THINKDROP 18: Bullshit world
- Pierre Stanghellini
- Sep 30
- 5 min read
Trust is the new disruption!
🎤 From Me to You
How to build something real in an age of noise, spin, and self-delusion.
We’re surrounded by it. Fake metrics. Fake urgency. Fake success stories. In Bullshit World, perception is currency, everyone’s a brand, and nothing means anything unless it looks good in a carousel.
But here’s the problem: You can’t build something meaningful on a foundation of distortion.And deep down, most people know it.
This Drop is about waking up.It’s about spotting the game — and deciding to play a different one.
It’s for the builders, creators, and thinkers who are done with pretending, polishing, or pleasing — and ready to make something real again.
[ A Personal Note: Stepping Back From the Illusion
Here’s something I’ve been thinking about — especially now, just after turning 46, with 25 years of work behind me. It’s becoming clear:
The biggest seller of advertising in the world today is Google. And most marketing teams are still focused on spending ad dollars across Instagram and Facebook as if that’s the only way forward.
Social media is a drug — and Google and Meta are your dealers. They’ll sell your attention by the second, slice by slice, and fill your feeds with strategies that push you to stay addicted.
Search "best marketing strategy for 2025" on Google, and chances are, the first ten pages will be full of social media tips.
But here’s the twist: for a narrow slice of direct-to-consumer brands, sure, Instagram shopping makes sense. But for most of the economy? It’s irrelevant. Still, this model has become the standard — a blueprint that doesn’t fit, blindly followed by whole industries.
We’ve convinced ourselves that the future is disruption and constant reinvention, and hired younger marketers because “they get it.” What if that’s just another illusion — another performance?
What we’re really doing is feeding egos, chasing likes, and building castles in algorithmic sand. ]
So here’s my politically incorrect, slightly insolent but deeply honest take — now woven into this week’s drop.
Let’s go.
Pierre Stanghellini -
HARi.wtf founder
1. Vanity Metrics = Emotional Fast Food
Followers, likes, impressions — they feel good, but they don’t mean anything. Bullshit World is addicted to the dopamine of fake validation. It rewards optics over outcomes, attention over depth.
The loudest voice is rarely the leader. Success on social media does not equal revenue.
Not now. Not ever.
And yet — how many teams still use Instagram likes or impressions as performance indicators? How many founders obsess over follower counts instead of customer retention?
It’s not just about wasting energy — it’s about building fragile businesses propped up by applause.
Try This: Audit your metrics. If it doesn't tie back to real sales, drop it. What you track is what you prioritize — and if your top KPIs are just for show, so is your business.
2. Everyone’s Performing, Few Are Building
The modern entrepreneur isn’t building — they’re narrating.
Everything’s a story, a thread, a post. In Bullshit World, the game is to appear in motion, even if you’re just spinning in place.
The problem? Momentum theater will drain you. And while you’re curating your every move online, someone else is building quietly in the dark, stacking real wins.
Real builders don’t need a highlight reel.
They live in the work. They ship. They adapt. They move — even when no one is watching.
Try This: Time defines priority. Look at your calendar: What’s getting your best hours? Shift 30% of your attention from broadcast to actual build. And go dark for 72 hours.
3. Polished Is Not Proof
We confuse aesthetics with legitimacy.
Beautiful decks. Beautiful brands. Perfect moodboards. None of it means the idea works.
Bullshit World rewards gloss, but results live in the mess.
Nice branding is nice — but where are the sales?
There’s a whole economy of entrepreneurs spending more time on Canva than on customer calls. The pursuit of polish can become a full-time performance that hides the fact nothing’s working.
Try This: Ship something unpolished. Focus on utility, not beauty. Show your raw work to one person you trust and ask: Does this actually help anyone?
4. “Success” Has Been Hijacked
We inherited a version of success that’s loud, fast, and shallow. More followers, more funding, more reach. But maybe real success is quieter. More durable. Less viral and more vital.
Because true growth often starts with subtraction — removing fake urgency, bad clients, empty numbers, and ego-fueled direction. Real success feels grounded, not inflated.
The best marketing doesn’t shout — and it can’t be bought.
It’s built through trust and proof, not hacks and hype.
Try This: Rewrite your definition of success. Tape it to your wall.
Make it your filter for what you do — and what you ignore.
5. The Bullshitter Always Gets Caught
Bullshit World thrives on charisma, overpromising, and the performance of genius.
It worships the visionary, the disruptor, the TED Talk prodigy — even if the product doesn’t exist.
Think Elizabeth Holmes. Think Adam Neumann. Think Sam Bankman-Fried.
They played the part. They sold the dream. And for a while, they won.
Until the curtain dropped.
In a bullshit-driven market, the best storytellers rise fast — but the truth always surfaces. Eventually, every pitch deck faces a balance sheet. Every hype cycle meets a quarterly report.
Spectacle is seductive, but reality doesn’t blink.
And if you're building on fluff, the crash is inevitable.
Try This: Audit your pitch — to your team, your clients, or yourself.
Are you promising something real, or just rehearsing the part?
Make it honest. Make it uncomfortable.
And make sure the delivery matches the narrative.
🔁 Quick Recap
Vanity doesn’t sell. Followers aren’t customers.
Time is a mirror: what gets scheduled gets built.
Good branding without sales is just theater.
Success is what you define — not what the algorithm rewards.
If you're faking it, the truth will find you.
🔥 FINAL DROP
Bullshit World is loud, curated, optimized — and empty.
It thrives on illusion. It feeds on comparison. It wants you playing a game where the rules are always changing and the scoreboard means nothing.
And here’s the hardest truth of all: It’s not just out there. It’s in us. In the part that wants attention over depth. Recognition over value. Applause over sales.
But there’s another way. Build something that doesn’t need applause. Say less — do more. Disconnect from the performance loop. And reconnect with the work that actually matters.
Because in a world full of bullshit, clarity is subversive.
Make something real. Let it speak for itself.
Let your business grow like a tree — quietly, patiently, without asking permission.
And remember: the only metric that truly matters is the one that funds your future.
Pierre Stanghellini
→ Let’s connect, drop me a line directly at pierre@hari.wtf .
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About the Creator
Pierre Stanghellini is a creative strategist, systems thinker, and curator of mental rabbit holes. He created Thinkdrop Weekly to feed the brains that don’t want the same old Business advice. If you’re building something bold, beautiful, or strange—this is your corner of the internet.
About HARi.wtf
HARi.wtf is a creative strategy studio for businesses that hate business-as-usual.
Born in Hong Kong, in 2017, we work with restless founders, operators, and teams who’d rather break things thoughtfully than grow them blandly. We don’t do generic decks or bloated strategies—we build clarity, guts, and traction.
From street-level restaurants to global brands, from Asia to Europe, we help shape ideas that move fast when it matters, and slow when it counts.
→ Explore more at hari.wtf
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