Split, London, England, July 2009

Jonathan Fields, Authenticity Isn’t Enough:

Authenticity is not an automatic ticket to success in an attention economy.

Because, if you choose a platform or business building model where a key element is attention, you’ve got to be not only authentic, but significant.

Agreed. To take a slight step back, I’d note that authenticity isn’t necessary for significance: definitely not in the short-run (most notably in markets where compensation is based on perceived short-term rather than real long-term value creation), and perhaps not even in the long-term.

But what if a company or a person is an “authentic success”: why isn’t authenticity enough on its own? My thought:

Authenticity isn’t enough because it takes people time to recognize, verify and truly understand it, but people don’t have the time: attention is a scarce resource.

Thus authenticity is a weak selling point to a new potential customer/fan/reader, even if it’s what keeps people coming back. There’s gotta be significance to get the first hook; after that, authenticity amplifies the significance.

Leading to a broader question: does the Internet and the web incent authenticity?

Even though the web’s underlying structure creates networks, markets and communities that in turn make it easier to scale transparency and promote authenticity, it ultimately comes down to the people deep inside these markets and communities: what will we demand? What will we buy? What will we read? What will we photograph? Who will we reward?

Authenticity isn’t enough because significance spreads wider, easier and faster: it’s easier to communicate, share and reward significance than authenticity.

But we need to carefully consider what we’re deeming significant.

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Thanks Bryan for continually pushing me to consider the dark side of the herd…