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Notes -
I think the way the press reported him was never really accurate. His hero was always Octavian and has been sporting a roman haircut for like 15 years now. He was known to take new hires on long hikes and was always somewhat outdoorsy.
He's the sort of guy who would decide that learning some hand to hand combat training is important.
But if you're a white guy doing a VC funded bay area tech company there are certain cultural expectations you need to conform to.
After 2016 he was personally blamed for Trumps election by many. In 2020 he spent 400 million of his own money in a scheme to oppose Trump that put him in some significant personal legal jeopardy.
It didn't get him back in good graces so I think his attitude now is "I don't need those people anyways".
It's common for famous people in California to play down personality traits that don't conform to the ruling consensus. A good example is someone like Stephen Spielberg who's definitely a loyal democrat, but he's a former eagle scout who loves guns. People tend to assume he was a pot smoking theatre kid when he was young.
I always thought the Roman haircut was just a meme, but apparently his kids’ names are Maxima, August and Aurelia lmao.
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Sailer's was joking how funny it is that Spielberg has spend like a million bucks on luxury Italian shotguns but there's like 2 photos of him shooting one.
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