This image is scary. To be honest, it is not clear where the numbers come from, so take it with a grain of salt.

This was reblogged multiple times, check out this explanation.

One of the key tasks for starting a business is validating the idea - a task that is, unfortunately, often neglected.  Therefore, Validation is a key ingredient of Sramana Mitra's EJ Methodology. Sramana even provides support for validation in the form of a list of "Clarify your story" questions.  I was still struggling on how to engage potential customers in validation.

I found support in this Seth Godin post regarding business plans.  It didn't look like much, but when I tried to restate my ideas in terms of Truths and Assertions, I realized that the Assertions were a great starting point for validation.

I have always been suspicious towards social networks.  Still, I have a profile on most networks.  It usually points people towards a place that I control myself (my web presence and my email).

Yesterday, I got a notification by Xing that they deactivated my account.  After some probing, they finally tell me why (because I have two accounts there).  Fine, delete the older one.  Except... that they delete the wrong one.  Answer from Xing: "Sorry, can't be undone!"

Whatever.  Just another warning to everybody to be careful on how deeply you are willing to invest into a platform that you don't control.

This is not the first unpleasant encounter I had with Xing, I will probably keep the (barely connected) profile there, until they decide to delete that one too.