> I find this rather ridiculous. Most people I know have multiple groups of friends, little cross-over between them, and are happy to share different things about themselves with different groups.

That's not that ridiculous. Anecdotical evidence no. 2, neither I nor anyone I know uses groups or lists on FB. And regarding the gulf experience, yesterday I just posted a soccer-related status on my FB wall and I received likes from 2 ladies, one of whom I haven't seen in 15 years and the other just recovering from cancer, either way, I wouldn't have put them in any "interested-in-soccer" list.

I use lists elsewhere, but not on FB, because FB makes it hard to use them.

There's no way, for instance, to post to a list on their Android App, or their mobile site.

The argument is that you're in the minority. I think most people have relatively clear friend/work boundaries, but even then I encountered a few "Hmmm" moments when putting people in circles. I suspect that most people don't actually want to group the people in their social network - it can take a surprising amount of introspection. Time will tell if that's true.

Yeah, I guess we'll find out.

Mind you, if people don't care then they can just lump them into a single "Friends" circle and have done.

> tell my golfing stories with my golfing buddies, without worrying about boring my old uni friends

Exactly. I have my employer and some clients in my FB friends list. I censor myself to the point where I don't post at all anymore.

The solution to your problem lies within yourself. Don't censor yourself. Just write whatever you want. Nobody cares, trust me. Your boss doesn't wait staring at Facebook news feed, looking for an inappropriate status update you might post. :-). It is the boss in your head that stops you from sharing what you want.

There's no way of knowing whether a hiring manager will care a few years from now. Or loan officer, or landlord, or police detective. This is why Facebook gets cheerful pablum from me, while HN gets what's actually weighing on my mind.

I think you are way too kind compared to most people. :-) Nobody worries about boring his friends. People are vain. They think everything they do is freaking amazing.