I've been looking at the internet lately. It feels broken in a new way.

Reddit threads loops back to the same tired circlejerk. AI-generated articles clog up search results with confident nonsense. YouTube experts give incorrect information, and somehow they have millions of views. Business communities worship the same empty platitudes. Productivity communities are getting less productive. Everyone's talking, but nothing moves forward.

My first reaction was simple: people are just getting dumber. The average person can't tell good information from garbage anymore.

But that's not it. The problem runs deeper than stupidity

It's incentives.

The people giving advice, running communities, creating content... they don't build followers or get paid when you succeed and leave. They get paid when you stay confused and keep coming back.

 

Incentives in Coaching, Self-Help, Therapy, etc

You find someone who claims they can help. You trust them to fix your problem.

What you don't realize: fixing you fast is the worst business decision they could make.

Consider two scenarios:

Expert helps fully solve a problem

  • Client payoff is high (problem gone)
  • Expert payoff is low (lost customer)

Expert makes you feel progress is made

  • Client payoff is medium (feels productive, ongoing cost)
  • But Expert payoff is high (repeat business).

Which scenario do you think a business-oriented person picks? The answer is obvious. And most people running coaching businesses are business-oriented.

It all works because you can't judge quality the same way they can. You hired them because they're the expert. You don't know what "good progress" actually looks like. They do. That knowledge gap is where the exploitation happens.

Real experts who actually solve problems often struggle to build businesses because they lose clients too quickly.

 

Who's Guilty

This isn't some niche scam. It's everywhere. Once you see the incentive structure, you can't unsee it. The professionals you trust most are often the ones with the biggest reason to keep you stuck.

  • Politicians - Obsess over culture war distractions while ignoring problems they could actually fix. Endless debates about pronouns and foreign conflicts you can't influence, while housing costs crush you, healthcare bankrupts you, and your pension disappears. Real problems require pissing off donors. Fake problems let them look busy and fundraise forever.
  • Self-help gurus - Sell you the same recycled advice in new packaging. Morning routines, mindset shifts, manifestation. The problems never quite go away because the solutions are deliberately vague. Buy the next book, attend the next seminar, join the next mastermind
  • Social influencers - Sell you fantasies instead of actionable steps. Keep you dreaming, not doing.
  • Therapists - Book you for years of weekly sessions when 10 focused ones might actually fix you. Bill by the hour, not by results.
  • Doctors - Prescribe treatments that manage symptoms forever instead of addressing root causes. A patient cured is a customer lost.
  • Personal trainers - Stretch 3 months of real progress across 18 months of "programming phases." Slow gains mean long contracts.
  • Life coaches - Sell endless packages of "breakthrough sessions" that never quite break through. Always one more layer to unpack.
  • Relationship coaches - Give you small improvements but never full resolution. Keep the wound open, keep you coming back.
  • Business coaches - Drag out strategy calls with no concrete results. Vague advice, big invoices, slow timeline.
  • Online course creators - Promise transformation but design courses so dense and confusing you'll need their "advanced program" next.
  • Nutritionists - Overcomplicate eating so you think you need monthly check-ins. It's not that complex, but simple doesn't pay.

 

Game Theory and Human Nature

Humans seek maximum gain for minimum effort. That's not a character flaw, it's how we're wired. The market doesn't reward the hardest worker. It rewards the smartest player. And the smartest play is keeping customers hooked, not setting them free. When the system pays you more for worse results, most people will take the money. They'll tell themselves they're still helping. They'll believe it. But the incentive shapes the outcome, regardless of intentions.

 

Keeping you dumb

If you actually learn how to solve your own problems, you stop needing them. So they give you just enough information to feel like you're learning, but never enough to become independent. They use complicated language when simple words would work. They create proprietary systems and frameworks for basic concepts. They tell you it's a journey, that real change takes time, that you need their guidance to avoid mistakes. And you believe them. Because keeping you slightly confused, slightly dependent, slightly behind where you could be... that's the business model.

 

Fabricating new problems

The really skilled ones go further. They don't just drag out your existing problem. They invent new ones. Some of these problems are real. Many aren't. But you can't tell the difference, and now you're paying to fix issues that only exist because someone profits from naming them.

  • Therapists - Suggest you have attachment issues you never knew about. Suddenly your childhood needs years of unpacking.
  • Business coaches - Discover limiting beliefs that require "deeper work." Your mindset is now the problem, not your strategy.
  • Personal trainers - Find muscle imbalances that need special programming. You can't just lift, you need corrective exercises first.
  • Doctors - Diagnose syndromes with vague symptoms that require ongoing treatment. Your tiredness is now a condition.
  • Relationship coaches - Identify communication patterns you never noticed were problems. Now you need their framework to talk to your partner.
  • Spiritual coaches - Tell you the reason manifestation isn't working is because you have "blocks" or "resistance." You're not vibrating at the right frequency.

 

The broader message The success of people depends on the rest being unsuccessful. Not completely, enough to keep you dependent. Kings needed farmers who produced but never owned land. Nobles needed servants who worked but never built wealth. Modern experts need clients who improve but never become independent. The structure hasn't changed. Only the titles have.