LinkedIn’s Alternate Universe - Divinations

People used to call LinkedIn “work Facebook”, by which I think they meant it's a mindless website where people gab about their work lives. But LinkedIn isn’t really about work in any meaningful sense. Of course, people talk about working on LinkedIn. Oh, how they love to talk about working! No matter the shitty job, no matter the grueling hours, ev... See more

Meanwhile, in a world of doomscrolling, algorithmic feeds and fake news - social media is the new tobacco. People don’t want to engage with another social network.

So we need a new script for the world of work. Maybe the future is… LinkedIn?

I think LinkedIn has a unique opportunity - a cultural moment around work, coupled with a unique proposition: ... See more

People act pretentious asf and sound robotic on LinkedIn.

My LinkedIn feed is a dystopian Uncanny Valley. It's as if a person was force-fed self-help books and watched TED Talks for the weekend, and then vomited up a bunch of "professional" content. The same people who constantly talked shit in high school are "passionate innovators" and "dynamic t... See more

LinkedIn may be the social app Silicon Valley product people like to grouse about the most, but while many of the complaints are valid, its sizable market cap is testament to the value of its graph. It turns out if you map out the professional graph, not just today but also across long temporal and organizational dimensions, recruiters will pay a l... See more

Polywork is a modern take on LinkedIn that builds out your profile at the more granular project and achievement level as opposed to the job level. So, “Pushed Code,” “Updated an iOS app,” or “Spoke at a conference” is the new “Got a new Job.” In a polygamous career, these milestones matter more. Another company I am excited about is Braintrust, a d... See more

Although the mainstream business professional does not yet have a compelling reason to spend time on LinkedIn daily, a big focus of the company is to add features to motivate broader regular usage. Recent new feature examples include finding and endorsing service providers such as lawyers and accountants, re-connecting with former colleagues and cl... See more

If the new American Dream is defined by “creative expression, online influence and extreme optionality” over linear moves up the corporate ladder, then LinkedIn is enough to make any Millennial or Gen Z jobseeker cringe.