Ilana Ettinger

Hell is a collection of individuals who are spending the bulk of their time working on a task they don’t like and are not especially good at.

A world without teachers or dock-workers would soon be in trouble, and even one without science fiction writers or ska musicians would clearly be a lesser place. It’s not entirely clear how humanity would suffer were all private equity CEOs, lobbyists, PR researchers, actuaries, telemarketers, bailiffs or legal consultants to similarly vanish.... See more

While working for the internet can be rewarding, it can also be an isolating experience, with little room for error.

For instance: in our society, there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one’s work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it. Again, an objective measure is hard to find, but one easy way to get a sense is to ask: what would happen were this entire class of people to simply disappear? Say what you like about nurses,... See more

What others may see as a moat, we may more earnestly see as “stickiness” or “defensibility” rather than as an outright moat. As we wrote about in  “What is a “Moat” and why does it matter?” , we define moats as  “Proven, perpetuating and permanent unit economic advantages from peers within a competitive set” . These moats need to be rooted in

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It’s because there’s still a widespread reverence for the “ideal worker.” We commonly define the ideal worker as someone who starts working in early adulthood and continues, full-time and full force, for 40 years straight. The concept reflects a breadwinner-homemaker model that dates back to the Industrial Revolution and functioned fairly well

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