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 Lora Kelley in The New York Times
• "Research: How 'Leisure Crafting' Can Help You Recharge" by Alexander B. Hamrick, et al., in Harvard Business Review
• "Our Yearning for Competence" by Tara McMullin
• "Always Be Optimizing" by Tara McMullin
• Self-Help, INC by Micki McGee

Turn your meaningful ideas into remarkable media—and help others make sense of chaos. Join me for Making Sense. We start September 16!

"Competence porn" is an indistinct genre of media that showcases people doing their jobs (loosely defined) exceptionally well, often using niche skills or uncommon expertise. You've no doubt seen it in documentaries, in short-form video, and even in a courtroom procedural or medical drama.

What is it that's so appealing about competence porn? And why call it "porn?" And what can it tell us about what's missing from our work? This episode gets into all of that. But first, I gotta tell you about the day I became a boulderer.

There are just 6 open spots in my next cohort of Making Sense! If you'd like to communicate more clearly and help others make sense of our complex and oft-confusing world, check out this 8-week interactive workshop. Get all the details and register here: makingsense.fyi

Footnotes:

• Read the written version of this episode.
• "My Summer of Strategic Incompetence" by Kate Manne
• Free Solo (2018 film)
• "Competence Porn is Comforting" by Rachel Ayers in Reactor
• LFG (2021 film)
• "The Uses of the Erotic" by Audre Lorde
• Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks
• The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord

• (00:00) - Desperately Seeking Embodied Competence

In the last episode (written version), we talked about how "sensemaking starts with chaos" and that chaos arises when our expectations don't match reality. That mismatch occurs because the mental model we have that creates our expectations doesn't work for the situation at hand. To alleviate the frustration (or at least make sense of it), we need a new mental model.

Well, in this episode, I want to share 3 mental models that I use to make sense of things that frustrate people I care about.

These models aren’t even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the different ways we can make sense of the world. But I do think they’re ones you can apply broadly and start using quickly. Or, you might notice that they’re models you’re already using and now can be more conscious of how you deploy them.

Speaking of which, if you want to communicate with more clarity, create more persuasive messaging, and stand out from the crowd with rigorous thinking, check out Making Sense. Making Sense is my 8-week interactive workshop that walks you step-by-step through creating media that helps others make sense of the world. Whether you’re a writer, podcaster, creator, academic, marketer, or any other kind of media maker, you’ll learn new tools for producing content that offers others some relief from the confusion and frustration they feel.

To learn more and register, go to makingsense.fyi.

Footnotes:

• Read the written version of this episode.
• "Wait, I Think You're Platform-Pilled" by Tara McMullin
• "Normalization" via Wikipedia
• "Buying Freedom and the Freedom to Buy" by Tara McMullin
• "Refund Policies" by Tara McMullin
• "The Dark Side of Fitness Trackers" by John Toner
• "Value Capture" by C. Thi Nguyen

• (00:00) - Introduction

"Sensemaking starts with chaos," says organizational theorist Karl Weick. Chaos is the confusion and frustration we feel when things don't turn out the way we expect them to. To make sense of the chaos, we have to look past the results and examine how we came to expect what we did.

This is the first part in a miniseries on sensemaking and media. Next week, I'll share some of the mental models I use to make sense of what feel chaotic to me.

This miniseries is good on its own—and even better with MAKING SENSE, an 8-part interactive workshop about turning meaningful ideas into remarkable media. Learn more about the program here!

Footnotes

• Read the written version of this episode.
• Karl Weick

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 situation, etc... if only you'd known. But you didn't know (I didn't know). And you (I) couldn't know. Some of the loudest shoulds and supposed-tos we face are those we couldn't have achieved due to the time we were born or the family we grew up in.

In this episode, I reflect on the rapid changes occurring in work and the economy in the 21st century and how they relate to how I guide my now 17-year-old daughter. Then, I share my interview with sociologist and political economist Mauro Guillén about his book The Perennials: The Megatrends Creating a Postgenerational Society.

Footnotes:

• Read the written version of this episode.
• The Perennials by Mauro Guillén
• The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear
• Midlife by Kieran Setiya

***
Making Sense is back!

This 8-week online seminar is a step-by-step framework for turning your meaningful ideas into remarkable media—and helping others make sense of our complex and often confusing world. Whether you're a creator, academic, marketer, speaker, podcaster, or any other kind of communicator, this program is for you.

The program is limited to 15 participants and runs from September 16 to November 4.

Enrollment opens soon! 

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 jobs (or, as the administration might put it, “bloat and inefficiency”) because it’s part of a more comprehensive narrative project—one that shapes how we think and talk about work, and therefore think and talk about who we are and how we fit into society. Questioning the narrative that government workers are lazy or that bureaucracy is bloated and unnecessary is one way to question the narratives we perpetuate in our own work lives. And that's what today's episode is all about.

Footnotes:

• Read the essay version of this episode at whatworks.fyi
• Justice Jackson's dissent in Trump v American Federation of Government Workers (7.11.25)
• Michael Lewis on Cautionary Tales and his new book, Who Is Government?
• The Partnership for Public Service
• "Breaking the Validation Spiral" by Tara McMullin
• "All Parasites Have Value" by Tara McMullin
• Astra Taylor's book The Age of Insecurity and her interview on the Current Affairs podcast
• Mythocracy by Yves Citton

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.

Footnotes:

• Read the essay version of this episode.
• "Murderbot Gets Us In Ways Humans Don't" by Tara McMullin on Motley Bloom
• "Broken Links" by Tara McMullin
• Liquid Modernity by Zygmunt Bauman
• Capital is Dead: Is This Something Worse? by Mackenzie Wark

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 ever more depleted? Why do we settle for mediocrity when we yearn for excellence?

In today's episode, I revisit an idea from my book—the validation spiral—and provide a framework for understanding why we become stuck in it and how we can break free. Add to that a healthy dose of Audre Lorde's feminist theory, and you've got a satisfying mental model for rethinking your commitments.

Summer Seminar starts Monday, June 9! Learn more about this flexible, brain-tickling program that combines speculative fiction with systems thinking: click here!

Footnotes:

• Read the written version of this essay (with visuals!)
• "The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" by Audre Lorde from Sister Outsider
• What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way You Approach Goal-Setting by Tara McMullin
• Melissa Febos on The Feminist Present

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 people who created them. You can always support with a like or a share, of course. But generally, the support they’re looking for is financial.

And for good reason, life is expensive. Jobs with good pay and decent benefit packages can be hard to find—especially in the culture industry.

But I gotta tell you, I’ve always been a little irked by the word “support.” It’s not inaccurate. Not unethical. Not even gauche. I just think it’s the wrong word. 

Today's episode is in 3 parts: The first examines an article in the New York Times from May 10 about how much money we’re paying for newsletters. The second part considers a manifesto of sorts about the future of media organizations written by Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie in April. And the third part will draw on a new English translation of Mythocracy by Yves Citton to make sense of it all. 

Whether or not you identify as a “creator,” whether or not you buy from creators, whether or not you even follow creators on Substack, YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, I promise this will be relevant to you. Because, regardless of your personal or professional relationship with Substack and the so-called creator economy, their very existence and continued growth reveal a great deal about how we all work and consume in the 21st century.

Footnotes:

• Read the essay version of today's episode.
• "How Much Are We Paying For Newsletters? $50, $100... How About $3,000 Per Year." by Logan Sachon in The New York Times (gift link)
• Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit
• "U.S. newsroom employment has fallen by 26% since 2008" from Pew Research Center
• "A Simple Vision for the Future of Media Organizations" by Hamish McKenzie
• Mythocracy by Yves Citton

Let's (re)think systems this summer!

Join me for Summer Seminar, a 7-week program that combines speculative fiction with curiosity about our own lives and work. This year, we're reading Sofia Samatar's The Practice, The Horizon, and The Chain and venturing through 6 explorations of systems thinking. Learn more and register with choose-your-own pricing.

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 are about documentation and maintenance, any process will break down over time. The work we do is always changing—whether because of the people we work with, the market we operate in, or the cultural context our work is received in. Even when it seems like smooth sailing is just one standard operating procedure away, things will shift.

That can feel like failure, or at least like you're not doing quite as well as you should be. But really, it's an opportunity. You can embrace the confusion, the entropy, the breakdown... and learn.

Today, I've unlocked and revised an episode I put out in February 2024 for premium subscribers. If you like it, you'll love Summer Seminar, a 7-week program that combines speculative fiction with curiosity about our own lives and work. This year, we're reading Sofia Samatar's The Practice, The Horizon, and The Chain and venturing through 6 explorations of systems thinking. Learn more and register with choose-your-own pricing.

Footnotes:

• Read the written version of this episode.
• Learn more about Summer Seminar.
• Learn more about YellowHouse.Media (we currently have openings for new podcasts).
• "The Many Functions of Should" by Tara McMullin
• The Donella Meadows Project
• Small Arcs of Larger Circles by Nora Bateson
• Thinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows

• (00:00) - Process Entropy & Evolution