The Smallest Acceptable Truth

You know that time that you want to believe something to be true and you simply accept it to be true, just because you want it to be. Like, when you believe that you’re funny, but really, you’re the only one laughing. Well, perhaps that’s one of those moments you’ve found a smallest acceptable truth. When you actually believe that your inner desires can meet the needs of others.

Yepp, that was a lot of words to say one thing. Sometimes we do before we think, fact check, reflect or even read. I know for a fact, that most people who read my blog posts, only read about 15% before sharing them. It is odd, but I know it to be true. Some people simply share what I write, without even reading it.

And lately, I have begun to understand why.

Most people aren’t interested in all the details about digital tactics in the case of my posts, they are not interested in why they should dress a certain way or what to eat for dinner. No, most people are busy thinking about other things, that are more important to them.

Yet. They are eager to appear as though they do. Cause they know that other people care about those things.

They settle with letting other people making their choices for them. They are fine with other people deciding what and why something should be used.

I like to call it “the smallest acceptable truth”.

Smallest, because it has to be bitesize for me to want to consume it fast. Acceptable, because I don’t need it to be the truth, yet truth because I do not want it to be uncomfortable to have to take the consequence. In other words, it offers me a fair explanation of my behavior.

The smallest acceptable truth is what makes cat memes make me look more funny. Other people have decided that cat pictures with texts is an acceptable way of communicating. I just use them because it is the easiest way I can be funny without having to think about it.

The smallest acceptable truth is why Facebook was all about “being tagged on Facebook”, whilst the platform had all the functionality MySpace, Friendster, Lunarstorm, Glife and all the other social platforms had combined.

The smallest acceptable truth is that Grinder is for gay people and Tinder is unisex, yet still, both fairly have the same type of functionality and are really there to express a desire to get laid without then anxiety of letting other people — who aren’t on the platform — getting to know about it.

The smallest acceptable truth is usability.

The smallest acceptable truth is a reason good enough to use something. It might not be the only way to use that thing, but it is the smallest acceptable truth to why it should be used.

In the startup industry, we have called it MVP. In communication, I call it the smallest acceptable truth. Not because I need another term, per say. Because it is really just the same. However, for a buyer in the communications industry, it is often difficult to think abstract thoughts about how content is a product that needs to be launched with the purpose of being used by a person to communicate something about themselves.

No. That’s not the smallest acceptable truth. So I have to give it another name, to make it the smallest acceptable truth.

Like, I don’t use a cat meme cause the cat meme is funny. I use the cat meme to say that I am funny. I don’t invite people to Facebook because Facebook is great, I invite them to make Facebook great to me. I don’t share your ad because you say I should like you, I share your ad, because I want my network to like me. Cause it says something about me.

The smallest acceptable truth is what I accept to be true about what it is that you say. The stuff that I tell others, is the reason I use you, to say something about me.

I talked about it in the 5 Cs of viral marketing when I discussed the story about the story and conformity.

I talked about it when I wrote the post about Through Content on LinkedIn.

But really. What it is all about is the time an invention meets usability. The time when we understand why we should use something for a specific purpose. It is the time we understand that Pewdiepie is funny + gaming + youtube.

It is the time we understand that Snapchat is what MMS was supposed to be, but really, the smallest acceptable truth about it is that it is new and youth use it, so I have to as well. It is why we believe that something that has a lot of shares already, is popular, and popular becomes the smallest acceptable truth I need in order to share it myself.

And that’s why vanity metrics work. (Meaning, a lot of views, a lot of likes, a lot of shares.) Cause it says something is popular, yet, it has no real functional value.

The smallest acceptable truth is the breaking point for any communicative message. It is what should be communicated, it is what should be focused on, cause it is the part, the small part of your truth, that people actually care enough to talk about. Not because it says something about you, but because it says something about them. They know how to use this little bit of you, to say something about them.

And the funny thing is that no one knows what the smallest acceptable truth will be, before the content is exposed to its intended recipients. We don’t know why and how they will use it. We can only guess, then change our minds, when they start using it in a different way.

And the ones who are successful in either pivoting OR producing enough new content until it takes the path you want it to take — then supporting that smallest acceptable truth with more content that helps people tell THAT story — they are the successful ones.

They are the ones who experience that exponential growth. Simply because they are the ones who support usability, or a the smallest acceptable truth to use them.

So. Why is it that most brands, most institutions, most startups fail to see this? Why can’t they swallow their institutional pride and stop saying things like “we are” and instead focus more on “people use us to..”?

I simply don’t get it.

When all organically grown virals show the same pattern. When there has even been a ted talk on it. They why do we insist on choosing one idea to rule them all, instead of testing many ideas until one works.

I don’t get it.

I am sorry for the rant, but this is one of 47 things that really bug me right now. Can you bring peace to my mind? You read this far, so you must at least be annoyed with my position. Tell me how it is in the real world in the comments… cause I can’t see the perspective I have not been faced with!