Because, as he puts it, "attention's king so once you have attention then after attention you can have everything else." People are bored; most content is boring; being interesting and authentic earns the attention that lets people decide if they like you, your company, or want to work with you.
More from this episode
Stephen says the controversial persona is fully strategic: "people are so bored." He cites a study (he attributes it to Dan Gilbert) where people left alone in a room with a buzzer will electrocute themselves out of boredom — "the answer is a lot." His model: "attention's king, so once you have attention then after attention you can have everything else." The most common state is that "no one knows who you are," so he's "just like out there" with his comedy and LinkedIn, letting people react and make a call. He contrasts this with the people who think "I'm just gonna work hard and then people will find me via my hard work" — which he doesn't think actually happens. The proof point: a post saying if you're not going to Bali this summer "go fuck yourself" went viral, got him "super cancelled on Reddit," and then drew messages from people saying "this post really spoke to me."