Transcend the Bullshit

I was recently trolling someone on Reddit, and in a brief (and regrettable) fit of passion I made a remark only I could love about “transcending the bullshit”. I have often repeated that I intend to one day publish a book titled “Everything is Bullshit”, in honour of the late David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs, but extending to pretty much all facets of society.

The Ubiquity of Bullshit #

Once you’ve experienced enough of the world, it becomes impossible to unsee or unlearn the various levels of bullshit that exist everywhere. In startup land you’ve got VC bullshit, in the retail investor world you have finance bullshit, in day to day life–like for example at the grocery store–you’ve got nutrition bullshit, politician bullshit, marketing bullshit, corporate bullshit, capitalist bullshit, technology bullshit, Christmas bullshit, …

“What is bullshit?”, you might ask? For that I will refer to “On Bullshit” by philosopher Harry Frankfurt, which provides the most succinct definition of bullshit I’ve found:

bullshit is speech intended to persuade without regard for truth

Unlike lies, which deliberately contradict the truth, bullshit is fundamentally unconcerned with truth. The bullshitter doesn’t necessarily know or care whether what they’re saying is true or false—they’re simply trying to create a certain impression or achieve a particular outcome.

The Taxonomy of Modern Bullshit #

Bullshit appears in many forms in contemporary life:

Institutional Bullshit: The corporate mission statements that no one believes, the bureaucratic procedures that serve no practical purpose, the performance reviews that don’t measure actual performance.

Marketing Bullshit: The “revolutionary” products that are minor iterations, the “scientific breakthroughs” that aren’t peer-reviewed, the “limited time offers” that run perpetually.

Social Bullshit: The networking events where everyone pretends to care about each other’s business cards, the small talk that follows strict unwritten rules, the performative outrage on social media.

Intellectual Bullshit: The thought leaders recycling obvious ideas as profound insights, the TED talks that simplify complex problems into 18-minute narratives with neat solutions, the business books stretching a single observation into 300 pages.

Aspirational Bullshit: The Instagram lifestyles built on careful curation and hidden debt, the “morning routines of successful people” that no actual successful person follows, the productivity systems that produce nothing but more systems.

Core Truths Beyond the Bullshit #

Anyway, I like to think I’ve lived enough to realize how only a small number of things are true about life and the world:

• Everyone is nearly the same, regardless of language, culture, religion, skin colour or whatever
• Everyone wants the same things in life: safety, security, a strong sense of community
• Everyone is generally kind and generous provided you are kind and generous
• Everyone is inherently self-interested in their behavior and that’s not inherently bad—it’s simply the starting point for all human action

The one exception to things above are those who are literal psychopaths or sociopaths, but they are very rare (they do exist however I and have spent time with them; often they are CEOs or high level managers).

The Liberation of Seeing Through #

The fun thing about realizing the degree to which everything is bullshit is that you can now transcend the bullshit, look past it, and play the game at a higher level. I have personally found that once you cut out the bullshit, people are not only more respecting of you, but they will see you as more authentic.

Some extreme bullshitters, however, abhor the anti-bullshit rhetoric and even take offense to it, but I have found this only occurs in cases where people suffer from extreme propaganda belief (as in, they believe the lies to be truth because an “authority” told them it must be so). Additionally, the best liars tend to be those who actually believe the bullshit they are spewing, thus they are inherently anti-anti-bullshit.

The Bullshit Detection Kit #

How do you develop a reliable bullshit detector? Here are some tools I’ve found useful:

1. Follow the incentives: Almost always, the quickest path to finding bullshit is to ask “who benefits from me believing this?” When a skincare company tells you that you need seven different products for your face, consider their incentive to sell you seven products instead of two.

2. Look for falsifiability: Real claims can be proven wrong. Bullshit is often constructed to be unfalsifiable. When someone says “this investment can’t lose,” they’re operating in the realm of bullshit because they’ve removed the possibility of being proven wrong.

3. Notice emotional manipulation: Bullshit often bypasses rational thought by triggering emotional responses. When you feel a sudden surge of fear, outrage, or inspiration without much actual information being conveyed, your bullshit detector should activate.

4. Pay attention to language: Excessive jargon, needlessly complex wording, and vague but impressive-sounding terms are the camouflage that bullshit wears. Clear ideas can be expressed clearly.

5. Check for consistency: Bullshit tends to contradict itself when examined closely. The wellness guru promoting “natural living” while selling manufactured supplements has a consistency problem.

6. Demand evidence: Not just any evidence, but appropriate evidence. Anecdotes aren’t evidence for systemic claims. One success story isn’t evidence for a business model. One study with 12 participants isn’t evidence for a revolutionary health claim.

Living Above the Bullshit #

The first step in recognizing bullshit is to reject unearned authority, and realize that no one person is above another regardless of corporate title (a made up thing) or political position (another made up thing). All these things do not exist in nature, and as the stoics would say they go against nature.

But recognizing bullshit is just the beginning. Living beyond it requires:

Authentic communication: Say what you mean, mean what you say. This doesn’t require being rude or abandoning tact, but it does mean prioritizing genuine expression over impression management.

Seeking truth over comfort: Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable. Bullshit offers comfortable falsehoods—the easy explanation, the reassuring narrative. Transcending bullshit means being willing to sit with discomfort.

Building bullshit-free zones: Cultivate relationships and communities where authentic communication is valued. Create spaces where people can speak honestly without fear of judgment or need for posturing.

Practicing compassion: Recognize that most people aren’t malicious bullshitters—they’re just repeating what they’ve been told or trying to navigate social expectations. Help others see past bullshit without condescension.

Maintaining humor: The ability to laugh at the absurdity of bullshit—including your own—keeps you from becoming rigid or self-righteous. Sometimes the appropriate response to profound bullshit is simple amusement.

You can usually detect bullshit by analyzing incentives. Once you can properly recognize the bullshit, you can transcend it and reach the next plane of existence—not bullshit-free (because there will always be some), but bullshit-aware and bullshit-resistant.

I invite everyone to join me up here. The view is clearer, the air is fresher, and the conversations are infinitely more interesting. It might seem like a lonely path at first, but you’ll find that many people are quietly searching for the same thing—relationships and communities built on something more substantial than shared delusions.

PS: If you’re a book publisher and you want to help me publish my book “Everything’s Bullshit”, LMK thanks. I await your email. (See? Even I can’t resist a little bullshit sometimes.)