The Surprising Economics of Micro-Influencing
Also: human x AI collab could be the future of innovation
Recently Reading
I Pay My College Tuition By Making TikToks
Andrea Gonzalez-Remirez, The Cut
“Kids these days all want to be You-Tubers and influencers!” has become a common complaint I hear from clients and parents. This aspiration is partly just a modern version of “I want to be a baseball player or ballerina when I grow up.” But the other, more interesting part of this aspiration is the economic power of the creator economy.
Bethany Werth (@thegirlwithmonolids on TikTok) shares makeup tutorials and financial advice with her 75,000 followers. This micro-influencing made her $26,000 in one summer and allowed her to cover college tuition for the year.
There is so much goodness in this interview. Werth discusses why she blocked everyone she personally knew on TikTok and didn’t tell her friends or family until her account hit 10,000 followers. Separating real-life relationships with online brand building is a common trend I hear in interviews.
Werth also shares how her relationship with money was shaped by the 2008 Recession. After her dad was laid off, her family moved to Sheboygan, Wisconsin to live with her grandparents. Economic precarity has always been a part of her story and that shapes how she thinks about student debt, multiple revenue streams, and stability.
When many of us think about “becoming a YouTuber” we think of celebrities and mega-influencers. Werth’s story highlights a more realistic and attainable way to make money online.
Unlike the childhood fantasies of becoming a Major League Baseball player, the creator economy exists on a spectrum with a low barrier to entry. I also think Werth’s story debunks the common misconception that being an influencer is inherently self-centered. For some young people, this is a realistic alternative revenue stream.
Ideas are a Dime of Dozen: Large Language Models for Idea Generation in Innovation
Karan Girotra, Lennart Meincke, Christian Terwiesch & Karl Ulrich, SSRN
A new Gallup survey shows that FOBO (fear of becoming obsolete) is on the rise. This makes sense considering that ChatGPT is consistently outperforming humans in a variety of subjects.
Some researchers are trying to find ways to leverage this technology alongside human work rather than amplifying fears of potential irrelevancy.
A working paper out of Cornell and Wharton explores the effectiveness of ChatGPT in idea generation. Past research has shown that the development of truly novel and innovative ideas is directly connected to number of ideas generated. A human working alone can generate about five ideas in 15 minutes. A human working with ChatGPT-4 can generate two hundred ideas in 15 minutes. The paper shows that not only does the AI assistance create more ideas, it creates better ideas.
The ability to work alongside and leverage this technology is increasingly important. Currently, there is a generational divide in intentional AI-usage. Only 32% of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers report intentionally using AI assistance whereas for Gen Z, it’s about 75%.
Perhaps the fear of becoming obsolete shouldn’t be directed at AI, rather, it could be pointed at our own hesitancy in experimenting with this technology. As this paper shows, the human+AI combination can create a type of innovation we’ve never seen before.
The Single Most Important Parenting Strategy
Dr. Becky Kennedy, TED
The Internet is filled with parenting advice but no guru has garnered fanfare like “the millennial parenting whisperer,” clinical psychologist, Dr. Becky Kennedy, who has built an online community of millions of parents.
Kennedy focuses on the power of repairing relationships after a rupture. I watched this in a crowded Delta Sky Club which I would not recommend because I found myself sobbing in public. I am clearly her target audience.
Once I collected myself, I considered the history of parenting advice. From Dr. Spock to Heidi Murkoff to Dr. Becky, each generation turns to the guru that best captures the zeitgeist.
Although this TedTalk spoke to me, I am reminded that parenting advice is not static—it shifts as the world changes and the standard of “being a successful grown up” evolves. Try reading Dr. Spock advice today. It sounds downright negligent.
As I’ve said in countless presentations, future predications cannot be made if we ignore shifts in the domestic sphere. The rise of “gentle/intentional parenting” is already shaping a new generation as we speak.
Work
In August I had the privilege of working with a few K-12 school districts. I heard from superintendents, teachers, and school counselors about their student observations. A few highlights:
Without veering into the political, I do have to mention that I work all over the country and I hear some significant differences regarding student behavior and performance depending on when the state opened in-person learning during the pandemic.
Most of the school counselors I spoke with feel that we do teens a disservice by pretending that overuse of phones and social media is a problem teens can solve on their own by exercising more self-discipline. I heard that helping teens engage more in the real world would require a collective effort between schools, parents, teenagers, and probably legislation.
Questioning the ROI of a 4-year degree was a consistent theme from high school teachers and counselors
Teacher and school administrator burnout (and therefore, turnover) remain high even post-pandemic. The politicalization of school boards and intense involvement of parents came up a lot when discussing burnout.
I taught a seminar at The University of Minnesota’s Technology Leadership Institute for the second year. Fascinating conversation with future technology leaders.
My good friend and collaborator, Zak Dychtwald, came to visit from Shanghai. In addition to losing a bet and being forced to get his face painted at the Minnesota State Fair, we spent time on our ambitious new global youth study. I am in awe of the team we’ve compiled and I’m excited to share more as soon as I’m able.
I was interviewed by Bruce Norton on the Subject to Talent podcast. We discuss generational hazing, the work ethic debate, the trade-offs of remote work versus in-person work, and my predictions of the next 5-10 years.
In September, I’m speaking in Asheville, Memphis, Orlando, Minneapolis (twice), and virtual events for BizLibrary and American Express.
/Life
I made the grape and fig chicken from Adeena Sussman’s new cookbook . 10/10.