Info Diet gives a glimpse into the individually selected feeds and media routines of the people building what comes next. In every edition, a different builder spends two days logging everything they read, follow, listen to, and watch to keep ahead of the curve. This time: Sean Kim, president and chief product officer at Kajabi, a platform for knowledge creators to publish, market, and sell online courses, live coaching, newsletters, and podcasts. Sean lives in Playa Vista, California.
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SUNDAY, April 24
7 a.m.: I wake up with my daughter bouncing on my bed. After I make her breakfast, I open WhatsApp to catch up on conversations in several chat groups, including some with thought leaders I know professionally. In one group centered on product innovation, members include Sriram Krishnan (host of the Good Times Show), Madhu Muthukumar (CPO of Notion), and Andrew Chen (author of The Cold Start Problem).
Another WhatsApp group for Korean American executives is centered on leadership advice, investment possibilities, and, more broadly, supporting the Korean American community. Members include business and tech leaders like Gary Kim (CEO of Karrot market), Dave and Charlotte Cho (co-founders of Soko Glam), Simon Yu (CEO of StormX), and Ikkjin Ahn (CEO of Moloco). Today someone posts a New York Times piece called “The Tech Bubble That Never Burst,” which leads to a discussion of the recent weakness in startup valuations, and whether it’s finally time for the bubble to burst. Other members share related material, including a TechCrunch article about the move in public market investors’ preference from growth to profitability, and an animated Youtube video in which Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio breaks down key points from his 2021 book, Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order. The video is a bit macro, but it’s enjoyable to watch and the historical framing is great.
9 a.m.: I go through newsletters from The New York Times and The Economic Times, my two primary sources for daily news. I also routinely read The Information’s Creator Economy Newsletter by Kaya Yurieff. The creator economy is such a fast-changing field, and this newsletter is a solid way to keep up with trends, investment announcements, and interesting data. It points me to a new Linktree report that estimates the number of creators at 200 million, up from 50 million in 2020. Other notable stats from the report: 12% of creators do it full-time and make over $50,000 a year, and 25% of creators say most of their income comes from websites or blogs. These figures reinforce my choice to join Kajabi (three months and counting), where we help the long tail of creators build businesses and earn meaningful income. More than 53,000 creators are on our platform, and they earn $30,000 on average.
I come across an Information piece about startup founder Rosie Nguyen sparking a battle with Apple over its 30% tax on in-app purchases. Having worked on creator monetization at both TikTok and Kajabi, I know all too well how this story will end: There’s no getting around the tax. (Still, I admire her for trying!) The article also says that Patreon doesn’t pay the tax even though its creators sell services. I don’t fully understand why they’re the exception to the rule.
1 p.m.: Gotta get my TikTok fix. I open the app and scroll through my personalized feed, which is mostly edutainment. I see one of my favorite accounts, All-In Tok, show up. It offers clips from the All-In Podcast, hosted by four billionaire “besties” (Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedber) who share opinions and forecasts about tech, business, economic, politics, and social news. When one of their TikToks grabs me, I go watch the full-length episode on Youtube. In this video, Chamath interviews Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong about the company’s mission to expand global economic freedom and the part crypto plays. I find their mission incredibly powerful. I make a mental note to watch the whole interview later.
Not surprisingly, there are tons of videos about Elon Musk’s bid to take over Twitter — but nothing especially original. I’m genuinely curious to see how he’ll improve moderation and get rid of bots, and where he’ll draw the line when it comes to “free speech.” He definitely has hard decisions ahead of him.
11 p.m.: I open TikTok again before bed and scroll for a little while. A fun account I follow is Just The Nobodys, a podcast hosted by two brothers that covers everything from out-there conspiracy theories to evidenced-based science to pop culture. Today they discuss the connection between personality type and a preferred side of the bed. Apparently, creative minds like mine sleep on the left.
MONDAY, April 25
8:30 a.m.: I drive my daughter to preschool in Santa Monica. No info is consumed along the way. We choose the soundtrack to Turning Red, her new favorite Disney movie, instead. On the way back, I usually listen to whatever book I’m currently on in Audible. Right now, I’m partway through Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire. But today I listen to an article from Harvard Business Review about how the strongest predictor of leadership success is having a positive energy that lifts people up. Based on past experiences with my favorite managers, I partly agree. Having a strong team to begin with also helps a leader succeed. I wonder how I can do more to apply this idea in my role at Kajabi.
7 p.m.: Back-to-back meetings all day left no time to consume media aside from work emails. I open the anonymous work app Blind to get my dose of tech-industry intel on compensation, work culture, and rumored departures. But Blind is about more than gossip. It helps me understand what counts as a competitive salary and whether we’re paying it. Tonight, there’s also an interesting thread started by a Twitter employee about this week’s big topic (Elon’s takeover, of course). Plenty of tech people weigh in — employees from Meta, SpaceX, Google, Tesla, and Amazon debate the likely effect on attrition risk, among other things. In this case, unfiltered comments that reveal what employees really think turn out to be a value-add.
8 p.m.: I read a Stratechery article that a colleague dropped into a Slack channel where we share content with business relevance. It’s about Amazon’s new Buy with Prime initiative, which lets shoppers buy directly from merchant websites while still getting Prime’s free shipping and fast delivery. It’s an interesting idea we had discussed some time ago when I was on the Prime team. I message my old manager and we laugh about it. Glad to see this go live.
11 p.m.: Final TikTok session of the day. After just enough mindless scrolling, I go to sleep (on the left side, of course).
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Get Sean’s Info Diet
Read
- “The Tech Bubble That Never Burst,” by Erin Griffith and Taylor Johnston [NYT] “For the First Time in Four Years, Profitability Beats Growth,” by Jeremy Abelson and Jacob Sonnenberg [TechCrunch] “The 2022 Creator Report,” by Linktree “She Has Always Played Life on Hard Mode: A Female Founder on Battling Poverty, Online Harassers and Tim Cook,” by Margaux MacColl [The Information] Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire, by Brad Stone “Elon Musk and Remote Work at Twitter,” by anonymous tech workers [Blind] “Beyond Aggregation: Amazon as a Service,” by Ben Thompson [Stratechery] “The Best Leaders Have a Contagious Positive Energy,” by Emma Seppala and Kim Cameron [HBR]
Watch
- “Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order,” by Ray Dalio [Youtube]
Subscribe
- The Information’s Creator Economy Newsletter
Follow
- All-In Tok plus Just The Nobodys [TikTok]