Notes to Younger Self: Part 3

Learn to identify vanity within and without.

If you were to ask me the most important lesson I have learned in the last few years, it would be to constantly identify the trap of vanity metrics in different areas of life:

Work: “Today, I worked for 25 hours.”

Marketing: “We have 100k followers across all platforms.”

Startups: “We raised X million dollars. We are valued at 100 billion dollars.”

Vanity measures activity instead of progress.

I am not suggesting that there is no value associated with these metrics. However, the problem arises when we start optimizing for vanity.

It becomes a problem when it is used to hide unpleasant truths or run away from the truth. It often creates unrealistic expectations and a false sense of success.

It’s easy to settle for vanity because it is easy to measure.

But a question we must ask ourselves: “Just because it is easy to measure, should it be measured?”

And most importantly: You can easily hack vanity, especially with media.

Look at what happens every time during elections. Most media is used as a vanity-exaggeration and insight-suppression mechanism.

As Eric Ries puts it: “Vanity metrics are good for feeling awesome, bad for action.”

The major cost of chasing vanity metrics is energy directed in the wrong direction. The idea is to know when to stop relying on vanity metrics.

Meaningful metrics should pass the “So what?” test. If you are truly satisfied with the answer, you are most likely heading in the right direction.

Vanity is most useful as a by-product of a meaningful pursuit, but not as an end goal.

What do you think?