As if Google didn't even exist

For me, the key point of Daniel Threlfall's article about the impact social 'signals' (likes, retweets, etc.) have on your Google SEO rankings comes near the very end:

You should be engaging that audience as if Google didn’t even exist

Sure, all the detail (and subsequent interpretation in the comments) about what Google's Matt Cutts said (or didn't say) is interesting, but is getting into the weeds.

While I know Google (and to be balanced, other search engines, but c'mon, no one says 'Just Bing it and find out') is important, and I'm not naive enough to think 'If you write it, they will come', ultimately his comment goes back to the first principles of communication, and supposedly the real purpose of search engines -- helping people find just what they need.

So if you act as if Google doesn't exist, and instead of 'optimizing your search terms'  and 'keyword planning' you think truly about your audience, their relationship with you, their voices, their interests... and communicate to match -- then if the search engines are doing their jobs, you and your real customers should be able to find one another.

Or am I just overly optimistic?