Reading

Essays


After Work·Policy

AI and Universal Basic Income: Does the Math Actually Work?

UBI gets proposed every time automation anxiety peaks. The proposal is serious. The funding math is harder than the advocates admit.

Read →2 August 2026

The Second Education·Learning

Critical Thinking in the Age of AI: Why It Matters More Than Ever

AI can produce a convincing argument for almost any position. The person who can evaluate that argument is now the most valuable person in the room.

Read →30 July 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

The Care Economy: Why the Work That Matters Most Pays the Least

The work that is hardest to automate is the work we have historically valued least. That paradox is about to become very expensive.

Read →27 July 2026

Still in the Room·Digital Parenting

What's the Right Age for a First Smartphone?

The research doesn't give you a single number. But it gives you something more useful: the right questions to ask.

Read →24 July 2026

The Second Education·Learning

Growth Mindset Is Not Enough Anymore

The growth mindset framework changed how millions of people thought about learning. It also stopped short of the most important question.

Read →21 July 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

AI and Wealth Inequality: Who Gets Rich When the Machines Work?

Nvidia's market cap crossed $3 trillion. The warehouse workers whose jobs it displaced didn't get a share.

Read →18 July 2026

The Second Education·Learning

How to Learn Anything Fast (Without Going Back to School)

The fastest learners share specific habits. None of them involve sitting in a classroom.

Read →15 July 2026

Still in the Room·Digital Literacy

Algorithmic Literacy: The Skill Your Child Needs That School Doesn't Teach

Your child knows how to use TikTok. They have no idea how TikTok uses them.

Read →12 July 2026

Still in the Room·Digital Parenting

Parenting Teenagers Through Social Media: What Actually Works

Teenagers are not children who haven't grown up yet. They're a different problem. Here's what the evidence shows works — and what backfires.

Read →9 July 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

AI Is Replacing Lawyers. Here's What the Data Shows.

Law was supposed to be safe. It isn't. But the picture is more specific — and more interesting — than the headlines suggest.

Read →6 July 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

Two Futures: Why Both AI Utopia and Dystopia Are Still Possible

The technology does not choose between abundance and catastrophe. We do. And we are choosing now.

Read →3 July 2026

After Work·Policy

The Robot Tax and Other Silver Bullets That Won't Work

Every crisis produces its single-policy salvation. The AI transition has produced several. None of them are adequate.

Read →30 June 2026

After Work·AI & Work

Who Are You When Your Career Ends?

For most professionals, identity and occupation are inseparable. AI is forcing a separation that no one prepared for.

Read →27 June 2026

After Work·Policy

Who Owns AI? The Wealth Concentration Problem Nobody Wants to Name

AI creates enormous value. Almost none of it flows to the people whose work trained the systems that create it.

Read →24 June 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

The Care Economy: Work That Machines Can't — and Shouldn't — Do

The work that matters most to human beings is precisely the work that AI is least equipped to perform.

Read →21 June 2026

After Work·Policy

The New Social Contract We Need for the AI Age

The old bargain — work hard, earn security — is breaking. What replaces it won't emerge on its own.

Read →18 June 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

AI Isn't Eliminating Jobs — It's Hollowing Them Out

The headline version of AI displacement — mass layoffs, empty offices — is incomplete. The real story is quieter and more corrosive.

Read →15 June 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

The Twenty-Year Window: Why the Choices We Make Now Will Define Everything

Between 2025 and 2045, the institutional path dependencies will lock in. The window is open. It will not stay open forever.

Read →12 June 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

Why Reskilling Won't Save Us

The reskilling narrative is politically convenient and practically inadequate. Here's what the evidence actually shows.

Read →9 June 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

AI Is Replacing White-Collar Knowledge Work — And It's Not Slowing Down

A radiologist in Minneapolis. A paralegal in Cleveland. A marketing executive with an MBA. None of them failed. All of them were superseded.

Read →6 June 2026

The Second Education·Learning

What Autodidacts Know That Schools Never Taught

The people who learn best outside institutions share a few habits. None of them are obvious.

Read →3 June 2026

The Second Education·AI & Work

Five Skills AI Cannot Replicate — and How to Build Them

The machines are getting better at most things. These five are still yours.

Read →31 May 2026

The Second Education·Learning

The Curriculum You Design Yourself

Nobody is coming to hand you a syllabus for the skills that actually matter. Here's how to build one.

Read →28 May 2026

The Second Education·Learning

How to Build Real Expertise Without Going Back to School

Graduate school isn't the only path to deep expertise. It might not even be the best one, depending on what you're trying to learn.

Read →25 May 2026

The Second Education·Career

Learning vs. Credentialing: The Difference That Changes Everything

A credential is a signal. Learning is a capability. The moment you confuse the two is the moment your development starts to stall.

Read →22 May 2026

The Second Education·Learning

Reading Books Is Not Enough

Reading widely is a good thing. Mistaking it for learning is a different thing — and it's one of the most common errors among people who think of themselves as self-educated.

Read →19 May 2026

The Second Education·Career

The Skills Gap Nobody Talks About

Employers complain constantly about the skills gap. They're almost never specific about which skills. The real gap is weirder — and more fixable — than the headlines suggest.

Read →16 May 2026

The Second Education·Learning

How to Teach Yourself Anything (For Real This Time)

Most self-teaching fails not from lack of effort but from using the wrong methods. The right methods are learnable — and they work on almost any subject.

Read →13 May 2026

The Second Education·Learning

Your Second Education Starts the Day After Graduation

The diploma is the end of one thing and the beginning of another. Most people don't realize which one matters more.

Read →10 May 2026

The Second Education·Learning

What School Never Taught You About Learning

Twelve-plus years of formal education, and most people exit without ever having been taught how to actually learn. That gap is fixable — but first you have to see it.

Read →7 May 2026

Still in the Room·Parenting

Monitoring vs. Staying Present: What the Research Actually Says

Parental monitoring software is a multi-billion dollar industry. The evidence for whether it works is far murkier than the marketing suggests.

Read →4 May 2026

Still in the Room·Parenting

When Your Child Knows More Than You Online

Your kid can configure a VPN, explain NFTs, and spot a deepfake in three seconds. The authority dynamic just shifted — here's how to work with it.

Read →1 May 2026

Still in the Room·Education

How to Raise a Critical Thinker in the Age of Content

The world your child is growing up in produces more content in a day than the previous century did in a decade. Critical thinking is no longer optional — it's survival.

Read →28 April 2026

Still in the Room·Digital Literacy

What Parents Get Wrong About TikTok

Parents treat TikTok like a problem to be solved. Their kids treat it like a place. That gap explains almost every failed conversation about it.

Read →25 April 2026

Still in the Room·Parenting

The Social Media Conversation You Should Have Before Age Ten

By the time most parents bring up social media, their kids have already formed their digital habits. The earlier conversation matters more.

Read →22 April 2026

Still in the Room·Parenting

Staying in the Room When Kids Shut You Out

Your teenager has stopped telling you things. That's not a crisis — it's a signal. Here's how to respond to it.

Read →19 April 2026

Still in the Room·Digital Literacy

What the TikTok Algorithm Wants From Your Child

The algorithm isn't neutral. It has an agenda, and your child is exactly the kind of user it was designed for.

Read →16 April 2026

Still in the Room·Parenting

Screen Time Rules That Actually Stick

The rules that last aren't the ones parents enforce — they're the ones kids eventually enforce themselves.

Read →13 April 2026

Still in the Room·Parenting

Why Blocking Apps Isn't the Answer

Every app you block teaches your child one thing: how to find a workaround. There's a better approach.

Read →10 April 2026

Still in the Room·Parenting

How to Talk to Your Child About Social Media (Without Them Shutting Down)

Most kids hear 'we need to talk about your phone' and immediately go silent. Here's how to open a conversation that actually stays open.

Read →7 April 2026

The Second Education·AI & Work

How to Future-Proof Your Career Against AI

The advice you're getting is mostly wrong. Here's what the evidence actually supports.

Read →6 April 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

Will AI Take My Job? The Honest Answer

Not the reassuring answer. Not the catastrophist answer. The one the evidence actually supports.

Read →5 April 2026

Still in the Room·Digital Parenting

Kids, Mental Health, and Social Media: What the Research Actually Says

The evidence is real. But it's more specific — and more actionable — than the headlines suggest.

Read →4 April 2026

After Work·AI & Economy

The Best Books on AI and the Future of Work (2025–2026)

A short, honest list. Not every book that exists on the topic — the ones worth your time.

Read →3 April 2026