Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

It actually started precisely because of what you just mentioned, which is what does it even mean to be authentic or authentically human in an age or time where synthetic creative or intellectual production done by AI or machines is indistinguishable in the Turing test kind of sense from human creation.

And actually...

If you think about what's happening, it's like AI is so good at emulating and replicating human activity that it is forcing us to act in a different way.

So people are now copying and pasting emails and memos or LinkedIn updates.

And then when you get an email or a message from somebody, it's impossible now to know if it's a human or not.

Social media is a huge, huge issue.

But it's very interesting to look at the fact that throughout most of the social media platforms, we're apparently incentivized for posting authentically, which sadly also means engaging in inappropriate self-disclosure.

And then when people do that, and digital narcissism is a dominant etiquette in the world online today,

they get fake positive feedback from others.

And you know, in some areas, it's actually quite morbid and sinister.

It's hard not to be a little bit sad or cynical about this because actually the kind of authenticity that is celebrated and rewarded online seems so sanitized, so manufactured, so narcissistic that people go, well, that's not the real person.

But it certainly is a very obnoxious and not very likable version of that person, you know?

I think, you know, treat people like mature and well-adjusted adults and don't overdo it with things like, you know, you can just be you, bring your whole self to work, whatever.

I think you have an obligation to help people understand, again, that the right for self-expression shouldn't override their obligation to others and that creating a pro-social environment where a culture...

can be put in place or evolved or developed that works for the majority of people and lets people be their best self is where it's at.

And if all they do is to create the condition for people to be their best professional self, there's not much they need to worry about other than that.

Yeah.

I mean, self-optimization sounds now so much like treating people like machines and it's so cold and, you know, a bit cruel at times.

Right.

But I do think that if you look at Silicon Valley is a good example of it, because I think it's taken this wave of positive psychology that said, hey, let's care more about well-being, engagement and individualistic kind of subjective feelings.