Anatomy of a LinkedIn Post

Lemmings — Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Patrick O’Neill Riley

When I see a LinkedIn post with hundreds of comments I usually let it pass by without investigating. You’d think a post that has a lots of comments might be good, interesting or important (I almost said funny) but they very rarely are.

Generally these posts are thinly disguised clickbait — sometimes not disguised at all, especially if its a poll.

I got tagged in one of these recently so thought I’d use it to explain why they often turn out to be a big waste of time.

1. A guy posts about an awkward social situation he’s just negotiated and how he just said ‘No.’ then was asked ‘Why?’ (Remember ‘No’ and ‘Why?’ for later.) Presumably his motivation in posting is to help other people deal with similar situations by adopting his strategy. Maybe not. Who knows why people post this stuff.
2. A bunch of people who have dealt with similar situations add their own strategies. They don’t need help. They’ve got their own ideas on how to deal with this and add them at great length. A few people do the obligatory “Great post” lemming like comment that is so banal no-one even notices. But they add to the numbers.
3. Another bunch of people who have dealt with situations nothing like the original one draw vague comparisons with their own experiences and explain how they dealt with them. Some sub threads take on a life of their own and end up having no relevance at all to the original post with commenters chasing each other down ever deeper rabbit holes.
4. A new guy pops by and says the first guy is too sensitive and shouldn’t be making such a big deal of it. Everybody ignores him. Apparently.
5. Religion and culture get thrown around as reasons why this situation is trickier for some people than others, apparently unrelated but somehow passive agressive to the guy who mentioned sensitivity. Some people in this bit of the thread get a fair bit of abuse and one woman’s comment is spectacularly cruel and rude. No-one says anything about it.
6. Someone else says that the way Guy No 1. dealt with the situation is OK for a social setting but “What if it was your boss/ supervisor and you didn’t want to upset them? “Can you ask why without hurting them?” A few of the previous people and some new ones get in on that one without coming to any useful conclusion as everyone just talks about their own bosses.
7. The compulsory “I’m gonna show you how clever I am” guy homes in on the word ‘Why?’ explaining it’s an elipsis and “is semantically underspecified and hence leaves room for ambiguity. To obtain an understanding despite the missing information, our brain takes action and adds whatever it thinks might be the most plausible missing information — and then it interprets the expanded result.” Apparently Guy No 1 interpreted the “Why?” wrongly.
8. This triggers a few comments about the word ‘No’. “No is a full sentence. Period.” One of those comments is from someone who said No! to the Covid vaccine. Everyone ignores that one too.
9. Someone asks Guy No 1 if his past is holding him back from creating new possibilities. If this doesn’t happen at least once, are you even on LinkedIn? Ditto “You are not alone.”
10. 150 + comments later people are still adding their own ideas for poor old Guy No 1. to wade through. Or not. He’s ignored most of them.

Something weird happens to people on LinkedIn when they spot a post like this. It’s almost like lemmings following each other off the comment cliff to drown in the river of obscurity. Why they do it no-one will ever know.

“When the concentration of lemmings becomes too high in one area, a large group will set out in search of a new home.” https://www.britannica.com/
Don’t let their next home be your next post.

And don’t be a lemming.