Success is commonly defined as reaching one’s goals. Getting accepted into a prestigious program, building a profitable business, becoming a doctor, completing an online course… Whatever the goal may
Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series Subscribe Every leader should design and communicate how they wan
Real-world tasks don't get enough practice 95%-ile isn’t that good This is a great, lengthy read on the nature and state of skills. Dan argues that the 95th percentile isn't that impressive, and conne
On Excess Management, from 2016 Excess Management Is Costing the U.S. $3 Trillion Per Year Here’s the math. Harvard Business Review Gary Hamel Here’s the arithmetic. According to our analysis of occup
Shopify is running a new-year calendar purge. Removing all recurring meetings with more than two people No meetings allowed on Wednesdays Any big meetings (50+ people) have to be held during a six-hou
I recently asked on Twitter:
If you’ve been in a company that “held itself to high standards”…what do you think was behind that ability to stick to those standards? What made that possible?
One response from Mani Fazeli stood out:
Founder CEOs with uncompromising zeal for excellence and an ability…
I was reading this , from Paul Millerd, describing the wall that Millennials and GenX employees are hitting at work. He attributes that wall to three trends: 1. A baby boomer demographic that emerge i
Justo Gallego Martínez (1925-2021), working on the cathedral that he spent 60 years building. (Photograph by Susana Giron ) It’s frustrating to not be taken seriously. When I was a kid, one of my most
Disruption (in peer-reviewed journals and in patents) is on decline, and the authors don't have much of an explanation for it. Read the paper here. From Figure 1 in "Papers and patents are becoming le
Miami, 2022 For the longest time I compulsively read narratives about whatever I was going through. Like, if I was in the early stages of dating someone, I would read books about dating. If I was movi
P-TOWN, STAY DOWN! — HISTORIC FILIPINOTOWN This blog entry is about Historic Filipinotown . Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography ‘s ink and oil paint map of Filipinotown, available on art prints and mercha
What a crazy year. A lot happened in the world politically and financially. A lot happened in my life personally, professionally, and financially. There’s always room to do more things, but rather tha
Ten years ago I wrote a yearly review that I cheekily called State of the Sam. I was going into the last year of a positive psychology master's program at Claremont Graduate University and was a coupl
Authentic Marketer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new updates and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber . 2022 had been a tough year for me. After six years of hard work
In my latest essay for The New Yorker, published earlier this week, I tackled the topic of “quiet quitting.” This idea careened into mainstream discourse last summer, powered by a viral TikTok video posted by a twentysomething engineer named Zaid Khan.
Here’s the transcript:
“I recently heard…
Every year, I reflect on my year and set some intentions for the next. I used to reflect on my years in my private notes, until last year when I posted my first public year in review . I enjoyed doing
Thanks again for taking time out of your day to read the newsletter. It means so much.
What’s next for TBM in 2023? I’ll have news on my new gig in a couple weeks (I’m very excited, it will be a big change of pace), but here are three things I will be focusing on this year:
Actionability
Product…
Cecily Brown, Be Nice to the Big Blue Sea , 2013 ME: Listen. Every time you’re given a choice between disappointing someone else and disappointing yourself, your duty is to disappoint that someone els
A quick work update—I'm leaving Amplitude after a fantastic run. What an amazing team and professional (and personal) adventure. I wrote a brief reflection here (on LinkedIn) . As TBM readers, you've
On any given week in San Francisco, office buildings are at about 40 percent of their prepandemic occupancy. Tech workers are still at home. The $17 salad place is expanding into the suburbs. So what
155 shares Are you considering moving to Buenos Aires? This South American metropolis is a common destination for expats and wanderers are welcomed with open arms. This post will help you with all of
Assuming you’ve already made up your mind to visit or move to Buenos Aires, this article is designed to help you navigate your stay and assist you in getting settled into life as a “ Porteño ” (the Sp
“Are all companies messed up?” Let’s explore that question. I have found the words "chronic" and "acute" to be helpful when thinking about the health of a company, and the relative messed-up-edness of
I recently chatted with an experienced product manager friend, and he asked me about a popular framework. “I can’t believe it’s an actual thing,” he mentioned. “The concept is so core to good product management that I don’t understand why people need a specific framework to describe that one…
On our way back home, we decided to stop again in Tonsai to get in a few more climbs. This time, it was the tail end of high season. What follows here is a postscript on our second (and my third) trip
This is the opening essay of the Mediocre Computing series. Well, we all knew it was coming. Computers already easily overwhelm the best humans at chess and Go. Now they have done something far harder
Hernan Bas, Mystery Bouf , 2009 Announcement: I am doing a 20% off subscription sale for the next week!! If you have enjoyed my work, please consider supporting it :) And if you already are a paid sub
Back in 2019, when I was on tour for my book, Digital Minimalism, I chatted with more than a few parents. I was surprised by how many told me a similar story: their teenage children had become fed up with the shallowness of online life and decided, all on their own, to deactivate their social media…
First, the Pace Layers Based on a few different frameworks, these 18 Organizational Pace Layers help visualize, distinguish, and discuss different kinds of work within an organization. At the top of t
In Adam Silver’s fever dream, the NBA is a wondrous world of wish fulfillment, a hooper’s utopia where everyone has an equal chance for success, a personal pathway to basketball nirvana. Or, as Silver
I’m currently beginning the long journey back from El Chaltén, concluding my shortest-yet trip to Patagonia, and by far my least productive. I have by now made a total of 16 trips to El Chaltén, and t
I f you have tears, prepare to save them for Tuesday at the earliest. There is an almost unbearable poignancy to watching Messi these days. There is this thing we have watched, discussed, cared about
Michael Jordan and the greatest basketball player of all time All of media has a Twitter capture problem. On the list of priorities for most professional journalists and writers, “avoid being made fun
"Civilizations with long nows look after things better," says Brian Eno. "In those places you feel a very strong but flexible structure which is built to absorb shocks and in fact incorporate them." 1
A reader recently pointed me toward a long and thoughtful reflection on academic life written by Stephen Stearns, the Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. In a section titled “Learning Balance,” he talks about his work habits in the early 1970s, when his…
1-Sentence-Summary: Company Of One will teach you how going small, not big when creating your own company will bring you independence, income, and lots of free time without the hassles of having to ma
4 min read · Oct 16, 2022 -- If collective goals matter, you need some way of creating coherence. “The very business of getting an organisation made up of individuals, no matter how disciplined, to pu
Pamela Paul Do Not Bring Your ‘Whole Self’ to Work Sept. 25, 2022 Credit... Phillip Toledano/Trunk Archive By Opinion Columnist For those lucky enough to have worked from home over the past two and a
October 17th, 2022 : Greetings from Austin. I’m pumped to be sharing this with you. It’s about 5,000 words and took me longer than I expected to write, but I think you’ll like it. Please share if you