Costly Signaling (A Strategy That Doesn't Cost You Anything But Time)

Take 2 seconds and get this idea in your brain,front and center. Because if you’ve never encountered costly signaling theory before, here’s a quick definition I found online:

Individuals signal their underlying qualities (like resources or traits) through behaviors or displays that are difficult and costly to fake, ensuring the reliability of the signal.

Now that I’ve only partly spoiled it, you’re ready for this. Look what Harry Dry posed this brilliant observation in his newsletter. See if you can answer his question with what I just told you:

People love you spending YOUR TIME to do something so they don’t have to spend THEIR (SAME AMOUNT OF) TIME to reach the conclusion you did.

The best (first half of a) book on this idea is Spent by Geoffrey Miller. I stole a few quotes so you don’t have to read the whole thing or suffer through the philosophically meandering latter 2/3rds here. He highlights how humans evolved to look for shortcuts just like this.

Harry’s point (and it might as well be straight out of Miller’s evolutionary biology perspective) is:

A. You might not want to spend $21k on an airline ticket, but don’t you want to hear what somebody who did spend that amount got for it (especially if you don’t have money like that to spend on travel like that)?

B. You might not have hand drawn a massive notepad brainstorm of what to do on YouTube in 2025, but don’t you want to hear what somebody who did write all those tiny words on that huge page down thinks (and maybe understand why they get so many more views than you)?

C. You might not have thought much about Sterling’s free-kick strategy, but would you like to know what somebody who gathered his last 16 free kicks across cyber space is going to point out to you in all of a minute’s time after who knows how much research (because I am that nerd who really wants to know, especially if it could help my fantasy EPL team)?

D. You can tell the potato chip bags have different colors, but don’t you want to know why this video with all these views thinks they actually did it, especially since you didn’t even know you should be wondering about potato chip packing color schemes in the first place (and what else in life are you so painfully obviously missing)???

If you put in the time, and you think others won’t bother to put in the time, BUT also think they might respect the fact that you did AND want the benefits you’ve derived, figure out a subtle way to tell them.

Tell them. Signal it to them.

Signal the cost of the time you spent AND the savings you’re about to hand to them, in exchange for a simple click.

This is why Harry Dry is a brilliant marketer and communicator.

I don’t know exactly how I might do this for myself, but I’ve been dialing it up in subtle ways. I’m working on my “Grow Your Network” posts/series. I’m being better at calling out how I’ve been building this Personal Archive for 7+ years and you can tap into it the same way I do.

Signal the time you’ve sunk and why somebody else doesn’t have to sink theirs wherever and whenever you can.

It’s subtle, and we humans are hardwired to respond to it.

If you do this - how, where, when, and why? I’d love to know.