Insider Today: Side hustle snafu

Plus: LinkedIn is weird now, and hedge fund boot camp.

View in browser   October 1, 2023 • 4 min read with Matt Turner Hello! Welcome back to Insider Today's Sunday edition, a roundup of the week's top stories. I'm Matt Turner, the editor in chief of business at Insider.  On the agenda today: It's not just you. LinkedIn has gotten really weird. Inside Point72's boot camp for developing all-star portfolio managers. Behind the scenes of X CEO Linda Yaccarino's disastrous coming-out party. Why the US consumer is starting to crack. But first: Shopify's CEO is putting limits on staffers' side hustles.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now Reuters/Lucas Jackson Dispatch Side hustle reversal Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke isn't so sure about all of those side hustles.    Writing on the company's workplace page, the CEO wrote that he had recently discovered that some Shopify offer letters and internal web pages had been suggesting them to staff.    "This surprises me because it directly contradicts the countless times I've said Shopify is like a professional sports team that requires our unshared attention," he wrote.    A day later, the company sent out further clarification to staff, outlining some side hustles, like opening a Shopify story, that were encouraged, while adding that certain side hustles simply aren't going to work for the company.   The note surprised many of Shopify's employees, given the company has said it encourages employees to pursue side projects. It also harkened back to a widely shared memo from May 2021, where he reminded managers that the company was a sports team, not a family.  Shopify's reversal comes as many companies roll back some of their more permissive policies of recent years. It's also cut jobs, sold off businesses, and partnered with Amazon.   Xavier Lalanne-Tauzia for Insider This week's top reads LinkedIn has gotten really weird Divorce, trouble peeing, and stealing hotel food — these are just a few examples of "personal sharing" on LinkedIn.   Having started in 2003 as little more than an online repository for résumés, LinkedIn is now nearing a billion users. And as the number of users has exploded, the nature of posts is transforming, too. Now, you'll often see people sharing intimate, personal life updates with their professional networks.    Read more.   Also read: You can follow me on LinkedIn here. I promise I won't overshare.  Point72; Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/Insider Point72's talent incubator Running money at a $30.6 billion hedge fund like Steve Cohen's Point72 counts as hitting the big time on Wall Street.    To help aspiring portfolio managers get there, Point72 created LaunchPoint — a program that sees Cohen grill a group of senior analysts who think they're ready. If the hunt for hedge-fund talent resembles bidding wars for star athletes, then LaunchPoint is its feeder team.    Point72's CIO, Harry Schwefel, and Jon Weiner, the head of LaunchPoint, explained how it works.   Read the full story.   Also read:  Meet Wall Street's 2023 rising stars Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media Yaccarino's 'dumpster fire' Code talk X CEO Linda Yaccarino appeared rattled during her most high-profile appearance to date.   Yaccarino's appearance at this year's Code Conference was intended to be a splashy coming-out party for the newly minted executive who had been maligned as a puppet for Elon Musk.    But Yaccarino took the stage shortly after a panel discussion between Kara Swisher and Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety — and outspoken Musk critic. What followed was a "dumpster fire," as one audience member put it.   Read what happened here. Getty; Rebecca Zisser/Insider US consumers are about to crack Over the summer, it seemed like the US economy was finally in the clear and the country would defeat inflation without a crash thanks to a solid job market and strong consumer spending.   But high gas prices, student-loan payments restarting, and spiking insurance premiums are forcing Americans to close their wallets — and that's not even factoring in a potential government shutdown.    All of this spells trouble for the economy.    Here are the signs we're starting to see.   Also read: Inflation pushed the wealthy to shop at dollar stores. Now even those places are seeing people get tighter with their money.   This week's quote "Why would I want to read someone's poor interpretation of the story? I was there." — Elon Musk's dad, Errol Musk, a central figure in the new biography on his son, told Insider in a new interview.     More of this week's top reads: You're more likely to get into Harvard than to land a job that lets you work from home. Leaked screenshot shows Amazon is now tracking individual employee office-attendance records. 26 top venture-capital firms and other investors pouring millions into sports. "I looked at the plans for the new city proposed by Silicon Valley elites. They're really terrible." European castles and private chefs: These families are ditching the US to live the American dream abroad. Costco says its 1-ounce gold bars are real and have been selling out in hours. Insurers and drug-industry middlemen are cashing in on the weight-loss-drug frenzy. Turns out robot umpires have one big flaw: They're too perfect. Salesforce's chief trust officer is leaving after less than 18 months in the role, an internal memo shows.     Event invite Join us on October 12 at 1 p.m. ET for the latest in Insider's training series on the best practices for short-form vertical video, How To Get A Million Views. In this bonus capstone session, Building Your Personal Brand, we'll explore how to refine your online persona to unlock large audiences and build a loyal following. Register now.   The Insider Today Sunday team Matt Turner, editor in chief of business, in New York City. Dan DeFrancesco, senior editor, in New York City. Diamond Naga Siu, senior reporter, in San Diego. Grace Lett, associate editor, in Chicago. Hallam Bullock, editor, in London. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York City.   Get in touch insidertoday@insider.com   To read unlimited articles, subscribe to Insider. 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