While many disdain  marketing philosopher Seth Godin because he’s, well, a marketing philosopher, one does so at one’s peril.  There may be a ton of overly simplistic and ethically dubious fluff in marketing, but those guys, at least the good ones, know one thing really well.  People.

Wondering, as I was, what pushed anonymous lawyers on the internet to promote their strategies and tactics for success while refusing to reveal their identities so as to protect their delicate internet personas, Mark Bennett made some foundational points about rhetoric and persuasion.

The internet has removed all barriers to mass communication. The cheapest way ever to reach large numbers of people is in the comments sections to popular blog posts and newspaper articles, where a commenter’s thoughts might be read by thousands just because he has posted immediately after some highly popular post or article.

Because of these low barriers we have millions of people yammering for attention online. The vast majority of them aren’t exhibiting anything resembling logical rigor; they produce more heat (pathos) than light (logos).

This post (which I urge everyone to read) addresses the failure of illumination despite the appearance of elucidation. 

Aside: I read a highly technical post yesterday about how to repair a small kitchen appliance, which sounded very authoritative to me. For all I know, it was written by an erudite 12 year old, and yet I was ready to subject an expensive appliance to demolition based on this post, because it seemed more correct to someone who was clueless.  An anonymous commenter to the post explained why the OP was completely, disastrously wrong. but I opted to follow the OP’s advice.  As I heard the humm of a finely tuned machine, I loudly praised my technical brilliance, giving no credit at all to the precise information from the OP.  I was lucky.

While Bennett’s post answers questions about the persuasiveness of commentary, the question of what drives a person, particularly one whose thoughts have yet to bear significant fruit, to desire his voice to be heard.  What makes a person seize the opportunity to use the internet to speak to millions when he has nothing to say?  That’s where Godin comes in.

Marketers love the placebo effect because it opens the door to stories and fables and word of mouth and varied perceptions. It gives marketers room to sell more than price and features. The first cultural byproduct this benefit creates is the notion that everyone is entitled to believe what they believe, and it’s rude to question it.

The second, is a real problem, though. If you spend enough time experiencing your own take on reality, you come to believe that what works for you might actually be a universal truth. Marketing plus psychology might equal science, it seems.

For the placebo to work, you have to believe it, but sometimes believing requires suspension of your connection with verifiable fact.

In short, those who feel compelled to publicly offer untested or dubious advice do so, at least in part, because of the placebo effect.  the confusion of personal experiences with universal truths. 

I’ve known gregarious lawyers who could walk into a room and captivate it with their charm and personality, walking out with a half dozen new cases and the envy of their peers.  These are lawyers who have reaped huge success from their marketing efforts, with verifiable practices to prove it.  But they aren’t telling others to do what they do, because they know that it’s not their tactics, but their personalities, that make it work. 

If you tried it, you would leave the room a pariah, Rather than charm the pants off others, you would come off loud and obnoxious.  You aren’t them.  If you were, you wouldn’t be asking how they do it. You would already know.

What drives someone to push their belief onto others is the combination of belief, despite the absence of verifiable fact, and the need for validation.  You believe you’re onto something real, like post content on a blog for 52 weeks straight, and you will thereupon become a blogging rock star. Having adopted the plan, and though still waiting for the plan to bear fruit, you want to validate your choice by having others embrace it as well.  You don’t deliberately mislead, because you believe in what you’re doing.  You just don’t have any verifiable basis for it.  It’s the triumph of belief over reality, and you need to share it.

Aside: As I stood there staring at my small kitchen appliance, feeling very satisfied with my handiwork, I knew in my heart that a slight error could have not only fried my appliance, but me as well.  I was screwing with electricity, and I don’t have a close, dear relationship with electricity.  Had the instructions I found on the internet been wrong, even slightly, I might have done some serious damage. I didn’t have the slightest clue, as I put plug into outlet, whether the OP was a brilliant electrical technician or the village idiot, yet I was about to risk my life on his word.

The fact that I’m still alive this morning, and have a cup filled with joe by my side, proves that I know everything there is about fixing small kitchen appliances.  Any questions?