We are all aware of how modern economies have developed from those based on agriculture, to those based on industry, and then on information. But where do we stand now? Is the information economy dead? If so, what's replaced it?

It’s not that some “personal branding” advice isn’t useful or beneficial; it’s that much of the “personal branding” concept is little more than common sense put into a trite “package” for the sole purpose of commercialization.

Do the brands we buy and the things we own define who we are? Like it or not, two new books say they do.

Thorstein Veblen introduced the idea of “conspicuous consumption” in The Theory of the Leisure Class, in 1899. And it’s still being recycled today. Veblen gave examples like the man who parades down Main Street in “stainless” linen, with a superfluous walking stick. These objects supposedly told a story—“evidence of leisure”— to an audience of strangers.

Being a consumer is part of being sentient in America. The very pervasiveness of consumer culture is the reason we don't really think about it too deeply.

Alex Bogusky built the country's slickest ad shop using Apple products. His next challenge: Persuade people like him to buy Microsoft's stuff.

Personal branding is basically the way you market yourself to the world. Your personal brand is what other people think of you. In some ways it’s outside your control, but you obviously have some influence over it.

Personal branding is about managing your name — even if you don’t own a business — in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records.

I was in the middle of writing a new post on personal branding (how-to) when I noticed I had a trackback from Michael Goldhaber, a guy that I’ve been paying a lot of attention to this year. He’s an expert on the Attention Economy and its ramifications for your life and mine. In his response to my post, Goldhaber challenges the concept of building a personal brand, positing (rightly, perhaps) that people are not like objects. Slapping a pretty website up, handing out sexy business cards and defining a personal niche won’t do, even though it’s mighty tempting to think otherwise. People can sniff out desperation.