October 14, 2019. 2:14 PM. I was sitting on the floor of a bathroom stall in a WeWork on 42nd Street, staring at the grout…
How to Get a Raise When You’re Already the Highest Paid Person in the Room
You’re the top dog. Everyone knows it, even if they haven’t actually seen the HR spreadsheet where your name sits comfortably at the top of…
Stop Trying to ‘Growth Mindset’ Your Way Out of Being a Human Being
Carol Dweck’s book Mindset is the Bible of modern corporate gaslighting. There, I said it. If you’ve worked in an office in the last decade,…
Why I stopped trying to win at productivity and actually started getting work done
I spent three hours last Tuesday reorganizing my digital filing system. It looked beautiful. Color-coded tags, nested folders, a custom icon for my ‘Current Projects’…
Your Productivity System Is Just a Very Expensive Way to Procrastinate
It was October 18, 2022. A Tuesday. I remember the date because it was the day I almost lost a $3,200 freelance contract because I…
Why Remote Work Is Quietly Rotting Our Sense of Self
Everyone is lying to you about remote work. Or maybe they’re just lying to themselves because they don’t want to go back to sitting in…
Why I stopped trying to be ‘Internet Famous’ and started actually getting paid
I spent the better part of 2019 sitting in a cramped, windowless apartment in Chicago trying to become a ‘thought leader’ on Twitter. I had…
Why being a ‘Jack of all trades’ is actually the only way to survive now
Specialization is a trap. We’ve been told since we were kids that the only way to succeed is to pick a lane, stay in it,…
Why Following ‘Best Practices’ Is the Fastest Way to Become Completely Forgettable
If you’re following ‘best practices,’ you’ve already lost. You’re just paying for the privilege of being average. It sounds harsh, but I’ve spent the better…
Baubau: At the Confluence of Cultures
The view from our hotel room in Baubau Sitting in the upper-floor dining area of a seafood restaurant in Baubau, having one of the freshest…