Mental Health · Primly Community

Comparison anxiety on LinkedIn, a script that helps

Primly Team · 2 replies

Everyone on LinkedIn just got a new job, a promotion, a Series B, and they're "humbled and excited." You're in week 11 of your search. The cognitive dissonance is brutal.

A simple reframing that helps a lot of people: Every LinkedIn post is a celebration filtered to look easy. Nobody posts "I cried in my car after the Stripe rejection." That doesn't mean nobody cried.

Tactically: Limit LinkedIn to 15 min/day, ideally not first thing in the morning and not the last thing at night. Unfollow (not unfriend) the 5 people who reliably make you feel worse. You don't owe anyone access to your nervous system. Replace scroll-time with one outreach DM per day to someone whose career you genuinely admire. Ask one specific question. Even if 4/5 don't reply, the active gesture beats the passive scroll every time.

The deeper move: LinkedIn shows you outcomes. Your career is built from process. They're not the same thing, and the comparison is structurally unfair.

2 replies

alex_design

i unfollowed (not unfriended, just muted) 5 people who reliably made me feel worse. nobody noticed. they have 30k followers, my view doesn't matter to them. it mattered a lot to me the next week though.

market_realist

read this at week 22. unfollowed 12 people. search anxiety dropped measurably the following week. the 'these people have outcomes i don't' loop was costing me probably 90 min/day in invisible cortisol. one of the cheapest interventions i've ever done.