Note: cross posted from my monthly newsletter on hircinous One of the more horrible side effects of the information age is the ability to see patterns. Not because these patterns never existed before. …

For anyone who took management courses, in college or as part of some professional development track, the name Peter Drucker should ring a huge bell. He’s been referred to as “the founder of modern management”, coined the term “knowledge worker”, and even prophesied the marginalization of the blue collar worker. …

This is cross posted from my monthly newsletter which is built from my semi-daily newsletter, which is just full of hot-takes and profanity and you have to pay money for it sooooo…maybe just read the cleaned up monthlies? There is a deeply human urge to have things go back to…

If you haven’t noticed, things are a bit…confusing on the global stage. Some might point at the global pandemic as the cause. Others at a certain, shall we say, difference of opinion between members of the old Soviet bloc. …

In Brushfire, I posit that the balance of authority, autonomy, and accountability is crucial for any job or position. Mind you, I was going from my gut but I may not be wrong. A researcher named Peter Kenttä did an interesting bit of research in Finland. He interviewed some employees…

Note: this is part of a monthly series which is also a newsletter, if you’d prefer that. There is also a semi-daily one where I vomit links and quips and notes and non-sequitur. And it costs money. Caveat emptor definitely applies. A theme over the next decade or more will…

Let’s say you run a small e-commerce store. It sells Widgets and has a fulfillment center on the outskirts of town (where rent is cheap). Your office is in the heart of the city (where it’s cool to have an office). You have ten people in the warehouse, handling the…

Note: this is the first of a monthly series (which is also a newsletter, if you’d prefer that). The monthly issues will be a review of a topic/trend/series of weird things I noticed throughout the month. There is also a semi-daily one where I basically vomit links and quips and…

This time, I’m going to combine two features, Materials and Mind Unlike the other Features, there is no simple way to meet the Materials requirements. I won’t even try to get into the details. As an overview, you need to: Restrict asbestos, mercury, or lead to the best of your…