Tim Ferriss | Steve Jang on Korea’s Exploding “Soft Power” And Much More | The Tim Ferriss Show @timferriss | Uploaded December 2023 | Updated October 2024, 19 minutes ago.
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Resources from this episode: https://tim.blog/2023/11/30/steve-jang-live-from-south-korea/#more-70305
Steve Jang (@stevejang) is the founder and managing partner at Kindred Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund based in San Francisco. He is also a longtime friend and one of the founder-now-investor generation of VCs that arose out of the last technology cycle. Steve is one of the top 100 venture capital investors in the world, according to Forbes Midas List of top venture capital investors, and was ranked #45 in 2023. He is also a Korean-American, a gyopo, who is deeply invested and involved in both the technological and cultural worlds in the US and Asia.
Previously, Steve was an early advisor to, and angel investor in, Uber, and then an early-stage investor in Coinbase, Postmates, Poshmark, Tonal, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Humane, the AI device platform. He helped Uber, Coinbase, and Blue Bottle Coffee, among others, to expand into Korea and Japan. As an entrepreneur, Steve co-founded companies in the consumer internet, mobile, and crypto space.
In the film and music world, he is an executive producer, and his most recent film is Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV, which tells the story of the greatest Korean artist, and father of digital video art, and which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023. His next film is a documentary about Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum.
Please enjoy!
[00:00] Intro
[09:37] Why has Korean culture been globally overlooked until recently?
[13:36] In Seoul, the future is now.
[17:23] Gyopo and the Korean diaspora.
[19:15] Modern relations between South Korea and Japan.
[21:07] Christianity and Confucianism in South Korea.
[23:17] The intensity of Korean (including gyopo) hagwons.
[25:46] Why Steve finds Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko particularly moving.
[28:07] Japanese nostalgia.
[29:25] Seoul: the Bizarro Tokyo?
[39:49] Generations of Korean families traumatized by North/South separation.
[44:32] Class struggle and cultural dichotomy in Korean cinema and literature.
[50:22] Activism in a chaebol-dominated landscape.
[54:25] How Korean culture resonates on a universal level.
[56:50] How big money finances the artistic class struggle against big money.
[59:57] Is the K-wave a fad, or is it here to stay?
[1:05:24] Getting a handle on the untranslatable han.
[1:08:13] Jeong and nunchi.
[1:14:38] What will it take to remedy South Korea’s disastrously low birth rate?
[1:25:05] Why I’ve been so fascinated by the K-wave.
[1:36:02] How I’ve been learning the Korean language.
[1:47:04] Why so many Japanese women visit Korea.
[1:47:57] The lucrative power of Korea’s export economy.
[1:52:07] Why the main road in Gangnam is named after the capital of Iran.
[1:54:19] The real reason Steve believes South Korea is so industrious on multiple fronts.
[1:58:02] How learning just 10 sentences in another language can fundamentally change your experience.
[2:00:28] Korean food!
[2:09:35] The unforgivable insult of leaving food uneaten.
[2:11:25] Why you owe it to yourself to see Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV.
[2:17:46] Why you owe it to yourself to listen to “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Korean psych rock band He5.
[2:18:15] How gyopo influence on the arts bypassed home censorship policies.
[2:24:20] Why you owe it to yourself to visit Seoul sooner rather than later.
[2:26:30] Parting thoughts.
Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 900 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running.
Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's free weekly email newsletter): https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-yt/
Follow the Tim Ferriss Podcast: https://tim.blog/podcast/
Visit the Tim Ferriss Blog: https://tim.blog/
Follow Tim Ferriss on Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss
Follow Tim Ferriss on Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss
Like Tim Ferriss on Facebook: facebook.com/TimFerriss
Brought to you by:
Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega fish oil: nordic.com/products/ultimate-omega Use code TIM for 20% off Ultimate Omega
GiveWell.org charity research and effective giving: givewell.org
Wealthfront high-yield savings account: wealthfront.com/tim
Resources from this episode: https://tim.blog/2023/11/30/steve-jang-live-from-south-korea/#more-70305
Steve Jang (@stevejang) is the founder and managing partner at Kindred Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund based in San Francisco. He is also a longtime friend and one of the founder-now-investor generation of VCs that arose out of the last technology cycle. Steve is one of the top 100 venture capital investors in the world, according to Forbes Midas List of top venture capital investors, and was ranked #45 in 2023. He is also a Korean-American, a gyopo, who is deeply invested and involved in both the technological and cultural worlds in the US and Asia.
Previously, Steve was an early advisor to, and angel investor in, Uber, and then an early-stage investor in Coinbase, Postmates, Poshmark, Tonal, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Humane, the AI device platform. He helped Uber, Coinbase, and Blue Bottle Coffee, among others, to expand into Korea and Japan. As an entrepreneur, Steve co-founded companies in the consumer internet, mobile, and crypto space.
In the film and music world, he is an executive producer, and his most recent film is Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV, which tells the story of the greatest Korean artist, and father of digital video art, and which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023. His next film is a documentary about Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum.
Please enjoy!
[00:00] Intro
[09:37] Why has Korean culture been globally overlooked until recently?
[13:36] In Seoul, the future is now.
[17:23] Gyopo and the Korean diaspora.
[19:15] Modern relations between South Korea and Japan.
[21:07] Christianity and Confucianism in South Korea.
[23:17] The intensity of Korean (including gyopo) hagwons.
[25:46] Why Steve finds Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko particularly moving.
[28:07] Japanese nostalgia.
[29:25] Seoul: the Bizarro Tokyo?
[39:49] Generations of Korean families traumatized by North/South separation.
[44:32] Class struggle and cultural dichotomy in Korean cinema and literature.
[50:22] Activism in a chaebol-dominated landscape.
[54:25] How Korean culture resonates on a universal level.
[56:50] How big money finances the artistic class struggle against big money.
[59:57] Is the K-wave a fad, or is it here to stay?
[1:05:24] Getting a handle on the untranslatable han.
[1:08:13] Jeong and nunchi.
[1:14:38] What will it take to remedy South Korea’s disastrously low birth rate?
[1:25:05] Why I’ve been so fascinated by the K-wave.
[1:36:02] How I’ve been learning the Korean language.
[1:47:04] Why so many Japanese women visit Korea.
[1:47:57] The lucrative power of Korea’s export economy.
[1:52:07] Why the main road in Gangnam is named after the capital of Iran.
[1:54:19] The real reason Steve believes South Korea is so industrious on multiple fronts.
[1:58:02] How learning just 10 sentences in another language can fundamentally change your experience.
[2:00:28] Korean food!
[2:09:35] The unforgivable insult of leaving food uneaten.
[2:11:25] Why you owe it to yourself to see Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV.
[2:17:46] Why you owe it to yourself to listen to “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Korean psych rock band He5.
[2:18:15] How gyopo influence on the arts bypassed home censorship policies.
[2:24:20] Why you owe it to yourself to visit Seoul sooner rather than later.
[2:26:30] Parting thoughts.
Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 900 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running.
Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's free weekly email newsletter): https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-yt/
Follow the Tim Ferriss Podcast: https://tim.blog/podcast/
Visit the Tim Ferriss Blog: https://tim.blog/
Follow Tim Ferriss on Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss
Follow Tim Ferriss on Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss
Like Tim Ferriss on Facebook: facebook.com/TimFerriss
