It has become customary when a LinkedIn-related article pops up for people on HN to complain about the endorsements, the spam or to declare that they've deleted their accounts with no remorse.

This article isn't about the spam or the endorsements, but rather about its network effects, with its roots lying in the "positive-thinking industry", a pyramid of salesmen for snake-oil following the model of Dale Carnegie, a man who never influenced anybody until he wrote his famous book.

It is a rather interesting perspective of which I never thought about before.