The marketing genius of Bryan Johnson

https://www.petecodes.io/marketing-genius-of-bryan-johnson/

by mooreds • 1 year ago

40 52 1 year ago

petecodes.io

drpossum2• 1 year ago

[flagged]

areoform2• 1 year ago

What if I replace "Bryan" with "Charles Manson"? And this is why I have no respect for "marketing".

The trivial reply to your point is, What if I took {engineering / science topic} and replaced it with {weapon}? And this is why I have no respect for "engineering."

I think scientists and engineers should learn how to be great marketers because we need to reach people where they are. Not where we'd like them to be.

If you still feel viscerally icked out, then it's worth remembering, dosis sola facit venenum — only the dose makes the poison.

drpossum2• 1 year ago

No, because I wouldn't make a blanket statement of "if some fraction of people like <some technology>, then it clearly must be good" because it's an absurd statement to make. It takes away all nuance and conversation. It forces a one-perspective narrative and that's exactly why marketing and marketers-in-the-modern-sense are shit. (btw I'll gladly stand with my conviction and hypocrisy whilst you go stand with advertisers)

bambax5• 1 year ago

You might have seen his Netflix documentary where he talks about taking 100 pills a day in order to live longer. Or maybe you saw his YouTube videos where he shows the world his workout routines.

No, I have not.

extremes gain attention. It polarises people. 90% of people might hate Bryan or think he is crazy. He has a lot of haters. 9% of people might be curious but ambivalent. But if 1% of people love Bryan’s message, that’s all he needs. It’s better to have a small number of fanatical fans than lots of people who are luke-warm about you.

That's a recipe for a cult. Maybe creating cult followers is the ultimate goal of any "marketing" initiative. But it's not admirable, nor recommendable.

For this person who pretends they will not die, it's just ridiculous and unimportant, but when it comes to politics and MAGA obtuse fanatics, it destroys the world.

idopmstuff2• 1 year ago

“The sober truth is that religions are the most stable and strongest organizations in the entire world,” he says. “Say I’m a cult, and I’ll joke that my cult is better than your cult because it tells people to eat healthy food and go to bed on time.”

-Bryan Johnson in https://www.menshealth.com/health/a63664080/bryan-johnson-do...

And hey, he has a point. His following is fanatical about stuff like... going to bed early, exercising and eating right.

ecuaflo• 1 year ago

But not about masking, and subsequently contracting covid, hurting his health more than any of his therapies have helped.

https://x.com/lauramiers/status/1846199554288292232

bambax5• 1 year ago

my cult is better than your cult

That's not possible, because I don't have a cult. That's the point. All cults are bad, they can't be ranked.

hn_throwaway_992• 1 year ago

His following is fanatical about stuff like... going to bed early, exercising and eating right.

But that's the point. If he had just posted lots of articles about going to bed early, exercising and eating right, nobody would give a shit.

People know about him because he spends millions of dollars a year on his own personal health, has reached "uncanny valley" level in terms of his appearance, and makes truly bizarre posts comparing the "quality" and duration of his nighttime erections to his teenage son's. So tired of this world where people think stuff like this is something to emulate.

solumos2• 1 year ago

We can look at this "cult-like" effect in a number of ways. Some will be specifically interesting to this community, since they apply broadly to startups.

I think it's wrong to call Bryan a "marketing genius" and I don't think the article here gives meaningful advice or reflects Bryan's process in the slightest. I don't think that he does anything particularly novel with his marketing, and I don't think it's the case that he had a brilliant business idea in 2021 where he thought to himself, "you know what would be great for my next gig, is if I built a business around longevity, used myself as the sole test subject, appealed to the fitness/health communities, and created my own supplements to sell" — I think he developed an obsession around health and longevity given his struggles with it himself, he wanted to share the work he was doing with other people, other people became interested in what he was doing and the way he told his story, and the business sort of naturally formed around it due to gaps in the market for the quality of products that Bryan wants as well as the high-quality content he produces (he's still a capitalist).

People, such as the author here, love to apply a revisionist lens to success. You could imagine a similar article being written about the marketing genius of the early days of The Beatles or Bob Dylan — they stood out, wrote catchy songs, appealed to a somewhat specific demographic (that eventually broadened), differed from the mainstream (early on), and followed trends. Neither of them thought about marketing as a first principle. To borrow an idea from Rick Rubin, they were creating music that they wanted to experience in the world that no one else was making, and once they brought those ideas to life, there were others who enjoyed it as well. They were creating first for themselves, from their own obsession, and there was a latent audience ready to receive it.

The same goes for successful startups. Facebook's origin story certainly shares a lot of similarities. It also factors into Paul Graham's interest in obsession[0], and consequently YC's founding principles[1] of investing in those motivated by "consuming interest" rather than "money". Perhaps this seems like a bit of a digression, but this sort of obsession is what leads to a "cult-like" mentality, both within the organization as well as with its fans and users. This is something that Peter Thiel (and Founder's Fund more broadly) is known for supporting, as well as recommending in Zero to One[2]. I don't think it's a coincidence that he was an early supporter of the largest social network in existence and a scholar of Renee Girard/mimetic theory.

Which brings me to my final point — there are a variety of organizations, fanbases, religions, etc that embody this "cult-like" growth and interest. I don't think it's possible to avoid them, although it clearly has the ability to harm. At the same time, personal computers and the internet were once niche communities with cult-like followings. I don't think these manifestations of mimetic desire are something that we'd want to discard entirely even if we could — they're something that simply occurs due to our social predisposition as human beings, and it's amplified due to our interconnectedness via modern technology.

[0] https://paulgraham.com/genius.html

[1] https://www.ycombinator.com/principles

[2] https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/peter_thiel_710435

jzellis• 1 year ago

Is that the guy who looks like a damp slightly younger guy and brags about his kid's boner? Where do I sign up for ticket to that train?

almostgotcaught• 1 year ago

damp slightly younger guy

Incredibly accurate

areoform2• 1 year ago

An interesting sociological tendence that I've noticed after talking to large-ish to medium-ish streamers is that haters fixate. And the greater that level of hate and fixation, the more successful that person seems to be.

Of course, there is a critical threshold to this phenomenon - a hater singularity, if you will - after which the hate becomes negative, but before and up to that point, the hate just fuels the metrics.

Is there a historical equivalent to this fixation? People have watched trials and followed the stories of serial killers with revulsion and fixation pre-social media & live streaming, but that fixation seems more muted (in retrospect) than today's trend.

It's striking just how much negative emotions drive the "attention economy"

robwwilliams• 1 year ago

He experimented with getting transfusions from his son. Amazing that he actual does not sound as nuts as he is ;-) Yes sugar BAD. Hey that’s a good slogan! I must start marketing that. Damn Bob Lustig beat me to it.

If you want to live forever as a cognitive entity then the only solution is to start designing your robot body and hope AGI can implement a version of you even you can not tell apart from you and you.

olives2• 1 year ago

I actually quite like his content, and I consider myself generally wary of marketers and content creators.

I find most of his videos, which typically follow the format of "I conducted experiment X on myself; here are the results," useful and digestible without being overly pushy about selling his Blueprint product.

The sample size = 1 person (himself) casts doubt on a lot of his findings, but I've still made some lifestyle changes after watching his videos. I finish eating earlier, and anecdotally feel better. I've leaned toward eating more healthy nuts and extra-virgin olive oil, and I've also purchased a sleep tracker.

I have not made any Blueprint purchases.

road_to_freedom• 1 year ago

Which sleep tracker? Watches aren't accurate.

the_clarence2• 1 year ago

The whoop. I recently compared it with an actual sleep apnea test and the REM is not accurate at all. But it is interesting to see tendencies (drinking alcohol really messes up with your sleep, winter increases your REM, etc.)

brookst2• 1 year ago

Accurate or precise?

Scales can be useful even if not accurate, so long as they are reasonably precise. Same for sleep tracking watches.

olives2• 1 year ago

I use Withings (a pad that you put under your mattress) because I can't stand wearing anything when I sleep. Seems ok according to this analysis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHS8bweLcxQ

gherkinnn• 1 year ago

So Pete here uses Bryan's marketing notoriety to draw people's attention to his own marketing services, one of which is being a LinkedIn ghost writer. Colour me amused, there's a clever remark buried somewhere in here. But time is running out, so I will leave thinking what special kind of tool hires a LinkedIn ghost writer.

https://www.petecodes.io/linkedin-ghost-writer-for-hire/

lareading• 1 year ago

My tired eyes read that as Boris - keyboard bashing deleted!

bambax5• 1 year ago

I saw this days ago and commented here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43089426

The comments with the next or previous ids (43089427, 43089425) correctly state that they are 3 days old.

But my comment below says it was made 15 minutes ago??!? How???!?

It may be fine to repost a story to give it another chance or whatever, but changing the timestamps of comments is shady and, I think, unacceptable.

jasonjmcghee• 1 year ago

It's part of HN

Second Chance Pool: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308

bambax5• 1 year ago

Yeah ok, I was aware of this, but it doesn't say that the timestamps of comments will be modified! That's what I have an issue with.

It may be a minor, ridiculous nitpick, but it's like editing my content without my consent. It's bad.

tptacek• 1 year ago

I can't get past "Don't die. What a slogan!" What a slogan, indeed.

pknerd2• 1 year ago

Don't Die.

Death is a part of natural selection and necessary for the ecosystem. I am surprised that this pro-science guy does not get it.

emmelaich• 1 year ago

Good for the gene, not great for the individual.

Matter of values not science.

bambax5• 1 year ago

But how will individuals fare should death be defeated? A world without death, with stupid gurus running around topless to show off their abs, is absolute hell.

xixixao• 1 year ago

What is human is far from “natural” for our original ecosystem.

A better argument for death would be if you think it’s important for a healthy human society.

silisili2• 1 year ago

I hold this same belief, but have quieted about it because of how incredibly unpopular it is on this forum. Angry comments asking who am I to play God, if I'm so unhappy let me die and not them, etc.

I used to get angry about such replies, but I guess I get it more now. Nobody wants to die, regardless of how scientifically, societally, and economically important it is to do so.

beagle32• 1 year ago

So is teeth rot if you eat the wrong things. Are you surprised at dentistry and all the people who use its services?

We are so far gone from the natural processes that this argument does not really have any meaning IMO.

pknerd2• 1 year ago

As per Bryan, it would be: Don't rot

hn_throwaway_992• 1 year ago

These kinds of advice articles on "how to build your personal brand" always tend to leave out those pesky little important details, like "spend 2 million dollars a year on your health regimen", which first requires you to be worth 10s of millions after selling your fintech startup.

silisili2• 1 year ago

I constantly go back and forth on this guy.

On the negative side - he looks obviously aged, he wears tons of makeup and teen clothes and stands out like a sore thumb. He seems to kinda shill products that may or may not be snake oil. He apparently took blood from his son, and now measures his and his son's boner in the middle of the night.

After all that you'd think I'm a hater, and maybe I am, but he open sources everything. There are more data points than a person would ask for. As weird as the boner thing is, it's slightly interesting. He takes brain scans and share them. Most of all, he seems like a genuinely affable person.

I don't know what to make of any of this, so I just sit eating the proverbial popcorn.

the_clarence2• 1 year ago

I think he seems to be very honest and open. The only downsides is that he's a sample of one and he focuses a bit too much on appearances now. But he really built a brand of trust around his methods and I'm probably going to buy his oil, chocolate, powder, and replace functionhealth with his alternative

beagle32• 1 year ago

The boner measurement may seem weird, but it’s a very informative measure of general health, vascular health, and a few other things.

My friend who worked in a sleep lab as a student was tasked with measuring several aspects of boners. The Netflix movie “game changers” (or “you are what you eat”, don’t remember) also used these measurements to drive a point.

It is not any weirder than a urine test or fecal analysis, which we all take for granted when looking for specific markers (e.g. protein in urine or occult blood in feces). It is, however, much cheaper and easier to carry out in a daily basis.

mcv• 1 year ago

I thought this was about AC/DC or something. I've never heard of this guy, so I don't buy the claim that 90% hate him. I think 90% never heard of him. If only 1% of people who actually heard of him love him and his message to live healthy to live longer, that's really not a lot.

As an example of how to build a brand, I'm not convinced. How do you manage to be so controversial with such a positive message?

solumos2• 1 year ago

People think that what he's doing is unnatural, and that it's wrong for a rich guy to spend so much money on trying to live forever when he could be supporting traditional longevity science. He also leans into the controversy in his social media posts[0].

I specifically recall a lot of backlash when the news about his plasma exchange with his father and son hit social media[1], and more generally with the yellowness of his skin when he was taking higher doses of carotenoids[2].

[0] https://x.com/bryan_johnson/status/1660698319830790144?lang=...

[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/anti-ageing-activist-bryan-johnso...

[2] https://fortune.com/well/2023/07/13/blueprint-ceo-bryan-john...

brookst2• 1 year ago

His message is “if you spend enough money and take enough supplements you’ll live forever”, which I don’t think is especially positive.

plantain• 1 year ago

I really lost faith in his science-based approach when I saw the "grounded bedsheets"[1] stuff in Blueprint.

If you can be fooled by such obvious pseudoscience woo, what else in his protocol is nonsense?

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/blueprint_/comments/13rhmhi/groundi... https://www.tiktok.com/@_bryan_johnson_/video/72776118827464...

MrSkelter• 1 year ago

Johnson is a rich “freak” and his coverage is identical to the attention lavished on other “freaks” who lack self awareness.

He’s a someone who has turned incredible good fortune into a reason to denude all simple pleasures from his life in a quest to extend it.

When he inevitably dies at a mundane age the hours of content he made will document his vanity and hubris.

addicted• 1 year ago

The irony of course is that Johnson has already stated all of these things.

He consistently points out that he’s an n of 1, but since these experiments cannot be ethically performed on greater numbers of people the n = 1 is a start.

However, it’s very likely he will do things that will indeed hurt his health.

He’s also stated several times that he’s much more likely to die of something extremely mundane.

Finally, it’s a bit presumptuous of you to state he’s excluded simple pleasures from his life. He enjoys himself far more than he did earlier when he wasn’t healthier, and most importantly, has repaired relationships with both his father and his son. He considers being a dad the most important and enjoyable part of his life.

All of this may be bullshit, but unless one has evidence of it being bullshit, it’s pretty clear that he at least appears to understand what simple pleasures in life are better than most people and claims to be able to enjoy them more than most other people, and most jnportantly, more than he did when he hadn’t started on this journey.

The marketing genius of Bryan Johnson

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