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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   38406 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023

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There was a comment in the old place that had an interesting observation about Lex

He's the best example of "fake it til you make it" that I can think of in the podcasting community.

He overstated his credentials to get on Joe Rogan, nailed his appearance by appealing to everything that Joe loves in a charming, affable way, and he did the same thing with every other major player in the podcast world until he had a massive platform.

The top comment from his first JRE appearance sums up the character Lex is playing perfectly:

"This crazy Russian built an AI before this podcast that analyzed Joe Rogan's entire being and went on to hit all his favorite talking points within the first 40 minutes. Chimps, Steven seagal, the war of art, Stephen King on writing, bjj, wrestling, judo, ex machina, the singularity and Elon Musk."

In short, he realized that there's a niche in 'hyperpopular podcast space' that Rogan doesn't quite fill, and he bent himself into the exact shape required to fill it.

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