As much as I kind of hate the notion of a personal brand, I suppose that if I did the Niche-Voice-Story thing “provocative” and “denier of BS” might make the list.

If I’m honest–which on my good days I aim to be–I don’t mind getting attention from challenging all that retail apocalypse nonsense, pushing back on the idea that “pure-play” e-commerce was a massive opportunity or calling out the “great acceleration myth.” But feeding my ego isn’t a good enough reason to call out BS.

In a race between dangerous stupidity and utter bullshit, anyone with a soul loses. And yet you may have noticed that many dine at the bountiful buffet of ignorance on the regular.

Using staggeringly beautiful logic in attempt to persuade the unpersuadable isn’t much of a reason either. Facts may be stubborn things, but sadly many are impervious to the once powerful forces of truth and discernment. Becoming attached to such efforts might be a fool’s errand. Mark Twain said it best: “Never try to teach a pig to sing. It won’t work and it only annoys the pig.”

So our mission–should we choose to accept it–is to cultivate an audience that is open to changing their minds when presented with compelling arguments. With any luck, from time to time, if we do the work, are passionate enough about stuff that actually matters, and are willing to walk through our fear to actually ship our work, we just might make a little dent in the universe.

The brief hit we get from our powerful self-righteousness is just that: brief and a hit. It’s neither long-lasting, nor substantive.

But playing a part, however small, in generously helping someone make a different choice that actually matters? That seems like a pretty solid reason to me. At least I hope you are open to that possibility.

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