The Algorithms Reward Nonsense. It's Not Hard to Figure Out Why.

Key topics:

✔️ Who benefits from the promotion of hot air, hopium, and total nonsense?
✔️ Some influencer or wannabe influencer who gives you toxic positivity is NOT gonna show up and bail you out of an economic crisis.
✔️If someone has been in their chosen field for all of five minutes, do they have enough expertise for you to rely on what they say? (Spoiler alert: not IMO.)
✔️When toxic positivity is promoted and truth is suppressed that should speak volumes to you.

Links:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/10689626

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/11131724

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/11328447

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/11044511

https://medium.com/surviving-tomorrow/hyper-elites-are-desperate-for-a-recession-because-they-want-to-buy-your-assets-for-cheap-1e8800f836

Please don't rely on social media to tell you when I have posted! The algorithms are not very fond of people who aren't pacifying you into a coma these days. 
Links where I can be found: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/01/30/updates-housekeeping/

Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/

Transcript

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Welcome to the Causey Consulting Podcast. You can find us online anytime at CauseyConsultingLLC.com. And now, here's your host, Sara Causey. Hello, Hello, and thanks for tuning in. Today's episode will be a sort of Redux or a pastiche of previous episodes that are still so very important. influencers can leave you broke, people who are not going to make it, who is coming to save you, and so on. There's a clear trend that I'm seeing. It's not surprising, although it is disheartening and disappointing. If you want to get plenty of likes, and views and shares on social media, then you need to put out as much hot air and hopium and Bs as possible. And everybody will seal clap for that. Whether it's actual human beings, who knows, or bots, trolls paid shills, maybe people that are living in such a state of denial that they will seal clap for anything that allows them to keep that illusion. I don't know. I'll leave it to you to be the judge on that. But it's infuriating. I am not the first person to say this, and I won't be the last. Hope is not a strategy. Hope is important. Mindset is important. There's an anagram that I have used before in my coaching techniques called may mindset, attitude, expectations, all of those things matter. And I would never sit here and tell you that hope is not important. Your mindset doesn't matter. Your attitude and your expectations are just irrelevant. I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying, is that sitting on the couch and saying, Well, I hope that everything works out. Or I'm going to keep a positive mindset. And I guess somebody will just show up one day and knock on the door and hand me a million dollars. I'm really not convinced that that's the best strategy to survive an economic downturn, call me crazy. Call me a stick in the mud. I just don't really think that that's probably the best strategy that's out there. Some of these people post in my opinion bullcrap nonsense. They're not giving you strategies and tactics, they're not doing anything that's going to really be helpful. In some respects, they're just telling you, whatever it is, they think that you want to hear. And the algorithm is rewarding that so on the one hand, why are they doing that? Why would somebody post hot air hopium toxic positivity, toxic gratitude, toxic optimism and so on? Well, because they liked the attention. They want to get that dopamine bump of seeing all of the comments or disregard Thank you. They want to get their seal claps it makes them feel good. It strokes their ego. And some people think that you can monetize that. I have talked before about someone that I knew once that's all I'm gonna say I'm gonna have to keep it necessarily vague. This guy was obsessed, obsessed with trying to become a LinkedIn influencer. Why? I don't know. To me the idea of a LinkedIn influencer is I don't guess we could call it an oxymoron. Exactly. It's just weird. What does a LinkedIn influencer actually mean? And what will that do? I'm thinking back to Chris Farley as Matt Foley saying, well that and a nickel will get you a hot cup of jack squat. Because this guy was obsessed with trying to become a LinkedIn influencer was like that's what he breathed night and day. I don't understand why. But for some reason, that was like the promised land for him. So far as I can tell, this person never achieved their goal of becoming a LinkedIn influencer and in fact, went to work for somebody else who wants to be a LinkedIn influencer. And I'm just like, what was the point of any of that? miton that time not have been better spent building up a for real business. Something that's going to really and truly pay off as a boasted jumping into choppy waters with a lot of competition and a nebulous goal. You know, I read a story the other day about somebody who had millions of followers on social media but struggled to sell, like maybe three doesn t shirts. Having these followers, any subscribers does not automatically translate into dollars in your pocket. I hate to break it to you, I hate to burst that bubble just being real with you. So some people will post this content because they want the attention. They want the likes, the comments, the shares, they want to get that ego stroke of look at how many people liked my trite, bullshit comment. I can feel good about myself today. Which is sad, but this is the reality that we're living in. The bigger picture for me is why would the algorithms reward that kind of crap? Why is it that when you get out and you try to sound the alarm and tell the truth, you get punished. And that happens even to people who are actively putting money into the pockets of the platform's people that have a huge following, where you know, they're generating ad revenue, they have sponsors, they have hundreds of 1000s or maybe even over a million subscribers, but they still get censored, they still get their hands slapped. Now we could go off on the tangent of controlled opposition, which I think is a very relevant rabbit hole to go down sometime. But that's not the direction I want to go in in this episode. Why would the algorithm reward toxic positivity, toxic gratitude and trite platitudes, just keep your head up, you keep going, you keep a positive mindset and everything gonna be okay. Well, like why would it do that? What's the point because we always want to follow the money. And we want to figure out who benefits from that. Because in my opinion, it's not john and jane Q Public, the average working class person is not going to benefit from those trite platitudes. Someone who's been through a layoff, and they're sitting there with little or no severance, wondering where the next job is coming from in their industry. No, they can't go and work fast food, they can't go work at a hotel for 12 or 15 bucks an hour and make ends meet, and they're scared shitless right now. Trite platitudes, and toxic positivity is not going to be a viable resource for them. In that episode, I recorded about how influencers can leave you broke, I stand by that assessment. That person giving you hot air, and hopium is not going to do anything to help you if you listen to those platitudes. And you think, Okay, well, as long as I keep a positive mindset, everything will be fine. I can sit on the couch and watch Netflix all day and just wait for opportunities to knock on my door. An influencer told me so. And therefore it must be true. Do you think that they're going to show up and say, You know what, you took my advice way too far. Or you listen to bullshit that I put out on social media for likes and views and shares. I'm sorry about that. So I'm going to cover your rent for the next six months, I'm going to take you and your family to the grocery store, put anything in the basket that you want. I want to make sure that you and your family eat. No, no, they don't care. They're already on to the next post. They're already on to the next video. They're already on to whatever they're going to do next, to try to add you late and exalt themselves to try to put money in their pocket. We need to be real about this. These people are doing what they do for money, as well as the ego stroke. Now, some people out there that are still trying to get a following they're still trying to parlay their BS posting into something with financial gain. They may not be in the money yet, but they want to be. See that's the other side of this coin. No pun intended. Yes, it's about the ego. Yes, it's about the dopamine bump. But it's also about the money. They want to become influential so they can make money. If you're sitting there thinking that these people give a flying F about you, that they really care about disseminating good information that would help you out. Then why are they putting out toxic positivity, toxic optimism, toxic gratitude and cliches long pause so that you You can contemplate that for yourself. Last August, I recorded a bonus episode who is coming to save you? Have you considered that? Whether you are already laid off, or you're scared that you might get a pink slip? You're struggling to find a new opportunity. Are these influencers or somebody that just has a random striking of gold on social media and they have a post go viral? is that person going to come and save you? I hope to god you're not relying on that. I've seen more than a few people have a post on social media that went viral, or they got some positive attention in the media. And they thought, This is it. This is my big break. They didn't really compute it as what Warhol famously prognosticator that in the future, everybody would be famous for 15 minutes. I feel like he definitely knew something that was ahead of the curve from the average person at the time. That was a little bit too prophetic. So they're not factoring in this could just be my 15 minutes of fame. They try to suddenly create an entire identity or an entire brand, an entire presence around one viral post. One moment in the sun, and then they get disappointed by how quickly the public moves on. They had their one day of fame, and it was so beautiful. Why can't it last forever, because the media has already moved on to whatever they want you to focus on next. What is the shiny new toy for today? You're like so yesterday or so last week, nobody kind of gives an F anymore. But yet you think that someone like that is going to show up and rough out a job loss survival plan or an RTO survival plan for you? Oh, I hope that's not what you're thinking. I don't give you advice. I don't tell you what to do. I sit here and opine for your entertainment only. But if it were me, I would never count on some influencer or somebody that's putting out hot air and hopium on social media to be my savior. Hmm. Not only No, but hell no. On September 29, I published an episode about Lauren brillance book cruel optimism. That book was very interesting. Yes, it's academically dense, and some of the language can make your eyes cross at times. It's definitely written for academia. But it raises some excellent points. I want to read from the description from that episode now. Where is the threshold for when positive thinking and optimism become toxic? Or perhaps worse than toxic? downright cruel? key topics? Lauren brillance book cruel optimism? What if a dream of the good life is actually holding you back from living a good life? Or what if the promise of that good life is totally bogus, an attachment to a significantly problematic object. That's how I felt about my real estate quest and why I decided to strategically quit. An interesting argument is made for me chromosomes, causing us to project certain traits onto other people or things only to discover they may or may not have those qualities. After all, we can see this in relationship hobby, job hopping, love bombing, political hoopla, and rah rah going, et cetera, and quote, Mm hmm. Yes. And I think sometimes that may, Connie songs can also be projected onto these influencers. Well, this person has been in their chosen profession for all of five minutes. So maybe that makes them trustworthy, but doesn't necessarily make them trustworthy. Excuse me, I have to go see if that's the Rams. Sorry about that. This is what it is to live on a farm with genius animals. So if anybody ever tells you that farm animals are stupid, or that animals in general are stupid, don't believe it. Just remember, you listen to a podcast where this woman has rams that will come up and knock on the door. Try the doorknob, ring the doorbell because they know that's how to get a human to come to the door. So don't don't believe the animals are stupid for a second. So back to the point, someone who's been in their chosen profession for all of five minutes, may not have the expertise to really tell you an accurate picture. They may have the drive to be an influencer, they may want the algorithm to reward them by posting hopium hot air and nonsense. That doesn't mean they actually know what they're talking about. Someone that's been in staffing and recruiting for five minutes. In my opinion, probably not going to be the best resource. Someone who has recruited in one particular market segment and they don't know much about anything else that's going on in the broader job market or the otter economy, again, speaking solely, in my opinion, that is also probably not the best resource. Now for that one area that they've niched into, they may know that arena backwards, forwards and sideways. But they may not know, the job market in general, and they may not know how the job market plays into the broader economy. And so in my mind, if they're out there posting hot air and hopium, they're trying to convince you that everything is going to be fine. Or, gosh, you know, I don't know why we're getting this conflicting information. I mean, we're being told that there's a red hot labor market. So that must be true, but I just don't get it. Just ask yourself, is that the person that I want to take advice from? Is that the person that I want to tune into on a regular basis? And then why would post like that get a bunch of likes, views and comments and shares? Hmm, why would the algorithm reward? What I personally in my opinion, would call market ignorance? Hmm. Let's all just stroke our imaginary devil beards thoughtfully and ponder that for just a second. Are you looking for more? Don't forget, you can find Sara on her blogs at CauseyConsultingLLC.com. And at SaraCausey.com. You can also read her content on medium, and substack. On with the show. All throughout last year, I told you that I felt like it was an auspicious time to get strategic about who you were listening to and why. What kind of messaging are they putting out? Was there a sponsor behind it? Were their predictions bearing out to be true? Regardless of what you may think, religiously, or spiritually, there's a lot of value to the scripture that you'll know the tree by the fruit it bears. If someone is making predictions, and they're just full of hot air, they make predictions and they don't come true. They make outlandish claims and none of them are real or ever happen. I think you should factor that into your decision whether or not you should be listening to that person. If the algorithm is rewarding hot air hopium and Bs and suppressing people that are trying to warn you, hey, this downturn looks bad. This looks like we could very well have another great recession slash global financial crisis 2.0 We could also be headed into feudalism 2.0 Because it really seems like Jared a Brock is hitting the nail on the head. When he says the hyper elites want your stuff. They want to crash this economic jalopy so that they can take your assets on the cheap. And they're not going to feel bad about doing that. When that kind of content is getting suppressed and shadow banned. You need to factor that into your decision making, in my opinion. Why is it that hot air hopium and BS is getting rewarded and promoted? Is it because I'm just going to slip on my tinfoil hat here? Is it because they want to keep you pacified and quiet. They want to lull you into a false sense of security, so that it's easier to take your stuff. If you're not thinking about bank bail ins, and who the unsecured creditors and unsecured depositors actually are, well, it's easier to come in and take your stuff, you're not gonna see it coming. Remember an Iron Man three, the Mandrin, you'll never see me coming. There may be some truth to that too. Because some of these people are going to do little sneak sneak little creep, creep and come after your stuff and you are not going to see it coming if you haven't been paying attention. And reading hot air and hopium and people that it will I just don't understand everything there is to know about the job market. But somehow I can get hundreds of 1000s of views on social media or y'all play games with that if you want to. I want to play part of the episode now that I recorded on August 1, the bonus episode people who are not going to make it, I want to play an excerpt from that episode for you now. Then at the same time, you have employers pulling back on hiring and starting to say you know what, the pendulum went way too far to the other side. And we want to start taking control back. Now I would argue and I think you could I think the argument could definitely be made that actually the great resignation is over with it's toast. We need to stop thinking about it. We need to start looking at this transitional period and getting a game plan together about what happens next. How would you weather the storm of a job loss? How do you plug in and accompany and become integral to the operation etc. An argument can be made for all of that. Just speaking in general. Not everybody has gotten that memo? Okay. Not everybody is aware of the fact that in my opinion, we're already in a recession right now, that in my opinion, unemployment is not really 3.6%. In my opinion, there's not really two legitimate open jobs for everyone unemployed person. A lot of the jobs listed, in my opinion are either bogus and they're posted for optics only. There are evergreen orders that have been open ever since Moses was put in the basket in the bullrushes, nobody's ever gonna probably be hired for him. Or they may be jobs that don't even pay a living wage and don't carry any benefits with them. I in my opinion, not all that glitters is gold. So you have this collision of candidates, some of whom have figured out, okay, I need to pump the brakes on job hopping and get very intentional and strategic about what I do next, or what I don't do next, then you have the types of candidates that I'm talking about, who have just decided they have just made an executive decision for themselves, that the Vande is never going to stop playing on the great resignation. And they will be able to Job hop and get 20 or 30% Pay bumps every single time for the rest of their career. They haven't stopped to think like is that? Is that realistic? Does that seem to be something that I think corporate America is going to afford me? Am I going to be able to go from 60k? And then 80, and then 100, and then 150? And then I don't know, within five years, I'm the grand Pooh bah of the entire company, and I'm making a $5 million salary. Does that seem to be realistic? In their mind? I guess it is. And that's why I say in my opinion, people like that, probably not gonna make it. I cannot and will not give anybody advice. What I would say to myself in this situation is, you know, self, it's time to get very selfish. It's time to think about myself and my family, what's best for our personal economy, I'm not going to worry about corporate America, because they're doing all right, corporate America, at the end of the day is going to look out for itself. They're going to take care of themselves. They don't answer to me, they answer to the shareholders and the investors and the power brokers, but not to me, it's one big club, and I am not a part of it. So I need to be thinking about what is best for myself, my career and my family. What can I do in terms of income generation to make sure that come what may whatever might be coming down the pike in this wackadoodle economy? I want to know that I know that I know that we're going to survive. Yep. I don't feel like my advice. And my thoughts strictly to myself have changed. It's important, in my opinion, to have a job loss survival plan to have an RTO survival plan. If you freelance or you own and operate your own business, and the primary way that you make money disappears, maybe not for forever, but for a little while. Are you prepared for that? If your ideal client base goes away? Or maybe there's suddenly a tremendous amount of competition, all for the same clientele? Are you prepared for that? You have these companies saying, We no longer want to go after middle class and below, we only want to try to do business with the wealthy and the ultra wealthy because deep down we know that in this coming poop storm, they're going to be the only ones that like have any real disposable income, all the rest of you, peons and plebs are going to be broke as a joke. So we want to court the individuals that are still going to be doing okay, during this downturn. Are you prepared for that? Not everybody is going to be able to capture the dollars of these wealthy and ultra wealthy people. I would rather just me personally know that I had put some kind of thought into this, I had developed some kind of a plan as opposed to listening to hot air and hopium or looking at toxic positivity and trite cliches on social media. As I said in the influencers can leave you broke episode, these people are not coming to save you, they are not going to show up and bail you out of an economic mess. If you listen to their bull crap, if somebody sits there and tells you, you can just meditate your way out of an economic downturn. You can sit on the couch and watch streaming TV all day. And just don't worry about it. As long as you have a positive mental attitude, then somehow an opportunity will find you as if through magic. I'm not gonna sit here and deny that sometimes life is magical. Sometimes you do get an insane lucky break. And it is like some opportunity fell into your lap from the heavens. Those things do happen. They just don't happen all day every day. If they did, nobody would work. We would all just sit on the couch and do whatever the hell we wanted all day and the money would somehow magically find us, you still have to put the work in? So who are you going to listen to? How are you planning to handle this? Recently, Dan over at I allegedly recorded an episode about the D word, meaning not that D word Get your mind out of the gutter, the D word depression. What if that is what this becomes? One if we're in for a Great Depression 2.0. We've already had articles. And I'll drop a link so that you know I'm not lying or engaged in hyperbolic language here. We have already had articles saying people in the top 25% of wealth are acting like it's the roaring 20s. Meanwhile, people that are in the bottom quartile are already in a recession. So if you're sitting here thinking, Oh, well, it would just love or oh, there's just no way we would ever have another Great Depression. I mean, things are so different now. Whatever. What if we did? I'm not saying that we will, I don't know what the future holds. I'm still sort of have the mindset that this could very well look like what if the 1982 recession had a baby with the Great Recession of 2008. We're seeing so many similarities between those two time periods. That very well could be what we experienced, but I don't know. And I myself would rather feel prepared. I'd rather feel like I at least tried to get on some kind of solid footing and protect myself. Instead of counting on toxic positivity. Somehow, I'm just going to mentally think my way out of this and it's going to be okay. Like Phil Gramm, back in 2008. You're in a mental recession. You've heard about mental depression. Well, you're in a mental recession, and you need to quit worrying about it. Yeah, no, no, no. When you go to the grocery store, and the prices are still too high. Your utility bills are still too high. People who bought during the FOMO and the Yolo of 2021 are now in houses they don't like and they don't want some of those houses are total lemons. Look at Scott Walters channel. Some of these brand new construction houses are freaking falling apart. That's a travesty. But yet, mental recession? No, I don't freaking think so. I don't believe that crap. Just like I don't believe these so called influencers who want to tell you that everything's gonna be alright. Things may be alright, if you've prepared if you're ahead of the curve. But I think, you know, I've said this before. I know I sound like a broken record. And I'm sitting here rubbing my third eye. It's like people who are not paying attention. They're more worried about gossip in the royal family, what a celebrity is doing, talking about their favorite sports team as though they really know those people personally. I think those people are going to get unmercifully steamrolled. It's not right. It's not ethical. I'm not telling you that I agree with it. I'm telling you, my prognostication is that's what's going to happen. And then they're going to be standing there at your doorstep like, Well, can you help me? I don't have any money right now. I got evicted, the car got repoed. The house got foreclosed on? Can we move in with you? Are you ready for that? I lost my job. I didn't pay any attention to the market. I thought there were two open jobs for every one unemployed person. But I can't make ends meet as a burrito maker or a sandwich artist. So can we come and bunk with you? How are you going to handle that? I can't tell you what to do. I wouldn't even presume to tell you how to handle your family and friend dynamics. None of my business. I'm on here opining for your entertainment only and I'm just asking the question out loud. I'll call out the elephant in the room. I don't care. Have you thought about how you would handle that? Because he's influencers. And these people that think that they're really something on social media, they're not going to show up and help you. We're going to sit down and have a strategy meeting with you about how to handle them. I hope to God that you're paying attention, and I hope that you're not about to get blindsided. I hope that you distrust these algorithms that promote hot air and hopium and suppress the truth. Stay safe, stay sane. And I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a quick second to subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends. We'll see you next time.