What Works

Making work for the public seems to come with a slew of fuzzy social expectations. What do we owe our readers, listeners, viewers, and followers? What more is expected beyond the post, episode, or vi…

The media give us wildly exaggerated images of wealth and consumption. And even if we recognize that a tv show or an Instagram account is more fantasy than reality, those images impact what we believ…

At age 50, Manisha Thakor realized that she'd sacrificed her life at the altar of work. How did that happen? And what was she to do about it? Manisha's new book tackles how to unwind a toxic relation…

This is an excerpt from the 7th edition of This is Not Advice—a not-advice column exclusively for premium subscribers. In this episode, I take a closer look at flexibility. When is it a feature? When…

This episode originally ran on May 25, 2022. It's been lightly remixed for today's release!

“Rugged individualism” is the very language we speak in America. It shapes the way we approach work, family,…

So much of our modern discourse around productivity, empowerment, entrepreneurship, and personal growth includes messages about our bodies. These messages might not be explicit, but the messages are …

This is an episode of "This is Not Advice," a bonus podcast I do for premium subscribers of What Works. Instead of just a teaser this week, I wanted to share the whole episode with you. If you'd like…

This is an episode about Meta's new app, Threads. It's also about Substack and Substack's new-ish feature, Notes. But really, it's an episode about what we're looking for from the category we call "s…

"It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism," say Frederic Jameson and Slavoj Žižek.

Capitalist liberal democracy is construed as the "end of history"—the culmination of mi…

Welcome to the 5th edition of This is Not Advice, a non-advice column for premium subscribers of What Works. If you’re already a premium subscriber, thank you! If you’re not, I still think you’re gre…

"Failure" got a glow-up sometime in the last 20 years. Instead of something to be feared, gurus tell us to embrace failure. That failure is a waypoint on the path to success. But this shift in our re…

Buckle up—today's episode was inspired by something that got me really worked up this week: "I think home-baking is one of the stupidest things anyone can engage in," says Rick Easton of Jersey City'…

"Outsiders" shoulder a disproportionate burden when it comes to fitting in. Can we demand more from the "insiders?"

This is a preview of the 4th installment of This is Not Advice, a not-advice column …

What gets labeled as "authentic" is often quite predictable. It's a market-compatible expression of what was once something unique or personal. Authenticity is a vibe—and a valuable one at that.

"Pred…

On June 8, Skye Pillsbury opened the latest edition of her newsletter, The Squeeze, with the header RIP Gimlet. She continued:

I’m about to write the most journalistic thing I’ve ever written: I received a tip.

I wish I could say it was an “anonymous tip” because that sounds even more journalistic. But it wasn’t anonymous, th…

Welcome to the 3rd edition of This is Not Advice, my advice column that’s not an advice column for paid subscribers of What Works. 

This week, I am tackling a question that came up during last week’s …

Today's episode is all about trust and responsibility—and how those qualities impact the cost of doing business and the work that's required for any company to be successful. And specifically, it's a…

What are we really talking about when we talk about our hopes and fears about AI?

It's us. We're the problem.

Actually, we're not the problem—we're more like the solution. But that's less mimetic.

Sure,…

There's a sort of inside joke in the online business space of coaches, creators, and service providers. Or maybe, at this point, it's an "outside joke?"

Q: What's the surest way to make more money as …