The cult of fluff

Note: This is the first post - not all will - that is going to be published also on https://aprossi.substack.com. Which does not seem to allow custom js or iframes (…and not even tables !?), or all that comes with normal hosting, but expanding/shifting one’s (dis)comfort zone is a constant of life…

It’s been a while this post wanted to be written. Perhaps a few decades. It will also be never finished. Just because the matter, unlike an anti-library, is undesired, uninvited, and in unlimited supply. There is always some more coming, from almost all corners of human reach.

The title has been meanwhile slightly softened: Originally titled The cult of bullshit. Hereafter described also as BS, for brevity. The bscult URL suffix serves as its fossil record.

I would also call it a working post, as “finding [BS] and replacing with [something else]” is not going to happen so easily. On the contrary…

Let us start with a controversial (?) statement:

I actually think this is one of the most overlooked consequences of promoting de facto bullshit as a value, or its implicit embedding in life, business, science, human relationships, as a supposedly value-generating mean. Not everything is a zero-sum game, of course. But our time is limited, and the way we use it is somewhat zero-sum (longevity-seeking technocrats might see this differently, yes).

BS is also not too obvious to define rigorously. Far from being exhaustive, as the literature is not endless, but it’s also not just the famous little book on BS (Frankfurt, 2005), that triggered in the following two decades a bit of academic literature (not at all exhaustive, and not all quoted but at least partially listed below).

We can have (or develop) a sense of what BS is, and some of its features can be described, but BS is often subtle, so tightly integrated with its context that it seems naturally occurring, while it is mostly engineered (with variable consciousness of the process among users/promoters).

Showing off, over-promising, and bullshitting one’s way out when underdelivering, yet making it look like exceeding expectations is meanwhile so common that we all got used to it. One has to BS otherwise a funding proposal is not even considered. Or one has boost a CV, or a report, or whatever needs assessment. Or, changing area, a startup pitch, an MVP, all has to be packaged with layers of glittering BS.

I once was asked to give a talk on Impact¹ from the point of view of the scholarly editorial publishing side. I meant to condense it once in a short post, which I might never do. But core of it fits topically here, therefore a short section follows:

Scholarly BS Link to heading

Performance metrics are sought everywhere (waiting for Go…odheart…). In scientific research the oldest (still recent, and still valued..) key value was the sheer citation count (variably altered through citation rings), and related metrics. With social media hype altmetrics came about, but it’s not yet used for recruiting, I guess (or is it?). But - always, or almost always - calling for high-impact is can end up calling for high-… Yes, that.

Gaming (i.e. also in a way bullshitting) metrics can be done in a variety of ways. Below just some possbile, not very elaborated examples:

There is enough in the above - even if it might qualify just a small minority (but veeery visible possible, cfr. minority rule) - to see that some of the definition of BS might be involved.

Almost at the end of the talk I included a statement:

Metrics can – and will - be used against you Link to heading

This was of course intended to point at the weaponisation of KPIs (publish or perish, and alike), which becomes BS in itself. Ironically, BS is almost never seen through the same lens, i.e. being a liability.

I did close the talk with those bullets:

But… Impact is also (short- / mid- / long-term) Link to heading

→ Supporting those you work with (and those you don’t) → Overall, trying to imagine being in someone else’s shoes… → Not being a […] + Not rewarding […] behaviour

In fact I was not referring specifically to BS here: I was more describing generic nasty behaviours (one can imagine what I meant with […]). The reward is the key here, though, similarly BS is sought/used/produced because it is rewarded.

On, titles and being thrilled Link to heading

Just a couple of decades ago the ostentation of titles - which as such already looked off, anyway - was a bit less. Lately - and professional social media bragging platform did not help with incentives - this grew larger. Same with the boasting of achievements. I include a little anthology / cacophony, depending the way one sees it:

Opening quotes: Link to heading

They can be variably seasoned with “incredibly”, “truly”, “really”, “deeply”, “overly” between the verb and the adjective:

• “I am thrilled” → “beyond thrilled” is also an all-time favourite
• “I am honored”
• “I am humbled” → that is also used like prezzemolo
• “Some personal news”, or alike
• “I am excited”
• “I am proud”
• “I have an announcement to make”

I admit that I find stuff like I am grateful a bit more acceptable, as gratitude is underrated, so are sense of duty, or acknowledging luck/randomness: I recall the asymmetry mentioned by NNT on how we blame bad luck for our failures, while we praise ourselves for our successes. I believe, specularly, one should add to that how much we owe to people having helped us, vs. how much we do on our own.

Titles, adjectives, and headlines: Link to heading

I stumbled upon people with titles not too early in my life. Attending university made me discover “Dr.” or “Prof.”. In earlier years i found it just as some sort of generic qualification that school teachers were using (later I realised it is mostly to heal hurt egos). My second discovery of titles was in Germany, where any idiot with a title has more social recognition than a non-idiot without.

It’s understandable that for the past decades (and more) titles came with expertise, skills, and experience that was simply certified by the title itself. So it started somehow close to reality, but drift occurs. Nowadays titles are far more colorful than a proud “Dr. Dr.” (yes, Germany loves to pile them up, e.g. Prof. Dr., Prof. Dr. Dr., and so on). There is stuff such as either title or headline:

• Strategic [whatever]
• Chief [whatever]
• Senior [whatever]
• Lead [whatever]

Or also, not necessary on the headline, but in the description:

• “Visionary” → more or less practically meaning “with some ideas”
• “Disruptive” → essentially “new”
• “High-impact” → An evergreen of the past several years, also prezzemolo.

E.g. “We are looking for a visionary leader”: I saw an example in my topical neighborhood recently, but it’s fashionable meanwhile since quite some time.

One of the platforms that elevates BS as value, purpose, and overall semi-conscious Weltanschauung is obviously Linekdin. It probably leverages by design on self-insecurity and longing for validation.

But sometimes the scrolling brings some slightly fresher view on the topic, like this) talking of BaaS ("Bullshit as a Service"). Regardless the fortunate acronym/expression, which I find appropriate and also in a way beautiful, other perspectives such as Flyvbjerg, (2025) are also relevant.

One thing that is interesting is how certain leaders actually play the game a bit more fairly: They post not with personal bragging, but - say - highlighting their organisations, or the achievement of their own people. This is in my view a more decent use, with a little understatement at personal level (whether it is sincere or calculated virtue signaling is not easy to say). But personal bragging is very tempting in all phases of life or of one’s - using another BS-esque term for job - “career” (whose etimology is not as glamorous).

Like thicks progressively spreading pathogens, through the years, the HR-jargon and BS-sounding corporate values have been spreading progressively and relentlessly across industries and cultural silos Again, the origin of this is reasonable most likely, i.e. avoiding sociopath recruits and setting the stage/tone of a desired corporate culture. Good intentions do not lead necessarily always to good outcomes, though.

When (how) did it start? Link to heading

This short text is not going thorugh peer review, and at most I asked some friends and colleagues who developed through times an allergy to BS similar to mine to read through this, so please expect at least a little bias. Nevertheless, some attempts to dig into this are included. And a little - incomplete - selection of literature (e.g. Wakeham, 2017) follows.

A business awareness? Link to heading

Business is supposed to be pragmatic, practical, but BS develops - as said, like many other bad things - also in such contexts. And, as a matter of fact, it seems to me that BS awareness is far greater in the business (and legal) community than in the natural science one (e.g. Spicer, 2013; Sułkowski, 2019). That does not mean of course that BS is less present. It is just less conscious, perhaps.

It is not by chance thus that most scholarly discussion of BS is in management-related journals. And in general the link / parallel / partial overlap between BS and - say - marketing are not too far away not to be invoked, or at least explored.

The specific work-related effects of BS (Graeber, 2013, 2018) are more visible perhaps, also due to media exposure, but BS is creeping in many more areas.

From sect to mainstream cult Link to heading

I would argue that BS became somewhat cult-like, a secular religion of some sort, as it encompasses many areas of life, largely in the professional realm, but not solely. But from a sect to a cult it takes something. And easy, instant visibility matched with mass exposure is the perfect catalyst. Back to the bragging online issue…

It is difficult to predict the future, even using track record. It is the very problem that was probably behind all the HR system of systems that have been built in the last dacades: To try and filter in what has higher chances of fitting. It is a bit similar to - say - choosing a partner for life. Because they are handsome, or because they make thoughtful gifts? It does not tell anything really on how they will perform - say - as parents, or taking care of their partner once elderly.

Of course, heuristics has some kind of value here, if your self-reflection STAR questions on an interview smell of sociopathy, HR might say “no no no”. But sociopathy might be an asset in certain environments, too (technofascism might be a fit).

Post-bullshit reality - or post-reality bullshit Link to heading

It might come back (if it ever goes away) in waves, just like a pandemic. It is a painful process, mostly to confront oneself and others with the BS that drives us in so many ways, embeds us like insects resin, embalms us, and - at the very least - is pushed onto us as expectations, requirements, KPIs, or just role models.

This piece is not as informed as it should, nor as deep (for a reason it is a post, and not a treatise). It only scratches the surface from the perspectives I have some direct experience with. Still, I think calling out BS, even if it is difficult to eradicate it, is a needed first step.

Is it possible to opt-out from BS? Yes. Is it costly, potentially painful? Also yes.

How to limit BS? I don’t have a definite answer, but I collect some thoughts (and am happy to revise. Just drop me an email, if you are still used to such means of communication.

As much as the first step (step 0) of solving any problem is identifying it, i.e. giving it a name. The same is for BS. Since BS is often an habit, whether active or passive Bs (i.e. listening uncritically and embedding BS, or promoting actively BS), thus, the first easier step is to train oneself to identify what might be BS. This clearly in the age of AI slop is no easy task.

Helper list/table: For this specific table a local Shoggoth has been asked to augment the list based on the seeds I used across the text above. I did find it - recursion - too much BS-bearing, and I ended up making it by hand myself, albeit inspired by the helpful Shoggoth bullshitter. It is not exhaustive, just exemplary (oh boy. I realise I ended up using some of the terms myself through the years…):

It seems coming from Lercio, The Onion, or Der Postillon but some point such heading really ended up in the doomscrolling timeline, in front of my eyes:

“Disruptive Tech Strategist, Visionary Futurist …”

Or (the more this draft sits on the filesystem, the more such hilarious headlines come up. They would deserve some anthology/cacology):

“Leader, visionary explorer”

Very volatile (thankfully), like many things on the Internet…

Acknowledgements Link to heading

As customary, I am grateful to the Internet Archive for the banner image, in particulat to Sebastian Brandt. I wish not to ever have written this, and that BS-ing was not a thing. I wish that boasting, bragging, self-praising, overselling were never a necessity. I thank those who, as imperfect and undisciplined as we often all are, try not to follow, spread, seek, promote, reward, and benefit indirectly from BS, sensu lato. It is a thankless effort that - by design - is bound to fail against BS’s maghifiche sorti e progressive. Unless/until sometime, somewhere - unadvertised - it does not.

References / notes Link to heading