WISDOM SIGNALING
New fear unlocked: wisdom anxiety
TL;DR: Not look how much I have, but look how much I think.
A few days ago we talked here about why reading is so damn cool right now.
It’s my most-read piece ever. Watching the numbers go up made me realise there’s probably more to this than the books that we are + are not reading.
I think what I was probably really trying to say was this:
When I see someone carrying Middlemarch on the tube, or posting their Goodreads year-end stats, or quoting a philosopher in their Insta bio, I realise what they’re really doing is wisdom signalling.
I feel like it’s everywhere once you start looking.
The evolution of signalling
Let's rewind just for a second. People have always signalled things to each other in nuanced, unspoken ways…it's how we navigate social hierarchies.
Trad status signalling = displaying your economic superiority/success/power. The Hermès bag, the Tesla, the Rolex. "Look at what I can afford."
Virtue signalling = displaying your moral superiority. The right slogan tote, the right hashtag, the right water bottle. "Look how ethical I am." (I don’t mean to diminish this…or sound like a skeptical conservative boomer…I hope you know what I mean).
But now we seem to have something new:
Wisdom signalling = demonstrating your intellectual depth and cultural sophistication. "Look how deeply I think."
In the attention economy, where information is abundant but insight is scarce, why is appearing well-informed becoming such powerful currency?
The most reliably, deeply cool (wish I had a better word) people in my life are spending their time doing things like digging out and subscribing to the right Substacks (extra points for being able to recommend them before they become mainstream and obvious) and watching off-the-beaten-track TV, and ofc maintaining their TBR pile (and talking about it often).
But it all feels like more than just wanting people to think they’re ‘smart’. It's feels like wanting people to see them as someone able to think deeply and broadly in a world that so rewards quick hot takes and simplified soundbites. A good quality thinker. A real one. Maybe.
(sidebar: a cultural omnivore, perhaps?)
Big brain boom
Despite predictions that we'll all be reduced to goldfish-like attention spans, ‘serious’ content seems to be thriving.
The Financial Times made more than half a billion pounds in revenue for the first time in its history in 2023-4, with growth across all its revenue streams. It reports having 21m active readers globally.
This isn't an anomaly. As of Q12025, The New York Times had 11.6m subscribers, up from 9.4m in 2023. And The Wall Street Journal is also in growth, hovering around 3m subs.
And ofc Substack itself (lots of the writers would be considered, I think, ‘serious’/thoughtful) now has 35 million active subscriptions. Which is about equivalent to all of the above combined.
And podcasts, perhaps the ultimate wisdom-signalling medium, continue their meteoric streak. This year 584m of us are expected to listen to at least one podcast, up from 546.7 million in 2024. Global podcast ad revenue is expected to surpass $5 billion in 2025 [WARC], meaning it’s doubled since 2022.
But more and more, it feels like these aren't just entertainment choices or info-source choices. They're identity choices.
New cultural dynamics and social hierarchies?
Are your feeds also gently filling up with people who are now experts on, for example: Stoicism (thanks Ryan Holiday) or fashion theory (because they follow the perfect combo of Substacks and TikToks)? Or my personal fave…brand strategy ; )
The irony is that real wisdom often looks unremarkable. It's quiet, a bit uncertain, full of "I don't knows" and "well, it depends."
Performative wisdom though…yeah that's loud, confident, slick, quotable, ready for the screenshot.
Have we stumbled into The Wisdom Economy?
Why this, why now?
Has algorithmic flattening made knowing our own minds feel radical?
Has the attention economy made an ability to think deeply feel almost superhuman? In a world of 15-second videos and the infinite scroll, reading a 400-page book every month feels out of the ordinary.
Has the democratisation of information through search, and now AI, made basic domain knowledge less impressive? Is there no excuse not to go deep now?
Has the collapse of traditional authority created a feeling that we're all desperately trying to figure out who to trust, who to defer to, who actually knows what they're talking about?
Has the meaninglessness epidemic (the nihilism, the lack of hope we’re seeing all over culture e.g. the Laying Flat community in China) that’s making traditional success markers (career, home ownership, financial security, etc) feel increasingly out of reach…perhaps made intellectual pursuits a newly-compelling form of achievement and identity-formation?
Also the politically-charged binary/hot potato of ‘intellectualism’ vs. ‘anti-intellectualism’.
Maybe it’s a mix of all of this, and more.
IMO wisdom signalling is about two things:
- our collective anxiety about information overload. I feel like no matter who we are and how we live, we’re probably feeling overwhelmed with info. Bewildered with stuff to read, watch, think about. Everyone I know feels simultaneously overstimulated and under-informed.
- agency vs powerlessness in a world where so much feels out of our control. You might not be able to afford a house, bank on an expected future pay-rise, or control the economy, but you can control what you think about.
For all the wisdom signalling I’m seeing (and I’m sure…very much doing), are we actually becoming wiser? Or are we just getting better at looking like we are?
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Beth
This is part of an ongoing series on major shifts in contemporary consumer culture during this time of turbulence that I think of as a cultural interregnum…a time when we’re probably not where we once were, but we’re probably not yet where were going. Hit subscribe so you don't miss the next.
I just received something in the post yesterday that makes me the ultimate wisdom signaller ~ A New Yorker tote….😏😜
More status from a Birkin bag or Anna Karenina? Interesting concept!