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I have a blog

And my LinkedIn history

And a resume

So does everyone else (well...maybe minus the blog)

And yet people lie (or don't tell the truth) on their resume and LI profiles all the danged time

I think asking for references would easily remedy this.

References are worthless because nobody is going to give references that badmouth them.

Even if they come from reputable and we’ll respected individuals in the field?

Let's say I give you three well-respected folks as "references"

That's cool - do you know them?

I'm only going to ever give you people who'll give me a good reference

So asking for references is pretty pointless