's like a social network if your fucking HR department was potentially reviewing every post. Corporate culture sucks. End of story.
- ravenstine 5y agoLinkedIn is as cringe as the corporate world. We should be asking why the latter is cringe. LinkedIn is just a symptom.
- granshaw 5y agoRisk aversion and predictability, I think, is the root of it all. Ideal employees are like ideal business finances: safe and predictable
- durnygbur 5y agoLinkedIn is the kitchen of outsorcing center of American or German corporation. Ivan with Rajeesh are discussing the point of KPIs, then Rachel enters and asks whether the coffe machine is broken. It is not broken, just nobody have ever cleaned it. There is no happy end here.
- maxk42 5y agoI imagine it's kinda what it must be like living in the CCP: Everyone is self-censoring and putting forward a fake face in hopes of appealing to some nebulous authority that may or may not be watching. Facebook is becoming more and more like this which is why people are finally leaving en masse. Any network based on censorship is doomed to be replaced by one where people feel like they can be themselves. Will something replace LinkedIn one day?
- elcamino44 5y agoThat also describes the experience of 99% of people working in a normal office.
- fuzzfactor 5y agoIt can't be any other way. It's made for those whose profile appears better than reality to begin with.
- mrintellectual 5y agoLinkedIn is good for networking and keeping up with existing connections, but the "social" aspect of it definitely feels awkward for me.
- NoPicklez 5y agoFunny this was posted because I have been thinking the same recently, more so than normal. LinkedIn is a good way to connect with my clients/friends/colleagues and establish what is a small network of people in my field, who know each other and often benefit from each other. I also think the ability for recruiters to see my experience + the people and clients I work with has meant that my job opportunities are far greater than if I didn't have LinkedIn. But my god, some of the posts on there are absolutely cringe and I don't normally like using that term. Don't get me wrong if a colleague or a client I have worked with recently is promoted or changes positions I am genuinely happy for them and it deserves a like or a "congrats". But don't go around preaching your corporate life story like your experiences are gods gift on earth, or go around preaching vague and ambiguous virtues that we all know. You don't need to make a story about everything that happens to you and the majority of your network couldn't care less.
- tiborsaas 5y agoThe cringiest thing is that they don't have laughing emoji response on posts. It's probably because someone at a meeting said that "we must provide a safe place for everyone to feel empowered to share anything without being laughed at". What they didn't consider is that this also accelerates the toxic positivity that existed before emoji responses.
- robofanatic 5y agothe only reason I use LinkedIn is the Jobs section
- boring_twenties 5y agoThank you for posting this, it is absolutely hilarious and spot on. I wouldn't even mind some of the cringe posts, if they at least came from people I knew. But, the majority of my feed is posts from people I've never heard of, shown to me because a mutual connection "liked" them. No, I'm not going to congratulate a total stranger on their new job ... or try to comfort them after their dog died, etc. By comparison, my Facebook feed is currently the worst it's ever been since I started using it in like 2007 or something, but it's still light years better than this. I do occasionally enjoy some of the full-length articles posted on LinkedIn by public figures (e.g. Ray Dalio), but I have no freakin' idea why he only posts them there.
- mykowebhn 5y agoMy 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"
- notapenny 5y ago"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.
- bag_boy 5y agoThe funniest part is the LinkedIn writing style: never more than two sentences long and so much spacing.
- wanderingmind 5y agoLinkedIn is one of the reasons I stopped trying to have any meaningful online conversations. And im guessing Im not alone. The cognitive dissonance and lack of any nuance is truly astounding. Im not sure if thats the real people self or they put on a show for clickbaits. Irrespective of the causal factors, the outcome is mindless statements that are just cringy. I only use LinkedIn to update profile for recruiters to contact me.
- jordigh 5y agoAs an aside, I find very interesting the story of how "cringe" became an adjective. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/how-did-we-get-so-cringe/ar-AASOaHX https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/how-did-we-get-so-cring...
- xboxnolifes 5y agoLinkedIn doesn't even need a posting feature or feed. It's great just being a self-updating rolodex.
- fleddr 5y agoOnce I'm a billionaire, it's the first thing I'll do after paying for WinRar: deleting my LinkedIn account. I never respond to anything, just keeping it around for now for the connections. I recently checked the inbox and noticed something very weird. It showed a list of recruiters that had sent me a message and their profile picture. There were about 15 on screen. All 15 were hot white blond women in their mid twenties. I'm not sure what to think of that. The odds seem impossible. I work in a boring sector, so that doesn't explain it. Attractive women as recruiters isn't a new tactic, but in this case I had a very strong feeling they're just fake pictures. It's probably just one guy controlling all those profiles.
- notreallyserio 5y agoJust responding to the title: Because it's Facebook but for people that think it's actually important?
- annoyingnoob 5y agoIts interesting to see how people promote themselves and self-censor themselves when the subject is getting hired or hiring.
- ReaLNero 5y agoI 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.
- kelnos 5y agoA 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.
- noodleman 5y agoI don't use non-anonymous social media these days so I don't see what my collegues act like online. But if my experience in real life is anything to go by then those people are happy to wear their anti-vax colours on their sleeve, even at work.
- yodsanklai 5y agoIndeed, they are total opposite. I wonder if these are the same people who show different faces. I wonder about these people on LinkedIn, either they are total hypocrites on LinkedIn, or they totally buy on the corporate BS. I'm not sure which is worse! I've had a career change recently and I joined a big American corp. I wasn't familiar with this type of environment. The level of bullshit and hypocrisy there is amazing. Fortunately, nobody in my team is into that.
- sbrother 5y agoI think everyone's mostly faking it. At least in my experience even the people posting this drivel on LinkedIn and brown nosing for a promotion are totally normal and self-aware when you develop an actual outside-of-work connection with them. I'm also not sure whether this is better or worse!
- abhaynayar 5y ago
- djrogers 5y agoWhen did cringe become a pronoun?
- yCombLinks 5y agoWithin the past 10 years, but widely used that way now. But uh, I think it's an adjective?
- pcurve 5y agoVirtue signaling, culture that celebrates positivity-at-all-cost, and worshipping of executive leadership through emulation. That's why that "i got pip'ed at Amazon" was such a breath of fresh air. By far the best thing I've seen on Linkedin.
- wyclif 5y agoThat's also why that guy was asked (he didn't say whether it was Amazon, LinkedIn, or someone else) to take that post down.
- technothrasher 5y agoLinkedIn always feels to me like that awkward party I got invited to where I don't know anybody, they're all pretentious, and I'm just trying to find if there's a dog or cat I can play with in the kitchen.
- rosgoo 5y agoI actually am working on a minimalist LinkedIn alternative because I was so fed up with it: Learn more here! https://leapful.dev/ https://leapful.dev/
- mst 5y agoI think I probably still have a linkedin account but it's been ignored for many years. The most value I've got out of the brief period where I occasionally logged in was periodically threatening to endorse <good friend> for proficiency in <technology they hate>. (obviously I never actually did it, but given how I relate to my friends the faux threat was absolutely funny to both of us every time)
- notmyfuture 5y agoIf you you call out any of the rampant self-aggrandizement, exaggeration, humble-brags, or in some case outright lies there's no real upside, and plenty of potential downside.
- pcmaffey 5y agoEnd it already. https://www.pcmaffey.com/finally-i-closed-my-linkedin https://www.pcmaffey.com/finally-i-closed-my-linkedin
- MengerSponge 5y agohttps://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Try-hard https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Try-hard "Try-hard: Somebody whose effort level and emotional investment is excessively high for the level of play in which they are competing."
- AtlasBarfed 5y agoLInkedin makes 10b/year and 65% is recruiting tools? 6.5 billion dollars a year? Really?
- mrkentutbabi 5y agoCan someone please archive this thread. So many gold comments here.
- benlivengood 5y agoThe cringe-worthy thing about LI is that people take it seriously.
- reeeeaway 5y agoCompany xyz is hiring, amazing place to work blah blah, you would be perfect! Then the email is CCed to 50 other students and you find out the guy sending it only started at the company last month and gets paid a large bonus for whatever sheeple he can bring in :) Don't forget after joining you have to make that post telling everyone how this is your dream job and show off the company goodie bag! #WeAreHiring #ChiefJediFinder
- lovecg 5y agoI actually like the Linkedin vibe. It’s like an alternate reality where everyone is always congratulating everyone else on their accomplishments! And shipping stuff! And investing in their careers! Seriously though, for some reason all this “The Office” stuff would be awkward and cringey in real life, but in an online format it works? Somehow? It’s similar to how an internet argument can be often way more rage inducing than a real life one, but with positive emotions instead.
- Spooky23 5y agoThere’s a casual disregard for real relationships that gets me. I’ve seen more than once some poor bastard that gets laid off from a good company end up at shitcorp, inc, and some jackass will cluelessly make a dumb comment. “Hey Bud, it didn’t know there was enough money in Account Management at Shitco to leave the VP gig at Google! #inspiring #success”
- praveen9920 5y agoBest advise I got for LinkedIn is.. remove connections ruthlessly based on content they are posting. I guess this is applicable to most of the social networks out there. It really cleaned up my feed.
- tannike 5y agothe only reason i still use linkedin is to follow chad profitz. a biting satirical take on the linkedin persona: "SHARE if you think it’s about time that LinkedIn allowed British people to join the site!"
- kk6mrp 5y agoI've found LinkedIn to be much better after muting a few people.
- shell0x 5y agoI got 4 jobs in 4 countries through Linkedin. It’s a powerful tool if you can filter the 95% garbage out :-)
- arrakis2021 5y agoFor those who want quality OC on LinkedIn, follow Corporate Bro.
- kbos87 5y agoLinkedIn is cringe, but it also has virtually no vitriol compared to every other social network on earth. I’ll take it.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Kim_Bruning 5y agoOnce upon a time I used Linkedin to keep track of my contact list, which seemed to be its purpose back in the day. It doesn't be so useful for that these days; especially since you can't get your contact data back out of the system anymore. So I ended up removing my profile. I keep meaning to hand-extract contact data so I can leave linkedin completely. Possibly I'll do that when I need to change my email later this year. Meanwhile, has anyone noticed that you can't actually scrub the feed to get it completely empty? Even if you unfollow everyone and everything, and tell linkedin you're not interested in any activity whatsoever.
- Lapsa 5y agofacebook has similar issue. I ended up explicitly liking all the underwear ads - at least they look good
- wly_cdgr 5y agoBecause almost all of us are wage slaves terrified of (our socioeconomic background's version of) starving alone under a bridge, and the few of us who are neither independently wealthy nor terrified are either too cool to have any use for LinkedIn and/or too crazy to pass on there
- rswail 5y agoI deleted my profile a while back after a data leak and I was getting spammed on that email. The cringe factor of continually being "recommended" for crap was pathetic. That was even before the feed and the posts and the inspirational nonsense. It's performative corporate wankery that HR people love because it lets them think that they're promoting their corporate owner's "triple bottom line" and "social stakeholders" and blah blah blah. HR thinks that it needs to do this crap to motivate employees, it's like the "newsletters" and "employee of the month" etc.
- durnygbur 5y agoThe bottom line is there to mark low hanging fruits.
- _odey 5y agoI don't get what's the big deal. Just unfollow everyone you connect with, disable all notifications, and check it once a week. That's what I do, and I see no "cringe". This way LinkedIn becomes just an "instant" messenger with a job board attached. You can't eliminate other people's "cringe" but you can shield yourself from it very easily.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- renewiltord 5y agoThis is funny. My LinkedIn is usually great. I opened it to demonstrate and it was full of my friends announcing their ProductHunt stuff, their new startup, etc. So I closed it to come here and talk about that, and when I opened the front page again, it was all full of posts from a week ago with friends posting about awards their companies won and press releases and stuff. Why did it get so boring on the second try? Weird...
- monkeycantype 5y agoLinkedIn is the social platform on which people express themselves in the least authentic manner, because they are the most fearful of the consequences of honesty, and the inverse - are most aware of the benefits of duplicity. Even those of us who feel positive about the trajectory of human development, know that human society is a horrifying shit-show. However as a precondition of employment, we are expected to demonstrate that we can pretend that the companies we staff are not rapacious monstrosities. Even the more fervent capitalist will acknowledge in private opinions that are unacceptable in public e.g. capitalism works better than other systems only because we have repeatedly failed to organise our society around any principles other than fear any greed. But we don't say anything like that, because most of us on linkedin have found ourselves in a better than random spot within a violently unfair society. If any one of us posted our true inner thoughts on linkedIn we would dramatically reduce our employment options in any industry other than the approved shamanic avenues - filmmaker, writer, comedian, and might find ourselves and our children descending to a less favourable spot in our grossly unfair societies What we post on LinkedIn is a bloodless, pureed and filtered version of ourselves, a formal terrified curtsy before the mighty power of the employment market. Fight club made 100 million at the box office, and you wouldn't know it from the positive motivational tripe we post, but I'd bet $20 'fight club is my favourite movie' is a damn good proxy for 'who pays for linked in premium?'
- pugets 5y agoLinkedIn is cringe because it is a virtual environment for work culture, which is also cringe. Everyone on LinkedIn wants to be inspiring, and say something like "What you view as a negative, I view as a positive." That's not cool, that's corny.
- peakaboo 5y agoI'm actually more surprised to see the hacker news crowd actually has a sense of humor. Where has that been hiding for all these years?
- stillblue 5y agoCame here for the comments section and stayed for it too. Thanks for the laughs guys!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- MattPalmer1086 5y agoLinkedIn 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.
- justinlloyd 5y agoI just systematically unfollow everyone I connect with. My news feed is "blah blah blah was mentioned in the news" or a few posts in various game development groups I am a member of. Got so tired of the "Amens" and the "but the interviewer was the dog" and the "only 5% of the population can solve this" memes. Oh, and I say "fuck" an awful lot. And I posted bad artwork of a bear fucking a gallon of orange juice, and a recruiter saying the word "no whore" with a duck swearing. And some blood spatter. And a programmer telling an entrepreneur that nobody gives a damn he got six column inches in the San Francisco Bee. But I didn't say damn, I said fuck. And a programmer fighting a mechanical octopus by stabbing it in the eye. I also posted a poem about entrepreneurial exploitation which I am currently illustrating. Apparently this is unprofessional and would make me unhirable, but I like to think that really, I'm just a guy wearing a duck suit disrupting synergies in the meta or something. Also, my standard reply to recruiters is "Thanks for making me aware of this opportunity. Sounds boring and exploitative. Good luck in your continuing candidate search." Definitely am guilty of the "broetry" style of separating everything on a to a single line though, don't know what it is about the cluttered LinkedIn UI that makes a paragraph of text hard to read. Guilty of a few "respect" posts though. Mostly around the "and then flipped the bird and hung up on the toxic interviewer" type of post. Was interviewing last year and just "got up and walked out" (or the Zoom/Meet/WebX/Skype equivalent) of the meeting. "Well would you look at the time, it's already I-don't-give-a-shit-anymore o'clock, thanks for your time today. Bye!" Footnote: My colleagues tell me I am joy to work with and brighten up any team I am a part of.
- phs318u 5y agoMaybe it's me. Maybe I'm just getting old and tired. Maybe I'm just sick of the constant trolling, yelling and generally lots of people trying to out-asshole one another on so, so much of the internet. But I don't mind LinkedIn. I find the cynicism on display here very sad. Sure, there are plenty of narcissists and vapid people posting on LinkedIn. So? At least they're posting "inspirational" stuff, and you know what - even if its BS - if the net emotional effect on other people is generally positive - well wtf is wrong with that? The right kind of BS can be inspirational and drive good behaviours (just as the wrong kind can drive terrible behaviours) - I offer as evidence every religion ever. For me, I use LinkedIn as my work memory. I've been working since 1987 and have had gigs at so many companies, and worked with so many good people over that time that it's literally impossible for me to remember my own resume (let alone names and faces). It's how I stay in touch with the people who move around and may be the one to help me get my next gig. A lot of people on HN often go on about freedom of speech, but it just seems to me that where people are happy to defend asshole's speech, no matter how terrible, the kind of saccharine, do-gooder, positivity found on LinkedIn gets torn to shreds. Live and let live. If it's not your cup of tea, please feel free to develop and use an alternative. I'd love to see it. Unless its full of people being total assholes. Then I'll stick with LinkedIn. And HN.
- Dowwie 5y agoLinkedIn may be the least toxic social media platforms used today. It promotes an aspirational culture. I want others to do well and it's nice to come across them, at least online, long after we stopped working together.
- topicseed 5y agoLinkedIn is to career-focused grown ups what Instagram is to those fragile about their appearance.
- deodorel 5y agoNo that would be blind.
- yifanl 5y ago
- 11235813213455 5y agoAnother fun thing is the uncatchable footer because of the infinite load on scroll
- stunt 5y agoI just unfollow anyone that shares BS. You get a clean timeline after a while.
- durnygbur 5y agoIf wee all worked in one global corporation and it had Yammer, that's LinkedIn. Except there is no asshole lady from marketing or HR who would delete without notice snarky or awkward posts. I sign in multiple times a day no idea why... anyways, yesterday I was strolling around downtown and noticed a homeless person, my son said "dad, look a homeless person", I stepped into chewing gum and noticed 5 euro note. Gave the note to the homeless and received in exchange American motivational book. I decided to share this with my manager and received another American motivational book.
- higeorge13 5y agoI don’t mind celebrating releases or blog posts which share something technical or meaningful. I hate that i will have to see the same posts under the ‘X liked/shared this article’. And then you see constant celebrations of new positions, the same job ads under people’s shares and likes, people praising others (i guess this is an automated thing) and endorse skills, etc. And then memes and random posts sharing personal details and stories make total sense and explain why all social media news feed are terrible and the same applies to LI.
- rikroots 5y agoI mainly use LinkedIn to see how much better my former colleagues are now doing, compared to my career progress. When not stalking former colleagues I A/B test[1] my spam posts about my canvas library[2] to see which variants generate more views of my profile. [1] Not proper A/B testing. The variants get posted once a month or so, making the results meaningless to anything beyond my ego. [2] Link available on request.
- ramoz 5y agoYMMV. It’s your network. What does that say about you?
- sylware 5y agoWho is going to surrender its entire professional network of people to microsoft? wait...
- naveen99 5y agoBecause linkedin has more equal representation of mbti types, and not dominated by INTx.
- 0xCAP 5y agoAnswer: because it's full of HR people. 90% of HR people are human toilets pretending they are doing manageriale roles for a living.
- sizzle 5y agoReminder for those who missed it, great satirical LinkedIn community that hit front page of HN some time back: www.shlinkedin.com