Gotta be honest... I love this forum.

Main reason? It's not LinkedIn.

I know, I know... LI's a great tool for prospecting, job seeking, and other genuine professional pursuits.

But the pageantry is downright nauseating.

It's been B.A.N.A.N.A.S watching it devolve into the tone-deaf self-congratulatory circle-jerk it's become. I dare you to scroll through the comment section on some of those +20k follower posts. Dafuq is going on.

Everyone wants to be an influencer, everything's weighted by public professional perception, all the agendas are out and on full-tilt. LI is basically IG or TikTok with all the toppings removed - substantive? in some ways, perhaps. But bland. boring. tough to swallow.

Then you have this forum: Open, anonymous discussion with no-bullshit contributions. All the nutrition with a fraction of the clout chase. Sure, you can reap some engagement dopamine... but at least on this platform, any and all self-congratulatory circle-jerks are enjoyed privately and anonymously -- just as they should be.

Because when it happens out in public, it's usually pretty ugly.

ps - shoutout to the Bravado CEO and others who offer value and keep it really real on LI. For these outliers, all the above is n/a.