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Because LinkedIn makes your employment front and center it encourages status games . The way to understand LinkedIn is no one is actually trying to engage in g

Because LinkedIn makes your employment front and center it encourages status games . The way to understand LinkedIn is no one is actually trying to engage in good faith. Everyone is seeking status points in a game they're playing. And that status depends on their endowment (people they know, institutions they are part of) Status conferred from their boss, their peers, their underlings, people in similar roles - It's why LinkedIn feels like a lot of thought-leadering, because the only way to get status is to post something that gets likes within the status game you are playing Forums like this one and even to some extent Twitter are more evolutionary in that you will likely see higher quality ideas get conferred status. I use LinkedIn (getting traction for my product). I don't enjoy it but I do understand the game being played.

lloydjones 1y ago
Yes — I (as somebody who posts to promote my startup) wonder what the true goal is sometimes, as it’s ambiguous. Certainly target customers and industry peers, but probably recruiters and VCs too. My interpretation of how a very experienced recruiter once explained it to me is: It’s “public life” online, and your public persona (in a “The Fall of Public Man” sense), and if you have no presence or a minimal one, when the time comes that you NEED attention (job seeking; shilling your business) you won’t have any listeners due to the algorithm. Therefore one must constantly be telling the LI gods that they are an active user by posting perfunctory mediocrity. It’s algorithm-gaming and cosplaying as a table-stakes activity for being “seen” or acknowledged to exist.
- adidoit 1y ago
  You nailed it. And of course the platform solving for engagement then enshittifies but we have no alternative... back to posting on LinkedIn I guess..
fred_is_fred 1y ago
"it encourages status games". I think most social media does this. Read a Facebook feed and everyone is either on a beach, had a baby, or got promoted. Nobody is home sick or doing laundry or dealing with a terrible boss.

lloydjones 1y ago

Yes — I (as somebody who posts to promote my startup) wonder what the true goal is sometimes, as it’s ambiguous. Certainly target customers and industry peers, but probably recruiters and VCs too. My interpretation of how a very experienced recruiter once explained it to me is: It’s “public life” online, and your public persona (in a “The Fall of Public Man” sense), and if you have no presence or a minimal one, when the time comes that you NEED attention (job seeking; shilling your business) you won’t have any listeners due to the algorithm. Therefore one must constantly be telling the LI gods that they are an active user by posting perfunctory mediocrity. It’s algorithm-gaming and cosplaying as a table-stakes activity for being “seen” or acknowledged to exist.

adidoit 1y ago
You nailed it. And of course the platform solving for engagement then enshittifies but we have no alternative... back to posting on LinkedIn I guess..

fred_is_fred 1y ago

"it encourages status games". I think most social media does this. Read a Facebook feed and everyone is either on a beach, had a baby, or got promoted. Nobody is home sick or doing laundry or dealing with a terrible boss.