> A decade ago, the author A. J. Jacobs spent a few weeks trying to be totally authentic. He announced to an editor that he would try to sleep with her [...] You can imagine how his experiment worked out.<p>I've spent a few years trying to be totally authentic, and it's actually worked really well - the difference being that I don't just say every thought that comes into my head as soon as I think it. Like if I had a hot editor I wouldn't jump straight to "I want to sleep with you", but rather think "She's hot... but there are a bunch of external real-world factors that mean sleeping together would be a bad idea and a negative in the long run, so on balance, I prefer the world where it doesn't happen", and then I can honestly say "I am not planning on sleeping with you".