My Analog Romance
More pages, less scrolling.
Why, hello! If you’re reading this now, it means you’re not huffing social media feeds and stoking your Algorithmic Anxiety. Congrats on that.
I started an essay on the personalized hell these feeds have become, but there are 5,000 articles published every five minutes on the same topic (including this embarrassing one from two years ago), so I’ll hold off.
…Until I ask you quickly: Have you noticed a weird shift in LinkedIn content? It used to be an oasis of professionalism — a soothing drumbeat of “I’m happy to announce I’ve accepted a role at Sukon” and “I had such a wonderful time speaking at the FutureNowTomorrow conference…” All decorum, no mess.
Of course I never spent much time on it, it was a utilitarian platform for hunting down specific people. But lately my feed is a hotbed of Facebook-style angry posts from folks I don’t know, like, “I’m TRANS and AUTISTIC and I have TATOOS but that does NOT mean I’m not AMAZING at my JOB.*”
Or, “This is my brother [photo]. He killed himself yesterday.”
I’m guessing this stems from the trend of “bringing your whole self to work,” which, in my experience is a losing strategy and terrible advice for young people starting their careers. (More on that in another newsletter.)
I haven’t scrutinized these posts about dead brothers and kids with cancer to understand how they connect to the platform’s purpose or the brand’s mission of connecting people professionally, because I don’t want to influence the algorithm by lingering too long on posts I don’t actually want to see. Not here, not now, not on this particular user journey, LinkedIn.
Keep it tight, all right?
The shift away from loose connections on social platforms toward closer, more focused online communities and a reported renaissance of long-form content is not only mentally healthier for users, it should force startup leaders to think long-term about their brands, and make smart investments instead of small bets for quicker wins.
A new table for new business vibes:
To use the same example everyone uses, you never hear anyone complain about the constant Apple ads that follow them around, yet Apple is the largest company in the world. This is because they increasingly spent less money on advertising and instead poured resources into the entire consumer experience, from the product itself to the post-purchase journey.
The race to the top is littered with broken bodies
That’s not a dramatic way of describing irresponsible CEOs and unrealistic investors, but this article about a group of climbers who attempted to summit Denali drew a ton of parallels:
A cocky, inexperienced, self-assigned leader who won’t listen to veteran climbers
A team member who pushed himself too hard and ended up in a coma
Authorities and courts getting involved and issuing fines
It’s a tale as old as the average Theranos investor!
Other reads this week:
This interview with Yellowjackets director Karyn Kusama is fairly affirming for anyone mid-career and middle-aged.
And for anyone in their quarterlife (ages 16 - 36) this book is supposed to help you navigate it with a balance of meaning and stability. (I’m technically too old for this book, but since I identify as a young adult and a teen mom I’ve ordered a copy for myself.)
Following those up with the anti-aging scam.
And here’s the neuroscience behind bad decision making at any age.