Be a heretic

Last week, I flew down to Miami Beach for Hereticon, a conference for thought-criminals hosted by Founders Fund.

I talked with billionaires about memes. I met a convicted felon. I learned about the Antichrist. I drank Red Bull. I saw naked women. I learned why the moon should be a state. I made some money. I drank more Red Bull. And not all in that order.

Here's how it all went down day-by-day:

Sunday 10/27/24

Get down to Miami late Sunday night.

Walk into hotel room.

Wifey surprises me with “HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEMELORD”. She says the hotel staff was very confused, but extremely entertained (exactly how I like to keep people).

Monday 10/28/24

Wake up. Red Bull. Workout.

Make memes on balcony on the software I made. Life is magical.

Work on book proposal for a while (shhhh, I’m cooking up a 2nd book 😉).

Check in to the conference at 5.

It’s at the Faena Hotel. Beautiful, extravagant, next-level. Like there’s a motherfucking sculpture of a golden triceratops on the property levels of beauty. Like there’s a forrest on the property levels. Like some White Lotus there may be a murder happening but it’s all good because it’s beautiful level of beauty shit. It was awesome. 

Say sup to the host Mike Solana and thank him for having us (always thank your hosts people). Solana is a living legend in Silicon Valley. He leads marketing at Peter Thiel’s firm Founders Fund and is the founder of one the most heretical media publications out there Pirate Wires. I first reached out to Solana back in like 2021, he’s been a long-time reader of Cyber Patterns, and he came on my podcast like a year ago. Love Solana.

Ok now dinner time.

Me and wifey sit down to eat our steak.  

I see Palmer Luckey, billionaire founder of Oculus and Anduril, standing around chatting to his co-founder Trae Stephens. Palmer’s wearing a red bomber jacket. The goatee and mullet are unmistakable. I say fuck it and introduce myself, say thanks for working on American defense, tell them I want to help on the marketing aspect (why I crashed a defense conference last year), and tell Palmer “we need to seize the memes of production ASAP”. He laughs. I get contact info for Anduril marketing.

Mission accomplished. Head out. Send emails. Pass out.

Tuesday 10/29/24

Wake up. Red Bull.

Head over to see Palmer give his talk about why the blue people from Avatar are morally bankrupt. Then learn about fossil fuels. Then AI overlords.

Then head over to a talk on the art of propaganda. I sit down next to my friend Gaby Goldberg and there’s a seat in between us and someone sits down and introduces himself and it turns out it’s Chris Best, the founder of Substack. I tell him about my meme marketing software and he pays for Memelord Technologies on the spot (LETS GOOOOO). So if Substack starts memeing, you know where that started ppl. 

Then Bryan Johnson explains why we should all be trying not to die (he actually looks even younger in person it’s insane and was walking around all week chatting). Then learn about why the US should buy Greenland (we should, also the moon should be a state). Then I crash the doomsday prophecies with my own self-fulfilling prophecy.

Head back. Change clothes.

It’s time for the Apocalypse Ball. Grab a Diet Coke, oysters, crab legs. Wife and I came strapped with Hezbollah-style beepers I bought off eBay (beep beep boom!!!!).

Peter Thiel is half-naked in a Halloween costume.

Palmer is walking around in Hawaiian shirt as per usual. I go to bathroom. Kevin Spacey is there. I keep running into him like 4 times throughout the night. Run into another guy with a beeper. We start talking. Turns out he runs an AI startup with his brother and they’re already customers without me knowing it lol.

Drink more diet Coke.

Talk with friends. Martin Shkreli comes up and says hi to the friend. We start chatting about how he and Diddy have the same lawyer and what he thinks will come from Diddy case. Shkreli seems humbled from jail smirk days.

12 am hits.

Head over to Grimes. I have a running joke with my wife that Grimes in my celebrity crush except it’s not a joke. We get front row. Show starts popping, everyone gets on stage. I’m raving next to Bryan Johnson. He’s wearing earplugs, I ask him if it helps that much, and he shows me an app that tracks decibels. I meet Grimes.  

Bed time. Thinking about Grimes, I mean my wife. 

Wednesday 10/30/24 

Wake up. Red Bull again. Conference time. 

See Peter Thiel speak.

(This wasn’t a joke lol)

Learn that I’m the antichrist.

Head over to pool to journal about it.

Then listen to a talk from two 8-figure founders about what drugs entrepreneurs should do depending on the task that must get done:

• Nicotine for boring repetitive tasks like Excel

• Drinking for marketing and sales

• weed for literally nothing because it makes you retarded

• Red Bull for dank memes (ok that one was me)

Next talk. Learn about Charles Manson and UFO research. Then learn about how to host data-driven orgies. Then go to a psychic reading. Psychic says wife needs to gets chakra aligned, I say we gotta make more money.

Reflections on heretics, billionaires, and memes

To most people, I sound like an idiot working on a meme marketing software.

I know this. And it makes me happy. I don’t give a fuck. I get high off being underestimated. I’m a heretic after all. That’s how I ended up at this conference.

If I wasn’t willing to look like an idiot to most people, I wouldn’t have gotten invited because I would’ve been too scared to ever speak up about my real thoughts. I would’ve never written Memes Make Millions or built Memelord Technologies.

See that’s the thing about heretical ideas. You must be willing to isolate most people. A following of 300,000 for boring ideas you don’t believe in is useless compared to a following of 30,000 for your heretical thoughts. Heresy creates a new set of believers. Heretical ideas by their nature are polarizing. But by the very nature of polarization, yes, it pushes some people away, but it also attracts other like-minded people closer. Sharing your heretical ideas on the internet is how you find your tribe.

This week, everyone I met from the billionaires to the scientists got the value of memes (the word “meme” was created by an evolutionary biologist after all). And there’s a reason why Elon Musk says “who controls the memes controls the universe.” Memes are not just silly images. Memes can control and shift narratives. It’s especially apparent with election season right now (this is the Meme Election), but it’s not just elections.

Whether you’re a billionaire pushing a cause, a startup founder pushing your company’s message, or a creator trying to go viral and get more attention around your ideas, memes are perfect top-of-funnel fast repetitive message pushers.

Whatever heretical idea you’re pushing, do it with a meme.

Tech Memes of the Week

Thanks for reading nerds.

Create some cool shit this week.

Jason “The Memelord” Levin

Founder of Memelord Technologies, Author of Memes Make Millions

Need crazy marketing ideas? Book a call here.