Hi Reader,

Wishing a Happy Diwali to all those celebrating - sending you all love and light. A quick hello before we head out on our Adventure Guides camping trip (solo with the two girls). Today's essay covers the tricky trade-offs between joy and money - it's a good one, let me know what you think.

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Our friends at Charter are hosting a free Virtual Workplace Summit with speakers including Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky, New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, and more. View the agenda and register to save your place.​

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When a dollar is not worth a dollar

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I love ice cream. Jeni’s. Ample Hills. Salt and Straw. Van Leeuwen.

If it’s cold, creamy and chocolate-y – I love it.

But as a 42 year old, ice cream and the Notorious B.I.G. have something in common:

(That is a terrible dad joke.)

You see, the Chocolate Gooey Brownie as a free one-bite sample (remember those?) tastes delicious. It leaves me yearning for more.

However, 3 scoops of this dark and delicious delight will send my stomach into knots, ruin my sleep and make me ornery the next day.

An economist would say that the first bite brings a lot of utility (or satisfaction or joy).

And that the 30th bite brings the problems.

This could actually be illustrated with a simple line graph:

The marginal utility describes the incremental joy that arises from the incremental bite of ice cream. And you know what else has the same arc of utility? Money.

Read the post (3 mins) →

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Here are this week's top reads:

// one

My life in the "Nothingness"

5 minutes | Ryan Caldbeck
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One of the hardest parts of a career transition is that in-between phase. The awkward introductions at the PTA meetings during which you can't answer the innocuous question: "What do you do?" In this personal post, the former CEO of CircleUp discusses the insecurity of the "nothingness" and how he struggled to maintain his identity.

→ Read the post​

// two

Subtractive productivity: how doing less can achieve more

12 minutes | The Interesting Times
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We've all heard of diminishing returns. More effort doesn't translate into more output. But it could be even worse, it might actually be harmful. This article will demonstrate why a task that looks pointless to you is probably the most important thing you get done all day.

→ Read the post​

// three

The 37-year-olds are afraid of the 23-year-olds who work for them

8 minutes | The New York Times
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Gen Zers — the 72 million people born between ’97 and 2012 - are taking over workplaces and unabashedly questioning archaic norms of the generation before them. These twenty-somethings are rolling their eyes at the 8-hour work day (why not just leave once the work is done?), asking for PTO for period cramps and mental health, and are unimpressed with corporate neutrality. And, FYI, the sobbing-laughing emoji is officially over (hot tip: just say "LOL" specifically in all caps).

→ Read the article​

// four

How user manuals foster team development

3 minutes | NOBL Academy
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For our fully-remote RadReads team, a user manual is a top priority for transparent communications. User manuals create a shared understanding of company norms, boost team productivity, and accelerate team cohesiveness. The basic steps towards creating a user manual? Pick a collaborative platform, create questions for your team to answer, give time for digestion and response, ask how the team can support one another, and update on a regular basis.

→ Read the post​

// five

Effort

1 minute | Seth's Blog
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We have a saying here at RadReads: You can't compete with someone who's having fun. Why's that? Because if you enjoy what you're doing, by defintion you genuinely care. This short essay will show you why genuine care is such a superpower and how it opens the door to a different kind of leverage.
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→ Read the post​

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Below the fold

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ICYMI

• ​Discussing Business and Finance from a Different POV - A podcast on how to decide what to charge for their products, negotiation skills, and cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset.

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LAST WEEK'S MOST READ

• ​Don’t die with the music still in you (RadReads, 429 clicks)
• ​50 first levers (how to start building leverage) (Eric Jorgenson, 352 clicks)

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And finally, 12 year old Isaac Moon choreographed and performed this beautiful performance in dedication to his mother and all individuals and families impacted by breast cancer.

With gratitude,

Khe
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