There’s a story that when the speech for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln was recorded, Walt Disney insisted on the voice actor doing the speech over and over, until he sounded exhausted and a little frustrated. Walt didn’t want the perfect oration; he knew that Lincoln would have been tired and war-weary, physically unable to deliver a perfect speech.

So he got take after take, until he got one that sounded authentic. He valued authenticity over manufactured perfection.

I went viral on LinkedIn for the first time ever. I posted about why AI Headshots are a red flag, and it got a lot of comments.

It turns out that there are a lot of opinions about AI Headshots, and as is always the case with social media, there’s very little room for nuance.

Authentic > Manufactured

The gist of the post is this: AI headshots are, by definition, inauthentic. You’re using a computer to generate some digital portrait of yourself instead of taking the time to create one.

And because of that, it tells me, “I don’t care about presenting the real version of myself.”

In a world where you can’t really trust what you see, we should generate trust but showing people who we are — what we actually look like.

It’s a first impression for anyone who doesn’t know you.

The eyes are the window to the soul, right? Do you really want a dead-eyed, soulless version of you representing who you are?

What I’m Not Saying

One of my favorite sayings is, “Don’t hear what I’m not saying.” Unfortunately, because of the format the works for social media, there is a lot of room for people to do just that.

Here are a few things I’m not saying:

1. Never edit your photos at all
2. Never change your appearance ever
3. AI headshots are the only way you can completely fake your appearance

I know you can edit a photo into oblivion and make it look nothing like the real you. I don’t think that’s good either. It’s just simply not what I’m talking about here.

That also doesn’t mean you shouldn’t edit photos. Clean them up, add a solid color background. My friend removed a weird glare from mine.

Wear makeup! Choose your wardrobe. Fix your hair. Each of those things leans into our actual humanity. It’s natural to want to present ourselves in a particular way.

None of those is the same as an AI headshot: a completely digital painting of yourself that you’re putting out into the world as a real representation of a real human.

When “Good Enough” Isn’t Good Enough

There were also comments along these lines:

1. The AI photo is good enough
2. The profile picture doesn’t matter that much

I like to imagine what Walt would think about these comments.

What if he decided that the first take was good enough? It was cheaper to do fewer takes anyway, right?

Or if he didn’t think the speech mattered that much.

But Walt knew — perhaps better than anyone — that the whole experience matters.

There are a lot of subtle signals we send to people to help them understand who we are. Your profile pic, or headshot, is a very important one.

When you decide that your main presentation to the world is a fake version of you, you’re projecting a lot.

You’re telling them that even though you have a suitable camera, you can’t be bothered to take the time to take a good photo (or hire someone who can). That you’re going to do what’s easy and convenient for you instead of putting in a little work to get a better result.

Why should they think you’ll be bothered to take the time to do great work if they hire you?

You’re telling them that you’d rather fake “better” than present authentic. Why should they believe you can really deliver what you’re saying you can?

Maybe you don’t think this is that important, that it doesn’t matter that much. But attention to detail matters greatly.

Especially in a world where trust and human relationships are the differentiator.

Apple was asked what they think a photo is. Their answer is the undisputed champion:

A photo is a celebration of something that really happened.

I think that’s perfect. In that regard, a real headshot is more than just an actual representation of you.

It shows that you took real time — that you decided to capture yourself at an actual moment in your life, and share it with the world.