#future-of-work
52 episodes
#6030: Who Do You Actually Hire to Train a Model?
Research engineers and data engineers are diverging. Here's who you actually hire to train a model — and why the org chart keeps changing.
#5972: AI Meeting Agents Are Becoming Stand-Ins
Bots now book follow-ups, update CRMs, and attend on your behalf. Here's what's real, what's speculative, and where the etiquette is heading.
#5937: The Fine-Tuning Career: Titles, Skills, and What It Pays
The job above the labeling layer exists — it just doesn't have one name. What it takes, what it pays, and how to sell it.
#5927: Where Generalists Get Priced: Inside the FDE Role
A $485K median salary for a job with no clean definition — and why the résumé can't capture it.
#5690: Kaizen and the Cult of Productivity
Two-thirds of people rank productivity above health, money, and happiness. What happens when the bar you're chasing never stops moving?
#5641: Burnout: When Rest Stops Working
Burnout isn't in the DSM, but Sweden made it a diagnosis. What the research says about a fatigue that sleep can't fix.
#5636: Before the 9-to-5: Working Hours in 1700s England
Saint Monday, seasonal building sites, and a scholarly brawl over whether anyone worked 270 days a year before factories existed.
#5576: Lying Flat as a Tactic: The Quiet Opt-Out
Tang ping, quiet quitting, and the N-po generation — what happens when people stop donating effort they were never paid for?
#5359: When Everyone Goes to University
Degree inflation, a collapsing graduate premium, and the case that mass university was a costly detour.
#5324: Retention by the Numbers: Who Actually Trains Their People?
Most small organizations run training programs — they just don't call them that. What the data says about who invests in talent, and why it pays.
#5255: When AI Writes the Code, Who Checks It?
If agents write the code, the human job becomes knowing when it's wrong. What that means for languages, jobs, and CS degrees.
#5244: Model C: Keeping Doers Doing Across a Career
What if learning and doing never had to be separate phases? A look at the career arc that burns people out at both ends.
#5173: Why Actors Keep Auditioning: The Grit Behind the Craft
Most SAG-AFTRA members earn under $26K from acting. So why do they keep auditioning? Research on grit and calling offers surprising answers.
#5162: Retirement Was Invented: Work, Aging, and the Pension Cliff
Retirement as a funded life stage is barely a century old. Here's what pre-industrial work lives actually looked like — and why the cliff-edge pers...
#4980: Can You Learn to Code Backwards?
When AI writes your code, do you still learn? Aviation, atrophy, and building a mental model from scratch.
#4725: Software Evaluation as a Career Path
The hidden career track for people who love evaluating SaaS tools, building matrices, and becoming the go-to software decision-maker.
#4550: Inside the City-Sized Employer: What 1.6M Workers Feels Like
Who's the largest employer in history? And what's it actually like to be one of 1.6 million employees?
#3849: The 70% Disengagement: Why Most Workers Are Checked Out
70% of workers are disengaged globally. Gallup's 2026 report reveals it's not pay or perks—it's your manager.
#3848: When Freelance Success Hides Stagnation
Making good money freelancing? That steady income might be hiding a dangerous skill atrophy spiral.
#3847: The Collaboration Tax: Remote Work's Hidden Cost
Coworking memberships are up 12% but utilization is down 8%. What's the real cost of professional isolation?
#3660: From Tweak to Revolution: Fixing Capitalism
A spectrum of proposals from better disclosure to degrowth — mapping every idea for fixing or replacing capitalism.
#3659: Late-Stage Capitalism vs Post-Capitalism: What Do These Terms Actually Mean?
Late-stage capitalism" is a mood, not a prediction. We break down where these terms come from and what they actually mean.
#3451: Why Career Changers Peak at Age 39
The average age for a major career change is 39. Here's what the data reveals about midlife pivots.
#2864: Inside the World's Biggest Tech Trade Shows
CES, MWC, Computex — what makes these mega-shows worth millions? Signal density, serendipity, and deal-making at industrial scale.