Work has evolved.
But the way we work has not.
Explore a new philosophy of work for the 21st-century. And challenge your assumptions about achievement, productivity, and efficiency.
There is a critical mismatch in our work lives.
Outdated expectations of how we should work create obstacles to doing remarkable work in more humane ways.
If we want a more inclusive, sustainable, and life-affirming approach to work, we must rethink work from the ground up.
We must practice work in a way that empowers us to:
Respond to uncertainty, surprise, and new situations with patience
Learn to solve problems and make sense of complexity with intention
Embrace ambiguity and flexibility without sacrificing our needs
Adapt to changing information with care and compassion
A Radical New Approach to Goal-Setting
What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting
“Nuanced, rigorous exploration. What Works is a thought-provoking antidote to the overhyped productivity narratives keeping us stuck in shame and validation spirals. This book, and Tara’s oeuvre more broadly, serves as a brilliant guide for emphasizing presence and process over rigid metrics and external markers of success. A rich, hearty meal for the mind, I was only sad to put this book down when it ended.”
— Jenny Blake, podcaster & author of Free Time and Pivot
Be a part of What Works
Together, we can catalyze a more humane, accessible, and just approach to work. One that doesn’t define us by what we do or how much we achieve. Get the free newsletter that imagines a new paradigm for work.
Think Differently about Work, Culture, and the Economy
It’s easy to lose your way in the 21st-century economy. The world of work and business is changing so rapidly that you might be focusing more on how to keep up than how to live a meaningful life. What Works is a podcast for entrepreneurs, independent workers, and employees who don’t want to lose themselves to the whims of late-stage capitalism. Tara offers a distinctly interdisciplinary approach to the discourse around business, work, and personal growth.
Recent Newsletter Articles
- Platform companies live and die by the trust of their users—but it seems you can't have your trust and generate shareholder value, too.
- This is not advice: what we really talk about when we talk about AI is us. We're the problem. Actually, we're the solution.
- Many companies—large and very small—boost profits by "going meta." But going meta inevitably changes the relationship between work and value. What if we put work first?
- If we're truly nearing the end of the social media era, how might we use the silence to create something new?
- Etsy, Game Theory, the NFL, Layoffs, and Absentee Capitalism: You have to know what game you’re playing to know how to win—and you also need to decide whether that’s the game you want to play.
- In the very first "This is Not Advice" column, I explore what it means to "grow an audience" in a time when social media feels broken and relationships have become transactional.
- Nathalie Lussier moved from NYC to Texas for a bigger, better suburban life—and then ended up back in her home country of Canada, living on a farm.