Marshall's definition (from the Signal sections of *Gateless*, the most-commented-on part of that book): "Your own Signal is always on; it's what you're intentionally and unintentionally broadcasting about yourself, and how others perceive your Signal has a huge impact on how you get treated and what you're able to do in the world." The key claim is involuntariness: you cannot turn Signal off. Even saying nothing broadcasts something. So the question is never "do I have a signal?" but "is the signal I'm emitting the one I'd choose?" The consequence is leverage: "everything you do with other people becomes easier or harder depending on your Signal." A strong signal lowers the friction on every introduction, sale, hire, and collaboration; a weak or mismatched one taxes all of them. Because the effect multiplies across every interaction, Signal is one of the highest-return intangibles to manage deliberately. Cross-domain: personal branding, sales, hiring, dating, reputation management, diplomacy. [[Reliability as Success Cheat Code]] — the same broadcast-effect applied narrowly: showing up reliably is itself a signal, always on, that lowers friction on every future ask. [[High-Value Output Justifies Being Unreachable]] — a case where someone deliberately trades signal quality for output: going unreachable IS a signal (whether or not it's the intended one), which is the cost this note's "rational trade" framing leaves unpriced. --- *Source: [[Book Inventory/Progression|Progression]] (Sebastian Marshall, 2016) — Upstream Effects #8 — Currencies*