What’s Missing Says More: The Semiotics of Omission

We spend our lives surrounded by signals. Most of them are obvious—what someone says, what they wear, the metrics a company puts in a slide deck. But some of the most telling information comes not from what’s there, but from what’s missing.

A woman on a dating app with only headshots is probably signaling something about her body, intentionally or not. A man whose photos are all in hats might be hiding a lack of hair. If you ask for a reference on someone and the response is good, the main takeaway is that the person is not great.

We are naturally skilled at decoding omissions in conversation. Language is full of qualifiers, hedges, and careful phrasings. If something is “in the top two,” it’s second place. If it were first, it would simply be “number one.” What’s harder for us is spotting the same patterns in non-verbal domains: how someone dresses, what they don’t post on social media, the small acts they avoid or overdo.

Lead Edge Capital has documented the institutional equivalent of this social instinct. In their piece on “Type of Reported Information,” they describe a predictable ladder companies climb when presenting themselves to investors:

If they have good cash profits, they show those.

If not, they show adjusted profits.

If not, gross profits.

If not, revenue.

If not, adjusted revenue metrics like GMV.

If not, monthly active users.

If not, subscribers.

If not, downloads.

If not, pageviews.

And if all else fails, they talk about how they were voted “Best Place to Work.”

It’s a perfect codification of how omission works in corporate storytelling. The absence of a higher-tier metric is the signal. If you had the better number, you’d lead with it. The fallbacks aren’t random; they’re part of an unconscious hierarchy of what sounds good when the most impressive data is unavailable.

The same omission logic explains why internet “face reveals” are unanimously underwhelming. When someone builds an entire persona without ever showing their face, two things happen:

Our brains fill that gap with the idealized version.

They are unintentionally signalling that their face is not competitive. If it were, they would compete using it to their advantage.

Thus, the actual reveal always disappoints because the bid-ask spread of reality is too large.

This highlights that omission is a sort of blind self-preservation. To protect our image, we offer what we believe is a serviceable substitute, often unintentionally. In doing so, we assume that others won’t notice what we’ve left out. What we fail to realize is that the void becomes its own signal.

In art, photography, design, and architecture, it is well understood that negative space defines the figure as much as the lines do. In life and in business, the gaps in the story define the truth as much as the facts presented. Whether you’re swiping on a profile or crafting one, seeking a reference or giving one, remember: what’s missing often speaks louder than what’s there.

Sublime

What’s Missing Says More

Offscreen Magazine Interview

Dr. Joe Dispenza