If you’re in B2B sales I’d imagine LinkedIn is a useful sales medium. Glad I don’t have to engage in that rat race though.

I would argue that nothing is ever an intrinsic part of one’s identity.

I think there are things society puts a lot of emphasis on, like career or sexual orientation, that are elevated in a way that makes us assume they have to be part of someone’s “identity,” but that’s not some universal law. It’s a societal construct.

I like peanut butter sandwiches. I would never say “I identify as a peanut butter sandwich fan.” But here’s the thing, some people do. There’s somebody out there who’s got 50 different “PB Sandos 4 Life” Tshirts, and has a YouTube channel dedicated to trying all the different brands of PB, and wants to be buried on the JIF plantation. For that guy, peanut butter sandwiches are part of his identity.

And in the same way there are plenty of gay people (who are born that way, to be clear, I’m not arguing being gay is a choice) for whom their sexual orientation are not part of their “identity.” They are unquestionably gay, but don’t participate in the larger gay community, and if you asked them who they are, being gay wouldn’t be in the top 10 things they say about themselves, any more than most straight people would list “heterosexual” in their top 10 things about themselves.

Now, that’s hard in our current societal context, as it puts so much emphasis on who you’re sleeping with in a way that drives people who don’t “fit the mold” to (very reasonably) band together for solidarity and support, but that doesn’t make it intrinsically part of your identity.

All that to say, identity is a tricky thing, and I would argue that it’s far too fluid to say that literally anything is intrinsically part of it.