Dear shitposter, Gaut here. Welcome back to all 8,500+ humor enthusiasts of Shitposting Works, a weekly email where I cover the week's best trends, memes, and the topic of shitposts across the internet. It's been incredible to watch this newsletter grow. Welcome to all new subscribers!

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Post of the Week: Interview with Dr. Parik Patel

💡 Dr. Parik Patel, one of the most famous fintwit meme accounts on all of Twitter.

This week we're talking to someone who might be my favorite creator of all time, and a long time friend, Dr. Parik Patel.

Dr. Parik Patel built himself an audience of over 600K followers through memes, shitposts, and commentary surrounding finance and tech. Unless you live under a rock, you've seen his posts on your timeline.

In this interview, Dr. Parik Patel pierces the veil of the persona for a brief moment to give us an insight on why he built an audience on Twitter, an

Onto the interview:

Can you walk me through how Parik Patel started?

I started the account in August of 2020 when there was the Covid crash and the memes about V shaped recovery. I found the memes at the time very funny, and I wanted to interact with some of the accounts that were posting in that space. After that, I started posting similar content.

My theory is that you can only post funny memes if you are knowledgeable on a subject. Is that true for you and finance?

When I started the account, I was already working in finance, and I was just poking fun at how people were trying to predict the impact of Covid and ZIRP on markets. If you look at my pinned tweets, it’s the Tesla and stimulus check meme:

I found it very dumb how some of the sell side were trying to value companies, so I just took the stock price and added the stimulus check, which ended up being Tesla’s peak stock price. I like that tweet the most because it encapsulates everything that my account is about, which is taking a very serious, rigid industry and just poking fun at it.

Did you ever consider running the account under your own name?

The main reason is creative freedom. When content is not hosted under my own name, I felt like I was able to give more honest opinions about the industry. There is less downside risk to each post and you’re more likely going to come up with funny content. Also, by using a persona, people will judge the tweet on its own merit, rather than judge it based on the perceived status of the person behind it.

How did you fall on the Dr. Parik Patel persona?

It kind of came naturally. I’m an Indian Gujarati guy and figured it had to be something similar. Patel is the most common Gujarati surname so it had to be that. And then my parents, like most Indian parents, wanted me to be a doctor, so I included that too. After that, i just wanted the name to roll off the tongue and thought “Dr. Parik Patel” was great for that. At the end of the day, I don’t necessarily optimize for a persona, and just look for humor that I find funny.

And what about the profile picture?

I went on royalty free image websites, merged a bunch of pictures together, and came up with the final persona, who was the character I had envisioned in my head.

What do you think got you to stick around on Twitter and grow the account?

I love Twitter, putting out content, and meeting people on the platform. When I was younger, I would always get in trouble for making witty comments in class, and Twitter is basically a similar version of that. The beautiful thing about Twitter is that there are many different ecosystems living on this app like Finance, Crypto, Tech etc.. which gives you incredible reach to interact with people that you would never be able to interact with elsewhere. Everyone loves to laugh, so it makes it easy to connect across the board.

Do you think you gain “status” through Twitter?

At a very crude level people will correlate your status with your follower count, but obviously with a pseudonym that doesn’t follow you in real life. I find that over time follower count is tuned out, because Twitter tends to reward the loudest voices, but the most nuanced takes are typically found with the smaller accounts. The irony is that the credibility I’ve gotten is when I step out of the persona and say serious things on the account, which lets people see that I know what I am talking about.

Do you think you would do this all again? Is it core to your identity?

It’s overwhelmingly been a net positive for me. I’ve really enjoyed doing it, and it’s led to many opportunities I wouldn’t have found without it. If it went away tomorrow I would be sad, and I think it’s helped me to learn a lot. Outside of comedy on Twitter, there are many incredible accounts that post very serious content (often the accounts with the small following).

How has your goal shifted over time with this account?At first I wanted to grow and become a more present voice on Twitter. The follower milestones were a lot of fun for me. But over time I’ve come to appreciate just consuming other people’s interesting content, more than I appreciate my own content. Growth is not a big consideration for me now. Twitter is my favorite form of social media because it’s not necessarily showing yourself off like on Instagram, but rather text based where you just use words and ideas.

How would you start everything again today?There are ways to optimize your reach and look for the best way to “crack the algo,” and that’s great if you want to grow for a business purpose, but if I were to start again I most likely wouldn’t look to optimize for that.

Which creators are you following right now?

I would say these three are my current favorites:

https://twitter.com/netcapgirlhttps://twitter.com/buccocapitalhttps://twitter.com/BillyM2k

Next week, I'll be introducing The Full Works, with exclusive voice interviews and more content tailored towards building audiences on the internet with memes, starting with an interview of Billy Markus, the creator of Dogecoin. Subscribe now so you don't miss it!

🐦 Tweets of the Week

Pulling a gun on a dog

I don't think it works like that.

Eric won $1M

He even got a reply from Mr.Beast himself.

I wouldn't typically include myself here.

But Elon replied and played into this shitpost.

We love cheap hotdogs.

Trung breaks down the meme of the costco hotdog.

Let me go turbo

Soren is back with some hot designs off the press

It appears I may have to go to the dentist

WSJ really lost the plot

I can't believe they would take a position like this one

Tech bros always innovating

Hanging out with friends isn't cool. You know what's cool? "Fake friend weddings"

Nothing SF hates more than buildings

But imagine the views.

📈 Creator on the Rise

SonofAlli

Alli is a close friend and makes light-hearted memes that many love.

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Keep on Shitposting,

– Gaut