Oren Schauble (OS) first came to my attention with his astute brand and marketing takes on IG and Tiktok. I went down the rabbithole with his writing and loved it. Happy to have him on the page today. -Colin (CJN)
Tell us about yourself.
I’m Oren, I’m a designer, content creator and entrepreneur. You may have seen me online discussing Status Cutlery, declaring the end of Blanding, or breaking down the excellent Jacquemus marketing strategy.
Describe your media diet.
I have an app limit of 30m a day on twitter and use lists on that app to keep up to date with interestInc professionals, mostly in trends and culture. I follow all artists and designers on Tiktok and Instagram and am on there daily as part of my content creation, but I consume there as little as I can to keep relevant. I avidly read newsletters weekly and love our current free and paid newsletter economy that gives so much valuable content regularly. I pay for Business of Fashion and The New Consumer. In addition to that, I’ve been going through a physical book every month as long as I can remember, while rereading an old one at the same time. All physical books, no audio or e-readers. Little to no news, no tv.
What’s the last great book you read?
I recently read These Guys Have All The Fun, an oral history about ESPN. That and Powerhouse, the oral History of CAA were super interesting to me as references for how the previous generation of content was built. I’m spending more and more time thinking and working in new age content and the perspectives those books offered on the past were very valuable.
What are you reading now?
I’m working hard on a massively scaling product right now and rereading Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Thing About Hard Things. This is one of the books I take the time to reread every time I get back in the saddle at an org that’s really scaling- nuanced insights on leadership in crunch time.
What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?
It’s been a while since I picked up a print copy but I read front to back no skimming or skipping— I fully realize this makes me sound insane.
Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?
The Snaxshot newsletter by Andrea Hernandez, the After School newsletter by Casey Lewis. B Magazine out of Korea.
What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? An app called One Sec that limits and provides blocks on social media access in an intuitive fashion.
Plane or train?
Is train an option anymore? Plane sadly.
What is one place everyone should visit?
Biarritz on the coast of France - a beautiful and oddly perfect mix of French and surf culture.
Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.
I have a very obsessive personality so there are many rabbit holes I’ve gone too far down haha. My son has been very into the Rubik’s cube so recently I reread Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonimoicon and have been fascinated with learning ciphers - The Caesar Shift (a simple but effective code where you set a series of numbers against the alphabet offset by a specific amount) etc. A fun rabbit hole for math brains! (OS)