How do you win in a world where a 10-second noise drowns 10-year ideas?

Last month, I sat with a CEO trying to break into the social game. Her frustration was sharp. “How can I be a signal in the age of noise?” She pointed to the paradox that mediocre dance videos get millions of views, and useful ideas go unnoticed. This is a fair concern for someone who values time, money, and legacy.

After 30 minutes of critical reflection (or call it complaining), we came to a conclusion: content is no longer rare because speed killed it.

Everyone posts but a few say anything valuable. Most content today is a dopamine factory dressed as a community. And that is by design.

Social media has industrialized what the 1933 concept of ‘Dumbing Down’ (a deliberate oversimplification of ideas to pacify the masses) warned us about. Social media only encourages frequency, outrage, and the shortest path to dopamine. It trained many of us not to think or reflect but to consume and react, to copy and post as new. (Aren’t you tired of Amapiano dances that keep repeating with different faces but the same mediocre movements)

Our discussion left me with a single concept: speed breeds noise, and signal creates authority.