Worthwhile Content: July
Some worthwhile reads, watches, and listens from the last month
World of Work:
This past month, I wrote about the current status of the 4 Day Work Week, broke down the myth of the left vs. right brain, and piloted a video (and transcript) reaction to the Coldplay cheating scandal with my friend and Forces At Work co-host, Katharine Smith.
Some other worthwhile content from July includes:
Small scale but neat new research on how unfair tasks at work stick with us after the day is done. h/t to John Whitfield for the LinkedIn share.
The 1997 paper on Consulting to Organizational Role co-authored by Marc Maltz was among the most useful and transformative that I read as a young graduate student. In this LinkedIn post, Marc recaptures some of that magic in a short primer. When us executive coaches and organizational consultants have imposter syndrome, Marc is the type of thinker we are worried about not living up to.
A short Korn Ferry report highlights how job searches are taking longer and longer, and employers are not always helping.
Charter highlights work out of Stanford on the gap between return-to-office policies and reality: While companies are ‘requiring’ more return to office, workers simply aren’t complying.
I was skeptical, but it’s true: This immediate processing of grief after an emotional tennis loss was, in fact, a masterclass on handling failure. (s/o to my friends over at The Athletic!)
This HBR article argues that too many one-on-ones from senior leaders cause siloes and organizational friction. I agree, but it also downplays something important: better, more-structured one-on-ones.
Another popular article in HBR that hit my radar this month was about how busy people find joy. It’s nothing dramatic: Mostly, they use their downtime to go and do something, rather than just relax or do more work. Reasonable, but not earth-shattering.
This intentionally-redundant survey is part of an exploratory factor analysis. If you have 10-15 minutes, I'd so appreciate it. It isn't hard or too long, just redundant by design. Thank you to the 50+ people who have already completed it!
AI & Work
If there is one piece in 2025 on AI that’s worth reading, it’s this one. In this Opinion piece for NYT, a Yale creative writing teacher talks about the good and (mostly) bad of how AI is impacting her students. It’s fair, thorough, and as expected, enjoyable to read. (This is a gift article link for those not subscribed to NYT).
This is clever and funny! Researchers seem to realize that journals are using AI to review drafts of their work… so they’ve been using the equivalent of invisible ink to hide mini-prompts inside their papers that instruct the AI to give their papers positive reviews.
Ethan Mollick has another gem—the post details (successful!) efforts to persuade AI using social psychology, given that AI is trained on humans. Very cool!
General Interest
I’m admittedly not great at cultivating this section. I read a lot of pieces in disparate places and don’t always remember to save the URLs. If anyone has any suggestions for easy, cross-platform bookmarking, please tell me!
I’ve found the Epstein Files saga rather fascinating. But like this opinion piece indicates, I don’t think it will hurt President Trump much, if at all.
I really loved this Wired feature ‘Beyond Wellness’. It included my first real exposure to this Bryan Johnson character (yes, I’ve managed to avoid him, apparently), among other sharp items.
Yeesh. Canadians are not happy with America. I understand why, but until I read this I didn’t understand everything happening up north. Sorry, Canada, we love you, despite what our politicians are doing to you!
The Increments podcast recently popped up on my radar and I like it! This episode on Gullibility and Belief was fun.
A new Texas private school uses AI to teach kids for 2 hours/day. They spend the rest of the time on a curriculum of more practical skills. I am very warm to the idea of AI-assisted learning, as well as children spending far less time on traditional academic subjects than they historically have…. but I’d rather the non-AI hours go toward structured play, free time, and creative pursuits with in-person human interaction.
Musings
It’s super hot in NYC and I’ve decided we need to make parasols a thing. Men’s sun umbrellas. Investors? Possibly you!
We’re moving! Our family is moving about 25 minutes south to bring our kiddos even closer to some of their grandparents.
I’ve been really enjoying my week-long social media sabbaticals, the first week of every month! Join me starting this Friday. Just delete your apps and reinstall them in a week. You won’t regret it.