undefined | Better HN

0 pointsSpooky237mo ago0 comments

The loudest voice is often not the best practitioner at <x>.

Marketing and connection is always about this. That is not unique to LinkedIn. People who feel the need to spend time and treasure to tell you how smart they are generally fall short.

Conversely, there are plenty of brilliant people who toil anonymously and nobody, even at their company, knows they exist.

0 comments

ndriscoll7mo ago

Plato identified this 2400 years ago as a fundamental flaw of representative democracy: you end up with people who are the best at and focus all of their efforts on getting elected and not people who are the best at and focus all of their efforts on governing.

The problem of marketers remains unsolved after millennia.

fragmede7mo ago

is it unsolved? they seem to be doing very well for themselves.

Spooky23OP7mo ago

That's why engineers are engineers. As a profession, they are trained to find the optimal answer to the questions they are asked.

The problem is, people are independent agents and generally prioritize their own outcome. If "being humbled" by some nonsense on LinkedIn gets you a high paying job that you perform poorly at, that's a win -- for you. Even if you get fired, you just roll with it and move to bigger and better things to fail up with.

Is it the best way to solve the problem the company has? No. But linkedin guy dngaf and is not asking that question!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse