This post is purely dedicated to the LinkedIn fraternity.

Yeah, solve this if you are a genius or think that u belong to the 0.01% of the population who can crack this!

Warning: This is a work of pure fiction with hidden semblances of actual truth following years of painful study and research. Reader discretion is advised (well, I don’t think you need to worry about this, considering that you probably throw discretion to the wind when it comes to responding to such posts anyways) 🙂

Let us go ahead, try and analyze the rationale behind such posts.

2 questions really haunt me:-

Q#1: What sadistic pleasure could “they” (read they – as a large and growing, relatively unknown cult of people, silently on a campaign to promote neo-bonehead-ism and reverse the effects of evolution) derive by doing so?

Q#2: What sadistic pleasure could you derive, by responding with an answer, which a 1000 others have already added and you go on to add yours to the list (and in all probability will be the same answer)?

For some reason, I do not get to see such posts much on twitter and facebook (I may be wrong here), and am trying to reason below, on why we get to see such posts at all:-

–          Firstly, facebook, twitter etc may be frowned upon in the workplace (with all the BS about productivity and lack of, at the workplace)

–          Secondly, even if facebook is accessible, posting such questions may mean your friends may all un-friend you, the very next instant (I would)

–          Linkedin is not frowned upon in the workplace, so what better way than to cook up some question and watch heated frenzy over the answers, and as well try and bring the office network (yes, we all hope for this every now and then) and LinkedIn server down while you are at it

–          Not many would know that there is a marked difference in behavioral pattern between people who browse Linkedin from their workplace than when compared to checking out Facebook from home, or checking out LinkedIn and Facebook in any permutation and combination you can think of. Typically, while browsing LinkedIn – your tolerance levels are high, your social instincts are low, your EQ is low, your IQ is high and you let your guard down (while comparatively, being on Facebook or other social sites, all these parameters would be the exact opposite – try and prove me wrong on this one 🙂 )

Strangely, the “likes” and responses (answers) for such articles are usually in the thousands or more, going on to say this is becoming a popular gimmick of very large proportions.

Beware, the cult is monitoring your responses and if found suitably bone headed, you will qualify for life term membership and will be auto enrolled for its services <not known yet at this point>.

They would also have geo-tagged and have prepared a wide area network of probable members and will definitely utilize this in their agenda <unknown currently>

Now let’s try and understand how we fall gullible to this stunt:

a) Trust me, no one can stand an insult to his / her intelligence / brilliance <you will notice that almost all such teasers will taunt by asking “If you are a genius, then solve this…. / only 1% can solve this etc etc”

b) Such questions / posts directly attack the subconscious mind and evokes a sub-second response (faster than instant) and forces the mind to get into a “I am brainier than thou mindset”. Whatever follows next is purely instinctive and you usually never have any control on your actions

c) Posing such questions on LinkedIn may mean, you are appealing to all those individuals (who are on the lookout for some excitement over the mundane stuff at work) and hence you may actually get accurate responses for your maths, general knowledge, and collecting 1000 different kinds of responses for your college assignments

What next?

They are out to take this to the next level!

The first stage, that we all currently see (and are in) is the Fishing stage, where the cult is fishing for members.

The next logical stage, would be to start rolling out micro programmed instructions along with these questions and analyze further <check subliminal advertising for starters>.

A crude but workable example would be:-

Answer this if you are a genius:

2+4 = 4
Dump
3+4=5
Coffee
4+5=9
On your
5+6=6
Colleague
6+7=?

The cult would then be further emboldened going by the various news reports pouring in about people getting attacked with coffee at work, all over the world.

From here on, they are in control, alas and they can start doing whatever they choose to (and this would be the last and final stage)

So, what can we do?

For starters, start worrying.

The next time you see such a message, you can reply back with any of the following options:

– I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
– I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER 2
– I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE PLANNING TO DO THIS SUMMER
– I AM NOT FALLING FOR THIS <which is a misnomer of sorts, as you have actually fallen for this by responding!>
– Do nothing <most safest and most recommended>

Hopefully, by doing so, the cult will get scared into inaction and lose interest or switch over to some other form of attack, by when we will get the time to react (or not) as well.

ps: If I have hurt the sentiments of anyone out there, apologies. Carry on questioning, we know what to do now 😉