Okay, so some of you know who he is, some of you don’t, and a lot more of you (few of which are reading this, granted) couldn’t give a shit either way. But Loren Feldman is a talented guy.
His talents, mind you, don’t exactly lie on the surface. To those of us who know who he is, Loren is firstly, a video blogger; secondly, a tech commenter; and thirdly, a comedian. Below the surface, however, he’s part schmuck, part genius, and part mensch.
Schmuck
Let’s face it. As a video blogger, Loren kind of sucks. I mean, he’s kind of amusing, but his videos are, formally/technically speaking, drier than Lou Dobbs’ Money Line.
As a tech commenter, moreover, Loren’s shtick is pretty much along the lines of the angst that most of us experienced during our teenaged years. And as for his comedy, it’s more about embittered shock value than delivery or punch.
Genius
Where Loren’s genius lies, is as a personal brander. The guys has obviously carved a niche out for himself, attracting the admiration of A-listers, the attention of the mainstream media, and the scorn of a lot of his former peers (he’s kind of risen above them).
For starters, he managed to carve a niche out for himself by being a voice of dissent. While most techies were caught up in (the throes of) the circle jerk, he called countless start-up (and their founders) out on their bullshit.
Something that probably helped him get away with that was the video format. You see, the interwebs are replete with player haters, but where most of them hid safely behind the (pseudo) anonymity of their keyboards, Loren put his ass face out on the line, and that turned a few heads and earned him some respect.
Then there was the great Internet Opera, where Loren asked where all the black tech bloggers were. That caught him a lot of flack, but he got away with it for two reasons: (1) it was a valid f**king question, and (2) deep down inside, most people didn’t really feel that it was the politically incorrect trespass that they’d openly said it was. This was execution, par excellence, of #6 of the 48 Laws of Power: courting attention at all costs.
Finally, there were the puppets, focusing on Shel Israel. Not only did it keep true to his Loren’s shtick of calling web-entrepreneurs out on their supposed bullshit, but it embodied #42 of the 48 Laws: strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.
Mensch
Despite Loren’s propensity to talk a whole lot of smack, he’s maintained one important characteristic: integrity. No matter what’s gone down, he’s never backed down, and (for the most part).
When the black tech bloggers skit pulled in the hate-mail, he did better than apologize.
And as much as I’ve personally heard people deride him for the puppets skits, none of them publicly came to Shel’s defense. Then, while the puppets still had everyone’s attention, he reminded them of the black tech blogger stunt by bringing in Salaam E Baloney.
I mean, the guy is f**king fearless. Not only does he not back down from pissing off his peers and the community, but once it’s blown over, makes an effort to remind them that he never regretted it.
Despite his audacity, people appreciate Loren because, in a time when everyone and their dog commits shallow and ephemeral opinions to their blog, it’s refreshing to know that there’s one a**hole out there who doesn’t only stick to what he once said in passing, but defiantly brings it up again and again.
Nicely put, Sir.
Gratis…
Discovering the 48 Laws of Power thanks to this post – danke :)
How totally machiavellian. Love it.
I really need to work on Law 46 ;)
Where can I find the black tech blogger etc. videos?