NO. 11
The Internet Lies About Its Comprehensivity
* * *
Here’s a sad fact:
It is exceedingly likely the most beautiful poem ever written1 will never be read by anyone; at least not by anyone except the person who wrote it, sitting in the breezy shadow-checkered corner of a London park—who then scribbled out the poem because they were embarrassed, tucked the weather-worn journal into their bag and walked off to go on their 3rd first date that week.
Not convinced?
Let’s take another probable reality, which is that the most beautiful place in the world for you personally—the place that combines everything you consciously and subsconsciously love and puts it all into one breathtaking, existing, real-life package—is probably somewhere you will never visit. You may die without realizing it exists.
— —
Five hundred years ago, it is unlikely that anyone reasonably intelligent and open-minded would have disputed the two ideas above. Publishing and distribution for poetry was stone-age in its efficacy, and much of the world had not been discovered nor explored. So, the premise that we did not have a comprehensive view of beautiful art or beautiful places would not be far-fetched.
The Internet changed this belief.
It did so by seeding a fundamental fallacy in our heads: the idea that we, finally, have a comprehensive, or somewhat-comprehensive, view of our world. As a result, the premises in the introduction to this short essay may feel hard to accept.
Here is what I mean.
— —
If you ask 50 people in the digital marketing space, “who is the best copywriter alive?” you will get a strange result: there will be many repeat names on the list. Even stranger, you will begin to notice that almost all of the names on the list post frequently on LinkedIn, run a popular newsletter, own a YouTube channel, sell a copywriting course... Or some mix of the above.
Now, we can ask, is it more likely that:
1) All or most of the greatest copywriters in the world also happen to run and nurture blossoming personal brands online via LinkedIn, Twitter, newsletters, & etc.
2) Certain copywriters have both the skill and the interest to build personal brands online (through the channels mentioned above). And that as a result, these are simply the copywriters with which your a marketing audience is familiar—which ultimately has little to do with whether or not they are the best copywriters in world.
The clear answer is #2, and I think anyone reading this will agree with me (with some petty objections, maybe, but mostly you’ll agree).
— —
It is not just that most digital marketers really have no idea who the best copywriters in the world are. It is that most of us are nowhere near having a comprehensive picture of almost anything in our lives.
The Internet, broadly-speaking, makes it easy to believe myths about how much you understand. It makes it easy to package certain topics into tidy boxes and then to feel like you know everything that is contained within that box.
A thorough search of your favorite niche genre on Goodreads may give you the impression you’ve seen everything in that genre (even though the other 99% of books in your genre, some of which you’d love, are simply unpublished or unpopular).
A deep review of every social meetup website in your city may give you the impression you know about every single meeting of strangers in your area for a particular set of dates (even though most of these are being organized casually, chaotically, and last-minute).
A late-night TikTok deep dive may give you the impression you know all the best restaurants to visit in Paris (even though it would take years of living in the city until you’d discover your true favorites).
— —
I frequently stumble across restaurants and shops that shock me—not because they exist, but because I was previously unaware of their existence.
“This restaurant looks so good,” I think to myself, “how did I not know about it? I searched Google Maps in this area for at least an hour yesterday.”
And I guess the takeaway here is to remember that neither The Internet nor your real-life experiences are sufficient to give you an even somewhat objective view of reality; nothing is.
If you think you know who the best copywriter in the world is, consider why you think so. If you think you’ve read the greatest fantasy novel ever written, consider why you think so. And ultimately remember that we live in a wide, wide world, and not even The Internet can do a great job at giving us a comprehensive view of all of it.
— —
Footnotes
1 In case you wanted to be pedantic, know that for the purposes of this essay, it does not actually matter how you define “most beautiful poem ever written”.
* * *
Here’s a sad fact:
It is exceedingly likely the most beautiful poem ever written1 will never be read by anyone; at least not by anyone except the person who wrote it, sitting in the breezy shadow-checkered corner of a London park—who then scribbled out the poem because they were embarrassed, tucked the weather-worn journal into their bag and walked off to go on their 3rd first date that week.
Not convinced?
Let’s take another probable reality, which is that the most beautiful place in the world for you personally—the place that combines everything you consciously and subsconsciously love and puts it all into one breathtaking, existing, real-life package—is probably somewhere you will never visit. You may die without realizing it exists.
— —
Five hundred years ago, it is unlikely that anyone reasonably intelligent and open-minded would have disputed the two ideas above. Publishing and distribution for poetry was stone-age in its efficacy, and much of the world had not been discovered nor explored. So, the premise that we did not have a comprehensive view of beautiful art or beautiful places would not be far-fetched.
The Internet changed this belief.
It did so by seeding a fundamental fallacy in our heads: the idea that we, finally, have a comprehensive, or somewhat-comprehensive, view of our world. As a result, the premises in the introduction to this short essay may feel hard to accept.
Here is what I mean.
— —
If you ask 50 people in the digital marketing space, “who is the best copywriter alive?” you will get a strange result: there will be many repeat names on the list. Even stranger, you will begin to notice that almost all of the names on the list post frequently on LinkedIn, run a popular newsletter, own a YouTube channel, sell a copywriting course... Or some mix of the above.
Now, we can ask, is it more likely that:
1) All or most of the greatest copywriters in the world also happen to run and nurture blossoming personal brands online via LinkedIn, Twitter, newsletters, & etc.
2) Certain copywriters have both the skill and the interest to build personal brands online (through the channels mentioned above). And that as a result, these are simply the copywriters with which your a marketing audience is familiar—which ultimately has little to do with whether or not they are the best copywriters in world.
The clear answer is #2, and I think anyone reading this will agree with me (with some petty objections, maybe, but mostly you’ll agree).
— —
It is not just that most digital marketers really have no idea who the best copywriters in the world are. It is that most of us are nowhere near having a comprehensive picture of almost anything in our lives.
The Internet, broadly-speaking, makes it easy to believe myths about how much you understand. It makes it easy to package certain topics into tidy boxes and then to feel like you know everything that is contained within that box.
A thorough search of your favorite niche genre on Goodreads may give you the impression you’ve seen everything in that genre (even though the other 99% of books in your genre, some of which you’d love, are simply unpublished or unpopular).
A deep review of every social meetup website in your city may give you the impression you know about every single meeting of strangers in your area for a particular set of dates (even though most of these are being organized casually, chaotically, and last-minute).
A late-night TikTok deep dive may give you the impression you know all the best restaurants to visit in Paris (even though it would take years of living in the city until you’d discover your true favorites).
— —
I frequently stumble across restaurants and shops that shock me—not because they exist, but because I was previously unaware of their existence.
“This restaurant looks so good,” I think to myself, “how did I not know about it? I searched Google Maps in this area for at least an hour yesterday.”
And I guess the takeaway here is to remember that neither The Internet nor your real-life experiences are sufficient to give you an even somewhat objective view of reality; nothing is.
If you think you know who the best copywriter in the world is, consider why you think so. If you think you’ve read the greatest fantasy novel ever written, consider why you think so. And ultimately remember that we live in a wide, wide world, and not even The Internet can do a great job at giving us a comprehensive view of all of it.
— —
Footnotes
1 In case you wanted to be pedantic, know that for the purposes of this essay, it does not actually matter how you define “most beautiful poem ever written”.