Training
The Failed Promise Of Freelance Consulting Talent Platforms
Over the last twenty years, talent platforms have dramatically increased the number of freelance and “gig” opportunities, especially for the early adopters who learned how to succeed on the platforms. However, with the proliferation of platforms due to zero marginal cost economics and the increasing atomization of the staffing process, the talent platform economy is ... Read more
Four Lessons From Starting An E-Commerce Clothing Brand | Guest Essay by Wesley Kang
This is a Guest Post by Wesley Kang, the co-founder of , a company that offers “actually slim” dress shirts for Asian Americans Working a full-time job in NYC is great for so many reasons. Great pay, great benefits and great stability. However, it’s a lot like the earth: it takes a lot of time ... Read more
Revisiting Keynes Prediction for a Post-Work 2030 in “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren”
I’ve been revisiting original texts that people seem to quote over and over and that has led to a lot of thought that emerged in the 1930s and 1950s. This essay from Keynes I found to be incredibly readable and still highly relevant. In 1930, amid a global depression, John Maynard Keynes pondered the question, “What ... Read more
January 2019 Self-Employed Financial Statement
Every month I detail my financials. For a month-by-month view, you can see the full spreadsheet here. Here is my self-employed life financial statement for January 2019: Income: $3,987 I started a tiny consulting project working with two friends in the US and got paid half of the $7,500 fee up front. I also made ... Read more
December 2018 Self-Employed Financial Statement
Every month I detail my financials. For a month-by-month view, you can see the full spreadsheet here. Here is my self-employed life financial statement for December 2018: Income: $894 I did a little consulting work for a former client and made another sale of my strategy consulting course, which I didn’t put a ton of ... Read more
The Four-Day Workweek Is Not About Working Less
While the four-day workweek still seems risky for most of the world, it seems to be catching on in Europe. In Germany, some workers have won the “right” to a 28-hour workweek, France passed a “right to disconnect” law in 2017, as well as an Italian law recently, passed that explicitly calls out rest: The agreement also identifies the worker’s rest periods ... Read more
The Other Side Of Rest: Taking Time Off In An Age Of Anxiety
Mohit Satyanand turned to his wife on his honeymoon and asked: “do we need to go back?” They decided to take a leap and live in a small stone cottage spending their time: in our garden in the forest, watching the peaches grow, and our son toddle, rocking him to sleep with Dave Matthews or ... Read more
All The Things Worth Reading In 2018 (175+ Links)
Since 2016, I have sent a weekly e-mail with five goodreads worth reading. I am motivated by helping people avoid the clickbait, outrage, and listicles that pervade our race-to-the-bottom media world right now. What follows is a collection of those links from 2018 randing in topics from the philosophy of work, the real future of ... Read more
The Five Things You Need Before You Quit Your Job
In my own experience and experience working with people who quit the corporate world to work on their own, I have found five consistent themes that emerge with most of these people. Most don’t plan these five things, but looking back there is an element of each in people who take the leap to self-employment. ... Read more
Receiving Incredible Gifts in Pai, Thailand at “The Split”
In 2008 a seismic event created a literal “split” in a part of the land in the northwest of Thailand outside of a small village called Pai. This is now a minor tourist attraction. When you ride up to the location, you are greeted by a family who runs a small farm on the village. ... Read more