“If you think technology will solve your problems, you don’t understand technology and you don’t understand your problems.” - Bruce Schneier

One of my hotter academic takes is that every college degree should include a class in the first month where the new students have to engage with the most boring parts of the ideal job associated with the degree *before* spending many thousands of dollars

Celebration time: It's the 20th anniversary of my author career. And book #10 is on the way. Thanks for following me making all this all possible. I had a party here in Seattle. I even wore a tie! If you're a local fan LMK and I'll put you on the list for the next book party.

I asked 120 people to explain their life rules and philosophy. The results are fascinating! So many surprises. I'll be sharing the highlights live on Wednesday at 11am PST. This is research for my next book on how to live well. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Six years ago today I published my first book about design

I asked 120 people to explain their life rules and philosophy. The results are fascinating! So many surprises. I'll be sharing the highlights live on Wednesday at 11am PST. This is research for my next book on how to live well. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

"Any time I hear the term self-help I think of George Carlin’s mockery of the whole idea: “If you’re looking for self-help, why would you go read a book written by someone else?” There’s something backward about these books that sets us up to fail." rulestolive.substack.com/p/why-self-h...

benches, buses, and bathrooms. they should be everywhere

“The trouble with people is that they’re busy fixing things they don’t even understand. We’re always fixing things, aren’t we? It never strikes us that things don’t need to be fixed. This is a great illumination. They need to be understood. If you understood them, they’d change.” - Anthony de Mello

Rule to live by #24: Wake UP Waking up means facing a truth you have avoided or did not know was there. It’s a paradox: we hate waking up, but when we do, we are transformed for the better. rulestolive.substack.com/p/rule-24-wa...

Are you a fan of my work? I need your help to shape my future. After 9 books and 20 years I'm coming up with a new plan! Your input will shape my future - you can tell me about what I've done that you value and what you'd like to see in the future. Thanks! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Are you a fan of my work? I need your help to shape my future. After 9 books and 20 years I'm coming up with a new plan! Your input will shape my future - you can tell me about what I've done that you value and what you'd like to see in the future. Thanks! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The AI Novelty Cycle is the realization that what you are using is far less useful than you believed and in order to actually do your job or make progress on important work you will need to do it in a more conventional way. biblioracle.substack.com/p/the-ai-nov...

We all need to notice the sky now and then.

Preach @berkun.bsky.social - "Our culture rewards us with status for never having time for things. We admire busy... When we see a silly video on social media, we often judge the creator by saying, “Well, that’s someone with too much time on their hands.” This is just Puritanical bullshit;

feeling compelled to post this new yorker reject from years ago, for some reason

Hallucinations compound: 1) A worker uses an LLM to generate a report. 2) A manager uses an LLM to extract insights from the report. 3) An exec uses an LLM to turn the insights into a memo. 4) Another manager uses an LLM to summarize the memo. Each person human-washes the text for the next person.

What rules do you live by? I want to know. This is research for my next book. You get a chance to win $500 worth of prizes and signed books. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝? 𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬. And the questions may be help you. Thanks. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I want YOUR life philosophy. Will you share it with me? This is research for my next book. You get a chance to win $500 worth of prizes and signed books. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝? 𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬. And the questions may be useful to you. Thanks. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #rulestolive

I want YOUR life philosophy. Will you share it with me? This is research for my next book. You get a chance to win $500 worth of prizes and signed books. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝? 𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬. And the questions may be useful to you. Thanks. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #rulestolive

If you're free in 4 hours, join me live to talk about how to live well and why most books on this subject don't help much.

What rules do you live by? I've asked dozens of people this question and most of the answers are the same. People quickly say "be kind". "Follow the golden rule." Nice, but obvious. It gets trickier when I ask a tougher question: when do you break your rules?

I just finished the first draft of my 10th book and I'll be on Zoom talking about it - you should come 🙂 Tentatively titled Rules To Live By, it's a better way to think about self-help and philosophy. It will be fun & as interactive as you like. Hope to see you. us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Scott Berkun on unlearning the false design beliefs that are holding you back. https://ow.ly/zcwZ50XGlNr

Scott Berkun on avoiding the five habits of the worst designers. https://ow.ly/56fK50XtxYK

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.” –Wendell Berry

“People will come to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985)

There are activities in life where the goal is to be perfect. And there are activities where the goal is to express who you are and your personal experience in being you. These are rarely the same activities.

What is the best creative work you have done in your career? Here is a test you can take about great work and what it really means. whydesignishard.substack.com/p/the-greatn...

Incredible productivity hack that will save you way more time than integrating AI into your workflow

Here @berkun.bsky.social does a great job of collecting thoughtful questions proposed by Neil Postman that every designer needs to consider before launching a new project: https://scottberkun.com/2016/the-7-questions-for-any-technological-idea/

For those in the South Seattle area I'm coming your way tomorrow.

Need an excuse to buy more books? Now you have one! Saturday is Indie Bookstore Day! Show your favorite indie some love.

Tomorrow is Independent Bookstore day. I love locally owned bookstores and try to support them whenever I can. Most of my books are available through @bookshop.org, which is a great way to get books and support independent stores. bookshop.org/lists/scott-...

Here's my list of inventions I wish existed. scottberkun.com/2008/ten-inv...

My dream invention is a hypocrisy detection machine that continually informed people of their double-standards. Whenever we start saying something that conveniently contradicts a stated belief, it would start beeping and get louder and louder until we stop.

"All of life’s problems arise from trying to do other people’s tasks for them, or trying to get them to do yours." - Oliver Burkeman

The quality of cockpit design has more to do with crashes than pilots' skills. whydesignishard.substack.com/p/rethinking... by @berkun.bsky.social I'd add the detrimental effect of detailed up-front specifications on design as a major root cause (exemplified by the F-35 story).

Is there any tech bro out there who has not wildly misunderstood every Philip K Dick book they read when they were 15?

You have GOT to be kidding.

”[it’s] the insecure client who depends on informal office surveys and pseudo-scientific research to deal with questions that are unanswerable and answers that are questionable.” - Paul Rand

18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated shortly after midnight. Read our letter to the American people: 18f.org

All of the clocks have changed, but my microwave still knows the truth.

When the data says no, but the people paying for the report say yes

“Those who lack courage will always find a philosophy to justify it” – Camus

“In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil. Evil doesn't drive out good. But the energetic displaces the passive.” - William Bernbach

It's more than diabolical. It's triabolical.

If I won the lottery, I wouldn't tell anyone, but there would be signs

Checks & Balances & Santa Clause.