EP 480: Exceedingly Complex Systems

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 scientific theories, philosophical concepts, and art forms than you could ever hope to engage with.Enter personal knowledge management (PKM). It's a modern term for an ancient practice—how one collects, preserves, and utilizes knowledge worth remembering. In this episode, I speak with Sari Azout, the founder of Sublime, an app for personal knowledge management (but that description truly doesn't do it justice). We talk about the philosophy behind the product and how that plays out in the product's design.Plus, I dive into how Sari's PKM philosophy is part of a long lineage of practices people have used to remember what's worth preserving.Footnotes:Check out Sublime or get started right away with an invite!Too Much to Know by Ann BlairMore about Sarah Mackenzie & Read-Aloud Revival"The Glassbox and the Commonplace" by Steven JohnsonMore on John Locke's commonplace book index systemWhat do you want to preserve?More on Corita Kent at the Corita Art CenterEvery new episode is published in essay form at WhatWorks.FYI! ★ Support this podcast ★

In management cybernetics, there are 3 types of systems: simple, complex, and exceedingly complex. The systems we pay the most attention tend to be, you guessed it, exceedingly complex. In this episode, I explore what that means for how we do our work and run our businesses—and what happens when we forget that people are exceedingly complex systems, too.Footnotes:Cyberboss by Craig GentThinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella MeadowsEmergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown"Practicing the Future: 3 Ideas for Rethinking Change" at What Works     Every episode is published in essay form at What Works and delivered in my newsletter—check it out and subscribe! ★ Support this podcast ★

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 abundance mindsets to propose a third way: resourcefulness.Footnotes:"Thought-terminating cliché" on WikipediaAdam Tooze on The Ezra Klein ShowInformation on the US tax gap"Breaking boundaries to creatively generate value" in The Journal of Business VenturingBraiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall KimmererThis is a significant revision of a piece originally published in 2021Essay versions of every episode are published at whatworks.fyi! ★ Support this podcast ★

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, and everything.But data aren't facts. They're not a secret code. Data are media—they mediate our interactions with the world around us. To make them useful and meaningful, we need a critical framework for working with data as media. That's what I've got for you today—a deep dive on how predictability, relevance, and actionability can help us see data for what they are and for what they're not.Footnotes:Anytime I talk about data and how it mediates our lives and work, I'm referencing the work of philosopher C. Thi Nguyen and his concept of value capture. I've written about his theory previously hereI also make use of Byung-Chul Han's The Crisis of Narration, specifically his critique of a 2008 Wired essay by Chris Anderson about the end of theoryGet written versions of all new episodes at whatworks.fyi—where you can also become a premium subscriber for just $7 per month and help support the work I do at What Works. ★ Support this podcast ★

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 don't live in the US, and you're thinking, 'What is this American BS about tips?'Well, when I first heard about Trump's (and then Harris's) proposal to eliminate federal taxes of tipped income, my brain went a hundred different places: how many people would it impact, how much savings are we talking about, what will this do to the proliferation of tipped work, and how much could this accelerate re-proletarianization?! You probably weren't expecting that last one. Here's the thing: tipping is a class issue. Which means it's also a social justice issue. And it's also an issue that intersects with frustrations with the way all of us work. To find out how, you've got to trust me—and listen.Footnotes:Information on the federal tipped minimum wage'Tip baiting' Instacart drivers via CNN"The Economic Logic Behind the 'No Tax on Tips' Policy" by Jadrian WootenTipping: An American Social History of Gratuities by Kerry Segrave"'It's the Legacy of Slavery': Here's the Troubling History Behind Tipping Practices in the U.S." via Time"Tipping is a racist relic and a modern tool of economic oppression in the South" via the Economic Policy Institute"Errand Runners of Digital Platform Capitalism" by İsa Demir"Defending Hierarchy: The Conservative Impulse" by Matthew McManusThe Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord"The problem is proletarianization, not capitalism" by Solange Manche (about Bernard Steigler)Capitalism is Dead: Is This Something Worse? by McKenzie Wark"The Practical Utopian's Guide to the Coming Collapse" by David GraeberFind essay versions of every new episode at whatworks.fyi! ★ Support this podcast ★

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 policy by the organization that promotes National Novel Writing Month and a viral story about people hiring Strava surrogates to run for them so they can claim the kudos. And those two stories got me thinking about the ways that we delegate away the intrinsic value of other activities.So with the help of a 1935 essay by Walter Benjamin, let's unpack the cult value of novel writing, running, and social media.Footnotes:"NaNoWriMo Says Condemning AI is 'Classist and Ableist'" via 404 Media"Some Thoughts on NaNoWriMo" by Sarah GaileyChannel News Asia on the Indonesian Strava jockey trend"People are paying 'Strava mules' to do their runs for them, but why?" via Women's HealthVelljko's Strava mule confession on TikTokLeigh Stein on the internet's difficult with satire on TikTok"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" by Walter Benjamin"Unpacking the Attention Fetish" on What Works"In Defense of Inefficiency" on What Works"Why AI Isn't Going to Make Art" by Ted Chiang via The New YorkerEssay versions of every episode are posted at whatworks.fyi, where you can also become a premium subscriber and support What Works for just $7 per month. ★ Support this podcast ★

Inspired by the current vibe shift, I'm interrupting my rebroadcast of the Self-Help, LLC series with an interlude about values—personal values, business values, American values, even Christian values. And it's about what is so often misunderstood about values.  Values aren't chains; they are wings. ★ Support this podcast ★

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 form an impression of our voices early in life. While it might shift some as we age, those impressions tend to stick with us. For many of us, what we learn about our voices is how they don’t quite measure up to the ideal: too high, too low, too soft, too loud, too this, too that. This is especially true for women, queer people, transgender people, non-native English speakers, Black people, people of color, indigenous people, and really anyone whose voice doesn’t fit into the white, male baritone mold.So what do we do? We try to sound more like everyone else. And that can not only mess with our ability to use our physical voices, but it messes with our ability to use our metaphorical voices and confuses our sense of self.Samara Bay, a Hollywood dialect coach who’s worked on blockbusters like Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy, is on a mission to help everyone find “permission to speak.” In this episode, we dig into how the self-help imperative to “own your voice” might be more complicated than it sounds.Footnotes:Find out more about Samara BayGet Samara’s book Permission to Speak“I still have a voice” by Alice WongSamara Bay on Anna Sorokin and Elizabeth Holmes’s voicesWomen and Power by Mary BeardMore about African American Vernacular English on Pause on the PlayCollege students talk about their relationships to their Southern accents on Dolly Parton’s America“The Magic of Voice Transitioning with Nicole Gress” on Camp Wild Heart with Mackenzie Dunham“Me minus me” on This American Life (Sandy Allen’s vocal transition)“If you don’t have anything nice to say” on This American Life (complaints about female voices)More on the mid-atlantic accentAs always, find the essay version of this episode at whatworks.fyi ★ Support this podcast ★

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 daily contribute to our perfectionism, anxiety, or fear? In the fifth installment of Self-Help, LLC, I talk about all that and more with Sara Petersen. This is an edited version of an episode that originally ran in October 2022.There’s an influencer for every thing these days. Camping equipment? Sure. Nutritional supplements? You bet. Miniatures? You know it. College admissions? But of course. In this episode, though, we’re going to focus on one of the original influencer niches: MOMS.The rise of the influencer ushered in a new outlet for self-help. Now, not only are there motivational books and talks, there’s a product endorsement to help you live your best life. Influencers give us, perhaps, the direct line between personal growth and consumer capitalism. I talk with the author of Momfluenced, Sara Petersen, about all of that and more.Footnotes:Subscribe to Sara Petersen’s newsletterGrab your copy of Momfluenced“Life After Lifestyle” by Toby Shorin“The Rhetoric of the Image” by Roland BarthesThe Society of the Spectacle by Guy DebordEpisode 393 with Kelly DielsEpisode 395 with Steph Barron Hall“The Influencer Industry: Constructing and Commodifying Authenticity on Social Media” by Emily Dean HundNew!Join me for an 8-week seminar called Making Sense starting in September! I'll guide you through how to use the process of sensemaking to make media that helps your audience better understand the world.If you're bored by your current content strategy, tired of coming up with new how-tos or advice posts, and want a fresh and impactful way to approach how you write, podcast, speak, or communicate in any way, this seminar is for you. You'll work week-by-week through on-demand learning, office hours, workshops, and small assignments so that by the end, you have the draft of an essay, script for a video, outline of a podcast series, or slide deck for a presentation. Learn more about Making Sense! ★ Support this podcast ★

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 like mine, then you likely see a preponderance of posts about personality types, conditions, or other self-knowledge. We’re hooked on learning about ourselves! And perhaps even more hooked on sharing what we’ve learned—which means that the Instagram algorithm (as well as TikTok’s and Pinterest’s algorithms) has learned to love this kind of content, too.In this episode, I explore discovering ourselves versus making ourselves, why self-knowledge is big business on Instagram, and how creating viral personality content can wreak havoc on the creator’s psyche. To dig into this with me, I invited @ninetypesco creator, Steph Barron Hall, onto the show.Footnotes:Find Steph Barron Hall on Instagram (@ninetypesco)Learn more about working with StephHow to be Authentic by Skye ClearyLearn more about the Enneagram and find your typeThe Nine Types of RestSelf-Help, INC by Micki McGee“Double consciousness”“Looking glass self”Essay versions of each episode are posted at whatworks.fyi every Thursday.  ★ Support this podcast ★