Cheap Signalling


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From The Black Swan:

“It is one thing to be cosmetically defiant of authority by wearing unconventional clothes – what social scientists and economists call ‘cheap signalling’ – and another to prove willingness to translate belief into action.”

Struck a chord for a couple of reasons.

  1. a lot of cheap signals (e.g. bookmarks in delicious) seem to create value when aggregated
  2. one of the things that frustrates me online is reading posts that are “more of the same” – cheap signals I suppose, which I’m as guilty as the next person of sending.

Ho hum.