Twitter, LinkedIn, and Failing in Public#
Twitter is dead. Long live LinkedIn. Well, kinda.
During Twitter’s golden age, I loved seeing people work in public. We shared half-formed ideas, debugged projects in real-time, and celebrated small wins alongside inevitable setbacks. Twitter’s casual tone made it easier to be vulnerable about the messy nature of work. Working in this way felt to me like playing with friends.
Today on LinkedIn, I mostly see polished announcements: product launches, job promotions, completed milestones. This isn’t inherently bad (I’ve done plenty of self-promotion myself) but LinkedIn feels emotionally hollow because we share only the final act.
We know from every compelling story that we connect to heroes during their struggles, not just their victories. The uncertainty, the failed experiments, and the moments of doubt followed by picking yourself up; that’s what makes us emotionally invested in someone’s eventual success. LinkedIn is like watching only the last 20 minutes of the movie.
I suspect that this shift reflects broader cultural changes. The stakes today seem higher, and mistakes more costly, both economically and reputationally, so people naturally hedge and default to sharing only their wins. The safer it feels to only show success, the more isolated everyone becomes in their struggles. Our sense of community and authentic connection depends on our shared vulnerability. So too does our sense of play.
One solution is something we can all do more of (myself included), fail heroically in public. We can share more messy ideas, experiments, and failures as they happen. This requires courage, but I suspect it’ll also transform a scary activity into one more resembling play, scraped knees and all.