What Works

"No one is ever completely safe from the critical gaze of a culture steeped in the makeover ethos." —Micki McGeeI have a theory that you can measure the decline of any social media platform by the time it takes for its feed to become a firehose of unsolicited advice. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are all sludge piles of advice now, but it took them years to devolve. TikTok took maybe 18 months. Substack Notes? Like 3 months. Threads? Instant.Most of us (I think) can agree that the vapid posturing that occurs through posting advice on social media makes a platform less enjoyable. I don't open one of these apps in the hopes that I'll learn the one weird trick that can turn my frown upside down or give me six-pack abs. What we once loved about these platforms is how people shared their everyday descriptions of life, love, family, and curiosity. But much of that mutual exchange of experience has been ceded to the commercial interest of advice.After all, we love advice. We also hate advice. We love it when someone can tell us what we should do next. And we also hate being told what we should do next. So what gives? Today, a description of why that is. But first, things are going to get awkward.Footnotes:Read the written version of this episode.Awkwardness: A Theory by Alexandra Plakias"Signs of social awkwardness and 15 ways to overcome it" via BetterUpSelf-Help, Inc by Micki McGeeSelf-Help, LLC - a special What Works series exploring the business and culture of self-help (00:00) - EP 493: Why We Just Can't Quit Advice Culture (19:44) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

Intractable challenges are often the result of a lack of imagination. That is, our solutions are constrained by existing systems and structures that likely created the problem in the first place. To dream up novel solutions that allow us to realize higher values, we need to build structures that enable and extend our imaginations.And sure, I'm talking about macroeconomic, climate, and political challenges. But I'm also talking about our day-to-day work and family lives.Footnotes:Read the written version of this episode."The WPA Federal Music Project in New Mexico" by Charles Cutter"The New Mexico Federal Music Project: Embodying the Regional Spirit of Roosevelt's New Deal" by Audra Bellmore and Amy S. JacksonProfessor YouYoung Kang speaks about the Federal Music Project at Scripps College (YouTube)"Transcript: Mark Zuckerberg Announces Major Changes to Meta's Content Moderation Policies and Operations" by Justin Hendrix, TechPolicy.Press"Values Aren't Chains; They Are Wings" by Tara McMullinFind more episodes and essays at whatworks.fyi. ★ Support this podcast ★

Many of us (most?) have an inner voice that loves to remind us that "If there's time to lean, there's time to clean" or that "Coffee is for closers." We nag ourselves about being more productive, working more efficiently, or hustling for more money. Even if we value rest, care, and comfort, that voice can be hard to ignore.Well, meet your Tiny Capitalist. Or rather, Tiny Capitalists: the Tiny Puritan, Tiny Manager, and Tiny Entrepreneur. Understanding the role they play helps us make better decisions about how we navigate the systems we exist in.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode"Is There a Tiny Puritan Living In Your Head? Tell Him to Get Lost." by Joy Marie ClarksonThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max WeberThe New Spirit of Capitalism by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan EdwardsClips from The Office, Severance, Office Space, Parks and Recreation (00:00) - Why Your Inner Critic Sounds Like a Bad Boss (17:24) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

Standardization is one of those ideas that, once you see it, you can't unsee it. It's a mental model that can explain, at least in part, many of our social, political, and personal challenges. Whether it's the clothes we wear, the language we use, the dates we go on, or the people we vote for, our choices are often unknowingly constrained by standardization.In this episode, an update of an essay I originally released for premium subscribers back in November 2023, I explore the role that standardization has played in our economic development, our relationships, and even our identities.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode"Butt Stuff" on RadioLabDoppelganger by Naomi Klein"Generation Why?" by Zadie Smith, The New York Review"The Bizarre History of Women's Clothing Sizes" by Laura Stampler, Time (00:00) - EP 490: Standardize This (24:22) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

This episode is about the long term—the commitments, projects, and relationships we can work on when our "temporal bandwidth" widens. How we perceive time and our ability to do what's meaningful to us in time does have to be constrained by the urgency of now. There are ways to feel more grounded and create more possibilities at the same time.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this episode.The Steerswoman by Rosemary KirsteinOn Freedom by Timothy SnyderBreaking Bread with the Dead by Alan JacobsHow to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell"Practicing the Future" by Tara McMullin"Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey Stuff" by Tara McMullin"Busyness Decoded" by Tara McMullinFind the What Works archives and subscribe to the newsletter at whatworks.fyi. (00:00) - Time Flies (02:34) - The Steerswoman (06:20) - "Temporal bandwidth is the width of your present" (10:12) - Making the difficult choice (15:02) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

Most of the work I do that's not this revolves around coaching, editing, and/or thinking with people who have meaningful ideas they want to better express to the world. In this work, the question I hear most often is about making sense of a complex idea—the kind of idea that contains many smaller, supporting ideas and stories and research. The sort of complex idea best expressed in a lengthy essay, a book, a podcast series, or a documentary.How does one make a plan for tackling that kind of idea? How does one get started writing or designing that complex idea? How does one keep track of all the bits and bobs that go into a massive project like that?From my perspective, three biases tend to trip us up when working on a project of this sort. I'll call them the linearity bias, the stick-with bias, and the waste-not bias. I'll explain how each gets in the way of big, messy projects—but first, I have to tell you about HONEYDEW.Footnotes:Read this episode as an essay12 Bytes by Jeanette WintersonBird by Bird by Anne LamottThunder and Lightning by Natalie Goldberg"Making What Can't Be Sold" by Tara McMullinI work with people who want to turn their meaningful ideas into remarkable content. Whether you want feedback or thought partnership in a 90-minute strategy session or you've got a more hands-on project involved, I'd love to help. Click here to learn more about working with me. (00:00) - Honeydew (Or, 3 Biases That Derail Meaningful Ideas) (19:10) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

The tech industry has a central role in shaping our work, our communication, and even our identities. Its mythology is woven into the products and services we use on a daily basis. So understanding how the people leading the tech industry think—how they perceive their own stories and generate their own hype—is a solid step toward making sense of what can seem so nonsensical.And there is one book I go back to over and over again when I need to make sense of our mythologies of disruption and failure, value and genius—and that's What Tech Calls Thinking by Adrian Daub.In this episode, I share 3 ideas from that book that help me make sense of the headlines shaping politics, business, and work.Footnotes:What Tech Calls Thinking by Adrian Daub"Mark Zuckerberg" on In Bed With The RightFind a text version of this episode at whatworks.fyi! (00:00) - Introduction (02:00) - What Tech Calls Thinking by Adrian Daub (04:34) - Idea 1: Silicon Valley is a mythology. (08:37) - Idea 2: Gender becomes encoded in all judgments of value. (13:01) - Idea 3: Money does not follow merit, nor vice versa. (16:39) - The Last Word (18:07) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

What does my new website, the TikTok "ban," and the ongoing purge of "woke" from government websites have in common?The power to decide what content counts and what doesn't—and use that power to shape the knowledge and experiences of others.In this episode, I continue to examine the state of The Website today. Amidst a backdrop of diffuse epistemic violence, the website is both an archive and a communication tool we can use to preserve the knowledge and ways of knowing we care about. In the second half of the episode, I share a piece I wrote last year on how artificial intelligence disrupts and deskills our critical thinking.Footnotes:"Broken Links" by Tara McMullin on What Works"Knowledge Is Power: A Brief History" on Mental FlossFull text of the House bill "banning" TikTok"Multiple Ways of Knowing: Expanding How We Know" by Elissa Sloane Perry and Aja Couchois Duncan on Nonprofit Quarterly"Black Box Thinking" by Tara McMullin on What Works"Scientists Increasingly Cannot Explain How AI Works" by Chloe Xiang on Vice"Google is redesigning its search engine: it's AI all the way down" on The Verge"Hostile Epistemology" by C. Thi Nguyen"Microsoft Finds Relying on AI Kills Your Critical Thinking Skills" by AJ Dellinger on GizmodoFind a written version of this audio essay, subscribe free to the What Works newsletter, and learn more about working with me to turn your meaningful ideas into remarkable content at whatworks.fyi. (00:00) - EP 486: How Knowledge Really Does Become Power (03:21) - 1. Knowledge is Power (06:41) - The Purge (14:05) - 2. Black Box Thinking (18:07) - Technological Conditioning (26:12) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

I'm back! Maybe you noticed or maybe you didn't—but the show (and my newsletter) has been on its longest hiatus since its inception. In the final quarter of 2024, I decided I wanted to (re)consolidate my web presence, abandon most "platforms," and breathe some new life into my work. This episode reflects on both my own challenges with wrangling my online presence and the ways the state of the web has made it extra challenging. While there’s a lot to complain about when it comes to social media platforms and the billionaires wreaking havoc in online and offline spaces, this isn’t that kind of episode. It’s an effort to illuminate some less obvious issues that, in turn, can help us figure out what we want to do next.If you've been feeling a bit blah or displaced or just overwhelmed in your online work lately, I hope this episode gives you a fresh mental model for making sense of those feelings. And I hope that model gives you the inspiration it's given me.Footnotes:Check out the new (and hopefully improved) whatworks.fyi!"For the Love of God, Make Your Own Website" by Gita Jackson, Aftermath"Decoder guest host Hank Green makes Nilay Patel explain why websites have a future" on Decoder"Digital Homelessness" by Venkatesh Rao"The Web Renaissance takes off" by Anil Dash"The Creator Economy Is Eating Creative Acts" by Tara McMullin, featuring Kate Tyson & Charlie Gilkey"Wait, I Think You're Platform-Pilled" by Tara McMullin"Is it OK to say the word 'homeless?' Or should you say 'unhoused?'" on The GuardianAlienation by Rahel JaeggiPossessed: A Cultural History of Hoarding by Rebecca FalkoffAmerican Bulk by Emily MesterCreating Digital Exhibitions for Cultural Institutions by Emily MarshYou can check out the What Works archive at whatworks.fyi - where you’ll find a written essay version of this episode. Plus, you can find out more about working with me to turn your own meaningful ideas into remarkable content.  (00:00) - What even is a website today? (05:17) - 1. Website Metaphysicsp (11:32) - 2. Digital Homelessness (18:05) - 3. Google Hates Broken Links the Way NIMBYs Hate Tent Cities (22:37) - 4. Digital Hoarding (34:51) - 5. Rebuilding (40:59) - Credits ★ Support this podcast ★

So, health insurance is in the news. And so is Americans' feelings about it. I got to wondering how we ended up with this terrible health insurance system in the United States. I uncovered a fascinating story about the marketing campaign that sunk Truman's national health insurance program in the 1940s. I also discovered some interesting parallels to popular marketing messages among today's influencers, gurus, and marketers.Today's episode is a little trip through history that will hopefully put some of our current issues in perspective.Footnotes:Gallup's survey data on healthcare"The Lie Factory" by Jill Lepore, in The New YorkerInterview with Leone Baxter in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting"Campaigns, Inc." via the California State Archives"The deprofessionalization of medicine. Causes, effects, and responses." by RR Reed and D Evans"Professional Identity Misformation and Burnout: A Call for Graduate Medical Education to Reject “Provider” by Deborah Ehrlich and Joseph Gravel"White Privilege and Professionalization: A Decolonial and Critical Feminist Perspective on Professional Nursing" by Natalie Stake-Doucet"Why Doesn’t the United States Have National Health Insurance? The Role of the American Medical Association" by Marcella Alsan and Yousra Neberai"Oli London & the Right Wing Grift" by Matt BernsteinFind an essay version of this episode at whatworks.fyi! ★ Support this podcast ★

A problem, question, or challenge is often more than meets the eye. But we're biased to accept how an issue is initially framed. We acquiesce to the original terms. That's called acquiescence bias. When we don't counteract our acquiescence bias, we miss opportunities to get to the root cause or think creatively about a challenge. Today, I share 3 ways to resist acquiescence bias as you consider your next moves, goals, or plans.Footnotes:"In Your Spare Time" from No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin (read it or listen on Spotify)"Don't call it a Substack." by Anil DashMore on why podcast metrics were so screwy this yearA skeet thread on the difference in referral traffic from Bluesky and X (00:00) - What is spare time? (05:45) - Acquiescence Bias (07:30) - An Example: Should I start a Substack? (09:59) - Buy why? (12:30) - Who benefits? (15:07) - Remove the guise of objectivity (19:29) - Go forth and reframe! ★ Support this podcast ★

Do you see your software?Do you see how it influences how you run meetings, brainstorm ideas, fulfill your responsibilities, and communicate with others? Do you see how its text boxes, radio buttons, tabs, search results, and menus train you to think? Do you see it, or do you just use it?Footnotes:"The impossible dream of good workplace software" on Decoder "Practico-inertia" by Rob Horning ★ Support this podcast ★

Stop me if you've heard this before: we're overloaded and overwhelmed by information. There's more content than you could ever hope to consume. More scientific theories, philosophical concepts, and art forms than you could ever hope to engage with.Enter personal knowledge management (PKM). It's a modern term for an ancient practice—how one collects, preserves, and utilizes knowledge worth remembering. In this episode, I speak with Sari Azout, the founder of Sublime, an app for personal knowledge management (but that description truly doesn't do it justice). We talk about the philosophy behind the product and how that plays out in the product's design.Plus, I dive into how Sari's PKM philosophy is part of a long lineage of practices people have used to remember what's worth preserving.Footnotes:Check out Sublime or get started right away with an invite!Too Much to Know by Ann BlairMore about Sarah Mackenzie & Read-Aloud Revival"The Glassbox and the Commonplace" by Steven JohnsonMore on John Locke's commonplace book index systemWhat do you want to preserve?More on Corita Kent at the Corita Art CenterEvery new episode is published in essay form at WhatWorks.FYI! (00:00) - How I keep track of ideas and information (02:56) - Meet Sari Azout, founder of Sublime (04:30) - Information age versus post-information age (06:55) - Information overload is an ancient problem (08:05) - Commonplace books (11:20) - Commonplace books contain a central tension (12:12) - We shape our tools and then they shape us (16:24) - Where the cool stuff is really happening (17:40) - John Locke's commonplace system (19:52) - A tool for creativity rather than productivity (23:33) - Single-player mode versus multiplayer mode (27:05) - The promise of preservation ★ Support this podcast ★

In management cybernetics, there are 3 types of systems: simple, complex, and exceedingly complex. The systems we pay the most attention tend to be, you guessed it, exceedingly complex. In this episode, I explore what that means for how we do our work and run our businesses—and what happens when we forget that people are exceedingly complex systems, too.Footnotes:Cyberboss by Craig GentThinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella MeadowsEmergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown"Practicing the Future: 3 Ideas for Rethinking Change" at What Works     Every episode is published in essay form at What Works and delivered in my newsletter—check it out and subscribe! ★ Support this podcast ★

You've probably heard of a scarcity mindset. Maybe you've even been accused of having one! In this short, I explore the false binary of scarcity and abundance mindsets to propose a third way: resourcefulness.Footnotes:"Thought-terminating cliché" on WikipediaAdam Tooze on The Ezra Klein ShowInformation on the US tax gap"Breaking boundaries to creatively generate value" in The Journal of Business VenturingBraiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall KimmererThis is a significant revision of a piece originally published in 2021Essay versions of every episode are published at whatworks.fyi! ★ Support this podcast ★

We're constantly bombarded by data. And it's easy to think that with the right clues, we could answer the ultimate questions of life, the universe, and everything.But data aren't facts. They're not a secret code. Data are media—they mediate our interactions with the world around us. To make them useful and meaningful, we need a critical framework for working with data as media. That's what I've got for you today—a deep dive on how predictability, relevance, and actionability can help us see data for what they are and for what they're not.Footnotes:Anytime I talk about data and how it mediates our lives and work, I'm referencing the work of philosopher C. Thi Nguyen and his concept of value capture. I've written about his theory previously hereI also make use of Byung-Chul Han's The Crisis of Narration, specifically his critique of a 2008 Wired essay by Chris Anderson about the end of theoryGet written versions of all new episodes at whatworks.fyi—where you can also become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month and help support the work I do at What Works. (00:00) - A hypothetical (02:32) - Led astry by ubiquitous metrics (03:36) - Data aren't reality (05:37) - A critical framework for data (06:08) - What is predictable? (13:36) - What is relevant? (18:32) - What is actionable? (21:40) - Data literacy ★ Support this podcast ★

Today's episode is about tips. As in gratuity. Wait, wait, wait! Where are you going?I know, you probably don't receive tips for your work. Maybe you don't live in the US, and you're thinking, 'What is this American BS about tips?'Well, when I first heard about Trump's (and then Harris's) proposal to eliminate federal taxes of tipped income, my brain went a hundred different places: how many people would it impact, how much savings are we talking about, what will this do to the proliferation of tipped work, and how much could this accelerate re-proletarianization?! You probably weren't expecting that last one. Here's the thing: tipping is a class issue. Which means it's also a social justice issue. And it's also an issue that intersects with frustrations with the way all of us work. To find out how, you've got to trust me—and listen.Footnotes:Information on the federal tipped minimum wage'Tip baiting' Instacart drivers via CNN"The Economic Logic Behind the 'No Tax on Tips' Policy" by Jadrian WootenTipping: An American Social History of Gratuities by Kerry Segrave"'It's the Legacy of Slavery': Here's the Troubling History Behind Tipping Practices in the U.S." via Time"Tipping is a racist relic and a modern tool of economic oppression in the South" via the Economic Policy Institute"Errand Runners of Digital Platform Capitalism" by İsa Demir"Defending Hierarchy: The Conservative Impulse" by Matthew McManusThe Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord"The problem is proletarianization, not capitalism" by Solange Manche (about Bernard Steigler)Capitalism is Dead: Is This Something Worse? by McKenzie Wark"The Practical Utopian's Guide to the Coming Collapse" by David GraeberFind essay versions of every new episode at whatworks.fyi! ★ Support this podcast ★

If a chatbot writes your novel, did you really complete NaNoWriMo?Two niche internet panics caught my eye over the last couple of weeks: a bungled AI policy by the organization that promotes National Novel Writing Month and a viral story about people hiring Strava surrogates to run for them so they can claim the kudos. And those two stories got me thinking about the ways that we delegate away the intrinsic value of other activities.So with the help of a 1935 essay by Walter Benjamin, let's unpack the cult value of novel writing, running, and social media.Footnotes:"NaNoWriMo Says Condemning AI is 'Classist and Ableist'" via 404 Media"Some Thoughts on NaNoWriMo" by Sarah GaileyChannel News Asia on the Indonesian Strava jockey trend"People are paying 'Strava mules' to do their runs for them, but why?" via Women's HealthVelljko's Strava mule confession on TikTokLeigh Stein on the internet's difficult with satire on TikTok"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" by Walter Benjamin"Unpacking the Attention Fetish" on What Works"In Defense of Inefficiency" on What Works"Why AI Isn't Going to Make Art" by Ted Chiang via The New YorkerEssay versions of every episode are posted at whatworks.fyi, where you can also become a premium subscriber and support What Works for just $7 per month. ★ Support this podcast ★

Inspired by the current vibe shift, I'm interrupting my rebroadcast of the Self-Help, LLC series with an interlude about values—personal values, business values, American values, even Christian values. And it's about what is so often misunderstood about values.  Values aren't chains; they are wings. ★ Support this podcast ★

This is the 6th installment in the Self-Help, LLC series, which originally ran in October 2022. Today's episode has been revised and re-engineered!We form an impression of our voices early in life. While it might shift some as we age, those impressions tend to stick with us. For many of us, what we learn about our voices is how they don’t quite measure up to the ideal: too high, too low, too soft, too loud, too this, too that. This is especially true for women, queer people, transgender people, non-native English speakers, Black people, people of color, indigenous people, and really anyone whose voice doesn’t fit into the white, male baritone mold.So what do we do? We try to sound more like everyone else. And that can not only mess with our ability to use our physical voices, but it messes with our ability to use our metaphorical voices and confuses our sense of self.Samara Bay, a Hollywood dialect coach who’s worked on blockbusters like Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy, is on a mission to help everyone find “permission to speak.” In this episode, we dig into how the self-help imperative to “own your voice” might be more complicated than it sounds.Footnotes:Find out more about Samara BayGet Samara’s book Permission to Speak“I still have a voice” by Alice WongSamara Bay on Anna Sorokin and Elizabeth Holmes’s voicesWomen and Power by Mary BeardMore about African American Vernacular English on Pause on the PlayCollege students talk about their relationships to their Southern accents on Dolly Parton’s America“The Magic of Voice Transitioning with Nicole Gress” on Camp Wild Heart with Mackenzie Dunham“Me minus me” on This American Life (Sandy Allen’s vocal transition)“If you don’t have anything nice to say” on This American Life (complaints about female voices)More on the mid-atlantic accentAs always, find the essay version of this episode at whatworks.fyi ★ Support this podcast ★