Unnecessary — Issue 003
The Algorithm Figured Out How
to Sell Masculinity. You're the Target.
Same playbook as every other engagement-bait pipeline — just aimed at your hormone levels this time.
You know this pattern already, even if you've never thought about it this way. An algorithm identifies an insecurity, serves content that amplifies it, then serves a product that "solves" it — and the whole loop is engineered to keep you scrolling and spending. You've watched it happen with skins, loot boxes, battle passes, every monetization system gaming has produced in the last decade.
Now the exact same mechanism has been pointed at testosterone. A guy with 400,000 followers tells you your fatigue isn't tiredness, it's "low T." There's a clinic link in his bio. The loop closes in under fifteen seconds. The industry built around that loop is worth $1.6 billion a year.← same playbook, different target
If you can spot a predatory monetization loop in a video game instantly, you can spot this one too — once you know what you're looking at. Here's the actual data behind the testosterone industry, and where the real line is between legitimate medicine and an engagement funnel wearing a lab coat.
What "Low T" Actually Means
Testosterone declines roughly 1% per year after 30. This is normal. This is what human male biology does. It has always done this. Your grandfather's testosterone declined too, he just didn't have an Instagram influencer explaining that it was a medical emergency.
Hypogonadism — clinically low testosterone — is real, diagnosable, and treatable. The TRAVERSE trial, involving over 5,000 men, established TRT is cardiovascular-safe in properly diagnosed patients. But the clinics and influencers are not primarily selling TRT to men with clinical hypogonadism. They are selling "optimisation" — the idea that even within normal range, higher is better.
The Marketing Is Extraordinary
A study this year found that 85% of "low T" social posts were from individuals rather than health organisations, 67% included direct purchase links, and 72% had financial interests in the outcome. None cited scientific evidence. All of them cited results.
One influencer told his audience: "If you're not waking up with a boner, there's a large possibility you have low testosterone." That's an implied diagnosis, a manufactured fear, and a product recommendation in under fifteen words.
The Looksmaxxing Hole
The Global Wellness Institute documented a cluster of practices — testosterone supplementation, cosmetic surgery, looksmaxxing, bone-smashing — coalescing into "masculine corporeal optimisation." The Turing Institute found 44% of looksmaxxing TikTok videos also carried blackpill hashtags.
What Actually Works
Resistance training. Sleep. Sunlight. Real social connection. Reducing chronic stress. Eating actual food. These demonstrably raise testosterone. They are also not monetisable at scale, which is why nobody is building a subscription model around them.
If you have genuine symptoms, see a doctor. Get real blood work. But if you're tired because you work too hard and sleep too little — adding a protocol to that is not medicine. It's an expensive way of not addressing the actual problem.
The House of Kong Take
Coming Up — Issue 004
The Koenigsegg Sadair's Spear has 1,625 horsepower and a name like a Nordic myth. We're going deep on the hypercar arms race — and what it costs to actually own one.
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