Betterment

Dave continues and concludes his posts on anthro-complexity, with an important post that captures my feelings exactly about the role of the facilitator-host-practitioner*: When the practitioner’s c…

To set you up near Theban territory, so they can use their power to control you,without you setting foot inside the state. That's why they want to keep

A screen cap from the video of Thibaut Garcia & Antoine Morinière playing Bach together with tremendous groove. Brian “Ponch” Rivera writes a lot about the OODA loop, learned from h…

“Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.” Kafka "There are other people who develop something new and then

"Damn the Man. Save the Empire." I don't remember the first time I heard that line. I just remember the feeling of hearing it; the specific recognition of something already true inside me, suddenly visible on a screen. Like someone had found the source code and printed it out. Empire Records came out in 1995. I was

We fountain pen people are weird. Every month, around the start of the month, we do a version of the same thing: we make lists. What inks to put in what pens. Rotation schemes, seasonal palettes, e…

It was late into the evening. I wanted to take a break from everything digital. Relaxing by doodling in my notebook. Trying a new grind. Seeing how the metal tip felt on the billowy silky Tomoe Riv…

Reflection Quest — Part 1 of The Watchmaker's Dilemma

Registration for my new course, Everyday Energy opens next week. In anticipation, I’ve written an essay series covering the central philosophy of the course. If you’re just joining us, check out the first essay on why we’re living through a human energy crisis, and an essay on the biological roots of our exhaustion, which we […]

The greater our creations have become, the more hollow they appear in contrast to what was here before us.

This newsletter is free to read, and it’ll stay that way. But if you want more - extra posts each month, access to the community, and a direct line to ask me things - paid subscriptions are $2.50/month. A lot of people have told me it’s

Back in 1999, the Danish advertising bigwig, Jesper Kunde wrote a book called "Corporate Religion.” His argument was simple. Companies with a genuine

Pundits are saying that Netflix “lost” the bidding for Warner. Actually, they won. They didn’t just win because they got a nearly $3 billion breakup fee. They won because in just …

Work sucks, I know - blink-182

If AI makes execution cheap, what remains valuable? Chip Huyen argues that vision, judgment, and context define the new edge.

Too tired to exercise? Drained by social interactions? Need your phone to relax? Exploring seven of the misconceptions we have around what energizes and drains us.

Work hard and you feel tired. Sounds simple, right? Except the truth of how energy works is far more nuanced and interesting.

What happens to your brain and body when you stress (plus the four ways to manage your stress levels)

Posted on Friday 27 Feb 2026. 925 words, 17 links. By Matt Webb.

If you’ve ever worked at a larger organization, stop me if you’ve heard (or asked!) any of these questions: “Why do we move so slowly as an organization? We need to figure out how…

This post is an elaboration of a shorter post I wrote about five years ago. The two management giants of the mid-twentieth century were Peter Drucker and W. Edwards Deming. Ironically, while Drucke…

We think of ourselves as full-time projects, but what if doing so much inner work does more harm than good?

Many who are reading this are old enough to remember a time when they wrote long letters to loved ones. Many more can remember that when email was first introduced, people often composed multi-paragraph missives to their friends, discussing ideas and offering in-depth updates on their lives. Today, not only do few people write lengthy […]

A 2026 review of 79,000 people finds exercise significantly reduces depression and anxiety symptoms, with effects comparable to medication.

Abhinav Omprakash: I Am Happier Writing Code by Hand Yes, coding is not software engineering, but for me, it is a fun and essential part of it. In order to be effective at software engineering, you must be familiar with the problem space, and this requires thinking and wrestling with

We often stop noticing things we’ve become too accustomed to, as a side effect of our brains protecting us from sensory overload. Columnist Helen Thomson shares the evidence-backed ways to learn how to notice again

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

The most paradoxical thing about creative work is that it is both a way in and a way out, that it plunges you into the depths of your being and at the same time takes you out of yourself. Writing i…