Betterment

How to turn a dashboard into a story your team actually believes in

Posting a link to Corina Enache’s LinkedIn post, because I don’t think she has a blog. This one on purpose, with a hat tip to David Graeber’s work, is important. I was ruminating on this post as I …

We create a job whenever someone with the authority to hire decides the value created is greater than the wages paid. In my lifetime, we’ve invented 7 billion or more jobs, which is great new…

You’re flying over Mount Rainier and a hole opens up in the bottom of your airplane. In that moment, you think hard about what you’ve done, what you’re doing, and what matters. My…

Steve Yegge’s article about programmer burnout (“The AI Vampire”) along with Margaret Storey’s article about Cognitive Debt started an ongoing conversation

Introduction Every organisation is sitting on a gold mine it cannot see. The meetings that shape decisions, the workarounds that keep systems running, the judgment calls that experienced people make without being able to explain them, the hard-won lessons from projects that succeeded or failed for reasons nobody wrote down: this is organisational knowledge, and most organisations are losing it faster than they can create it. The challenge is not new. What is new in 2026 is the gap between how mu

Another unique German word. Umfunktionierung. Functional transformation. Most of us take the tools we’re given and use them as instructed. We follow the manual. We color inside the lines. We …

I'm like most people when it comes to reading and note-taking.

At 2:30 in the morning, the night clerk at the hotel is a great help if you’ve locked yourself out of your room. But if you want to complain about the hours of the gym, the hotel’s envi…

Professionals take their work seriously. Hobbyists can take it personally. We arrive and make a promise. We do it on behalf of the client, and that promise has little to do with what we might want …

Weeknotes 388 - Thoughts triggered by being in a bubble in Athens, making sense of reality, community, and genuine collaboration in times of AI. And of course, lots of captures from last week’s news on physical AI and beyond.

If we're so rich, why is everyone miserable?

On a beautiful Sunday in Central Park, you’ll see thousands of people out for a jog. Each person has exactly the right running style–and none of those styles are the same. Each is weari…

An Argument into the Agora

We can search for the perfect option or settle for something better than we have right now. The search for perfect never ends, and it’s a great place to hide. Would you rather wait for the pe…

In 1966, Michael Polanyi explained why some knowledge resists being written down. Sixty years later, that's the knowledge AI cannot touch — and the knowledge your senior engineers carry in their bones.

If you’re nervous about communicating your ideas, either in a formal presentation setting, or more informally, in meetings and small group conversations, this brief guide is for you. It’s a simple collection of thoughts and ideas; practical steps that you can take to build confidence, or feel more secure.

The uncomfortable truth about effort, outcome, and the math that connects them all

Scientists are rethinking how depression should be treated by focusing less on reducing negative feelings and more on rebuilding the brain’s capacity for positive emotion.

"Strong opinions, loosely held" is a cornerstone of good product thinking. AI changes who's forming the opinion. Here's what that means for your team.

It’s harder than ever to be an engineering manager. Fewer resources, higher expectations, and a public conversation actively questioning whether the role should exist at all. Less support tha…

“Something is up in academic research,” ​write​ the members of an AI Task Force convened by the journal Organization Science. As they go on to ... Read more

Runaway selection happens when organizations compete with each other far beyond the point where it’s rational to do so. We see this in species as well–peacocks have ungainly and ineffic…

Where Does Novelty Come From?: A conversation with paleobiologist Douglas Erwin about the evolution of innovation

There’s the fast of a drag racer. Purpose-built, difficult to steer, expensive and fragile. There’s the fast of the marathon runner. Beat by a sprinter every time, but able to keep it u…

In our dreams, the laws of thermodynamics don’t apply, and gravity works in strange ways. We can jump across a chasm and stick the landing on the other side. This freedom is important. It&#82…

Five short entries a day. A generous act of leadership A thank-you note sent Curiosity explored, or a hard question asked A new skill learned An interaction with a customer or co-worker that increa…