LinkedIn Recommendations

I have been spending some time clearing up some long pending items on my

to do list. I was able to tick off one item over the last few days – respond to the

recommendation requests I've received on LinkedIn over the past two years.

The reason that this has been on the to-do list for a while is not because I have

received lots of requests (the number is in single digits); it was because I was

against this idea for quite some time for a number of reasons. Firstly, a lot of the

recommendations were filled with hyperbole and therefore writing in my usual

(bland, though I would prefer to call it 'under-stated') style would make the person

look quite ordinary; secondly, many of the recommendations seemed to be cases

of “i'll scratch your back if you scratch mine” with two people writing glowing

recommendations for each other; lastly, not writing any recommendations gave me

a convenient excuse to avoid writing recommendations for people I may not be too

keen to recommend (i.e. “as a matter of policy, I don't write LinkedIn

recommendations”).

On thinking some more, I began to feel that maybe the above reasons though

somewhat valid, were also excuses. Maybe the real reasons were my aversion

towards expressing opinions in public and good old-fashioned laziness; also I am

certain that there are good things that can be said about anyone (though it may

require more effort in some cases :-)). On a selfish note, I think that a well-written,

thoughtful recommendation reflects well on the writer. Lastly, it would be quite rich on

my part to publish recommendations that I receive while declining to write them for

others.

Another item on my to-do list is to write a blog post at least once a week. I hope I

am able to do this over the next few weeks; if I can post at least twelve times before

the end of the year, this task too can be considered done.