#thisisnotadvice about work

#thisisnotadvice is a community-edited, comprehensive reference guide on how to work.

Dear Reader (and, perhaps, Writer?),

What if there were a textbook, a manual, an encyclopedia on how to thrive at work?

The internet is full of endless lists of tips and tricks, content mills, gems buried in podcasts, and it's all impossible to find. In the same way that Wikipedia does for facts, and books like What to Expect When You're Expecting do for parenting, what if there were an easy-to-navigate guide on how to work? And, unlike a book, what if it were the creation of a community, it evolved with time, and linked out to all the best wisdoms out there?

As a startup investor who invests in the future of work, people often ask me for advice about one work dilemma or another. I'm "that person" who also just likes to be there for people I know. The problem is... I usually don't really know. I believe most advice is autobiographical: it's either the advice-giver trying to justify their own life's choices or, worse, foist an experiment on the advice-asker so the giver can live vicariously. Often askers want a magic wand, a silver bullet — an easy answer. Advice usually doesn't work. Every situation has so much nuance, you need to decide for yourself. What you need is a hypothesis, a guess to consider.

For offering those prompts to a person choosing what path to take, I do believe in expertise and wisdom. How could I bring the insights of experts to bear, and could I find a way to stop repeating myself about the few things I do know (following the software principle of DRY)?

The answer was to create the "book" you're reading right now. For years, I had the idea of starting it somewhere on my list.

Then the pandemic hit, and I was home every day. No excuse not to write. Yet, I didn't. My partner James suggested I record a video, and transcribe it — and, so, #thisisnotadvice was born. I recorded the first "episode" on May 13, 2020, two months after lockdown began. Bit by bit, we improved, first with a co-host (Minn Kim, a then-teammate at Bloomberg Beta, our VC fund, the first focused on the future of work), then with guests, and even a (much) better camera (thanks, again, to James).

We decided to name this series #thisisnotadvice because you have to chart your path. To help you do just that, we asked a diverse group of startup founders, friends, and colleagues to share their own work wisdoms. Thank you to each of you who contributed to this body of knowledge in such an intimate way.

It is time to transition #thisisnotadvice into the hands of our viewers, who we hope will become readers, sharers, and writers. You prompted our best questions, and we hope you'll help us evolve this guide. Seek out a range of options, and understand your choices. Then... decide for yourself.

We'll record live videos less often now that we have a strong foundation of (and we're still editing and transcribing many of the past episodes into this written guide). Let's take it from here, together, editing this guide and connecting it to the best of the experts out there. There are many more areas to cover: work beyond professional ("white collar") roles, perspectives from more women, people of color, and others who have been historically underestimated, and more.

This "book," living with your edits, has prompts on many of the most common questions we face at work. Our hope is that, together, we can thrive at work. Suffer less. Get what we want, from work. Live our full lives as human beings, of which work — while many of us spend more waking hours in it than in any other activity — is only one, albeit critical, element.

Yours in learning,

Roy Bahat (your editor)

December 3, 2021

What are we missing? #thisisnotadvice is a community resource. To add your knowledge or suggest an edit, submit a pull request on GitHub.