I’ve seen a few comments over the last few months about what people think Linked In should be for, and what people think about how people use it (often in the latter case, accompanied by comparisons to people’s Facebook) … here’s my take:
- I’m glad Microsoft has purchased Linked In, and intend to integrate it with other products, such as to (for example) allow people to upload a MS Word version of their resume – thus gaining better control of formatting & layout – and what I suspect they may also do with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and other system
- I do wish however that Microsoft was an NFP so that the agenda would be better products and services rather than serving parasitic shareholders, while also closing off most of the code as proprietary (instead of open source), and in other ways screwing things up as corporations almost always do;
- Whether it’s Facebook or Linked In, there’s actually no difference in how ignorant and misinformed people are, it’s just that the extension of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, is that more qualified people are more convinced of the totality of their qualifications, and more egocentrically convinced of the certainty and perfection of their beliefs … so in some respects, Linked In is worse;
- The thing about Linked In which is noticeably worse, is that everyone is sucking up to each other for favour and profit, so the conversations tend toward the extremely shallow, trite, and anything which entrenches the status quo while pretending to be “disruptive” – which like “innovation” is a word so over used (without cause) as to have lost all meaning.
One guy in a conversation asked the question (paraphrased):
“Why are people’s political views relevant on a social network, which is supposed to be about professional networking?”
To which I replied (something along the lines of):
” … it depends what you think the purpose of business is … and if it’s supposed to be about making the world a better place – as opposed to just an oxymoron defined ‘profit’ – then politics has everything to do with it … “