#thisisnotadvice about work

Now, an (absurdly long) podcast

Some of the best gifts I've gotten in my career are conversations with people who are great at what they do, and willing to get specific about how they do it. Ever since I was just starting out, like when I interned at a TV news station, I loved asking people how they do what they do. (“How do you decide where to send a satellite truck?”)

Which brings me to something I need to tell you: I started a podcast.

You can listen on Spotify, Apple, Pocket Casts (where I listen), or watch on YouTube.

The origin story (or: what happens when you're stuck at home during a pandemic)

Some of you might remember my video series, #thisisnotadvice.

It started in May 2020, two months into lockdown. I'd been sitting on an idea for years: what if there were a comprehensive guide to succeeding at work? Not another listicle. Not another content mill. Something more like a Wikipedia for work. A living document that could evolve, built by a community, linking out to the best wisdom scattered across the internet.

I never started it. There was always something else to do.

Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly I was home every day. No excuse left. And yet... I still didn't write. My partner James finally said, "Just record a video and transcribe it." So I did, using short livestreams. Bit by bit, it grew. First by myself, then with a co-host (Minn Kim, a teammate at Bloomberg Beta), then with guests, then with an actually decent camera (thanks again, James).

Eventually, #thisisnotadvice became a written reference guide on how to do everything at work, with contributions from startup founders, friends, and colleagues. We built something genuinely useful together.

Now it's evolving again.

Why "This Is Not Advice"?

Here's what I believe: most advice is autobiographical.

When someone gives you advice, they're usually doing one of two things. Either they're trying to justify their own life choices ("I did X, and look how great I turned out, so you should do X too"), or they're foisting an experiment on you so they can live vicariously through your results (usually something they were too scared to do themselves).

Neither is very helpful. That kind of “advice” is usually about them, not about you.

People come to me all the time asking for advice about work dilemmas. I'm a startup investor focused on the future of work. I'm an MBA professor. I'm also just "that person" who likes to be there for people? But here's the thing: I usually don't really know. Every situation has so much nuance. What works for one person in one context might be completely wrong for another. Each person’s psychology is different, their culture, background, life story.

What I can offer is a hypothesis. A prompt. A guess. Something to consider. Usually in the form of a story.

That's what #thisisnotadvice has always been about. Not telling you what to do. Giving you enough information to make a great choice, confidently, for yourself.

The new format: absurdly long conversations

While #thisisnotadvice was great for a spot question (“how do I get promoted?”), it was less useful for someone considering a whole line of work. (“Should I be a doctor? What do I need to know to succeed as a doctor?”)

I love going into all the nooks and crannies of a question. I wanted to talk to successful people I know in different occupations and understand the whole shebang of how they do it.

So we needed more time to really talk.

Instead of ten-minute live streams, the next evolution of This Is Not Advice is a podcast. Or, if we're being precise about it, a "pre-recorded, long-form video and audio conversation mini-series experience.” Each episode runs… hours. I’ve sat with guests for more than six hours to get the edited down version you’ll hear, which is still… long.

I'm not interested in the highlight reel. We have enough content for our inner impulse reader. I'm not interested in the polished talking points someone has repeated on fifteen other shows. I want to know how people actually do their jobs, the parts that don't fit neatly into a LinkedIn post or a keynote speech.

Why so (so, so) long?

I know. Two hours is a lot. Four hours is ridiculous. Who has that kind of time?

You can of course break it up. This isn't a lecture. It's a conversation you can dip into. Listen on a long drive, or across a week of commutes, or while you're doing dishes.

But more importantly: some things just can't be said in 45 minutes. And in our modern media world, the chance to breathe is rare.

Sometime a few hours into my conversation with a guest, something changes. They’re talking about things they’ve never verbalized before, they’re searching in themselves for new answers. And, now, you get to hear that.

An experiment

One more thing: this isn't going to go on forever. I plan to release one season of episodes, once a month.

This Is Not Advice (the podcast version) is a limited experiment. I want to see if this format works, and if people find it useful.

If it resonates, maybe we'll do more. If it doesn't, that's okay too. Not everything needs to become a forever project. Sometimes an experiment is just an experiment.

Give it a listen, then decide for yourself

The people in these conversations have no idea what you should do in your career. Neither do I. We only know our own experiences, and even those we understand imperfectly.

But I believe in expertise and I believe in wisdom. I believe that hearing how someone else navigated a problem can give you a new way to think about your own.

Then you decide for yourself. And please tell me what you think, or who else you’d like to hear from. Yours in learning,

Roy Bahat (your editor and host)

Feb 2, 2026