“I think I do my best work when I can really see whatever passion or expertise someone has in their creative field. That really inspires me to do things as well as I can.” – Dan Frommer 

Dan Frommer (@fromedome) is Founder and Editor in Chief of The New Consumer, a publication about how and why people spend their money. Dan has written for Forbes, The Atlantic and Recode from Vox Media, and he helped create Business Insider as its second team member. Dan’s Consumer Trends Report in collaboration with Coefficient Capital is a fascinating look into recent spending trends.

To hear Dan’s full interview, including how brands can attract the modern consumer, click here.

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Chapters in this bonus interview:

• Dan’s daily habits and writing routines
• Tools Dan uses for daily work and focus, including the ReMarkable tablet and the Earnings Calls app
• Dan’s superpowers and struggles
• Dan's influences and inspirations, including Daring Fireball, Stratechery, and Anthony Bourdain
• On favorite failures and the definition of success

Links from this bonus episode

• Jerry Seinfield and transcendental meditation
• reMarkable
• Earnings Calls app
• The Transcript
• Quote from Dorothy Parker: "I hate writing, I love having written."
• Henry Blodget
• John Gruber's Daring Fireball
• Anthony Bourdain
• Cooking As an Art, with Jerry Saltz - The Dave Chang Show (Ep. 43)

Books Recommended by Dan Frommer

• Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring, and the Birth of the Billion-Dollar Handheld Industry by Andrea Butter
• Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
• The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell‍
• Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by Nick Bilton

Key Takeaway

Time is our most valuable resource, and being able to use that time as we choose is Dan’s definition of success.

For me, success, luxury, everything is just about: how do you get to spend your time? Our time is finite. It's limited. The last year and a half has taught us that unexpected things can happen on a global scale—that you could catch a novel virus and die, or be severely incapacitated, even at a young age. You can't take your time on this planet for granted. Part of my life is that I get to spend my time building The New Consumer, writing, researching, learning, doing it on my terms and on my pace. And I don't take that for granted. I appreciate every day that I don't have to log into some awful Slack at some company I don't like because that's what I have to do. I'm so grateful for my paying members and for this model that allows me to spend my time and my life doing things that I want to do, how I want to do it. And it doesn't get better than that.

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