What Works: Essays by Tara McMullin - what works

“In a space without direction it is possible to end a course of action at any time, and to begin a new one instead.

"The internet is beautiful.

"So after I've completely exhausted myself thinking about the people I most resent in the world, and my more arresting financial problems, and, of course, the orthodontia, I remember to pick up the one-inch picture frame and to figure out a one-inch piece…

“Every once in a while there's a little trouble with cooperation, but it's easily taken care of.

We live thinly in our instant, and don’t know what we don’t know. — Alan Jacobs Updated June 3, 2026 My daughter graduates from high school tomorrow.

"No matter how hard you post or what sites you do it in it’s never going to be 2019 again." — Amanda Mull on Bluesky I’ve been thinking about starting to post to social media again.

Sean asked me how my day was going.

A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 70% of Americans believe AI will result in fewer jobs.

3 Rules of Thumb for Thinking About Data How do you feel about metrics?

On Facing Down Burnout "...to fully and uncritically surrender to such agon against individuals is to invite one's own ethical degeneration; to implicitly give a pass to those others in the ruling class more inclined to decorously veil the misery from whi…

What Elite Commercial Kitchens Have To Do With Your Work Environment On March 11, the 5-time World’s Best Restaurant, Noma, began a 3-month Los Angeles residency.

To the uninitiated, "being your own boss" sounds pretty nice.

I live for people explaining how they approach analysis and critique.

You get an idea.

A few weeks ago, sitting across the table from my daughter who was earnestly working on a Lego Buckingham Palace, I noticed a Bluesky post about OpenAI’s plans to put ads in ChatGPT.

with Lauren Lassabe Shepherd It's no secret that one of my, let's say, special interests is higher education.

In the first season of The Pitt, Noah Wyle's character, Dr.

Last year, around this time, I wrote about the difficult task of consolidating more than a decade and a half of personal and professional evolution into a single website.

Rage Bait Strikes Again Women, it seems, have ruined the workplace.

The Year of Puzzles 2025 was a year of puzzles for me.