{"id":45397,"date":"2026-01-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=45397"},"modified":"2026-01-08T14:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T21:21:39","slug":"retro-recomendo-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/retro-recomendo-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Retro Recomendo: Career"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started nine years ago, that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we\u2019re trying out something new \u2014\u00a0Retro Recomendo<\/strong>. Once every 6 weeks, we\u2019ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 9 years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to do great work<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Paul Graham, a renowned programmer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist known for co-founding Y Combinator, wrote an essay titled \u201cHow to Do Great Work<\/a>.\u201d He covered a wide range of topics, from choosing what to work on to cultivating originality. This week, I came across Peter Schroeder\u2019s terrific visual representation<\/a> that maps out the main ideas from Graham\u2019s essay. It\u2019s useful even if you don\u2019t read the essay. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Productive meetings<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This 1-minute video<\/a> by John Cleese is all you need to know about how to have productive (vs unproductive) meetings. One minute! Applies to zoom meetings, too. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A guide for daily \u201cprofessional\u201d interactions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How to professionally say<\/a> is a list of things you might feel like saying at work \u2014 along with a more professional alternative for how to express them. Example: Instead of saying \u201cThat sounds like a horrible idea,\u201d you can say \u201cAre we confident this is the best solution, or are we still exploring alternatives?\u201d While some of the phrasing might not flow naturally for me, I\u2019m inspired to adopt more neutrality and directness in my professional language. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good advice for applying for jobs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I am a big fan of YouTuber Ali Abdaal. In this video about Resumes<\/a> he condenses a whole book of information presenting the best advice for applying for a job into 30 minutes. It\u2019s the same advice I gave to my kids when they started working. Whether you are looking for a job, or hiring someone, this is worth your time. Forward it to a young person. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Two-Minute Burnout Checkup<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This Two-Minute Burnout Checkup<\/a> helped me understand the primary factors of chronic stress and burnout. I can sense physically when I am nearing burnout, but before this I didn’t understand that it’s more than just feeling exhausted. This checkup evaluates six sources of chronic stress: workload, values, reward, control, fairness, and community. You rate your level of stress from 0\u201310 for each one and add up the numbers to get a score out of 60. This could be especially helpful if you track your score over time. Here\u2019s a link to the survey<\/a>. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Holiday\u2019s career wisdom<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Writer and entrepreneur Ryan Holiday has had a varied career, from Hollywood agent assistant to marketing director for American Apparel. He\u2019s put together a list of 37 pieces of hard-fought career advice<\/a> that\u2019s useful for anyone who works. Examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n