Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Weird how worried Wall Street is about DeepSeek, weren’t they just saying AI innovation is good even if it harms some people in the short term

now that DeepSeek has completed AI, we hope that Silicon Valley will turn its attention to the next best thing: investing in rural history museums

The Grand Theft Auto theory of careers Drive it like you stole it

On the Grand Theft Auto theory of careers, inspired by my own recent history: open.substack.com/pub/askpang/...

With my first trade press book I assumed the Great Critical Merit Pumpkin would help the book find its place in the world, or something. But successful (or enduring) books have always had advocates! And you’re promoting the work, not yourself. Totally different (I tell myself).

“Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi.... But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis.”

Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson

Posting this for absolutely no reason whatsoever harpers.org/archive/1941...

The active massaging ones are the best kind.

Dog sitting in a chair behind a human who is trying to type. It’s entirely the human’s fault.

Back to work

“I hate writing; I love having written” is a real thing (even if Dorthy Parker never actually said it).

The thing about Vivek's "white Americans are being pushed towards mediocrity by the culture" argument is its also the thesis of Hillbilly Elegy

My hope for productivity in 2025 tl:dr we're thinking about it all wrong.

End-of-year articles about work and rest have me thinking about how we now think about “productivity” all wrong, and what we can do about it: askpang.substack.com/p/my-hope-fo...

“In ways large and small, we live in a world shaped by telemarketing. When’s the last time you answered a call from an unknown number? How many tweets do you encounter without bots in the replies?… Even your sleep app is hawking your data to companies trying to sell you melatonin gummies.“

This has to be The Onion

In My Life, I’ve Witnessed Three Elite Salespeople at Work. You Won’t Like Their Secret. My wayward months as the best telemarketer in America.

I didn’t think I’d find an essay about telemarketing quite so entertaining, but life is full of surprises. “Everyone said that telemarketing was the worst job in town, and for once, everyone was right…” slate.com/life/2024/12...

Maybe the return to office folks have a point

“If someone makes $50 million on a speculative asset, then some other set of people must have lost that $50 million. They just don’t know it yet:” open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...

How can a 4-day working week increase wellbeing at no cost to performance? The 4-day working week is gaining interest, with international trials reporting enhanced staff wellbeing and performance, despite spending less time on the job. Here, we argue that improved performance on a 4-day working week arises through two psychological mechanisms of recovery and motivation: because better rested, better motivated brains, create better work.

This tracks with what I’ve seen when working with 4-day week companies: “improved performance on a 4-day working week arises through two psychological mechanisms of recovery and motivation: because better rested, better motivated brains, create better work:“ www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Apparently the lesson of “Don’t Build the Torment Nexus” continue to be misunderstood:

Can confirm

The only appropriate response is Nicolas Murray Butler’s when asked if he’d read Thornstein Veblen’s last book: “By God, I hope so.”

Best of How To: Rest Getting rest and going to the dentist aren’t as different as you might think.

My conversation with Ian Bogost about the value of popped up on @theatlantic.com today:
www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...

Furry gargoyle

Kind of amazing to me (but also very gratifying) that anyone still reads the book!

For the record, this is not my cat

An insistent cat demands attention

You think you’re working on your syllabus? You’re working for ME. Time for scritches, human!

YouTube video by Janus Films RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS - Official US Trailer

If you don’t think a black-and-white concert film consisting of one person and a piano could be completely absorbing, you haven’t seen Opus, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final performance: youtu.be/OyhTmH92Ljc?...

The Golden Police Department just released a report on its 4-day week trial. It was a success: response time down, code enforcement up, resignations down by 50%: ehq-production-us-california.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/cfbe4617ccc6...

How rest can make you better at your job Yes, you need to take breaks at work. Not only is resting good for your brain — it might even make you more creative. Here are consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang's four tips to help you step away and ...

It’s never too soon to start thinking about how to spend the weekend well! www.ted.com/talks/alex_s...

How rest can make you better at your job Yes, you need to take breaks at work. Not only is resting good for your brain — it might even make you more creative. Here are consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang's four tips to help you step away and ...

A new video on work and rest (recorded last year, but TED created a lot of good stuff so it takes a while to get published)!

Dude just biked by wearing noise canceling headphones, holding his iphone in one hand, dictating an email. The Apple goggles are going to be an asteroid-level threat for the distracted.