To any young writers out there trying to get their start, I offer the most important piece of advice: Never, ever, ever read the comments.

But for too many leaders, brands, and public figures these days, absorption into the world of the “very online” leads to the decision to react to things that aren’t real, to focus on issues that aren’t genuinely important, and to distract themselves away from where their actual constituency (their voters, their supporters, their customers) stands.