The Triumph of Authenticity

Walking home from work today I was thinking about what makes me value people and products and life in general. And I think a good answer is authenticity.

When chatting with someone, and when I notice myself as I’m interacting with others, I have a sense for when authenticity is absent. I feel it when a conversation turns bland, when I get nervous enough that I try saying things I think the other person wants to hear. That’s why sycophancy can be so disgusting - inauthenticity.

On the flipside, my favorite conversations are those where both of us are authentic, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes ambitious, but always ourselves.

Authenticity has a power of attraction - people notice the effort it takes to break expectations and say something wacky and contrarian. I think a major supporting factor of Trump in the 2024 election was his authenticity. Hate him or love him, it’s hard to argue that he’s following a script. I think people can feel that. In products too, I love the spice of an authentic personality. Claude code comes to mind with its funny phrases (Moseying, Percolating, Smooshing, …).

And now, more than ever, authenticity is valuable because of the volume of inauthentic words/images/videos that come our way.