Friday, August 26, 2011

Probably A Mistake

I've been trying to keep my LinkedIn presence up-to-date.

I rarely stay in touch with people once they're out of my immediate sight. I haven't spoken to anyone from my last company since June. I used to meet with someone about once a month from my company before that, but since I moved away from that office we haven't been in touch either. But they are LinkedIn connections. I've tried to go back a bit further but people move around, or I don't remember names so I don't connect.  Yes, I could scan the list of employees at a previous company, but there might be, say, 40,000 employees and it's a bit time consuming.

Recently, on a lark, I connected to a high school/college friend I haven't spoken to in 20 years.  He's totally disconnected from everyone else I know ~ no common friends, family, companies.

I have an urge to connect to him on facebook as well, assuming he's on there.  I haven't checked yet.  No comment, just offer to "friend" him and see what happens.

As I remember, he was unpredictable.  He was also more conservative, politically, than I was.

I see one downside: if he matches Meg and his old friend, he can contact my LinkedIn contacts and spread the word.  I don't think he would, but it's a possibility.

I don't really see an upside, except it would be fun.

Am I being stupid again?  You guys have set me straight before.




8 comments:

  1. --Stupid implies an inability to see the consequence of a particular course of action. You've already identified the consequence.

    But if ya have to ask, then you probably already know the answer.

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  2. Years ago I saw a "No Fear" t-shirt with the slogan "If you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much room".
    While there are many reasons why some of us CD, at least in my case on those rare occasions when I can dress and get out of the house there is a thrill...joy...pleasure...fear...etc...about "living on the edge". For me there is a bit of an adreneline trigger connected with being CD. I sense that you also have a thrill seeking component.
    Go for it.
    Pat

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  3. Meg, Not a good Idea. This could get back to your wife
    Hugs Diane

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  4. You've been trying to out yourself for some time. I think Meg needs some breathing room and is longing to come out of the closet. You've said in your post "no stories".

    So go for it. The world won't end.

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  5. Most of my friends know about me, but there are still some who don't. I've got two facebook pages, and figure sooner or later someone will figure it out and connect them, or someone will out me on purpose. It happens, and the best thing I know to do is deal with it with dignity. Besides, if they would do it deliberately, they really weren't worth knowing anyway, and your real friends will see that.

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  6. --And when someone falls off the edge it's called "natural selection." You can keep the edge. I like my view from the center. I can see everything from here.

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  7. I had a LINKEDIN account. Seemed like to me it was just a way for more spam. I mean why would a guy from Detroit want to link with me? Oh! he sells insurance. Etc. Etc.

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  8. Whenever I talk about preferring to stay in the closet rather than deal with the immense repercussions of revealing my wardrobe to friends outside my house, invariably someone will scold me that "A closet is for clothes".

    Thanks but no thanks, I'm still not buying. Some people were born for confrontation; I can't even go back and demand a refund if the cashier gets my change wrong and shorts me by $10. So unless you are ready for your friends from the "old" you to meet the "new" you, you'd best keep them separate.

    In particular, unless he already knows Meg separately from your other self, he'd be suspicious of this random stranger popping up and friending him, and he'd probably dig a lot deeper than you want him to.

    Anyhow, that's the opinion of someone too scared to be seen by anyone, ever.

    ReplyDelete

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