Unsustainable Signs

When the Bubble Burst Isn’t Loud ... It’s Slow, Quiet, and Already Leaking

We’re living through a strange moment.

A remarkably fit guy can hire a videographer, rent a luxury condo and an exotic car, film himself dipping his face into carbonated mineral ice water, brushing his teeth, sprinting outside, taking a cold plunge, and eating breakfast… and deliver negative value to millions of people.

• Not low value.
• Negative value.

The viewer is objectively worse off after watching … time gone, attention drained, nothing gained.

Yet these creators rack up half a billion views across a handful of videos and 19 million followers overnight.

• That’s not talent.
• That’s not inspiration.
• That’s a distortion.

A bubble.
And bubbles always have signs.

I’ve lived through multiple versions of unsustainable cycles:

• NINJA loans during the mortgage crisis - “no income, no job, no assets,” yet somehow approved
  
• Carmakers doing $100/mo leases on $40,000 cars because chasing market share mattered more than sanity
  
• Tulip mania in the 1600s (one I read about) - a flower bulb priced like a house because everyone else was buying
  

Every one of these periods felt normal while inside them.
Absurdity becomes routine.
FOMO overrides judgment.
And people assume the party continues indefinitely… until it doesn’t.

Then there was the Cybertruck bubble … a perfect modern case study.

A masterful launch by Elon.
A $100 deposit that magically converted into “thousands of pre-orders.”
An auction price of $244,000 for the very first unit … 2.5x retail … because hype temporarily replaced logic.

Here’s what actually happened

The Cybertruck bubble didn’t explode.
It leaked.
A tiny pinhole.
Slow deflation.

Values sliding back down the curve until they reached what a conventional, grounded market would’ve priced the vehicle at all along.

This is exactly what I’m seeing in the attention economy.
The pin is already in the balloon.
The only unknown now is how slow the deflation will be.
Not If …When.

People assume the attention economy is roaring … that more creators, more fluff, more spectacle means strength.
I think it signals the opposite.

Here’s the human psychology underneath the spike

• Absurd becomes normal
  
• Normal becomes expected
  
• Expected becomes required
  
• Required becomes exhausting
  
• Exhausting becomes avoided
  

Negative-value content is everywhere because the system rewards what we can’t look away from … not what we benefit from.

And that distortion creates a false premium the same way tulips, subprime mortgages, or $244,000 Cybertrucks did:

It inflates faster than it can sustain.
And deep down, people feel it.
Creators feel it.
Audiences feel it.
You feel it.

When everything is optimized for frictionless dopamine, the next scarce resource becomes something else

Meaning.
Discernment.
Recognition Capital

The bubble bursts when people collectively realize
“I’m paying attention…
but I’m not getting anything back.”
That’s the moment the market reprices the entire ecosystem.
We’re closer than people think….

Scroll any platform you use … Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, news, ads … and ask one sovereign question:

Is this sustainable?

Not “Do I like it?”
Not “Is it entertaining?”
Not “Is everyone else doing it?”

Just:

Is this building me… or bleeding me?

If a stranger looked at your feed, your website, for ten minutes, would they conclude you’re building a life … or numbing out from one?

Here’s the simple exercise:

• Make three columns: Positive Value / Neutral / Negative Value
  
• Audit everything you consumed in the last 24 hours
  
• Unfollow anything that consistently leaves you in the negative column
  
• Replace it with one account that makes you more sovereign, more skilled, or more awake
  

Bubbles don’t pop because the world gets smarter.
They pop because people quietly stop participating.
That’s where we are right now.

Through the fog, the outline of a new economy is emerging … one built not on attention, but on what survives after attention fades.

The balloon is already leaking.
The only question left is how long we pretend not to hear it.

Stay Lit

Bob

About Bob Manor 

Bob Manor is the founder of  South Ontario Auto Remarketing , Can-Am Dealer Services , and co-founder of Auto Auction Review. He’s also the creator of  Influence.vin, a branding and communication studio built for the car business. With over 30 years in the automotive world, Bob specializes in wholesale, dealer services, and identity-driven brand strategy. He’s a regular contributor to well-known automotive publications and uses his platforms to help industry pros re-align with who they are, not just what they do

Disclaimer:
These are my own observations and interpretations, based on lived experience inside this industry.
This is not financial, legal, or professional advice ... it is pattern recognition, shared for awareness and strategic consideration only