

How I Did It: Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn - hwijaya
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090501/how-i-did-it-reid-hoffman-of-linkedin_Printer_Friendly.html

======
utsmokingaces
The UI and Design of LinkedIn is horrible. I really don't enjoy using
LinkedIn. I wish someone has the balls to compete with them. I would if I was
interested in professional networking but i'm not. I haven't used XING but
hopefully its better than LinkedIn.

~~~
chexov
In terms of UI design XING is a way worst. UI responsiveness is bad in both
cases.

------
heraclitus
Matching logarithm? Sweet.

------
skmurphy
Interesting perspective from Hoffman in this answer:

"You have to think of yourself as an organism competing with other organisms
in an ecosystem. It's about how you fit into the world around you. The modern
world is moving fast, and you have to move at that speed. This is true even
for a restaurant owner. How do you get customer flow? How do you compete with
the other restaurants? How do you run your restaurant?"

I think he overlooks the value of cooperation in an ecosystem, many organisms
have inter-relationships that are not competitive but cooperative,
collaborative, commensal, or coopetitive.

A good book that offers an ecosystem perspective on economics is Bionomics by
Michael Rothschild. It's [http://www.amazon.com/Bionomics-Economy-As-Business-
Ecosyste...](http://www.amazon.com/Bionomics-Economy-As-Business-
Ecosystem/dp/1587982196) on Amazon

------
markessien
Is it just me, or do the majority of these really large tech company founders
all seem to have gone to very prestigious schools? Is there something about
the schools that also helps with technology and not just business?

~~~
mtpark
It probably has to do with the fact that very prestigious schools typically
have smart students and being smart in general is probably going to play a
huge role in success.

------
hwijaya
And, you can find his talk here:
<http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1685>

