Thinking that I've got at least 18 years of professional experience, and I've had my own website for years (maybe a different domain a decade back), with my work, experience and email address publicly available. With a few keystrokes, I can still find genuine conversations I had with people 15 years ago and if I want message them.
Of course that not everyone keeps the same email address, and plenty of companies disappear. But if you're genuinely interested in finding someone, it's surprisingly easy to find them.
Sometimes I wonder if my life would be different if I'd had a LinkedIn account. Maybe someone would have reached out 15, 10 or even 5 years ago, especially when some of my skills were in demand! Not everyone has access to the same opportunities, so maybe I shoot myself on the foot. But I remember the times I had a lot of recruiters contacting, sometimes offering free lunch, dinner or beer. Felt special! Maybe that's why I didn't want to have a Linkedin account. I was happy focusing, working, had my humble salary just enough to pay the bills. Or, I didn't know I could get paid much more...
But isn't it strange how we pretend to care about people, while so much of what we actually care about is visibility, connections, status and what someone can offer us? We've become worse at remembering people for who they are, what they're good at, or the conversations we once had with them. Preferring to look for exaggerated achievements, job titles, ghost jobs in fake companies, navigating a horrible looking website. Sort of a 1999 amazon.
Everyone complains, but few people are willing to leave it, because they know what happens when you disappear...
We're just replaceable profiles in the noise, and very few people will put in the effort to look beyond all the BS!
> But if you're genuinely interested in finding someone, it's surprisingly easy to find them.
I had a really weird experience along these lines recently, maybe a year ago. I wasn't really looking for familiar faces, but I was browsing on the lobster site and came across a name I hadn't seen since maybe 2002? I was a member on a vbulletin (I think it was vbulletin or phpbb) forum they ran. I don't have a login over there so I wasn't able to ping the user so it's been on my mind as a bit of a missed connection
Of course now that I've remembered this, it has been surprisingly easy to find them and I might reach out. They probably don't realize how much of an impact they had on me when I was younger
I have similar experiences! The most recent was during a private beta in a discord channel. Past, includes Hacker News and even Youtube comments.
The most challenging experience, was to locate a friend from school in the 90s. He didn't have any social media or online presence. I put some effort and found out a book he has published, one of his childhood dreams. The book was released by a small publisher...
punkbit · · focus · HN ↗
Of course that not everyone keeps the same email address, and plenty of companies disappear. But if you're genuinely interested in finding someone, it's surprisingly easy to find them.
Sometimes I wonder if my life would be different if I'd had a LinkedIn account. Maybe someone would have reached out 15, 10 or even 5 years ago, especially when some of my skills were in demand! Not everyone has access to the same opportunities, so maybe I shoot myself on the foot. But I remember the times I had a lot of recruiters contacting, sometimes offering free lunch, dinner or beer. Felt special! Maybe that's why I didn't want to have a Linkedin account. I was happy focusing, working, had my humble salary just enough to pay the bills. Or, I didn't know I could get paid much more...
But isn't it strange how we pretend to care about people, while so much of what we actually care about is visibility, connections, status and what someone can offer us? We've become worse at remembering people for who they are, what they're good at, or the conversations we once had with them. Preferring to look for exaggerated achievements, job titles, ghost jobs in fake companies, navigating a horrible looking website. Sort of a 1999 amazon.
Everyone complains, but few people are willing to leave it, because they know what happens when you disappear...
We're just replaceable profiles in the noise, and very few people will put in the effort to look beyond all the BS!
bluefirebrand · · focus · HN ↗
I had a really weird experience along these lines recently, maybe a year ago. I wasn't really looking for familiar faces, but I was browsing on the lobster site and came across a name I hadn't seen since maybe 2002? I was a member on a vbulletin (I think it was vbulletin or phpbb) forum they ran. I don't have a login over there so I wasn't able to ping the user so it's been on my mind as a bit of a missed connection
Of course now that I've remembered this, it has been surprisingly easy to find them and I might reach out. They probably don't realize how much of an impact they had on me when I was younger
punkbit · · focus · HN ↗
The most challenging experience, was to locate a friend from school in the 90s. He didn't have any social media or online presence. I put some effort and found out a book he has published, one of his childhood dreams. The book was released by a small publisher...