Clickbust ran this morning. Nothing special, just another test. But I watched the reaction in real time. A headline hits. People start typing. Within 15 minutes the narrative is set. Not because anyone checked the facts. Because the first person to post got the likes.
This is the thing. We all think we're immune to it. We're not. I saw it in myself today. A headline popped up and my brain started building a story before I'd read the second paragraph. The story was wrong. But the feeling was already there.
It reminds me of something a mate said last week. He works in news. He told me the average time between seeing a headline and sharing it is now under 30 seconds. Thirty seconds. That's not enough time to think. That's enough time to feel.
The market doesn't care about the truth. It cares about the first take. And the first take wins because nobody waits.