Stop Trying to Out-Slop the Slop (The Chasing Views Game Is Over)

Most entrepreneurs won’t fail in 2026 because of AI.  They’ll fail because they foolishly tried to compete with it.

The race for views, virality, and algorithm approval is already lost—and the entrepreneurs still playing it just don’t know it yet. If you’re trying to grow by shouting louder, posting more often, or polishing content until it looks like everyone else’s, you’re building on quicksand.  The future doesn’t belong to people who are visible.  It belongs to people who are trusted.

Let me give you two words to sit with:

Authenticity
Trust

Authenticity builds trust. And trust is the only real defense you have against the flood of AI slop your current and future clients are drowning in.

Social media has become a toxic dump of virtue signaling, mind manipulation, and political polarization. Don’t kid yourself into thinking you can “game” the algorithms. The only reliable way to win the view game is to join the madness—becoming a caricature of whatever extreme performs best with your demographic.

Sadly, the only way to win the view game is to lose badly in the humanity game.

Your perfectly lit, tastefully designed, expertly produced content—the kind agencies charge a fortune for—is getting buried. AI-generated avatars have better teeth, skin, and hair than you do. The algorithms recognize and reward attention faster than you—or any human—ever could. To compete on that battlefield, you have to surrender your humanity and beclown yourself.

Unless you zig while everyone else zags...

Which today means stopping the chase for view counts and starting meaningful connections with the people who actually matter.

Back in 2008, Kevin Kelly wrote a simple but profound essay titled 1,000 True Fans. The premise was that you don’t need millions of followers to build a prosperous life. You need a smaller group of people who genuinely value what you create.

The idea was simple: be directly connected to your fans, have at least 1,000 of them, and create something that produces roughly $100 in profit per fan per year. The numbers were always flexible, depending on your goals and your business model. As Kelly put it:

“If you are able to only earn $50 per year per true fan, then you need 2,000. If you can sell $200 per year, you need only 500. Or you may need only $75K per year to live on, so you adjust downward.”

I’ll go a step further: this idea isn’t just still relevant—it’s one of the best survival strategies for entrepreneurs today.  But you won’t get there by trying to out-slop the AI slop. The enslopification of media, social platforms, and culture itself is far too advanced.  So what’s an entrepreneur—or any kind of changemaker—supposed to do?  Here are three words to reflect on carefully:

Discernment
Distribution
Discovery

Think of this as a three-part framework for growth in 2026.

Discernment
Stop chasing the masses. Decide—consciously—who you’re actually speaking to. If you don’t choose your audience, the algorithm will choose one for you, and it won’t be aligned with your values or your business.

Distribution
Concentrate your effort on one or two channels you genuinely enjoy and can sustain. Go where your people already live. Depth beats frequency. Ownership beats dependency.

Discovery
Make sure you are discoverable by AI—not by gaming it, but by being intelligible to it. Long-form content. Clear points of view. Named ideas. Consistent language patterns. Substance over performance.

Yes, you can now use AI to generate Hollywood-level video production in minutes. But so can five billion other people. Stop it.

Be authentic and build trust.  This could mean real video without perfect lighting and makeup. Long-form podcasts or blogs. White papers, think pieces, Special Reports—content created for people who think, not people who scroll.

Personally, I’m done trying to be noticed by people with the attention span of a gnat on double espresso. I’m going back to my roots: off-the-cuff livestreams interacting with my tribe, and long-form writing for people who want ideas, not dopamine hits.

You should find the formula that works for you.

Because the fundamentals haven’t changed:

• Have a point of view and something to say.
• Say it authentically, as only you can.
• Be a thought leader, not a thought repeater.
• Make it about the audience, not about you.
• Solve real problems and add real value.

Your personal brand—your voice, your thinking, your integrity—is exponentially more valuable than any corporate logo or polished façade.

Stop trying to change the masses. Stop chasing fame. Stop aspiring to be a “social media influencer”—unless you truly are breathtakingly gorgeous, with perfect teeth, flawless hair, 12-pack abs, and dripping with rizz.

Instead, discover the version of the 1,000 True Fans model that works for you, and do it.

The world will always be looking for real people who can solve problems, add value, and communicate on a soul-to-soul level.

Be one of them.

Peace,

- RG

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