F**k personal branding

An opinionated manifesto

DALL-E gets it.

We’ve all heard it: “Everyone needs a personal brand.”

F**k that.

Personal branding turns us all into perpetual hustlers. Instead of doing good work, we need to look like we’re doing good work. Every waking moment becomes a self-promotion opportunity. That’s some hyper-capitalist dystopia.

Oh, but all we need is an authentic personal brand, right? No. First, many people (coughs jerks coughs) should be less authentic, not more. Second, if you’re really authentic, that’s not “branding”—you’re just being you. 

I get it—for some, branding is a must. Freelancers, entrepreneurs, and creators need to stand out. However, in these cases there’s no separation between the person and their business; it’s just good ol’ business branding. And, really, what I’m against is the notion that everyone needs personal branding.

Now, someone might counter, “Hey, aren’t you meta-level anti-branding branding yourself?” Yeah, no. If this is branding, then everything is branding. And if everything is branding, the term has no meaning.

I like to write because I like to think. Sorry, I don’t “like” to write. Writing is hard work. What I do like, though, is having written and understood something. My most thoughtful writing often gets little traction. That’s fine. Thinking isn’t a popularity contest. 

I mean, social media is a popularity contest. I do get distracted by likes and follows. But that’s a vice, not a virtue, and certainly not something to be celebrated.

Marcus Aurelius got this right thousands of years ago:

Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do […] Sanity means tying it to your own actions.

That’s what gets me about the advice to “build a personal brand:” It’s more ambition, less sanity, 180 degrees against the age-old advice of Marcus. We’re all lamenting how social media is running our mental health, nay, the whole fabric of modern society. And then we turn around and holler, “Do more of that, and make sure to add an engaging picture!”

We have enough LinkedIn divas. We don’t have enough plumbers. Let’s celebrate good, honest work, not “authentic personal brands.”

F**k personal branding.