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 choose, but the context of our choices. No decision gets made in a vacuum. Choices are always framed by circumstances, relationships, emotions, fears, and desires.

The good news is that deepening our self-knowledge can be a great way to illuminate the context of our choices and point us in a productive direction. So I'm sharing an exercise from my new guide, Blank Slate, to unlock some of that self-knowledge as you head into the new year.

Blank Slate officially launches on January 15, but you can pre-order today at an early bird price! Learn more here.

Footnotes:

• Read the essay version of this episode.
• Clues By Sam
• "Delightful Misdirection (Or, How to Rethink Your Options)" at What Works
• "Honeydew" at What Works

• (00:00) - Puzzles

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 what getting my shit together in the shadow of everything I’ve learned about myself and my needs in the last five years is going to look like.

It’s tempting to assume that getting one’s shit together is a forward-looking pursuit. You know, “Here are all the things I’m going to do.” But, in my opinion, an important part of getting one’s shit together is taking stock of said shit. And so this episode is a step in that direction. I enlisted my husband, Sean, to do a bit of a year-end review. 

This review is in no way comprehensive. It’s a wee bit stilted. And if it sounds a little forced, it is—because getting your shit together takes doing some things that you’re out of practice with.

This episode is simply an exercise in remembering. It’s that first awkward practice that you just have to get through at the beginning of a new season. 

Getting my shit together is very much a work in progress, not a grand announcement of some new project or direction for my work. Maybe that will come. Maybe it won’t. My main objective is to feel like I’m steering the ship again.

Heads up: this will be my final new episode of 2025. I'll be back on January 8 with fresh ideas, stories, and ways to rethink work.

This episode contains repeated uses of the word "shit," so if that's something you'd prefer not to hear. Skip this one!

Footnotes:

• YellowHouse.Media (the podcast & video production agency that Sean and I run)
• Waxwing Books
• Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
• I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
• The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
• "No Good Art Comes From Greed" by Kelsey McKinney on Defector
• Alchemised by SenLinYu

• (00:00) - 2025 Review

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 attention economy. And in one form or another, it's the question I've probably received more than any other over the last 15+ years. After all, there is no silver-bullet social media plan, no door-knocking strategy, no magical meeting agenda that produces results if the message at its heart doesn’t resonate with those receiving it.

This episode is in four chapters. In the first chapter, I assure you that getting attention is actually (relatively) easy—even if few of us are willing to do what it takes. In the second chapter, I explain why paying attention is really difficult, with the help of my favorite French philosopher. In the third chapter, I've got a story about getting my teenage daughter to watch a movie explaining esoteric financial products. And in the final chapter, I'll share a little idea I've been referring to as the Swimming Pool Theory of Communication.

If you care about getting others to care about what you care about (and I know you do), this one is for you.

Footnotes:

• Reasons my husky got mad at me this week
• Things that annoyed Waffles this week
• The Subversive Simone Weil by Robert Zaretsky
• The Big Short (book by Michael Lewis, film directed by Adam McKay)
• "Encoding/Decoding" by Stuart Hall

• (00:00) - Introduction

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, this one is for you.

Footnotes:

• Read the essay version of this episode.
• "AI Can't Even Turn On the Lights" on The Vergecast
• About OpenAI
• "Applying Systems Archetypes" via The Systems Thinker
• Sam Altman saying we've "surpassed" the definition of AGI from 5 years ago
• More from Tara on AI:
  • "What is a search engine? Or, Anne Leckie versus the 'Well, Actually' Bros"
  • "Always Be Optimizing"
  • "Black Box Thinking"

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 forgetting about, somewhere we should be, some person we should be checking on.

Busyness is sticky. And that’s because busyness is more than the amount of stuff we have on our to-do lists or the appointments on our calendars. Busyness is social, structural, and even political—though our go-to “solutions” for it tend to be individual. This episode examines busyness on a deeper level—and in doing so, offers ideas for how navigate it with more care and grace. And I can think of no better way to start than by talking about The Pitt. 

First, we’ll explore a nuanced theory of what busyness is and why we experience it. And then, we’ll distinguish between two forms of busyness and why differentiating between the two matters for how we navigate our responsibilities. Finally, I have a few recommendations for how we can approach limiting the harms of busyness without isolating ourselves.

Footnotes:

• Read the written version of this episode.
• The Pitt on HBO
• The Social Life of Busyness by Clare Holdsworth
• "Hers" by Barbara Ehrenreich in The New York Times (1985)
• Midlife by Kieran Setiya

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 resources—they change the interventions we choose. They change what interventions might even be possible.

Today, an episode about crosswords, coffee shops, and rethinking your assumptions.

☞ By the way, just 3 spots remain in this cohort of Making Sense! Registration closes September 12, but I expect those spots will be spoken for by then. If you want to communicate with more clarity, help others rethink their assumptions, and make a bigger impact with your remarkable ideas, check out this 8-week interactive workshop.

Footnotes:

• Read the essay version of this episode.
• Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
• "The Trouble with Models" by Tara McMullin
• "3 Ways to Avoid Acquiescence Bias" by Tara McMullin

• (00:00) - The Whole Bean

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