What Works

Technicians, Visionaries, and the Myth of Going Solo

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

To the uninitiated, "being your own boss" sounds pretty nice. Of course, the moment you go into business for yourself, you realize the wide variety of...

This Process is a Mess

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

I live for people explaining how they approach analysis and critique. I desperately want to know how other people think about things so I can learn to...

How I Learn a New Skill

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

So a couple of weeks ago, I downloaded Final Cut Pro and committed to learning how to use it. Despite logging hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in ...

Wait... what?!

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

You’re going along, minding your own business, and then it hits you: “Wait, what?!” Your expectation or assumption bumps against the facts. Thi...

Rethinking Higher Ed for the 21st-Century Economy with Lauren Lassabe Shepherd

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It's no secret that one of my, let's say, special interests is higher education. The reasons for this are at least threefold. First, I have a kid head...

Grieving The Future Self

29 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A brief meditation on grief at the loss of one's future self and how often that loss passes unacknowledged.Footnotes:Read the essay version of this ep...

Circling Back

22 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

How often do you revisit old work? Do you have systems for circling back to what you've created in the past to see how you could improve upon it or ta...

Making Intelligence Masculine Again

15 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

I've had all the various parts of this episode swirling in my head for months—from The Paperclip Maximizer to The Great Feminization to Meta's Mascu...

What Else Must Be True?

08 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Have a big decision on your mind? Trying to choose between a bunch of good options?Today, I'm talking about decision-making… not so much how to choo...

Getting My $#*! Together: A Messy Review of 2025

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Here we are at the tail end of 2025. I just "opened" my Spotify Unwrapped... And after 3 years of burnout recovery, I’m finally ready to figure out ...

On Getting Attention, Encoding Messages, and Diving into the Deep End

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How do you get people to care about what you care about?It's a marketing question. A movement-building question. A question at the heart of the attent...

Drifting Toward the Status Quo

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve ever chosen an ambitious, unconventional, or deeply meaningful aim only to see your plan devolve into something far more run-of-the-mill, ...

Rethinking Busyness (With Help From HBO's The Pitt)

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Try as we might, many of us can’t shake the overwhelming sense that we're just too damn busy—that feeling that there’s something we’re forgett...

Delightful Misdirection (Or How to Rethink Your Options)

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How we think about a problem or goal really matters. The variables we include, the relationships we draw between them, the flows of influence or resou...

We Can't Quit Turning Leisure Into More Work

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I'm pretty sure The New York Times is trolling me.Footnotes:Read the written version of this episode."Hobbies Too Relaxing? Try 'Leisure Crafting'" by...

The Spectacle of Competence

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Competence porn" is an indistinct genre of media that showcases people doing their jobs (loosely defined) exceptionally well, often using niche skill...

3 Ways I Make Sense of the Unexpected & Perplexing

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the last episode (written version), we talked about how "sensemaking starts with chaos" and that chaos arises when our expectations don't match rea...

Make It Make Sense

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Sensemaking starts with chaos," says organizational theorist Karl Weick. Chaos is the confusion and frustration we feel when things don't turn out th...

EP 500: What if you're not off track... and never have been?

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you're like me, you often think about what you would have done to prepare for... this job, this economy, this political climate, this financial sit...

EP 499: Reduction in Force

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

No job is safer than a government job, right? Well, not anymore. At least not in the US. I’m paying special attention to the fight over government j...

INTERLUDE: The Pleasure & Promise of Re-Reading

26 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I wanted to drop in with a quiet interlude about re-reading (or re-watching, or re-listening) and its value in a world obsessed with new and different...

EP 498: Breaking The Validation Spiral

05 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Why is it that it seems like no amount of work, accolades, or achievement is enough? Why do we keep signing up for more, even as our capacity becomes ...

EP 497: Please Support My Work

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you subscribe to newsletters, listen to podcasts, or watch videos on YouTube, I've no doubt that you’ve been asked to support the person or peopl...

EP 496: What to Do When Things Get Messy

22 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

No matter how fastidious you are about creating and executing a plan, working toward any big goal will require adjustments. No matter how diligent you...

EP 495: Ann Leckie vs. The "Well, Actually" Bros

08 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Is an AI chatbot, like ChatGPT, a search engine? Does it scour the internet for helpful information so that it can respond to user queries? These ques...

EP 494: How Structure Transforms Ideas

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"I have so many thoughts and not enough time to think them," I recently blurted out to my husband. For me, "thinking thoughts" means scribbling notes ...

EP 493: The Prescription Economy

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"No one is ever completely safe from the critical gaze of a culture steeped in the makeover ethos." —Micki McGeeI have a theory that you can measure...

EP 492: How We Realize Higher Values Through Enabling Structures

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Intractable challenges are often the result of a lack of imagination. That is, our solutions are constrained by existing systems and structures that l...

EP 491: Meet Your Tiny Capitalists

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Many of us (most?) have an inner voice that loves to remind us that "If there's time to lean, there's time to clean" or that "Coffee is for closers." ...

EP 490: Standardize Me

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Standardization is one of those ideas that, once you see it, you can't unsee it. It's a mental model that can explain, at least in part, many of our s...

EP 489: Temporal Bandwidth

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is about the long term—the commitments, projects, and relationships we can work on when our "temporal bandwidth" widens. How we perceiv...

EP 488: Honeydew (Or, 3 Biases That Derail Remarkable Projects)

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Most of the work I do that's not this revolves around coaching, editing, and/or thinking with people who have meaningful ideas they want to better exp...

EP 487: Rethinking Our Tech Mythology

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The tech industry has a central role in shaping our work, our communication, and even our identities. Its mythology is woven into the products and ser...

EP 486: How Knowledge Really Does Become Power

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What does my new website, the TikTok "ban," and the ongoing purge of "woke" from government websites have in common?The power to decide what content c...

EP 485: Broken Links

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I'm back! Maybe you noticed or maybe you didn't—but the show (and my newsletter) has been on its longest hiatus since its inception. In the final qu...

EP 484: The Freedom to Buy

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

So, health insurance is in the news. And so is Americans' feelings about it. I got to wondering how we ended up with this terrible health insurance sy...

EP 483: Avoiding Acquiescence Bias

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A problem, question, or challenge is often more than meets the eye. But we're biased to accept how an issue is initially framed. We acquiesce to the o...

EP 482: Seeing Software

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Do you see your software?Do you see how it influences how you run meetings, brainstorm ideas, fulfill your responsibilities, and communicate with othe...

EP 481: Preservation in the Post-Information Age with Sari Azout

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Stop me if you've heard this before: we're overloaded and overwhelmed by information. There's more content than you could ever hope to consume. More s...

EP 480: Exceedingly Complex Systems

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In management cybernetics, there are 3 types of systems: simple, complex, and exceedingly complex. The systems we pay the most attention tend to be, ...

EP 479: A Theory of Resourcefulness

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You've probably heard of a scarcity mindset. Maybe you've even been accused of having one! In this short, I explore the false binary of scarcity and a...

EP 478: Data Never Speak For Themselves

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're constantly bombarded by data. And it's easy to think that with the right clues, we could answer the ultimate questions of life, the universe, an...

EP 477: Here's a tip

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today's episode is about tips. As in gratuity. Wait, wait, wait! Where are you going?I know, you probably don't receive tips for your work. Maybe you...

EP 476: Cult Value

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If a chatbot writes your novel, did you really complete NaNoWriMo?Two niche internet panics caught my eye over the last couple of weeks: a bungled AI ...

EP 475: Values aren't chains; they are wings

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by the current vibe shift, I'm interrupting my rebroadcast of the Self-Help, LLC series with an interlude about values—personal values, bus...

What Does Power Sound Like?

15 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the 6th installment in the Self-Help, LLC series, which originally ran in October 2022. Today's episode has been revised and re-engineered!We ...

The Spectacle of Influence(rs) with Sara Petersen

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How influencers, well, influence the way we see the world, our work, our families, and ourselves? And how does the spectacle we immerse ourselves in d...

What's Your Type? with Steph Barron Hall

01 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the 4th part of my series Self-Help, LLC, which I'm replaying over the summer! Enjoy!If your Instagram feed or Explore page looks anything lik...

The Paradox of Self-Help Expertise with Patrick Sheehan

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is an updated version of the 3rd installment in my series Self-Help, LLC, from 2022. Enjoy!Our quest for self-improvement requires us to decide w...

"She Looks Like an Instagram" Or, How Empowerment Became a Brand with Kelly Diels

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I’m continuing my rebroadcast of a series I did a couple of years ago called Self-Help, LLC, and asked the question, "Are we all in the self-help bu...

How Advice Culture Makes Us Winners (And Losers)

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is Part 1 of a series from 2022 called Self-Help, LLC. This summer, I’ll be republishing this series as I work on new essays and episodes. Ther...

EP 474: Making Non-Obvious Choices at Work with Samhita Mukhopadhyay

13 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For justice-minded people, navigating the world of work in the 21st-century economy can feel... impossible. A real no-win scenario. There's a constant...

EP 473: Unpacking Attention Fetishism with Jess Shane

23 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our podcast feeds and streaming services are full of real stories of real people. And not all of those stories feel... true. I mean, even if the fact...

EP 472: Speculative Investing Made Personal

16 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Okay, this isn't really an episode about speculative investing. Well, it is. But I'm not talking about crypto or meme stocks. I'm talking about the ch...

EP 471: The Many Hats of Leigh Stein

02 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What would happen if you archived all of your Instagram content, announced that you had taken a job at a fictional wellness company, and then got fir...

EP 470: Rethinking Creativity—A Cautionary Tale

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Good luck going anywhere today without running into a message about creativity.I was going to say, "anywhere online," but really, it's just about anyw...

NEW: World-Building for Business Owners

19 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I'm teaching a new workshop on May 15 & 16, 2024! It's called World-Building for Business Owners, and it's based on a process I've been honing for...

EP 469: Building Solidarity in the Creator Economy with Kate Tyson & Charlie Gilkey

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"How do I want to live?" Philosopher Rahel Jaeggi says this question is bound up in the concept of alienation. Our disconnection and dissatisfaction k...

EP 468: Figuring Out the Creator Economy with Charlie Gilkey & Kate Tyson

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It seems the creator economy is booming. Or is it?And what even is the creator economy??Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TechTalk are quite happ...

EP 467: Organizing Indie Labor with Chiarra Lohr

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The labor market has undergone a sea change in the last 20 years. A full third of US workers are part of the independent workforce, including gig work...

EP 466: Making Room for Others with Leonie Smith

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Center for Nonviolent Communication describes what they teach as "empathy in action." And so it seems fitting to close out this series on Decoding...

EP 465: Learning Empathy from Copywriters & Doppelgangers with Samantha Pollack

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I have learned a lot about cognitive empathy by learning copywriting. After all, copywriting is a puzzle—the puzzle of figuring out what someone is ...

EP 464: Decoding Accessibility with Erin Perkins

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Typically, the question of accessibility online is considered in technical terms: How does this website need to be designed? What ALT text is appropri...

EP 463: A Brand is a Constellation with N. Chloé Nwangwu

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How do you get seen in a world that doesn't see you? How do you get recognized when so many systems are designed to keep you unrecognized? Those are t...

EP 462: Decoding the Language of Empathy

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we peel back the layers of a term that's become ubiquitous in the business world and beyond: empathy. In this episode, empathy's origin story. ...

This is Not Advice: Process Entropy & Process Evolution

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Are you waiting for a glorious day with your system, plan, or business just work? I hate to tell you this—but you will be waiting a long time.Plans...

EP 461: My Nemesis

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our beliefs leave an indelible mark on how we interact with others and our environment. Even when those beliefs aren't conscious. Beliefs about quali...

EP 460: In Defense of Gimmicks

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The proliferation of derivative nonsense on various social media platforms begs the question: Is it possible to make a TikTok video, Instagram post, o...

EP 459: Sorry, self-promotion doesn't work

06 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, Vox published an article by internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings about how everybody needs to be a self-promoter now—and we all hat...

EP 458: How many layers are too many?

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Layers. Unless we're talking about cake, you can have too many layers. In today's episode, I share a recent metaphorical revelation I had about sound...

EP 457: How to Define Hard-to-Define Work Stress

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

So, you're stressed. Or work feels intense. Or you're putting more energy than you should into manifesting a day with "no surprises."But why? Even if...

EP 456: Reprogramming Our Source Code

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why is it that our bodies and brains tend to function on so much outdated code? Our personal algorithms and mental shortcuts are often stuck in a diff...

EP 455: The Case for Uncertainty (And How to Navigate It)

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The only sure bet is uncertainty. As we start a new year, I want to take a closer look at navigating uncertainty and how we can normalize not knowing....

EP 454: Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey Stuff

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, a short meditation on time, the end-of-year season, and how we might carry what we experience now into the next season of work.Footnotes:Dr. Wh...

EP 453: Fear of Loathing in Lancaster

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the 3rd edition of Cold Pitch, an experimental project from YellowHouse.Media exploring media, curiosity, and identity. I'll be sharing one mo...

This is Not Advice: How a Syllabus Could Change the Way You Plan

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Planners and project management apps reinforce linear, chronological thinking. What if we used a completely different medium to plan for growth?I'm ho...

EP 452: This Daily YouTube Show is a Rich Text

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the second edition of Cold Pitch, an experimental project from YellowHouse.Media about media, curiosity, and identity. In this edition, Sean a...

EP 451: An Inbox Full of Lies

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over the next few weeks, I've got something a wee bit different for you! This is the very first edition of Cold Pitch, an experimental media project f...

EP 450: The Will to Share Power with Tania Luna

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the final installment in Strange New Work, a series that uses speculative fiction to explore radical work futures.Power. Some fear it. Others ...

EP 449: The Most Undervalued Skill of the 21st-Century Economy

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the penultimate episode of Strange New Work, a special series from What Works that explores the future of work through the lens of speculative...

BONUS: A Quick Pep Talk

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I've got something short, sweet, and really special for you today. Sean, my husband, my go-to extrovert shield, and the co-founder of YellowHouse.Medi...

EP 448: Made for Work

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the 6th installment of Strange New Work, a special series that uses speculative fiction to explore radically different work futures.Find the w...

EP 447: Disrupting Housework (Without Robots or Replicators)

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the 5th installment of Strange New Work, a special series that explores how speculative fiction can help us imagine radically different work f...

EP 446: You Will Be Assimilated with Charlie Gilkey

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the 4th installment in Strange New Work, a special series from What Works that explores how speculative fiction can help us imagine new ways o...

EP 445: The Time to Change with Jordan Maney & Joanna Cea

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the third installment in Strange New Work, a series that explores how speculative fiction can help us imagine the future of work. Today's wor...

This Is Not Advice: Quid Pro No Thank You

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the 11th edition of This is Not Advice, a "not advice" column for premium subscribers of What Works. In this episode and essay, I tackle the a...

EP 444: World-Building a More Sustainable Work Environment with Morgan Harper Nichols

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the second episode in my new series, "Strange New Work." Artist and writer Morgan Harper Nichols is a world-builder. She says, "Worldbuilding,...

EP 443: Imagining a Radically Different World of Work

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The future of work doesn't have to be an extension of today's reality.This is the first installment in Strange New Work, a new series from What Works ...

Strange New Work Starts September 14!

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join Tara McMullin for a journey into the far future of work, and consider how we can create more humane, inclusive, and supportive work environment. ...

EP 442: When The Voice In Your Head Whispers... Meritocracy

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s episode is a sneak peek of Work In Practice, my new 12-week training program for guides of all kinds. This program offers a toolkit for iden...

EP 441: Rules, Habits, and Opening Doors with Charlie Gilkey

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are rules you know about—and rules you don't. Some rules are written down—and other rules are "just the way things are." And there are rules...

EP 440: Adopting the Perennial Mindset for Work & Beyond with Mauro Guillén

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Play, learn, work, retire—those are the four stages of what Mauro Guillén calls the sequential mode of life. In his new book, The Perennials: The...

This is Not Advice: Metrics, Incentives, and the Seduction of Clarity

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the 8th edition of This is Not Advice, my "not-advice" column for premium subscribers of What Works. Today, I'm talking about our over-relia...

EP 439: Expectations, Boundaries, and Making Work in Public with Randi Buckley

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Making work for the public seems to come with a slew of fuzzy social expectations. What do we owe our readers, listeners, viewers, and followers? What...

EP 438: Counterfeit Financial Culture with Manisha Thakor

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The media give us wildly exaggerated images of wealth and consumption. And even if we recognize that a tv show or an Instagram account is more fantasy...

EP 437: Leaving the Cult of Never Enough with Manisha Thakor

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At age 50, Manisha Thakor realized that she'd sacrificed her life at the altar of work. How did that happen? And what was she to do about it? Manisha'...

This is Not Advice: How Flexibility is Used and Abused

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is an excerpt from the 7th edition of This is Not Advice—a not-advice column exclusively for premium subscribers. In this episode, I take a cl...

EP 436: The Myth of Rugged Individualism—and Hope for Something More (Remix)

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode originally ran on May 25, 2022. It's been lightly remixed for today's release!“Rugged individualism” is the very language we speak in...

EP 435: Self-Control, Surveillance, and the Body at Work (Classic)

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

So much of our modern discourse around productivity, empowerment, entrepreneurship, and personal growth includes messages about our bodies. These mess...

This is Not Advice: Beyond Creating Versus Consuming

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is an episode of "This is Not Advice," a bonus podcast I do for premium subscribers of What Works. Instead of just a teaser this week, I wanted t...