“For You” or “By You”: The K-Shaped Content Era

Ever since the New Year, and especially as I've been moving, I've been thinking a lot about content.

Because I found it shocking what I could listen to while packing and moving.

I didn't want to listen to basic beginner business podcasts. I couldn't listen to long, slow audio books.

I was drawn to two types of content:

• Highly engaging yet ultimately mindless videos (do I really need to watch Ryan Trahan "survive" in an abandoned mall? Do I really need to watch Eddy Burback compare Italy with the Olive Garden?? No, I kind of regret that choice BUT I COULDN'T LOOK AWAY).

• Content from someone I trust that made me think (like Dorie Clark's The Long Game and Jonathan Fields' year end planning and goal setting series on The Good Life Project podcast).

But content in the middle? Generic or surface-level content, without a point of view, or with a voice that sounded like AI, jarring ads, or questionable production quality? Hard pass.

(Note: this was basically all of LinkedIn over the holidays. Posts that just flowed through the feed, satisfying my urge to simply scroll with nothing that caught my attention).

Something broke in the last 18 months.

Social media started enshittifying a few years ago, removing follower feeds as the default and replacing them with algorithmic content and paid ads. And the AI-generated content explosion flooded the internet with more content than anyone could ever consume. Now the algorithms aren’t surfacing content from interesting new voices—or even people you follow. It's surfacing whatever keeps you scrolling and sharing the longest. And ads are crowding out everything else.

We went from "too much content" to "too much noise masquerading as content."

And when there's this much noise? The middle disappears.

We're in the era of K-shaped content.

What do I mean by K-shaped content?

It's inspired by the K-shaped economy, and economic recovery.

Simply put, the upper part of the K refers to higher-income Americans seeing their incomes and wealth rise while the bottom part points to lower-income households struggling with weaker income gains and steep prices. - AP News

The K-shaped bifurcation is being used to describe consumer sentiment, spending at stores, and also corporate fortunes.

But I think it applies to content.

Because we're in an era where there's more noise than ever. And that noise is forcing content into two distinct branches.

On one side of the horizon, the trend is even more towards algorithmic, short-form text and videos.

The snappier, the more controversial, or the more distracting, the better. I don't believe people care about AI here, because we're not watching for nuance. We're watching memetic content spread like wildfire because it's entertaining, soothing, enraging or otherwise snackable and sharable, served up "for you" by an algorithm designed to keep you hooked.

This is falling down the TikTok rabbit hole, or being distracted by the inane things you read on Reddit in your revenge bedtime procrastination. This is posting a hot take on LinkedIn about how you hate being served Calendly links for scheduling just because you know it will get engagement—but no one has any idea who you are and what you do. You're served content by creators you'll never remember.

This is the "For You" side of the K-curve.

But on the other side, we're seeing a trend where people WANT to reclaim our attention.

We're retreating from social media to more slow media (like physical books and zines), in-person or community-centric spaces with niche interests (aka Dark Forests), and reading/consuming long-form content from people that make us think. This is the type of content that spreads carefully, thoughtfully. This content HAS a voice, a worldview we engage with, concepts that challenge or enlighten us.

When this content arrives in your inbox, you know it's full of value. If those creators are on a schedule, you miss the content if it doesn’t arrive on time. People tell their friends, share the article or podcast, not because it's just entertaining (like every dog meme I share), but because it's worth curating and distributing. You know who sent it, and you actively seek out that thinker on purpose.

This is the "By You" side of the K-Curve. Content created BY a specific person.

How does "By You" content spread?

• Someone forwards your newsletter to a colleague: "You HAVE to read this."

• It gets shared in private Slack groups or communities.

• It shows up in someone else's newsletter as a curated recommendation (like I do in my "Communities and Reads" section).

• Someone invites you to write a guest post because your thinking is worth amplifying.

• It gets reposted on Substack or social with a note: "This articulates what I've been trying to say."

"By You" content spreads through relationships, curation, and intentional distribution. It's slower. It's harder to measure. But it compounds differently—because when someone forwards your work, they're lending you THEIR credibility, not just their attention.

This content rarely gets surfaced by an algorithm; instead it gets chosen by humans.

ETA: There is a third group, where the “By You” content, through reputation or packaging, reaches escape velocity. Either the creators (often famous authors, podcasters, etc. in the vein of Cal Newport, Mel Robbins, or Steven Bartlett) have worked to create an audience via their well-produced long-form content over years, with an audience so large that the algorithm helps amplify it, or an essay taps into a emergent topic that goes viral. The question often is, did you remember the article? Or did you remember the creator? And if they were to start today, would they have grown via Shorts or via person-to-person sharing?

But packaging of your “By You” content can be incredibly important to increase its likelihood of transmission.

The middle is dying.

But there's only so much time in the day, and more noise and content than ever. Most people only have a handful of podcasts in their weekly rotation, a limited amount of time where they can read newsletters. Hell, even Instagram only shows me like 50 accounts these days even though I must follow thousands.

Look at your own podcast or YouTube queue right now. How many episodes are sitting there that you just keep scrolling past? How many newsletters do you delete without reading, where you stay subscribed just to occasionally keep tabs on what the writer is doing? (Or is that just me?).

Now ask: Which podcasts do you actually drop everything to listen to? Which newsletters do you read top to bottom the moment they hit your inbox?

I'm betting it's a very short list—maybe 3-5 podcasts, or a handful of newsletters you genuinely look forward to.

Everything else? You're either skimming for insight, buffering with what the algorithm served up, or you're ignoring it entirely.

So with the sheer amount of noise and content available? If your content is "meh"—checking a "content calendar" box, without leaning hard on either side of the K-curve—it disappears without impact.

The middle isn’t just ineffective—it’s also exhausting to create.

I see service providers spending hours creating content that just doesn’t go anywhere—hours that could be spent on higher-leverage activities in your business.

Where do you need to fall on the curve?

If you're building an influencer business—you're playing the algorithmic “For You” game. Go all in. Post daily. Chase trends. Optimize for virality.

Because your influence travels through the algorithms, for better or for worse.

If you're building a thought-led advisory or education business—you're playing the "By You" game. Go all in. Think in public, don’t be afraid of long-form creation when the gurus are saying short-form is king, and say something that matters.

And—crucially—build the relationships that will carry your ideas forward when algorithms won't.

I hope you’re here because you care about my worldview and my original thinking. My business model, a thought-led advisory and education business, requires content on the "By You" branch of the K.

I want you to look forward to my newsletters in your inbox. And I need to continue to build the web of relationships that will proactively carry forward my message, because the algorithms won't do it for me. (If you're here because you got a recommendation to read Leaving the Casino, that's the "by you" outcome in action).

But if you're a hands-on service provider—bookkeeper, designer, virtual assistant—you have a choice: pick a lane or opt-out of the content game.

Do you care about getting regular, deep thinking content from your bookkeeper, your web designer, or your graphic designer? Probably not. You just want your books to be done well, your website and graphics to look amazing and be delivered on time.

You were likely told that content marketing was just “part of the deal.” That visibility required posting regularly. But that was in the old era, not the current one.

Either commit to the “By You” branch — original thinking, a strong point of view, and ideas worth forwarding.
Or commit to the “For You” branch — mastering the algorithmic game and accepting what that requires.
Or opt out of content marketing as a primary strategy altogether.

• Create a handful of pillar authority pieces that show your work and your process.

• Send quarterly updates to your referral partners and past clients.

• Focus on visibility through relationships and delivery—not content calendars.

But please stop hanging out in the middle. Stop posting generic "tips and tricks" content (especially on algorithmic platforms) because someone told you that you need to "stay visible." Stop checking the content calendar box with meh emails or posts that nobody will remember.

The middle promises safety. What it actually delivers is invisibility and fatigue.

And reclaim that time for participating in communities, strengthening relationships, and sharing thoughtful “By You” work from others that showcases your own values and worldview.

Make your choice

I spent last week deep in the “For You” feed—because I was exhausted, in motion, and needed the numbing comfort of parasocial entertainment.

But the content I recommended to three different people this week? The content I'm still thinking about days later? That was all "By You."

The K-curve is forcing a choice. You can't serve both masters. You can't be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

So ask yourself: Which game are you actually playing? And more importantly—does that game match the business you're trying to build?