on working

Chase your desired lifestyle, not your desired title. People are blinded by status and labels. Once you release the need for a specific title, there is almost always an easier path to living your preferred lifestyle.

Work for someone you look up to.

Move toward the next thing, not away from the last thing.

Same direction. Completely different energy

We tell them that if they just find their passion, work will magically transform into endless joy, as if difficulty is just a symptom of being in the wrong job rather than an inevitable part of doing anything worthwhile. As if work were some unfortunate byproduct of insufficient enthusiasm rather than the very engine of human flourishing.

This lie... See more

Communication is about what is received, not what is intended. If there is a gap between what you are saying and what they are hearing, you have to find a new way to say it

What I suspect some of us crave is not free time in the abstract, but internal spaciousness, a mind that is not clenched. The wrong job can suffocate that spaciousness, but the right job can generate it, by giving the day edges, creating friction that sharpens rather than erodes, and leaving marks that remind you that you moved something, however... See more

If you work on anything worthwhile, sooner or later people will care about it and will want you to send progress updates. These could be quarterly investor updates, weekly updates to your boss, emails to adjacent teams, etc. Here are tips on how to do this well.

1. Understand your role, and with each update add to the body of evidence that you’re a

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There’s this metaphor in surfing: when you’re young and inexperienced you try to catch every wave. But with some experience you know when the right wave is coming and you surf it as long as you can. It holds true with clients for me. It’s mostly out of your control when the right thing comes in, so when it does you need to be able to see it and... See more