1/ The Internet lowers the returns to distributing facts, while social media increases the returns to distributing signaling goods.

2/ The facts are still there and people can still reach them. But the institutions selling access to facts have lost their business models.

3/ Newspapers have been exposed as mostly reprinting Reuters and AP. They can’t make a living selling access to facts anymore.

4/ While the business model for distributing facts and truth dies out, the model for distributing opinions and signaling goods is booming.

5/ Signaling goods signal status and affiliation to the other monkeys. They have value when produced or consumed conspicuously.

6/ Signaling goods can be physical - handbags, watches, and fancy cars. They can be virtual - political, religious, and tribal affiliations.

7/ The further, the faster, and the more easily something can be shared, the better it is for signaling. Social media fuels signaling.

8/ Social media makes it easier to signal wealth via conspicuous consumption. Consuming food, travel, clothing on Instagram and Facebook.

9/ Every group has a set of shared myths that signal to believers and against outsiders.

10/ Religious myths, secret histories, conspiracy theories, unfalsifiable beliefs, scapegoats...

11/ Social media has degenerated into a deafening cacophony of groups signaling and repeating their shared myths.

12/ Editorial outrage is a signaling good. That’s why former news outlets have switched from facts to opinions and outrage.

13/ Campus social action is a signaling good. That’s why universities are more focused on agreeing what to think than teaching how to think.

14/ Economic logic will drive an information business towards signaling goods. They’re easy to manufacture & share, and pay social rewards.

15/ We are moving from a world where it pays to spread facts to one where it pays to spread opinions. From real goods to signaling goods.

16/ From private truths to public lies. From knowledge to outrage. From positive sum to zero sum.

17/ Lies need to be repeated to sustain. The truth just is.

18/ Want to escape? Avoid Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat. Avoid venues and media built around group signaling and conspicuous consumption.

19/ Stop sorting people, including yourself, into groups.

20/ Truth is a lonely, and unprofitable, business.