Beware the LinkedIn ‘Gurus’

Increasingly I’ve been seeing posts on LinkedIn that go viral by offering, what I think, is objectively bad advice. Everything from incredibly unlikely stories being peddled e.g. a value investor at a multi billion dollar equity fund as an investor in a startup to bad networking and interviewing strategies.

It’s sad to see LinkedIn increasingly switch from networking for professionals to the same hucksters and bullshit artists who troll Instagram and Facebook, but that’s what seems to be happening.

With that said there are good “influencers” on there who contribute thoughtful pieces, however they never go as viral. Case in point a guy I know who is a semi-retired MD from a reputable, well known MM posts often, but he tends to get a handful of likes and a few comments for an interesting article and this guy usually has analysis that’s worth reading. For students or people right out of school the advice proffered on LinkedIn needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt, especially given the fake it ‘til you make it culture.

 

All of those are probably good heuristics. The one I’m thinking of just offers terrible contrarian advice. I think part of the issue is so many people think being contrarian is just the inverse of what is popular. A true contrarian is someone who gets the nuances that others miss, for example someone who looked at the aviation industry in its infancy, recognized its world changing potential, but also noticed it might not be a great investment.

 

I really wish the only allowed posts on linkedin were related to people finding jobs etc. Seeing politically charged posts or "alpha" dudes who post their 4AM wake up schedule is just the worst. And don't get me started on the "thought leaders". Ugh

 

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