What Works

Typically, the question of accessibility online is considered in technical terms: How does this website need to be designed? What ALT text is appropriate for this image? Are captions available for this video? And obviously, knowing the technical aspects of accessibility is important.

But if accessibility stops at the technical requirements, we forget that there are people on the other side of those checklists and manuals. We forget that even the most rigorous checklist can’t account for everyone and their experiences. We forget to ask critical questions that seem obvious when it comes to a backstage pass but are readily dismissed when it comes to most other social spaces.

In the 3rd episode of my 5-part series on Decoding Empathy, I talk with Erin Perkins, an accessibility educator and the founder of MabelyQ, and draw on the work of disability studies scholar Tanya Titchkosky to theorize the overlap between access and empathy—and what it means for you.

Footnotes:

• Learn more about Erin Perkins and MabelyQ
• The Question of Access by Tanya Titchkosky
• Impact of post-COVID symptoms on US adults via the CDC
• WC3's Web Accessibility Initiative tips for online content
• "Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis as biographical illumination" by Catherine Tan
• "Coming Out Disabled" by Tanya Titchkosky

Every episode of What Works is also available in essay form at whatworks.fyi 

What Works is funded by readers and listeners. To help support this work, upgrade to a premium subscription for just $7 per month.

• (00:00) - Backstage Pass

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 the questions at the heart of today's episode. In the 2nd episode in my 5-part series on decoding empathy, I talk with behavioral scientist and brand strategist N. Chloé Nwangwu about how she helps underrecognized people "emerge from the margins" and get noticed.

Footnotes:

• Find out more about Chloé Nwangwu and Nobi Works
• Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
• The Question of Access by Tanya Titchkosky
• "Why We Should Stop Saying Underrepresented" by Chloé Nwangwu on HBR
• "Racial attention deficit" by Sheen Levine, et al
• "Forget the ambition gap, it's the ‘ambition penalty’ that's really holding women back at work" by Stefanie O'Connell Rodriguez on Glamour
• Speech by Angela Bassett 

Every episode of What Works is also available in essay form at whatworks.fyi 

What Works is funded by readers and listeners. To help support this work, upgrade to a premium subscription for just $7 per month.

• (00:00) - Aren't we all the same?

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. Er, stories. We'll explore its philosophical roots deep in the 19th century, through my personal trials and errors with empathy, to some of the challenges we face in empathizing with people we have less in common with. Ultimately, I want to explore the ways empathy invites curiosity, leverages imagination, and recognizes our differences.

This is the first in a 5-part series in which I'm decoding empathy. We'll talk brand strategy, non-violent communication, disability, and copywriting. And all throughout the series, we'll look for ways to recognize difference instead of assuming sameness.

Footnotes:

• "Build Your Creative Confidence: Empathy Maps" via IDEO
• Bewilderment by Richard Powers
• "Double empathy, explained" by Rachel Zamzow
•  "On the Ontological Status of Autism: the 'double empathy' problem" by Damian Milton
• "Don't Mourn for Us" by Jim Sinclair
• Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives by Amy Coplan and Peter Goldie
• Waiting for God by Simone Weil

Not Mentioned:

• Anderson, Ellie , and David Peña-Guzmán. 2020. “Episode 07: What’s the Deal with Empathy?” Overthink Podcast. December 1, 2020. 
• Ganczarek, J., Hünefeldt, T., & Olivetti Belardinelli, M. (2018). From "Einfühlung" to empathy: exploring the relationship between aesthetic and interpersonal experience. Cognitive processing, 19(2), 141–145. 

Every episode of What Works is also published in essay form at whatworks.fyi

If you love deep dives like this series, please consider becoming a premium subscriber. You get access to my premium columns, quarterly live workshops, and discussion thread. Visit: whatworks.fyi/subscribe

• (00:00) - The Language of Empathy

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, systems, and businesses evolve. Change isn't a bad thing—it's the only thing.

In today's edition of This is Not Advice, I share how I recently coached Sean through a run-in with process entropy and process evolution.

To get the full essay or episode, visit: https://www.whatworks.fyi/p/process-entropy-and-process-evolution

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

Beliefs about quality of life are a whole other can of worms. Who gets to decide the relative quality of a life? Or what lives are worth living? And how do our beliefs about quality of life and worthiness impact the way interact with others and the way we treat ourselves?

In this episode, I reflect on how my beliefs about quality of life were influenced by my favorite Star Trek character, Data. I discuss technoableism, narratives of overcoming, and the unnecessary self-judgment we can put ourselves through on the path to becoming like everyone else.

Footnotes:

• Rethink Work: An 8-week cohort-based course
• Star Trek: Nemesis
• Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew
• "Valuing Disability, Causing Disability" by Elizabeth Barnes
• More on "narratives of overcoming" in my book, What Works

If you're a sci-fi nerd like me, check out my limited podcast, Strange New Work, wherever you listen to podcasts!

All new episodes of What Works are available in written essay form at whatworks.fyi

***

If you’re questioning your relationship to work but finding it difficult to make lasting changes, I’d love to help.

I’m committed to helping you confront and deconstruct big assumptions that compete with your good intentions. And that’s exactly what we’re doing in my new 8-week cohort-based course, Rethink Work.

We’ll examine the beliefs, stories, and systems that keep us hustling—even when it hurts—so you can make changes that last and create a more sustainable approach to work.

• (00:00) - My Nemesis

The proliferation of derivative nonsense on various social media platforms begs the question: Is it possible to make a TikTok video, Instagram post, or LinkedIn update that's remarkable? Is it possible for repetition to be an asset? For repetition to even be remarkable?

In this episode, I take a deep dive into gimmicks—the formulaic and repetitive media that can help us think in new ways. Specifically, I'm looking at Frankie's Cultural Observations. If you don't know the series, I'm delighted to share it with you today!

This is the 3rd in my series, What Makes This Remarkable, where I break down remarkable content I come across to give you new perspectives on your own work (creative or otherwise). Premium subscribers also get "Remarkable Homework"—prompts for thinking differently about your projects—and the chance to ask questions or discuss that week's lessons. Upgrade your subscription to join in!

Footnotes:

• What Makes This Remarkable (60 Songs That Explain the '90s, Savior Complex)
• Frankie's Cultural Observations on YouTube
• "Observing Frankie McNamara's Observations" by Brandon Tauczik in Paper Magazine
• Sandwiches of History on YouTube
• Girl with the Dogs on YouTube
• Working definition for the gimmick as a medium: A gimmick is a nonsequential series of works that utilize a novel scheme, angle, or device to explore a network of ideas.
• "Why Write In Form?" by Rebecca Hazelton via The Poetry Foundation
• Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
• Hyperculture by Byung-Chul Han
• Ted Nelson & "intertwingularity"
• The Cluetrain Manifesto

All new episodes are available in written essay form at whatworks.fyi

***

If you’re questioning your relationship to work but finding it difficult to make lasting changes, I’d love to help.

I’m committed to helping you confront and deconstruct big assumptions that compete with your good intentions. And that’s exactly what we’re doing in my new 8-week cohort-based course, Rethink Work.

We’ll examine the beliefs, stories, and systems that keep us hustling—even when it hurts—so you can make changes that last and create a more sustainable approach to work.

• (00:00) - Gimmicks

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 hate it. Then, I read a response by writer and book coach Leigh Stein, who was quoted in the Vox piece, in which she admitted to actually enjoying creating her social media content. Stein said that she was considerably more optimistic about the state of things than Jennings article was.

I found the exchange fascinating. I find it hard to disagree with either of their perspectives! And Stein wasn't really disagreeing with Jennings either—which left me with one thought: I don't think we're talking about the same things here.

So I resurrected an old piece from July 2021 that made the case I wanted to make—that self-promotion sucks and is contentless, but that self-promotion is not the only mode for creating content that gets the job done on social media—and updated it for today's social media moment. This episode has my response to both Jennings's and Stein's articles, as well as a description of how enshittification doesn't only apply to platforms but to creators, too. And then, I share the 3 Rs of Digital Content.

Footnotes:

• "Everyone's a sell-out now" by Rebecca Jennings on Vox
• "who told you it would be easy?" by Leigh Stein on The Attention Economy
• "autofanfic" by Leigh Stein on The Attention Economy
• "The 'Enshittification' of TikTok" by Cory Doctorow on Wired
• "Always On: The Hidden Labor We Do Everyday" by Tara McMullin on What Works
• "To Quit or Not to Quit Social Media" by Tara McMullin on What Works
• "Revisiting Remarkable Content to Consider Digital Ecology" by Tara McMullin on What Works

All new episodes are available in written essay form at whatworks.fyi

***

If you’re questioning your relationship to work but finding it difficult to make lasting changes, I’d love to help.

I’m committed to helping you confront and deconstruct big assumptions that compete with your good intentions. And that’s exactly what we’re doing in my new 8-week cohort-based course, Rethink Work.

We’ll examine the beliefs, stories, and systems that keep us hustling—even when it hurts—so you can make changes that last and create a more sustainable approach to work.

• (00:00) - Introduction

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 and sensory sensitivity. And then, I introduce you to a different way of thinking about stress that can help you identify better ways to manage it.

Footnotes:

• Rethink Work: an 8-week cohort-based course
• The Highly Sensitive Brain by Bianca Acevedo
• Stress: A Brief History by Cary Cooper & Philip Dewe
• Stress, Appraisal, and Coping by Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman

Every episode of What Works is also published in essay form at whatworks.fyi!

• (00:00) - Layers

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 you're not working on an especially challenging project or hustling to get in under a deadline, the work we do can be stressful in a sort of ambient and ambiguous way. And we might downplay that stress because, hey, aren't we just lucky to have a cool job like this?

When we think about work, we're often dealing with an outdated metaphor—The Factory. But if you work in a creative, knowledge-based, service, or caring field, that metaphor doesn't have as much to offer as we think it does, especially when it comes to understanding work stress.

Today's episode offers a way to rethink the ways your work can be stressful so you can rethink the resources you need to feel better and do more remarkable work.

Footnotes:

• Rethink Work, an 8-week cohort-based course
• "Sources of intensity in work organizations" by Armand Hatchuel in Creating Sustainable Work Systems (1st ed)

Every episode of What Works is also published in essay form at whatworks.fyi!

• (00:00) - The Factory

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 different time and place. We jump to conclusions or inadvertently flood our systems with cortisol because some stray line of code gets triggered.

In this episode, I examine the tricky way that our beliefs have a way of creating our reality—not just describing it. What we believe ends up being what we see. Case in point: work-life balance.

Footnotes:

• "Religion as a Cultural System" by Clifford Geertz
• The Second Shift by Arlie Russell Hochschild
• Systems Ultra by Georgina Voss
• "Understanding Mindset: Trade-offs, Heuristics, and Navigating Change" by Tara McMullin

⭐️ NEW: Rethink Work, an 8-week cohort-based course ⭐️ Join me for a live and interactive course on rethinking our beliefs about work—including work-life balance, productivity, data, passion, and purpose. Get all the details here.