Your attention is hijacked

My tweet recently got viral and I noticed some interesting pattern in people’s behaviour and their approval.

It made me think about reactions that I’ve got on my viral posts VS posts that were “good enough” but got no feedback:

It’s easy to support something when it’s already popular

The more likes you get, the more people are willing to like and support you.

But it’s super hard to be the person who puts that first like and comments on an idea that might sound a bit polarising.

Think about your actions on the Internet. Doesn't it sound familiar? Nothing bad or good about this phenomenon, it’s just a human psychology.

Social proof is faked

Social proof is one of the most popular and scientifically proven techniques to gain trust and speed up people’s decisions.

That’s why you’ll see lots of fake testimonials and totally fabricated reviews on the Internet. You’ll see new accounts with thousands of random followers and impressive engagement numbers just to get you in and sell. You’ll see fake revenue numbers. You’ll see buying upvotes in competitive challenges.

At least I myself see it all regularly on the pages of people and companies on the Internet. And I’ve been asked by some of the clients to develop these things in one way or another during my 12 years of building apps.

How not to get fooled?

Think about the true value of interactions that you got from some specific creator.

If your attention is such a valuable currency, does your time really worth it? Do you see the feedback from a creator on your support in one way or another? Note that “feedback” can be vastly different as creators are very different people, and most of them are not as extravert as you might think, likely the opposite way.

Think about your interactions. You'll likely notice patterns in how you exchange energy with different people. Pay attention to which relationships feel one-sided.

PS Support small accounts

Creating stuff on the Internet is hard and pretty humiliating at times. But this is required to become a decent author.

Noone is engineering the engagement for small accounts. And early on, it’s much more obvious how sincere people are as you can ask questions and they can’t hide. Early you can see your direct impact on people. You can literally feel their feedback and appreciation.

Risk your attention to people whose work inspires you, even just a tiny bit. Once they get big, you'll get benefits as they'll remember your early support.