The author says that the right way to proceed is to provide the user value. The problem is something the author implies earlier, that lying works. You don't hav

The author says that the right way to proceed is to provide the user value. The problem is something the author implies earlier, that lying works. You don't have to provide value to consumers to have a successful financial relationship with them. You do need to transact some wholesome value if you want to have a mutualistic relationship with people, but in the context this essay operates, it's not required to be a marketing success. You don't have to exercise empathy in any warm way. The marketer can successfully model people as data points that respond to stimuli. That's a kind of empathy too, a kind of perspective work, it's just not what people want when they say empathy.