Archive • Quarter Mile • Buttondown

Work Fast, But Towards What?

October 20, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new essay. Getting things done quickly (or ‘shipping fast’, or ‘moving fast’) is seen as a virtue. At least in many places,...

The Quarter Mile Question

October 15, 2025

Hey — today we’re emailing to ask you a question. Why? Because we are curious people. And we often wish we could wave a magic wand to know people’s answers...

October 13, 2025

Hey there - weird subject line, weirder story. This week’s post is outside the range of our usual essays and is closer in tone to some of our fiction, like...

Is the Golden Rule Very Golden?

October 7, 2025

Hey there - a short thought for you today. Is the golden rule very golden? Today’s is brief. Back next week with more words :) - Carter and Jordan

Empathy for Dummies

September 30, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new piece. It’s a bit ridiculous to write about how to have empathy. That’s a feelings thing, right? (It mostly is.) But one...

Request for hall of fame essays

September 23, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new piece. The premise is simple. We believe that, in less than 100 hours, you could probably produce the best essay in the...

Things You Don't Have to Do

September 16, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new piece. This one is a long list of things you don’t have to do. Of course you don’t have to do much of anything, but this...

The Business Consultant

September 9, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new essay. Imagine the following: out of the blue, you’re introduced to a business consultant. They seem to know a lot....

Are Best Practices Best?

September 2, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new essay. You hear about “best practices” all the time. This is the best practice, someone says. Famous Company did it this...

August 26, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new essay. Reflecting on a conversation I had with a friend a couple of years ago, I remembered something I (ironically)...

It's Already Happened

August 19, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new piece. I frequently hear people talking about all these huge, scary impacts that AI is going to have. I read about it in...

What Do You Mean?

August 14, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new essay. What does it mean to “try hard”? What are the odds that you and I share the exact same definition of “try”? Or...

Writing About Writing

Hey there — this week’s essay is all about two things: (i) Why you should write (ii) How to get started We’ve written ~100,000s of words about this, both...

Hey there - we just published a new piece. It’s a short story. Explaining the premise would spoil the story, so, if you have a few minutes today and are...

Hey there - friends have often asked us how they can become more effective writers and build a writing habit. We haven’t had anywhere great to point them....

Hey there - we just published a new essay. Our goal with this one is to make the world at least a little more interesting and a little less boring. We are...

Career Hypnosis

Hey there - we just published a new essay. Unlike last week’s, this one actually has words in it. It’s a piece about the career opinions we hear throughout...

How to Think for Yourself

Hey there - we are confident that our latest piece is the most definitive guide on the internet to the all-important mission of “thinking for yourself”. In...

surprising but true

Hi - we just published a new essay. This one is a big list of facts. The criteria: • Must be surprising • Must be true Enjoy :) - Carter and Jordan

Hey there - we just published a new essay. It’s about getting ideas. Because coming up with good ideas (for writing, for work, for life) can be hard. So if...

To the Guy I Didn't Invite to My Wedding

Hey - we just published a new piece. It’s best to go in blind for this one. But if you’d like a preview, it’s a story about one of the hypothetical use cases...

Startup Equity 101

Hey - thanks for the ~70,000 views in May. Most of those views were on a short story called Human, which is in many ways the polar opposite of this week’s...

Hey there - we just published a new piece. How many times have you heard the timeline for: AGIFusion powerWidespread renewable energyMedical...

A New Kind of Superhero

Hey there - we just published a new piece. Imagine there’s an app that tracks your ‘Follow-Through Score’. Kind of like a credit score. It only cares about...

Hey there - we just published a new piece. Depending on how long you have been subscribed to this email list, you will have (accurately) surmised that we...

Clearly Incorrect

Hey there - we just published a new essay. The idea arrived after seeing yet another clip of Gordon Ramsay saying that you need to take your steak out of the...

You Could Just Choose Optimism

Hey there - we just published a new essay. Probably one of the most dangerous behaviors that most people (including us!) engage with on a daily basis is...

I Literally Don't Know

Hey there - we just published a new essay. Is general life advice useful? It’s not uncommon for people to email strangers they look up to and ask for life...

Emails for Humans

Hey there - we just published a new essay. What if you self-audited your email outbox today? Say there are three buckets you’re allowed to place emails into:...

What May Not Age Well

Hey there - we just published a new piece. Here’s the prompt: What is currently accepted by ~most people that humans in 50, 100, or 1,000 years will look...

More Than You Wanted to Know About Flight Delays

Hey there - we just published a new essay. This one’s quite practical: it’s about predicting flight delays. If you aren’t very nerdy about flights, your...

Sailors and Rowers

Hey there - we just published a new essay. The theory: most people model success in one of two ways. They’re sailors, or they’re rowers. If you’re a sailor —...

Questions to ask before you join a startup

Hey there - we just published a new essay. In conversations with friends who are hunting for startup jobs, we noticed that most people don’t ask many...

Consider the Opposite

Hey there - we just published a new essay. What if every time somebody gave you a piece of advice, you considered doing the complete opposite? The essay...

Who Did The Work?

February 27, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new essay. Its goal is to help answer the title of this email: who really did the work? The professional world is a bit like...

How to Not Suck at Your Job

February 10, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new piece. Here’s a take: Most tech companies would run more effectively (i.e. earn more long-term profit) if, tomorrow, they...

Questions to Challenge Yourself

February 4, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new piece. It’s a short one this week: a list of questions to challenge your beliefs (and behaviors). Why? Because, while it...

Cure Your Scrolling Addiction

January 27, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new essay. The premise? We all know that scrolling — social media, newsfeeds, whatever — is bad. Most of us scroll too much....

Unconventional Adventures

January 19, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new essay. It’s all about adventures. One weird thing about modern travel is that it feels pretty homogenized: many of us go...

Questions for VCs

January 13, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new piece called Questions for VCs. When a founder raises money from a venture capitalist, there is usually a moment near the...

A List of Cool Websites

January 7, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new piece. Ever feel like every time you go online, you default to the same few sites? It’s a shame, because the internet is...

Traits That May Cease to Be Valuable

January 2, 2025

Hey there - we just published a new essay. The idea is this: imagine for a moment that there was a role playing game (like D&D or Skyrim) that covered all of...