In 2026, 'fake it till you make it' is a common way people approach careers and lifestyles. Simply put, it means acting like your ideal self until you actually become that person. This is like a rehearsal, where you prepare to become the best version of yourself. The idea assumes there’s a true self at the end of this process. It works like cause and effect: if you smile, you feel happier. This is the simpler, straightforward idea behind the phrase.
Notice, though, this all requires a clear and concrete idea of the end goal or the self someone wants to achieve.
Baudrillard's simulacra enter here. In Simulacra and Simulation, Baudrillard argues that in contemporary society, representations of reality have progressively replaced reality itself, to the point where the distinction between the real and its image has collapsed entirely. If that is true, then the premise of “fake it till you make it” begins to wobble. What exactly are you ‘making,’ if the model you are imitating is itself only a copy of a copy? The ideal self you are performing toward may not be original at all, but assembled from social media feeds, corporate types, and fashionable lifestyles. The performance no longer points toward authenticity; it loops within a system of signs. The simulacrum survives and reproduces because it has no solid foundation, like a frictionless surface. An image of competence circulates without bouncing off anything.
All these points lead to the modern practice of ‘faking it’, to a false or simulated endpoint. If you are engaging in this modern performance and directing it towards an end goal framed in the modern world or ‘system’, ask yourself if what you are going towards is a real end or a simulation of the real thing. So much of our world is made up of it. Even attempting to use nostalgia as a source only leads to drawing from another, more emotionally optimistic simulation of what was. The simulation of such things can lead to a false reality of competence, lacking any grounded source. So be careful when you are faking it because the thing you are faking may be fake itself, and if it is, so will you.
