People send me a friend request on LinkedIn; I give them a history lesson.
(This was also published on my Medium account, which is way more interesting than LinkedIn.)
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The Happy Hermit 
Brilliant retort!
Thank you!
Some LinkedIn acquaintance sent me a note that included some ostensibly laudible quote from Margaret Thatcher, and I replies that we must have absolutely nothing in common, so please let’s not connect.
Someone with no idea about human communication must have recommended somewhere to include quotes in contact requests. It’s a weird thing to do. I prefer to read from the person who is writing, not from some dead person, whose books I would read if I was interested in them.
But in defense of Margaret Thatcher, at least she campaigned wholeheartedly for the European Community in the last British referendum on that subject.
Using the word “networking” carries the implicit meaning that you only meet these people because you hope you can somehow profit from these people in the future. I hate it and prefer not to “network” with anyone. I’d rather just meet people normally and if their personalities are compatible with mine, I might want to hang out with them a bit more.
The phrase “high value people” has the same association. Using it tells me that this person thinks of the people he knows as some form of social currency. Knowing “high value people” makes him a bit richer and this is the purpose of his life, isn’t it? If the person ceases to be a “high value person”, he becomes a liability and needs to be ditched.
Quoting Henry Ford is in the same category as these other two things…
Overall, the post makes me think of an extremely boring sociopath whose only life goal is to accumulate as much wealth and power as possible.
On a second thought, I was probably reading way too much into this quotation. I’m sure the person who sent this is a nice guy.
I have also always been turned off by “networking” events. If I need someone’s services, I will find them. If someone needs my services, they will find me. And if not, I don’t mind because I am too busy already anyway.
I always assumed that these networking events are full of people who must not yet be busy enough and I never understood the point of meeting with other professionals who also lack clients. It becomes even more absurd when people of the same profession meet, for they are often competitors.
And I share your view of the term “high value people”. Every human being has the same value, whether it’s a child, a homeless guy or a professor. One of them may be more useful in certain situations, but that’s a different category than “value”. And in my experience, poor or low-status people are often nicer, more trustworthy and reliable and have better stories to tell.
“And in my experience, poor or low-status people are often nicer, more trustworthy and reliable and have better stories to tell.” I couldn’t agree more. I prefer not to connect with people whom I haven’t met face to face but job recruiters are fine. :)
I can tell de-nazification worked well in Germany. As opposed to de-communizaton in Eastern Europe.
Unfortunately, de-nazification in Western Germany came to an early end when the Cold War kicked in: https://andreasmoser.blog/2017/04/29/germany-1945-1949/
After that, there was a long gap of silence, until in the 1960s the first generation born after the NS regime began to question what their parents had done, and there was more academic, literary and judicial interest. The Auschwitz trials for example only began in 1963.
Kein Ding so schlecht, dass es nicht was gutes hätt…
Smack! Ohrfeige höchster Qualität.
I have said this before LinkedIn is CRAP! The same people you find on LinkedIn are on here too anyway happy new year!