Become a Conspiracy Theorist

The theory? Your dreams.

Sup nerds, you're reading Cyber Patterns.

Are conspiracy theories only for crazy people? I don’t think so. I believe any ambitious creator has a few of them they’re hiding. And that’s a good thing.

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Ok, conspiracy theory time.

Every startup is a conspiracy theory.

“The best entrepreneurs know this: every great business is built around a secret that's hidden from the outside,” wrote billionaire Peter Thiel. Every founder is slightly delusional, believing in something that is not true yet.

So does every creator. They know what they have inside them. They know deep down even when everyone doesn’t, when everyone else is doubting them.

Every creator’s dream is a conspiracy theory.

Conspiracy theories are not just for lunatics.

They’re for doubters of alleged realities past, present, and future. Conspiracy theorists doubt what people tell them about the world and themselves.

If you want to make it as a creator, you need to have a conspiracy theory about yourself that you can see despite others telling you that you’re crazy.

I caught up with an old friend from college this week.

It made me think about how when I was in college, I dreamed of making it as a creator. I had a conspiracy theory about my career that only a few of my friends could see as plausible while some actively mocked me for it.

It’s no different than startup founders pitching angel investors on an idea. Like a founder getting no’s from venture capitalists, I looked like an idiot to many as I failed for 10+ years. My journey and that of most creators reminds me of a recent podcast with tech founders Amjad Masad and Antonio Garcia Martinez.

Amjad Masad: History is a series of conspiracies. If you read history carefully and you read about any group that has achieved massive success in any domain, it was actually a bunch of conspiracies: plans made in secret and kept secret for a long time and executed on for a long time.

Antonio Garcia Martinez: How often do you see a small set of focused people coming up with an action plan and then just implementing it in the world? It’s relatively rare to see right now

Amjad and Antonio are right. Most people aren’t conspiring. They don’t have a vision, a career strategy, or a project they’re working on in secret. Founders do, creators do, writers do, politicians and military strategist do.

But for many people, the only thing they plan for is retirement or their next vacation. They’ll call you crazy or impractical while they watch another Youtube video from a wealthy, successful YouTuber who was once called crazy and impractical by their friends and family as well.

Hold your conspiracy tight

My advice on large goals and conspiracies is a tad contrarian: keep your goals to yourself as you’re starting out on new creative endeavors.

Especially when you have little proof, people will think you’re nuts when you tell them your big goals. They’ll think it’s impossible for you to build a million-person following. Yet it’s been done before, so why not you?

Some people just won’t believe in you and that’s fine, others simply don’t have the imagination to see your vision; it doesn’t matter the reason for not supporting you. Find the people that will support you: your tribe of maniacs and the true friends and romantic partners that believe in you 150%.

When I was in college, I told a friend I was trying to get into tech; they tried “helping” me and telling me it was impossible for an English major to get into tech and I should focus on something else. For a few seconds, it filled me with fear until I remembered they had no clue what they were talking about. They worked at a rehab and didn’t know shit about the industry.

It’s for this reason that when a majority of people ask me my long-term goals, I tell them half-truths, but never tell them the entire plan. I don’t know them well enough. If you tell everyone, you’ll be sure to get feedback that will screw with your head. Everyone wants to give their damn opinion when no one asked for it. A pad of paper won’t make boneheaded remarks that screw with your head.

“Real g’s move in silence like Giannis” - Freddie Gibbs

Now, I really only tell my long-term goals to my fiancée, my closest friends, my tribe of maniacs, and my notebook. There’s just no reason to tell people your goals unless they a) believe in you 100% and b) get how the game works.

I’m happy I didn’t tell my Dad about my freelance writing when I was doing it as a side hustle. My Dad believes in me fully, but doesn’t get how the great online game works. He probably would’ve said something along the lines of “why are you wasting your time writing making $150 per blog when you have a job?”. Well, I had a conspiracy theory that over time, if I built a big enough audience, I could make more writing than as a data engineer and I was right. I kept it to myself and now that the business is legit, my Dad gets it. But if I told him about this conspiracy theory 1.5 years ago, he would’ve never understood. My Dad is a smart guy, but he doesn’t have the imagination to see how writing blog posts for $150 can lead to a $30,000/month business. It’s not just parents either.

For a period, I was dating a girl who was doing a PhD in nanotechnology. She was absolutely brilliant and will probably go on to be extremely rich and successful, but she thought the Twitter game was stupid and a waste of time. She was in a lab all day and couldn’t imagine why I spent my time on Twitter. I dated a very risk-averse law student who told me over and over again not to drop out of college. I dropped out and haven’t looked back. I’m now happily engaged to a girl who works in fashion and is Twitter-literate; she thinks what I do for work is cool as fuck and helps me write tweets and film TikToks.

“Where you when I was walkin'? Now I run the game, got the whole world talkin'“ - Kendrick Lamar

It’s a common trope in rap for up-and-coming artists to get hated on by people who then suddenly switch sides when they become successful. Everyone from Kendrick to J Cole and Mac Miller talked about it.

It’s a trope because it’s a true phenomenon with any success. I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve seen people that actively hated on me in college and high school pop up and follow me on Instagram or comment on my tweets now that I’m doing well. The leeches want blood.

If you want to be a well-known creator, then you have to be ok with getting hated on, insulted, and gossiped about. Not everyone’s gonna like you and they’re gonna share their shit thoughts on the internet. If you’re not cool with that, then this ain’t the career for you.

I tweeted a sarcastic joke above that sparked a lot of outrage from some offended low-iq incels. What’s funny is the coolest girls I know favorited the tweet. The only people who were mad were weird-looking men in their 30s.

Fortunately for me, I find this shit really funny.

I’ve loved pulling pranks and pissing my friends off since I was a kid. So being able to now make jokes and piss people off at scale is even better! If you’re like me and you find it funny to get hated on and actively enjoy pissing dumb people off, then welcome to the good life my friend.

You’re meant to be an internet creator.

Creators Corner

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

🎨 Here’s a great piece on the Childhoods of Exceptional People. Cool to see the patterns between great artists, scientists, and mathematicians.

✈️ I went to my first United Club! It was the perfect work spot with free food and coffee. Use my referral link to choose any UnitedMileage Plus card.

🤝 I started using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find potential studio clients and cross-promo partners for the newsletter. Got 3 meetings lined up!

Thanks for reading nerds.

Create some cool shit this week.

Jason Levin

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