Live, Laugh, LinkedIn! Ep 1: The Smartest Person
And the title goes to!
The Outlook reminder pops up again. Five minutes. Can't snooze it any longer.
Alex sighs and mentally prepares for the "Q2 Metrics" meeting when to nobody's surprise, Teams just shows Jordan as the first to join.
One last breath. Headset on, camera (unfortunately) on, and Alex joins the meeting.
Mike: Oh great! Alex joined the meeting. How are you Alex?
Jordan: Yeah Alex, how's it going?
Alex: Hi Mike, hi Jordan, hi everyone. All good, all good.
Miles: tsup alex?
Alex: Hey KM, all good?
Sarah: Everyone's on the call Mike, can we start already?
Mike: I appreciate the excitement Sarah! Team, let me start by congratulating everyone on an excellent Q2.
Let me share my screen so you can see our excellent performance. Let me know when you can see my screen.
Everyone: Still nothing.
Mike: It's loading, give it some time, can you see it now?
(Mike's screen is visible now with a graphic showing the growth for Q2)
Jordan: Yes Mike, we can see it.
Mike: Great! Thanks Jordan. Team as you can see, we doubled our output…
Miles: hey mike why's that second tower taller?
Alex: Do you see that 100…
Mike: Hey Miles, that's exactly the kind of question that helps us move forward.
Jordan: Yeah that's an excellent question Miles!
Miles: wait, i'm not following.
Mike: Thank you for speaking up Miles, let's slow down and clarify.
Sarah: Oh my God…
Alex: It's really not that difficult KM, look…
Jordan: Hey Alex, you should know that the smartest person in a room isn't the one with all the answers, it's the one brave enough to ask the questions.
Sarah: Are you for real Jordan?
Jordan: Yes Sarah…
Alex (sarcastically): So who's smarter right now, Miles or Sarah? They both have asked questions.
Mike: Let's not…
Sarah: I'm obviously smarter than Miles, there’s no question.
Miles: why are you smarter?
Alex (laughing): Oh, looks like Miles is smarter now! He has asked two questions!
Mike: That's not how it works guys…
Jordan: Uh, yeah… that's… that's not how it works guys…
(childish arguing professional exchange of ideas)
Sarah (raising her voice): Then how does it work Jordan?
Alex: That's a tie! Both Miles and Sarah have two questions! Hey Mike, if the person asking the questions is smarter, shouldn't one of them be the manager instead of you?
Mike (fumbling words): Um, hehe, that's an interesting take Alex. Why would you think that?
Jordan: Ha! That’s right Alex, Mike also has great questions…
Mike (finally figuring out the game): Team, I think it's worth asking ourselves all these questions. Why's the bar larger?
Sarah (growing desperate): Why's this meeting so long?
Alex: Sarah's on the lead now with three questions, gotta pump those numbers up Mike…
Mike: Alex, this is not a competition, is it?
Jordan: Take that Alex, Mike has three questions now! He's tied with Sarah.
Alex: I see you haven't asked any questions Jordan… why's that?
Miles (laughing): oh damn! jordan's the dumbest!
Jordan: No I'm not! Alex hasn't asked any questions either!
Sarah: He literally just asked you a question Jordan…
Alex (whispering): That’s actually my second question…
(more corporate approved conversation)
Mike: Team, let's not get sidetracked. It's okay to be the least smart in the room Jordan, don't worry…
Jordan: But I'm not…
Alex: You're still tied on questions with Sarah, Mike…
Mike (visibly confused about what to do): Um, am I now?
Jordan: Ha! That's four questions for Mike! That's why he's the boss.
Sarah: Time's up for the meeting.
Mike: Oh, that was quick. Well team, thank you for your time, you all brought some really interesting… diverse perspectives to the meeting, do you have any more questions?
Sarah: No, can we leave now?
Miles: umm, so why was the second bar taller, mike?
Alex: KM, look at…
Jordan: He asked Mike, not you Alex.
Mike: That's a great question Miles, can I get back to you in our one on one?
Jordan: That's five questions for Mike! Take that Alex.
Alex: It’s actually six for him, still zero for you though…
Jordan: Uh…
Mike: Well team, thank you for your time, let's keep rocking!
(Sarah leaves the meeting)
Miles: Bye everyone.
(Miles leaves the meeting)
Alex: Bye Mike, bye Jordan.
(Alex leaves the meeting)
Author's Note:
We've all found posts like these on LinkedIn. For the most part they're harmless, we all get that's well-intentioned and it's meant to encourage maybe younger employees to ask questions. That's fine, I'm not trying to criticize people for trying to be supportive.
Let's be honest though: the wording of this particular “wisdom” is, at best, poorly thought out… and at worst, totally misleading.
Are we seriously implying that in a room full of people asking questions the person who has all the answers isn't the smartest one in the room?
Anyway, what really annoys me isn't even the quote, it's the fact that the graphic tries to encourage people to ask questions, and what's the first example of this in the caption?
"Wait, I'm not following"
That's not a question. That's what really annoys me.
But hey, enough about me.
Tell me, what's the most ridiculous LinkedIn "wisdom" you've seen lately? Drop it in the comments—it might inspire the next episode of Live, Laugh, LinkedIn!.
Did you like this one? You can read my previous post on LinkedIn’s notifications struggles:
LinkedIn is so full of these new philosophers, I’ll have the next episode of this new series ready soon. I hope you enjoyed it, and thank you for reading!