Job seekers keyword-stuff resumes for ATS systems. Students craft essays to maximize AI grading scores. Creators bend their work to please recommendation algorithms. We're not getting smarter. We're getting better at performing for the machines that guard the gates.
The performance is specific. Short sentences score higher. Active voice beats passive. Certain keywords trigger positive weights. We learn the dance not to communicate, but to pass through. The gatekeepers shape behavior until behavior is just gatekeeper optimization.
The Algorithmic Theater
This reverses centuries of human evaluation. We used to perform for humans who could spot authenticity. Now we perform for systems that can't. The result: we measure performance, not substance.
Every post optimized for engagement. Every profile crafted for search. Everyone sounds identically profound. Success doesn't go to the smartest—it goes to those who best perform for algorithmic gatekeepers.
We're teaching ourselves to think like machines think we should think. Not to be understood, but to be admitted. Not to be right, but to be recognized. The algorithm becomes the judge, and we all become petitioners.
Algorithmic performance gets jobs, views, funding. Real intelligence that doesn't perform gets filtered out. We are selecting for theater at species scale.