The Yak Collective's Writings

2020

September

#47: Industrial unpredictability · Vaughn Tan · September 23, 2020
Networked thinking: a quiet cognitive revolution · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · September 23, 2020
The Economic Power of Real-time Chat Spaces · Tom Critchlow · September 21, 2020
Control Failure -- 2 · Venkatesh Rao · September 19, 2020
Nothing is "Beyond" Self-Improvement · Pamela Hobart · September 18, 2020
Podcasts with Offline Rocks & Hundreds of Ways · Tom Critchlow · September 17, 2020
How to think better · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · September 17, 2020
#46: Removing buildup · Vaughn Tan · September 16, 2020
The science of deliberate practice · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · September 16, 2020
How to set up your own digital garden · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · September 14, 2020
Further thoughts about GoodReads & the web books ecosystem · Tom Critchlow · September 13, 2020
A Bad Prequel · Venkatesh Rao · September 11, 2020
Lockdown in NYC made me want to kill myself, so I had to leave · Pamela Hobart · September 10, 2020
The two sides of stress: distress and eustress · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · September 10, 2020
#45: Civilization is weightless · Vaughn Tan · September 9, 2020
The only numbers that matter · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · September 9, 2020
Pressure and procrastination · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · September 8, 2020
This is part 11 of my series on The Force in organisational life. The rest can be accessed here: · Benjamin Taylor · September 7, 2020
Irreducible complexity: The Force in organisational life · Benjamin Taylor · September 7, 2020
'wolves change rivers' links · Benjamin Taylor · September 7, 2020
Not 100# to your point, but this is a good nuanced take on '30-50 wild hogs' and failures of… · Benjamin Taylor · September 7, 2020
Post-Covid Circularity · Venkatesh Rao · September 4, 2020
#44: The long view · Vaughn Tan · September 2, 2020

August

Spaceship You: How To Understand Who You Are as a Remote Worker · Paul Millerd · August 29, 2020
No newsletter this week · Venkatesh Rao · August 28, 2020
The Force in organisational life — the story so far · Benjamin Taylor · August 28, 2020
The empathy gap: why we underestimate the influence of emotions · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 27, 2020
#43: A new market of ideas · Vaughn Tan · August 26, 2020
Structured distraction: how to make the most of your breaks at work · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 25, 2020
Idea evaluation: the other side of the creativity coin · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 24, 2020
The State of (Business) Play · Venkatesh Rao · August 21, 2020
From productivity porn to mindful productivity · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 20, 2020
The planning fallacy: why we underestimate how long a task will take · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 19, 2020
#42: Room for discovery · Vaughn Tan · August 19, 2020
How to choose the right note-taking app · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 19, 2020
Filtered for... inquiry vs insight · Tom Critchlow · August 18, 2020
The Contrary Consultant · Tom Critchlow · August 17, 2020
Control Failure -- 1 · Venkatesh Rao · August 14, 2020
Systematic inventive thinking: the power of thinking inside the box · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 13, 2020
#41: Surrendering control · Vaughn Tan · August 12, 2020
The mindful productivity guide to intermittent fasting · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 12, 2020
- Here's the complete set of articles on The Force in organisational life, so far. · Benjamin Taylor · August 12, 2020
What makes a good "hire me" page? · Tom Critchlow · August 10, 2020
Constructive criticism: how to give and receive feedback · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 10, 2020
The Descent of the Public · Venkatesh Rao · August 7, 2020
Pre-mortem: how to anticipate failure with prospective hindsight · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 6, 2020
Generating an alumni network for indies · Tom Critchlow · August 5, 2020
#40: Trials and tribulations · Vaughn Tan · August 5, 2020
Organisational Jedi Knights have to confront themselves with love · Benjamin Taylor · August 5, 2020
How to take a replenishing vacation (or staycation) · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 4, 2020
The rational benefits of emotions · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · August 3, 2020

July

Operating in Time - 2 · Venkatesh Rao · July 31, 2020
re: More experiments with video calls, and what slides are for · Tom Critchlow · July 31, 2020
#39: Remove the plow and hive · Vaughn Tan · July 29, 2020
Ten Heuristics for Bad Times · Ben Mosior · July 25, 2020
Thinking Out Loud: Year One · Venkatesh Rao · July 24, 2020
Updates to Quotebacks · Tom Critchlow · July 23, 2020
How to evaluate the validity and reliability of your mental models · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 23, 2020
Debora, please see the twitter thread started by Sonja Blignaut posting this: https://twitter.com/so · Benjamin Taylor · July 22, 2020
Cross-Laminated Timber · Benton Heimsath · July 22, 2020
The Indie Consulting Business Model Canvas V0.1 · Tom Critchlow · July 22, 2020
Some notes on Thinking in Public · Tom Critchlow · July 22, 2020
#38: Agathonicity · Vaughn Tan · July 22, 2020
GPT-3 and the future of human productivity · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 22, 2020
Temporal discounting: the battle between present and future self · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 21, 2020
The best advice on working remotely your boss doesn’t want you to see · Paul Millerd · July 19, 2020
Operating in Time · Venkatesh Rao · July 17, 2020
From closed mind to open mind · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 16, 2020
Opening up in Open Spaces · Tom Critchlow · July 15, 2020
Come for the Network, Pay for the Tool · Toby Shorin · July 15, 2020
#37: Open space · Vaughn Tan · July 15, 2020
The Dunning–Kruger effect: you don’t know what you don’t know · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 15, 2020
Investing into the unknown with Lawrence Yeo · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 14, 2020
re: garden of forking memes · Toby Shorin · July 10, 2020
The Next Experiments in Elitism · Venkatesh Rao · July 10, 2020
Managing risk with the NASA Risk Matrix · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 9, 2020
#36: Ready for the unexpected · Vaughn Tan · July 8, 2020
The Force in organisational life and becoming a Jedi — The Beginning · Benjamin Taylor · July 8, 2020
Setting up a Discord Room for my Blog · Tom Critchlow · July 7, 2020
Fail like a scientist · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 7, 2020
Internet Writer Workflows · Shreeda Segan · July 6, 2020
After Westphalia: Introduction · Venkatesh Rao · July 3, 2020
50 lessons I learned from writing 50 newsletters · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 3, 2020
Inner child and inner critic: a battle for creativity · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 2, 2020
Quotebacks for Firefox is here! · Tom Critchlow · July 1, 2020
#35: Patterning, herding, programming · Vaughn Tan · July 1, 2020
Quote the web with Quotebacks · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · July 1, 2020

June

Creative challenges with Alyssa X · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · June 29, 2020
Indoors in Time · Venkatesh Rao · June 26, 2020
Can Calendly Unbundle NYC? · Tom Critchlow · June 25, 2020
Creating calm: how to manage stress · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · June 25, 2020
#34: The difficulties of not-knowing · Vaughn Tan · June 24, 2020
From inspiration to idea sex: how to generate ideas on demand · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · June 24, 2020
Navigating Power & Status · Tom Critchlow · June 23, 2020
The power of the weekly review · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · June 22, 2020
Big Moods, Little Moods · Venkatesh Rao · June 19, 2020
The art and science of mind wandering · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · June 18, 2020
#33: Preference uncertainty · Vaughn Tan · June 17, 2020
Browser extensions for Roam Research · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · June 17, 2020
From mental map to mental atlas · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · June 16, 2020
I just turned on "paid" subscriptions... · Shreeda Segan · June 15, 2020
A New Old Pattern Language · Shreeda Segan · June 14, 2020
Towards a Blogger Peer Review · Toby Shorin · June 12, 2020
Farcaster Mansions · Venkatesh Rao · June 12, 2020
Only Requisite Agility can save us now · Benjamin Taylor · June 12, 2020
Introduction to Experimenting Generalism · Vinay Débrou · June 11, 2020
As we may die · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · June 10, 2020
#32: Missing the point · Vaughn Tan · June 10, 2020
Exploring ScrollToTextFragment · Tom Critchlow · June 9, 2020
disaster! · Tom Critchlow · June 9, 2020
Sorry, change of office hours! · Pamela Hobart · June 9, 2020
Introducing: Quotebacks · Tom Critchlow · June 8, 2020
Questions for Smart People #11 · Pamela Hobart · June 7, 2020
Into the Weirding -- Part 2 · Venkatesh Rao · June 5, 2020
Roam themes: how to style Roam Research with custom CSS · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · June 4, 2020
Do you work on your happiness? · Pamela Hobart · June 3, 2020
#31: Alternative sociality · Vaughn Tan · June 3, 2020
Mental wealth: managing you mental health budget · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · June 3, 2020

May

Questions for Smart People #10 · Pamela Hobart · May 31, 2020
From Story to Setting · Venkatesh Rao · May 29, 2020
Productive cognitive load: make the most of your working memory · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 28, 2020
Managing Millennials & Other Misinformation On Generations at Work · Paul Millerd · May 28, 2020
Thinking in maps: from the Lascaux caves to modern knowledge graphs · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 27, 2020
Sparring & Tenure for Indie Consultants · Tom Critchlow · May 27, 2020
#30: Fear of failure · Vaughn Tan · May 27, 2020
Filtered for... writing inside organizations · Tom Critchlow · May 27, 2020
Integrating Chaos: Building Resilient Organizations with Chaos Theory · Paul Millerd · May 25, 2020
How to build a support group · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 25, 2020
Questions for Smart People #9 · Pamela Hobart · May 24, 2020
Questions About The Future Of Work · Paul Millerd · May 23, 2020
Into the Weirding -- Part 1 · Venkatesh Rao · May 22, 2020
Collectors to Creators Meetup Notes · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 22, 2020
Filtered for... the design of virtual spaces · Tom Critchlow · May 22, 2020
Have you figured out how you make choices? · Pamela Hobart · May 21, 2020
The anatomy of a perfect educational article · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 21, 2020
#29: Ambient uncertainty, Part 3 · Vaughn Tan · May 20, 2020
The Goldilocks Principle of Stress and Anxiety · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 20, 2020
Filtered for... Play · Tom Critchlow · May 20, 2020
Matt Mullenweg’s & Automattic’s Five Levels Of Remote Work · Paul Millerd · May 19, 2020
A Good Looking Tiddly Theme for Digital Gardens · Tom Critchlow · May 19, 2020
Mindful productivity and neuroscience · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 18, 2020
Questions for Smart People #8 · Pamela Hobart · May 17, 2020
A little gift · Venkatesh Rao · May 16, 2020
Connectedness and complex systems with Dr John L. Collins · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 14, 2020
What's your worldview? + office hours right now · Pamela Hobart · May 14, 2020
#28: Ambient uncertainty, Part 2 · Vaughn Tan · May 13, 2020
Dr John L. Collins Biography · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 13, 2020
How to take smart notes · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 12, 2020
First Annual Report · Pamela Hobart · May 12, 2020
Who am I, and what do I want? @antlerboy reflects · Benjamin Taylor · May 12, 2020
Writing as a thinking tool · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 11, 2020
Questions for Smart People #7 · Pamela Hobart · May 10, 2020
The Medieval Future of Management · Venkatesh Rao · May 8, 2020
Reinvent: From getting ahead to coming alive in May · Paul Millerd · May 7, 2020
Learning to let go · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 7, 2020
Should you make a "unique" contribution to the world? · Pamela Hobart · May 7, 2020
#27: Ambient uncertainty, Part 1 · Vaughn Tan · May 6, 2020
Confirmation bias: believing what you see, seeing what you believe · Anne-Laure Le Cunff · May 6, 2020
The Challenges of Remote Consulting · Tom Critchlow · May 6, 2020
Hamsternomics: Are We All Just Happy Hamsters? · Paul Millerd · May 4, 2020
Complex Problems vs Small Teams of Indie-Professionals · Vinay Débrou · May 4, 2020
Questions for Smart People #6 · Pamela Hobart · May 3, 2020
Reimagining Publics · Venkatesh Rao · May 1, 2020
Why you need spoopy consulting and how to do it · Benjamin Taylor · May 1, 2020

April

The days after — a learning community to build back better · Benjamin Taylor · April 30, 2020
[*Correction*] Don't Waste the Reboot: A Yak Collective project · David McDougall · April 30, 2020
Don't Waste the Reboot: A Yak Collective project · David McDougall · April 30, 2020
What in the Small-World is this? · Vinay Débrou · April 30, 2020
Collective Narratives & Sensemaking in Uncertainty · Tom Critchlow · April 30, 2020
Did you put a to-do on your back burner yet? · Pamela Hobart · April 29, 2020
#26: Resilience · Vaughn Tan · April 29, 2020
Innovation at Scale, #10: Making Effective Decisions in the Digital Age · David McDougall · April 29, 2020
Journaling for Smart People #5 · Pamela Hobart · April 26, 2020
How, What, and Where to Build · Venkatesh Rao · April 24, 2020
Journalers, did you think about your home yet? · Pamela Hobart · April 22, 2020
#25: A succession of new normals · Vaughn Tan · April 22, 2020
TiddlyBlink on Glitch · Tom Critchlow · April 20, 2020
Millenarianism & Preferred Pandemic Utopias · Paul Millerd · April 19, 2020
Journaling for Smart People #4 · Pamela Hobart · April 19, 2020
Pandemic Time: II · Venkatesh Rao · April 17, 2020
Hello journalers - feedback please! · Pamela Hobart · April 17, 2020
Innovation at Scale, #9: Testing Your Assumptions · David McDougall · April 17, 2020
Interesting! · Benjamin Taylor · April 15, 2020
Were you "productive" so far this week? · Pamela Hobart · April 15, 2020
#24: Building capacity · Vaughn Tan · April 15, 2020
Library JSON - A Proposal for a Decentralized Goodreads · Tom Critchlow · April 15, 2020
After Peacetime · Tom Critchlow · April 13, 2020
Not another pandemic productivity hot take · Pamela Hobart · April 12, 2020
Journaling for Smart People #3 · Pamela Hobart · April 12, 2020
Pandemic Time · Venkatesh Rao · April 10, 2020
Innovation at Scale, #8: Managing Innovation Funding · David McDougall · April 9, 2020
Time to think about thinking about death · Pamela Hobart · April 9, 2020
Dear Leaders, It’s Time To Wake The F*ck Up · Paul Millerd · April 8, 2020
#23: Undeniable uncertainty · Vaughn Tan · April 8, 2020
The Quarantined Independent · Tom Critchlow · April 8, 2020
Journaling for Smart People #2 · Pamela Hobart · April 5, 2020
Defaults and Defaults · Venkatesh Rao · April 3, 2020
Innovation at Scale, #7: Will Corona Kill FinTech? · David McDougall · April 2, 2020
Happy hump day! Have you journaled yet? · Pamela Hobart · April 2, 2020
#22: The uncertainty of poultry · Vaughn Tan · April 1, 2020

March

Tap tap test · Tom Critchlow · March 31, 2020
4 Smart Ways to Cope with this Pandemic · Pamela Hobart · March 30, 2020
life go brrr · Venkatesh Rao · March 27, 2020
Rethinking Meetings In A Remote World · Paul Millerd · March 27, 2020
Innovation at Scale, #6: Efficiency = fragility · David McDougall · March 25, 2020
#21: The consequences of inaction · Vaughn Tan · March 25, 2020
#8 — Society in Transition (Dr. Caitlin McDonald) · Ben Mosior · March 22, 2020
The New Breaking Smart · Venkatesh Rao · March 20, 2020
#20: Being prepared · Vaughn Tan · March 19, 2020
Virtual Spaces: How To Teach & Engage With Virtual Communities · Paul Millerd · March 18, 2020
Innovation at Scale, #5: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Black Swans · David McDougall · March 18, 2020
Laurel Farrer on The Global WFH Experiment & The Long-Term Promise Of Remote Work · Paul Millerd · March 18, 2020
#7 — Language Is Key, but Context Is King (Dean DiStasio) · Ben Mosior · March 18, 2020
Work From Home · Paul Millerd · March 15, 2020
#19: Unreasonable measures · Vaughn Tan · March 11, 2020
#18: Coronavirus · Vaughn Tan · March 4, 2020
Innovation at Scale, #4: Why Innovation Consulting Fails · David McDougall · March 4, 2020

February

An invitation to the RedQuadrant Way tool shed · Benjamin Taylor · February 28, 2020
What does ‘the power to transcend paradigms’ mean? · Benjamin Taylor · February 27, 2020
#17: Boris · Vaughn Tan · February 26, 2020
Vision, Strategy, Roadmap · David McDougall · February 26, 2020
A lovely and well-considered piece. · Benjamin Taylor · February 25, 2020
#6 — Organizational Resilience (Matt Stratton) · Ben Mosior · February 24, 2020
Beyond Optimism and Pessimism · Venkatesh Rao · February 21, 2020
Excellent work John, very well told. · Benjamin Taylor · February 20, 2020
#16: Working for an uncertain future · Vaughn Tan · February 19, 2020
Innovation at Scale, #2: Five Types of Corporate Innovation · David McDougall · February 19, 2020
I commented on the same Lankelly Chase blog here, more from an appreciative critical perspective… · Benjamin Taylor · February 18, 2020
#15: Maintenance by design · Vaughn Tan · February 12, 2020
Innovation at Scale, Issue 1: What is "Innovation"? Can large companies innovate? · David McDougall · February 12, 2020
#14: A time and place for everything · Vaughn Tan · February 5, 2020
#5 — Building Bridges (Colleen Esposito) · Ben Mosior · February 3, 2020

January

#13: Revelation and discovery · Vaughn Tan · January 29, 2020
A Very Slow Takeoff... · Venkatesh Rao · January 24, 2020
#12: True diversity · Vaughn Tan · January 22, 2020
Welcome to Innovation at Scale · David McDougall · January 16, 2020
#11: Productive discomfort · Vaughn Tan · January 14, 2020
#10: Time for a change · Vaughn Tan · January 8, 2020

2019

December

2019 Recap · Randy Lubin · December 27, 2019
Live Present Slides - my first Chrome Extension · Randy Lubin · December 25, 2019
Leveraged Play 2019 Recap · Randy Lubin · December 25, 2019
A Broken Compass: Sentiment Analysis in the Tweetstream · Ben Mosior · December 17, 2019
@antlerboy’s podcast plans · Benjamin Taylor · December 10, 2019
Inventing Time · Venkatesh Rao · December 6, 2019

November

Ask for Help, You Can · Vinay Débrou · November 18, 2019
#4 — Implicit Guidance (Mario Platt & Ben Ford) · Ben Mosior · November 13, 2019
Econtalk and Zion 2.0 Podcasts · Venkatesh Rao · November 8, 2019
Published Short Story: Joan Henry vs the Algorithm · Randy Lubin · November 6, 2019

October

Network of Free-Agent Clusters · Vinay Débrou · October 29, 2019
#3 — How are you doing as a human? (Toby Sola) · Ben Mosior · October 28, 2019
Spacewalks and the Species · Venkatesh Rao · October 18, 2019
In Praise of the Small Goldilocks City · Vinay Débrou · October 17, 2019
The Ascent of Conflict · Venkatesh Rao · October 12, 2019
Charisma Neutrality · Venkatesh Rao · October 4, 2019

September

The Direction of Maximal Derangement · Venkatesh Rao · September 27, 2019
#2 — The Reluctant Devop: Heretical Anthropology (Anthony Mastrean) · Ben Mosior · September 22, 2019
Like Riding an AI Bicycle · Venkatesh Rao · September 20, 2019
On Understanding the Self: Mapping and the Annual Review · Ben Mosior · September 16, 2019
About One Morning · Vinay Débrou · September 15, 2019
#1 — The Integrative Approach: When the Opportunities Reveal Themselves (Ryan Wold) · Ben Mosior · September 7, 2019
Technological Charisma · Venkatesh Rao · September 6, 2019

August

Back in SF! · Randy Lubin · August 26, 2019
About The Void · Vinay Débrou · August 21, 2019

July

About Irrational Desire · Vinay Débrou · July 17, 2019
Truly Creative Machine · Vinay Débrou · July 3, 2019
Playing with the Oculus Quest: consumer VR has arrived · Randy Lubin · July 1, 2019

June

Checking out Games4Change · Randy Lubin · June 24, 2019
“Walking the Future” / RefactorCamp · Randy Lubin · June 17, 2019
MageFrame - Interactive Fiction / AI co-authorship · Randy Lubin · June 10, 2019
Tokyo, またね · Randy Lubin · June 3, 2019