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Today’s post is about the benefits of being weird online. Before we start, I only have 3 very important words for you: Let’s get weird!

A good newsletter for weirdos:

My buddy Gaut grew his Twitter from 10k to 40k in the last month from 1 thing: shitposting.

In this newsletter, he’s interviewing prolific shitposters, memelords, pranksters, and more. Subscribe here:

Let’s Get Weird

As a dumb teenager, my friends and I used to shout LET’S GET WEIRD whenever we were getting up to shenanigans.

Usually that meant getting high and buying slurpees, but now when I say “Let’s get weird”, I’m referring to making some weird content with my friends.

Readers, I’m 100% a weirdo and I’m 100% cool with it.

Wanna know why? Weirdos win.

When I say “weird”, I don’t mean creepy or off-putting. I mean “quirky” and “funny” like that art school girl named Maura who makes sculptures out of condom boxes and only drinks Coke Zero.

If you do it right, your weirdness is your competitive advantage. In the words of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, “It’s better to invent your own game; then you can always be a winner”.

When I’m hired by startups, it’s not for writing boring blogs. ChatGPT can do that. Startups pay me to write funny tweets and make weird memes. ChatGPT can’t do funny (trust me I’ve tried).

The truth is most people are shallow versions of themselves online. Being weird online is how you build deep friendships online. No one wants to be friends with the boring LinkedIn poster. Being weird online skips the shallow part of building relationships and jumps right to the best part of friendships where you can be weird and goofy with each other.

I know this because this is what I’ve been doing all day everyday for the last 18 months. Being weird online. And it’s paying off. 5,000+ subscribers and a crew of amazing friends! I know you probably have some arguments against being weird online, but let me tell you about my very weird, very wonderful week first.

It’s been a weird 10 days.

Friday afternoon: I filmed videos with my friend Prez who runs a meme marketing agency and is the king of weird content. So I spent the afternoon recording videos of me digging through trash cans, spinning in chairs, and walking outside the New York Stock Exchange. Finished vids coming soon.

Sunday afternoon: I hung out with my best friend from college Shane who has been going viral on Twitter for his weird app designs. He’s the Instagram connected to your bank account guy. Like we did back in freshman year, we schemed up some new ways to break the internet.

Monday morning: I ate somewhere between 10-20 packets of Smuckers jam. Why? I run the Twitter for a software company called Jam and I tweeted that I’d eat a packet and tweet a pic out for each person that followed Jam’s Twitter. It worked! We went from 1,476 to 1,514 followers. All from me being weird.

Monday night: I put on an event for 50+ people for Jam where engineers told horror stories from their day jobs. It was basically campfire ghost stories for nerds. Weird stuff. But everyone had a great time and we saw a spike in Jam signups the next day! Also I randomly met the founder of KnowYourMeme (Meme wikipedia) and he bought my book Memes Make Millions.

Tuesday: I started running the Twitter for The Wanderers, a cyberpunk gaming and entertainment brand. We’re building the next Star Wars. Here’s a tweet I published. This is your reminder to embrace your nerdiness. Embrace your weirdness. There’s enough weirdo nerds online who will vibe with you.

Thursday night: Someone at a prominent VC firm hit me up because one of their portfolio companies wanted a writer. I said OK. I then received the single greatest introduction of my life. I genuinely feel like I had my walk-up song played in the bottom of the 9th inning. Incredible.

Friday afternoon: I did a whiteboard session with my boss over at startup newsletter Homescreen to come up with some weird ideas to increase subscribers … stuff like my Balaji Was Right hoodie.

Saturday night: I went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum with my fiancée and took epic photos with wax celebs while wearing my hat gifted to me from @VCBrags, a meme account that makes fun of venture capitalists. Weird. Spoiler: there’s a 🔥 VCBrags interview in my book.

Like I said, it’s been a weird 10 days. Tbh it’s been a weird year and I’m loving it.

I’m having so much fun with life right now. I’ve never been happier, and it wouldn’t be possible if I wasn’t willing to be weird on the internet. Because I was willing to take the risk and post my weird ideas, I’ve made amazing friends and am getting paid for being a funny tech weirdo. Crazy.

So I know you probably have some arguments against being weird online. They all go back to the same core thing.

“I’m scared what people will think.”

So you’re scared people from high school will make fun of you. You have every right to be afraid. In fact, you should be slightly afraid. Your reputation matters.

I know for a fact people from high school do make fun of me and talk behind my back. Do I care? No, I’m content. I’m making art, I'm making great money, and I got good friends and a fiancée who support me. I’m a happy dude.

Being “weird” or “cringe” online is how you make money online. And your reputation only matters with people you care about — not with old peers you won’t see until your 10-year reunion or whatever. Forget about them.

People used to make fun of me for blogging. Now I make a living writing online. People think writing Twitter threads is cringe. Well, it’s the most reliable way to grow on Twitter. People think trying hard to grow your social media is cringe. Trying hard is the only way you can succeed. Newsflash, you can’t grow on social media without trying hard. It doesn’t just happen overnight.

Embrace the weird. Embrace the cringe. Try really hard.

“Ok I’m scared of being fired though.”

Ok, I get it. That’s a real fear. But you’re not the first person scared of losing their livelihood for creating unorthodox content.

Shakespeare, Twain, and Orwell were all pseudonyms. Today, we have the likes of Litquidity, BoredElonMusk, and The Wolf of Franchises.

Yeah it feels kinda weird and secretive operating under a pseudonym. Maybe people will think you’re weird if they find out, but who cares. If girls can make finstas, then what’s wrong with a pseudonymous Twitter?

If you want to create weird content and think you’ll get fired under your real name, do what you’ve gotta do. Start a pseudonymous account.

You can still make money and friends under a pseudonym. In an interview for my book, BoredElonMusk told me he values his account at $20 million due to the investment opportunities his pseudonymous account has given him.

There’s real money in being weird.

The weirdo opportunity

What social media has taught me is that everyone is pretty weird, but most people are afraid to show it online.

Instead, they prefer to just like and comment on stuff. But everyone loves weird goofy humor. Everyone at their core is weird and loves to laugh. And if everyone is weird, then no one really is.

Hence, there’s an opportunity here.

Be weird online and you’ll stand out from everyone too afraid to do it. You’ll win the attention economy, make great money, and make some wonderful friends along the way. Cheers to being weird.

Creators Corner

3 things that helped me be a better creator this week:

✉️ I use Beehiiv, the greatest newsletter platform on earth. Best team, analytics, and crew of writers to support each other.

🌊 I’m currently reading Let My People Go Surfing by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. Inspiring, fun story for any entrepreneur.

🐦 I use TweetHunter to schedule tweets with auto-retweets after 6 hours and auto-plug my newsletter after tweets hit 20 likes.

Thanks for reading nerds.

Create some cool shit this week.

Jason Levin

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