Why Your Content Feels Dead (And a 40-Year-Old Concept That Explains Everything)
You have two choices: become a master of mimicry or risk it all on a voice of your own. There is no third path.
Let’s be honest.
You’re on the treadmill.
You’re doing all the right things, the hooks, the formats, the trending audio, and your results are… fine.
Not great, not terrible. Just fine.
You’re putting in the work, but your content has no half-life.
It’s a ghost in the machine, gone 48 hours after you post it.
Your growth is flat, your engagement is a chore, and you have a nagging feeling that you’re just shouting into the void.
Your content feels dead because it is.
It’s a zombie. A hollow imitation of something that was once alive.
…and there’s a name for it.
In 1983, a Marxist literary critic named Fredric Jameson gave it a name: pastiche.
He described it as “the wearing of a stylistic mask, speech in a dead language.”
It’s imitation that has forgotten it’s imitating.
It’s a copy of a copy, a style with no substance, a joke with no punchline.
Think of it like this…
Weird Al Yankovic’s work is parody.
You can’t appreciate “Eat It” unless you know Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”
It’s a commentary.
Pastiche is a wedding DJ playing a generic 80s-inspired synth track that sounds vaguely like something you’ve heard before, but you can’t quite place it.
It’s just… there.
And right now, the internet is a giant wedding reception drowning in pastiche.
The System That Creates Sameness
This isn’t your fault. You’re not lazy or unoriginal. You’re playing a game that’s rigged to reward sameness. The system is run by four villains:
1) The Algorithm
It’s designed to reward what has worked before. It punishes deviation.
This creates a feedback loop: you see what works, you copy it, the algorithm rewards you, so you copy it again.
The result is a sea of sameness.
2) The “Content Playbook” Gurus
They sell you templates and formulas that promise viral success.
The problem? They sell the same playbook to everyone.
You’re not differentiating; you’re just competing against thousands of others running the exact same plays.
3) The Comfort of Safety
Pastiche feels safe.
You’re doing what “works.” Originality feels risky.
You might fail.
Fear keeps you on the well-trodden path, but that path has a very low ceiling.
4) The Participation Trophy Lie
The narrative that “everyone can win” is a lie sold by people who profit from your participation, not your success.
…but content is a contact sport.
There are winners and losers. Attention is a zero-sum game.
The data backs this up.
71% of creators make less than $30,000 a year.
41% struggle with burnout.
The middle is a crowded, exhausting, and unprofitable place to be.
The Deeper Sickness: The Death of You
But there’s a deeper, more uncomfortable reason why pastiche has become the norm. Jameson called it the “death of the subject.”
He argued that modern culture, the constant bombardment of media, and the fragmentation of shared norms were eroding our ability to maintain a coherent, individual self.
He saw this in 1983.
He didn’t even have to contend with the internet.
Today, the average person manages 7-10 different social media accounts.
Your LinkedIn self wouldn’t recognize your Reddit self at a party.
You’re performing different versions of yourself for different algorithms, and the psychological toll is real.
Researchers call it “identity fragmentation,” and it leads to anxiety, burnout, and a profound sense of emptiness.
When you’re asked, “Who are you, really?” you don’t have an answer.
This is the sickness.
…and it’s why creating original work feels so hard.
You can’t have an original voice if you don’t have a coherent self to speak from.
This is not an excuse. It’s the obstacle.
Identity isn’t found through introspection.
It’s forged through action.
It’s built through discipline and commitment to a set of beliefs.
You don’t find your voice. You build it.
The Fork in the Road
This brings you to a choice. A fork in the road.
…and you can only pick one path.
Path 1: Become an Exceptional Mimic (The Pastiche Master)
You can choose to play the game.
You can study the algorithm, master the formats, and become the best damn mimic in your niche.
You can win with pastiche.
But know what you’re signing up for.
You’re signing up for the treadmill.
Your content’s half-life is measured in minutes. A tweet is gone in 43 minutes.
A Facebook post in 76.
You have to keep feeding the machine, or you become invisible.
The moment you stop, the leads stop. It doesn’t compound.
Path 2: Embrace Originality (The Category of One)
This is the harder path. It’s the path of risk, discipline, and thick skin.
It’s the path of building a voice that is uniquely yours.
This isn’t about creating from nothing.
As T.S. Eliot wrote,
“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.”
Imitation is wearing the mask.
Stealing is melting it down, mixing it with your own experiences and beliefs, and forging something new.
This is the path to leverage.
This is how you build something that compounds.
A blog post has a half-life of two years.
A YouTube video, nearly nine days.
An original brand, like Warren Buffett’s See’s Candies, can compound for 50 years.
Originality is what creates an “emotional moat.”
It’s what allows you to pass the Villain Test: If you disappeared tomorrow, who would be genuinely sad?
If your brand is pastiche, the answer is nobody.
You’re interchangeable.
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The Path to Originality
Everyone starts with mimicry.
The Beatles played covers for 10,000 hours in Hamburg strip clubs before they wrote their own songs.
Hunter S. Thompson re-typed The Great Gatsby word-for-word to feel what it was like to write a masterpiece.
They started as mimics. But they didn’t stay there.
So how do you make the leap?
1) Answer the Contrarian Question
Peter Thiel’s famous question is the starting point:
“What important truth do you believe that very few people agree with you on?”
Your answer to that question, applied to your industry, is the seed of your original voice.
My answer? Content is a contact sport.
There are winners and losers. That’s an uncomfortable truth in an industry that preaches collaboration and community.
But it’s what I believe, and it’s the foundation of my point of view.
2) Forge Your Identity Through Action
Stop trying to “find” your voice. Build it.
Commit to a set of beliefs. Take a stand.
Do the work, every day.
Your voice is a byproduct of your discipline.
3) Use AI as an Amplifier, Not a Crutch
AI is the ultimate pastiche machine.
If you use it to generate generic content, you’re just accelerating your own irrelevance.
But if you bring a strong point of view to the table, AI can be a powerful tool to amplify your originality, test ideas, and execute faster.
The Choice
I built Agency Nation by taking a stand.
In an industry that treated insurance agents as boring and irrelevant, we told them they were cool.
We told them they were powerful.
We created a media company with an energy and a point of view that didn’t exist. We embraced originality, and it worked.
We built a platform that reached over 500,000 people and hosted events that brought in hundreds of professionals.
It was harder. It was riskier.
…but it created leverage that pastiche never could have.
So now you have to choose.
Will you be an exceptional mimic on a treadmill that never stops?
Or will you do the hard work of building a voice, forging an identity, and creating something that lasts?
You can win with pastiche. But you’ll always be chasing.
Originality is the only path to being chased.
Pick one. There is no third path.
This is the way.
Hanley
P.S. If you’re sick of feeling invisible and want to leverage AI to create leverage, influence, and growth...DM me today.
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