Sunny days are warm: why LinkedIn rewards mediocrity

LinkedIn as Hiring and Career Infrastructure

• Many dislike LinkedIn as a de facto background-check tool and would prefer traditional resumes/CVs and cover letters (though several note cover letters and even resumes often go unread).
• Others argue LinkedIn is still uniquely valuable as a global business database, recruiter channel, and source of interviews and contracts, especially for sales, consulting, and solo businesses.
• A recurring sentiment: for many, it works “just enough” for job search and networking to be unavoidable, even if they hate the feed.

Feed Content and “Toxic Mediocrity”

• The feed is widely described as ego-stroking, corporate PR, AI-generated “slop”, engagement bait, and contrived “lessons” from trivial anecdotes.
• Algorithms appear to reward frequency, virality, and safe platitudes over depth or originality, making disagreement risky and fostering groupthink.
• Some posters see this as simply reflecting broader corporate culture, where visible mediocrity and networking often beat quiet excellence.

Marketing vs. Substance

• Marketing-oriented commenters say the article reflects a developer who “doesn’t get marketing”: repeated exposure, not a few deep posts, drives trust and revenue; LinkedIn is a top-of-funnel billboard.
• Several claim to attribute significant revenue to LinkedIn content and treat it as a deliberate funnel to blogs, newsletters, and other channels.
• Critics respond that this proves the point: what’s rewarded is repetition and brand-building, not competence or meaningful work; “influencers” often turn out to be mediocre practitioners.
• A long subthread debates whether marketing is inherently manipulative or a necessary form of product discovery, and how much it erodes attention, trust, and societal “signal”.

Status Games and Performative Professionalism

• LinkedIn is framed as a status arena: inflated titles, “thought leadership,” and carefully curated public personas aligned with employer expectations.
• People avoid real debate because visible conflict looks risky to hiring managers; safe, inspirational content dominates.
• Some liken it to a “slave auction with a newsfeed” or pure rat-race theatre.

Coping Strategies and Selective Use

• Common tactics: blocking/hiding the main feed with extensions, unfollowing everyone, strict curation of connections, and using LinkedIn only as a resume host or recruiter inbox.
• A minority say careful curation yields genuinely useful technical and industry content, and that posting honest, concrete work (projects, experiments) can still stand out amid the sludge.

Platforms, Algorithms, and Broader Mediocrity

• Several note that mediocrity and engagement slop are endemic to all social platforms; LinkedIn has simply applied the same growth tactics to a professional context.
• There’s speculation about alternatives—verified, decentralized CV systems or LinkedIn-without-posts—but also skepticism that they’d escape the same incentive problems.