You are not entirely powerless
February 4, 2026
How do you check power that’s not-presently-checked?
World's Best Newsletter Archive
Somebody has to do it
January 7, 2026
We hear this from individual contributors, and we hear it from team leads and line managers, and we hear it from Directors and VPs, too.
All hat, no cattle
November 26, 2025
If your org is on your seventh layoff or Lord-have-mercy, your 82nd re-org, we suggest that it’s time to take a hard look at your underlying planning issues.
With love in our hearts for your eventual revolution
November 12, 2025
If we want work to be better, we need possibility, not futility.
Don’t let the Doerr hit you on the way out
October 29, 2025
The real test for an org is not whether you ever bet wrong. The question is, when the results start to come in, what do you do now?
You’re probably not that hardcore
October 1, 2025
You can drop a lot of frogs in that pot and very few will feel their feet get warm.
You are not a machine that receives tasks
September 17, 2025
Folks who study meaning at work have three buckets. We love a good three-bucket framework. Let’s go.
If you’re not reading this email, you’re fired
September 3, 2025
The first and easiest gut check in terms of whether your workplace surveillance is helpful or harmful is this.
None of this is real and it doesn’t matter
August 6, 2025
The difference between the theater of work and actual work.
The narrowest definition of ambition
July 9, 2025
The people who tout this model of ambition have a whole cinematic universe of heroes and villains and moral dramas and cautionary tales.
Take a chance on me
June 11, 2025
The opportunities that anyone could take, but no one is taking.
Bring your slop to work day
May 28, 2025
It’s definitely giving some low-key asbestos vibes.
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