In the most roundabout way possible, Doug Belshaw informs us he has deactivated his LinkedIn account. It's an ersatz reality, he argues, venerating "representation over reality, and appearance over essence. What matters is the performance rather than the work." I don't disagree. Belshaw introduces the subject with reference to W.V.O. Quine's 'web of belief' (described in the book of the same name) describing how we'll often just 'go along' with received wisdom barring any compelling reason to doubt it. And just so, he says, people go along with the idea that a site like LinkedIn is professionally necessary. A lot of our beliefs are like that, and the post serves as a reminder that we should question even those things we take to be obvious (like whether something is a planet, say).
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