Totalitarian communist countries led people into pretending. Lying all the way, bottom up, just to paint a nice picture with fake numbers.
The corporate culture of meetings and busy-ness is also full of pretend. Wasting time from meeting to meeting, taking notes, pushing paper. The results will come some day, today I'd rather go through the email.
The more the society is free, the harder it is to pretend. You can't fake value creation if it is measured in money, especially hard money.
Status thrives on faking.
Free society that has profit incentives does not need pretending. Nassim Nicholas Taleb said that the only person you should impress is your accountant.
Profit is self-referential. Are you satisfied with what you created? Are you better than yesterday? Did you meet your own expectations?
If you are motivated by internal goals, you can be truly authentic.
