When I made my first comment there were only two other comments in here suggesting that Networkers were all a “bunch of assholes” who aren’t genuine and say things like “let’s connect” when they don’t mean it. Since then the conversation has become a lot more nuanced.

I don’t understand who is forcing people to network against their will. Do you mean that they feel they have to in order to grow their business?

Oh sorry yeah I should have clarified. There’s one global networking group who are notorious for putting members under huge pressure to deliver leads constantly. They developed a system based on traffic lights to assess your worth to the group on a monthly basis. It’s horrible and their excuse is that “it works”. Well… punching yourself in the face constantly will also help you handle punches but is there another choice? According to them… nope. That kind of networking is insanely toxic. How I discovered this was that I was forced by an employer once to go to this group’s meetings for a year and I hated it. Thankfully, I’ve found that there’s a ton of much nicer groups around (often started by ex-members of the super toxic one).

It’s fashionable to say that networking sucks apparently. Personally, networking has made it possible for me to start a business, help it grow and turn it into a success. Networking has put food on the table, it keeps a roof over my head and it’s given me a life I didn’t think I had a shot at. When I hear people say it doesn’t work it always makes me wonder if maybe networking isn’t the problem.

There are networking rules I live by though. No high pressure, power handshake, traffic light system, dog eat dog, alpha male BS. It’s about really getting to know a group of people and deciding if you like em and if you’re going to help em. It’s about being real, being genuinely helpful and open to suggestions. A good networking group will let you know your iceberg towing business is probably not going to work out that well. A great group will notice how quickly you were able to put together a team of tugboats, refrigerated trucks and distributors and suggest that actually you might want to start a supply chain management business instead.

But networking is so much more than just getting leads too. It’s a life university course for the price of breakfast. About 30 people in the same boat as you who want your help and have lots of help and advice to give you. Starting a business is lonely and confusing. A good networking group helps a lot with that.

An alt made using the aptly named Copilot :)

Step 1 - Putin doesn’t like a thing.
Step 2 - Putin says that if you do the thing you’ll get nuked.
Step 3 - Putin’s little cyber puppets flood social media with posts “concerned” about the risks of him launching the mighty nukes. Oh noes!
Step 4 - Putin hopes you believe him.
Step 5 - Nobody believes him.

…some times passes…

aaand we’re back to Step 1…

I mean, you asked me to come back to you if something happens that demonstrates “impact” and I did. If you don’t care about this why don’t you take the high road right now and just not reply…

Looks like something changed so let’s review. The conditions were that this would have no impact on Cloudflare or Brittany. Apart from Cloudflare looking like dicks in the most public and embarrassing way imaginable, Brittany’s landed a nice new job most likely thanks to all the visibility she generated. I would imagine she was offered a ton of jobs the minute she went viral and is only now officially able to announce the one she picked. Well done her. You mentioned being used to being 100% right so you must know the feeling well. I have to say, I see why you like it so much cos I’m certainly enjoying this ;)

Hello, here’s all the things I’d like to argue about today.

Ok, let’s see.

Yeah… seems like you didn’t read the conditions of the test I proposed. See you in 3 months ;)

Have been playing and just finished Geodepths. Really nice indie dev first person mining, smelting, resource gathering on an alien planet type of game. Wish it had lasted longer to be honest.

Ok, let’s see.

Alright, let’s play this game. Firstly a week is nothing so let’s make it 3 months and let’s begin by being clear about what “no impact” means. It seems to me twofold. On the one hand there’s the impact on Cloudflare’s share price and then more directly the impact on Brittany Pietsch. If she gets no more job offers than she would have if she’d kept quiet then I guess that would be “no impact” number one. Cloudflare’s share price has risen since November last year from 54.95USD to its current price of 79.37USD. If there is no great change in three months then that would be “no impact” number two. Let’s see what happens ;)

“Now she has nothing” - You shouldn’t underestimate the impact of going viral. If she’d kept quiet no one would have ever known about the way Cloudflare behaved. Now she’s gone viral globally and her 1 day old LinkedIn post about this situation has (so far) collected 4,260 reactions, 547 comments and 128 reposts. You can bet your bottom dollar that Matthew Prince is not sleeping soundly tonight. It’s going to be rather interesting to see what happens next…

I’m finding this confusing. On the one hand you are adamant this will have no impact for them but then also say this could have huge legal connotations for them. Which is it? It can’t be both.

If it was nothing why brush it?

Yet the CEO felt the need to try to do some damage limitation. Clearly he doesn’t share your confidence about the lack of impact this could have on the company’s reputation.

“Most people outside of IT don’t even know what Cloudflare is or that it even exists.” They do now ;)

People said that the API revolt on reddit would change nothing and yet here we both are discussing the terrible behaviour of yet another corporation on a completely different platform to reddit that I would never even have known about if it weren’t for exactly this kind of story. I believe things do change and I certainly won’t forget that Cloudflare did this and I suspect you won’t either.