The tragedy of the commons is the concept that if many people enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource, they will tend to overuse it and may end up destroying its value altogether. This is generally applied to things like farmland, but I think it can apply to the internet as well, with the “finite, valuable resource” being our attention.
If everyone behaves properly, the resource stays useful for all. If a few people misbehave to take “just a bit more” for themselves, it can encourage everyone to try to take a bit more and destroys the value for everyone.
This is cold outreach in a nutshell. We have an amazing tool with the internet, but as more people try to do shady things to steal a bit of attention, it encourages others to do the same to try to keep up. As I’ve shared from Seth Godin a few times:
“People are smart enough to see that once spam becomes professionally and socially acceptable, all open systems fall apart.“
Techniques like cold calls and spam are tempting, for sure. The cost is essentially zero, and you can potentially make 10 more sales if you just bug 24,990 other people in the meantime.
The internet is unbelievably massive, but the attention of humans is a scare resource and should be respected by everyone or we risk ruining the entire system.
