How to tell if you’re favorite goo-roo is a sociopath

Behold a cautionary tale: One of the reasons I am so skeptical about AI-generated content of any kind (not just emails and sales copy) is because every time I’ve seen it, I’ve been reminded of a guy I know up in this business who I suspect is a bonafide sociopath. No, not the “Dexter” kind of sociopath who’ll drug you at an event, and then you wake up in another room bound by plastic wrap to a table with pictures of all the people you’ve wronged kind of sociopath. This particular guy is more of a benevolent sociopath. A sociopath is simply someone who’s not “wired” to care about anyone else. Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t. And while probably 95% of people reading this email probably know who this fellow is, those same 95% would have absolutely no idea he is a sociopath by talking to him if they didn’t know how sociopaths operate, communicate, and, frankly, survive in society without being exiled, jailed, or even executed (by the state, someone they wronged, whoever). Personally, I don’t think they live very easy lives. And before anyone asks: No, I am NOT going to say who it is, or give a single “clue” or anything like that — so don’t bother asking. It’s not the point of this, and I have no desire to dox him, or do him any harm whatsoever, as he is not out there screwing anyone over from what I’ve seen, even if he’s racked up quite a few enemies (as well as intensely loyal friends and fans). But let me give you an example of what I mean: I remember being at a seminar we both spoke at many, many years ago. And during his talk I remember him starting to cry at an odd point when telling his story. It was odd because, one, it wasn’t really all that sad of a story in the first place. And, two, he did it during a part of the story where it made zero sense to cry. He was off by a few “beats” at least. And it was kinda jarring. The person sitting with me noticed the same thing: “Why’s he crying?” And when I looked at other people around us, you could see the confusion on some of their faces, too, while the majority were intensely engaged totally oblivious they were listening to utter bull shyt. It was just a very strange thing. And that was when I realized he was almost certainly a sociopath — meaning, he lacks the ‘wiring’ to care about people. Again, I am not saying he screws people over (to my knowledge, at least). But he does seem to lack humanity: that piece of what makes normal people human, makes us feel empathy, makes us feel guilt, fear, sadness, shame, loss, whatever. In other words: He thinks more like a machine than a man — Very cold, very calculating, and with zero remorse. If I am correct about him, and I may no be, admittedly (this is a cautionary tale, not an FBI investigation), then even if he did screw someone over, he wouldn’t really be bothered by it. Or if he fleeced someone of everything and got them framed for a crime, he wouldn’t even bat an eye. It just wouldn’t emotionally register. Personally, I do think he’s been taught the difference between right and wrong. And that is why he doesn’t do these things. This isn’t a seminar on how to ID sociopaths though. (See Ken McCarthy’s magnificent copywriting course for that.) It’s simply an example of how someone with little or no empathy — like AI — thinks. It will always lack humanity. Just like the guy above who is great with statistics, looking coldly at numbers, and being an overall Psychological Marketer (like I described in the September 2023 Email Players issue)… but he has to fake human emotions and behavior in order to fit in. Some of the really dangerous sociopaths are almost supernaturally good at faking humanity and do a lot of evil things. Think Ted Bundy who was almost supernaturally good at being “more human” than regular humans when it came to faking humanity. But if you know what to look for, you know something is “off” and can adjust your action accordingly. On a side note: This was very accurately shown in the TV show Dexter with the Sgt. Doakes character. He got a creepy vibe from Dexter, but couldn’t rationalize it, just knew it was there. Point is, there is no real human connection there. No humanity. And it shows in how the guy I am referring to sells and even tells stories. Which brings me to the point: That’s your AI like fapGPT, etc, too. AI cannot be human, so will always lack humanity, even if it tries to pose as human, copies humans, pretends to be humans, takes that data and improves at trying to be human even though it’s not human and never will be human. There are many legit uses for AI, and I have to make that clear for the peanut gallery obsessed with all-things AI. And while you can obviously do whatever you want, I would not rely on it for anything other than cold calculations, brainstorming (like you would a swipe file), research, and other tasks that require no real humanity. I certainly would NOT use it for creating — whole cloth — emails, sales copy, content, customer service (does you really like talking or chatting to prompts when you have a serious customer service question?) or anything that requires genuine humanity. And just to be clear about something else: When I say “humanity” I’m referring to that unique spark of individuality that is you and nobody else. Humanity cannot be copied, it cannot be “prompted,” and it can’t really even be “reverse engineered.” You cannot “prompt” your way into a relationship — romantic, friendship, or otherwise — unless you’re one of these deviants who buys secks dolls or, I suppose, a character in Black Mirror. Something else to compute: If you ever saw the movie Watchmen (or read the comicbook) there’s a scene that perfectly shows what AI does when it tries to create a relationship by doing everything “right” and checking all the humanity-boxes. The scene is when Laurie is having sex with Dr. Manhattan. (Who is a being of basically unlimited power who can bend matter to his will). And she’s in to it and it’s hot and heavy until she feels another pair of hands. And then she sees another face. And then she realizes she’s not doing the horizontal polka with Dr. Manhattan… She doing it with half a dozen (I forget how many) Dr. Manhattan clones! Dr. Manhattan (whose humanity was all but gone by then) assumed pleasuring her like that would make her happy, while the “real” him was in another room working on this machine to save the world, and he’s not really focused on her at all, and not emotionally engaged with her on any level whatsoever even if he was ticking all the right boxes for pleasuring her. So there is no connection, no empathy, and no relationship. He’s just going through the motions, phoning it in based on algorithms he calculated from his years of knowing her, talking to her, listening to her, being in close proximity with her. Thus, there was no real connection. Because, let’s face it, there was nothing there to connect with. That, to me, is a very good metaphor for using something like AI (fapGPT, whatever) to write your emails and sales copy and content and grow a relationship with your list, customers, and clients with. Because the relationship transcends marketing and copywriting. There’s a transfer of energy and emotion (not in a woo-woo sense, this is all very rational) between you and the person you’re trying to serve. The old Roman legal meaning of a client was someone under your care and protection. They considered that relationship sacred. Which is interesting because in the book “Ten Greatest Sales Persons” the late master of selling Joe Girard used that exact same word — sacred — to describe his customer relationships. fapGPT or any other AI cannot do that. Because it’s not really human. It’s just a tool — like a calculator. And while a calculator is a useful tool for pushing in numbers (prompting numbers?), I don’t think you’re going to let it negotiate with, deal with, or try to form a relationship with your accountant, stock broker, or friendly neighborhood IRS agent. I fully realize those with a vested interest in AI disagree with this. I’ll get a reply with “what about ___” with half a dozen AI marketing guys. And while I don’t doubt the sincerity of all the AI guys (although some are clearly selling utter bull shyt, tapping into the gold rush, going by what people who buy their offers are telling me lately), I don’t believe a single prompted word I hear about it at this point except from a very small handful of people I know, like, & trust — such as my pal and Email Players subscriber Shane Hunter, who intelligently approaches the topic from the perspective of wanting to better serve his clients vs just selling stuff. Anyway, this is all a very small part of a very long conversation. A conversation you can follow in the January Email Players issue where I talk a lot more about this, and how guys like Joe Girard went about selling and forming relationships that lasted for literally generations (sons, grandsons, etc buying from him), and their friends and family and co-workers and all those peoples’ family, friends, co-workers’ children, grand children, etc. Very powerful info for the initiated. To be initiated the first step is to subscribe in time for the January issue. It’s triple+ sized (64-pages) to commemorate the newsletter’s 150th issue. I am also including a special bonus to further commemorate this 150th issue: “Email Players Annual #2: Mad Men Copywriting Secrets” This oversized (literally — in both size and page count) Annual issue bonus exists outside the normal continuity of the newsletter. And I wrote it to both commemorate the newsletter’s 150th issue, and also to teach some cool stuff I’ve learned studying the old masters that have practically be all but forgotten about today. (NOTE: it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the TV show “Mad Men”, which I found extremely boring and overrated — it’s about advertising methods used by the actual Mad Men of the 60’s.) You can read more about it in the P.S. below if you choose. Otherwise, if you want in, use this link immediately, while you still can: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle P.S. Some of the secrets found inside the bonus above include: * The sneaky headline trick old school copywriters used to pre-test ads without spending a single dime. * Cunning advice (straight from a private, internal memo at the Leo Burnett agency back in the day) about how to trick egotistical clients (for their own good, of course) into running your sales copy “as-is.” (Old school screenwriters basically did the same thing to get scripts approved, today it’s practically a forgotten trick of the writing trade.) * A powerful Mad Men secret to making your business mysteriously attractive that can be like “catnip” to high-paying clients and others you wish to sell to or influence. * The World-Building technique all the Mad Men agency owners (the ones whose names are still on their companies today long after their deaths) used to position themselves as “the” agency to hire — with certain clients practically magnetically attracted to them, and probably even only them, and likely wanting nothing to do with anyone else. * How to exploit a dangling piece of psychological “wiring” in every human being’s brain to help make your emails and other marketing extremely hard to ignore and a whole lot more engaging. * A sneaky way to adapt Ogilvy’s enormously successful “Man In The Hathaway Shirt” ad from the 1950s into a high converting opt-in pages for your business today. * How the late Mad Man Leo Burnett would address a room of stuck up and snobby vice presidents of giant corporations to keep their egos in check and “prep” them for what he expected of them as clients. * How an old school phone salesman and high school dropout was able to ethically & legally out-negotiate & out-maneuver a room full of high-falutin’, and super educated and wealthy lawyers hired by a bank to get what he wanted. (Nothing directly to do with Mad Men — but what this phone salesman did is something that was quite common for people in the know to do back in the day to get what they wanted in contracts and deals.) * A clever way that certain bashful Mad Men copywriters used their shyness to help create far more powerful advertising. * A (admittedly bizarre sounding to most marketers today) advertising sales trick that David Ogilvy learned from a furniture salesman for turning a product’s flaws into reasons to buy. (Including tips for exactly how to turn high fees, bad reviews, and even slow service into reasons to buy.) * How David Ogilvy used good, old fashioned trolling (he was a world-class troll) to help get compliance and engagement from everyone from heads of corporations during high-pressure negotiations to his own wife in the kitchen. * A ridiculously effective door-to-door salesman technique (that, believe it or not, works even better on Facebook today, I have found) that can help you create headlines, offers, emails, and other marketing that can just seep right into the psychology and souls of your leads and customers, giving them almost no choice but to want to buy what you’re selling! (Does that sound almost like hype? Maybe so. But realize this: it was not uncommon for this technique to works so well it’d sometimes set record for product recalls for weak products.) * Just how brutal and soul-crushing old school Man Men were in their advertising campaign critiques. (One of the most respected copywriters of the day and creator of the famous Pillsbury Doughboy — Rudy Perz — said they’d make him feel like a “martyr”, and the creative director and original Marlboro Man model — Andy Armstrong — once literally suffered a nervous breakdown over one of these brutal critiques, if that tells you something.) * The little-known way the Leo Burnett Agency created such memorable and influential cartoon characters that helped sell truckloads of the products they promoted * The 7-word advertising principle that helped build one of the biggest and most respected ad agencies in human history. (And that is still around today almost 100 years later, while most have long-since floundered.) * Why fire-breathing atheist David Ogilvy was such a big fan of the Catholic Church. (Nothing really to do with copywriting or marketing, but his reasoning could be useful to anyone who runs teams or has lots of employees.) * The Mad Men attitude (almost non-existent today) that can help freelancers, coaches, consultants, and other businesses go from begging to business to having so many new leads practically begging to hire you you might even need a waiting list. (Best part: you don’t even have to be that great at what you do or, for that matter, “do” anything different — this is just a make a simple mindset shift in the way you approach your business.) * David Ogilvy’s bizarre email list-building secret (created back in the 1950’s — long before the invention of commercial email) that can also make your business stand out in an overcrowded marketplace and increase your sales. * A shrewd insurance selling method (that smart radio and magazine advertisers forced their customers to do since it worked so well) that can help drive your email response through the roof. * How an “honorary” Mad Man copywriter (who was a NYC public employee and not an ad man at all) used ANTI-direct response slogans to help create some of the most profitable and memorable advertising every penned by the hand of mortal man. (And yes, what he did can be used to write all kinds of profitable headlines, subject lines, bullets, and any other kind of direct response sales copy.) * A one-on-one interview with a “for real” Mad Man! In fact, the TV show producers even consulted this guy due to him being in the thick of the agency business back then, and who was involved with campaigns like The Marlboro Man, Fly the Friendly Skies, & industry-famous campaigns for Gallo Winery, Proctor & Gamble, Colgate, Vicks, Chanel, Max Factor, Philip Morris, and the list goes on. This interview is a rare look into the psychology behind how these guys worked. How they thought. And, yes, how they made lots of money for their clients and themselves. Tonight’s the deadline to subscribe for all this lovin’. Here’s the link: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2023 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 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