Jobs Are Good, Note-taking Lessons From America’s Greatest Biographer, and More!

Hello and happy Sunday!

Jobs Are Good, Actually

While self-employment may get all the glamour, let's not give short shrift to the full-time job.

Simone Stolzoff discovered the trade-offs involved when he left a corporate position to become his own boss—and found himself overworked and struggling with the responsibility of his own failures as well as successes. Drawing from his personal experience, he explores the underrated value of 9-to-5 employment: teams amplify individual impact; the defined roles and responsibilities of an organization provide useful constraints; and the financial stability of a regular paycheck can fuel creative expression and facilitate experimentation.

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Note-taking Lessons From America’s Greatest Biographer

Robert Caro instituted a meticulous research and writing process in order to compose his masterful biographies of Robert Moses and President Lyndon B. Johnson. English professor Jillian Hess, who studies the world's best note-takers, delves into Caro's archives to reveal his unique method. It entailed exhaustive reading of secondary sources, detailed note-taking, "endless" interviews, copious outlining, tracking his daily word counts, and the creation of to-do lists. Not to be overlooked is his wife, Ina, whose silent but significant role remains relatively unexplored.

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True Leisure and the Tyranny of Total Work

While society recognizes that compulsively working is unhealthy, it also encourages and rewards workaholism. Michael Ashcroft reveals the detrimental impact on our lives of "total work"—a term that indicates a life solely dictated by work, where leisure ceases to exist. This concept inhibits us from being present in our lives and acknowledging our mortality. Michael advocates for the importance of leisure—not as a break from work, but as a vital element of life itself. He also challenges the notion of endless productivity and suggests practical methods to put limits on your work.

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Wanted: High Performers for the Last Job You’ll Ever Have

AI may automate people out of their jobs—and that could be a good thing.

Dan proposes an idea that does just this: an agency that recruits highly skilled individuals to train AI—then phasing them out of those jobs with the promise of a life-long salary and profit-sharing. This business model could potentially revolutionize professional services businesses, which are notoriously hard to scale, by providing software-like profit margins. Other outcomes could be better quality outputs and the redefinition of employment contracts. Dan also notes the model's challenges and potential pitfalls, including the speed of AI development, legal norms, and the uncertainty of AI's dependency on human training data.

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The Double Bind Theory—Or Why Sensationalism (Unfortunately) Works

Evan revisits his theory underpinning content moderation—and the dichotomy between platforms and publishers—on the internet.

According to the double bind theory, market failures nudge both content creators and distributors toward ever-increasing sensationalism. Evan spotlights the relentless struggle faced by content creators to create high engagement, often leading to the production of sensational content that tests the boundaries of acceptability. Platforms are then caught in a lose-lose situation—ban extreme content and lose engagement, or allow it and face potential consequences. He shows how this theory explains all online behavior, from Facebook's content moderation to B2B SaaS marketing.

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Recommended finds

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That’s all for this week!