2025 at Humanity Working

I hope you’ve taken some time off to reset and recharge – remember, this is important not just for health but also for productivity over the medium term.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve thought about what I will do with this newsletter and its accompanying podcast (also titled Humanity Working). If you’ve been with us for the long haul, you will know it’s changed quite a bit over the years. It started with a pod – called Way Too Busy. Then I shifted the focus to remote work, with the rather imaginative title “Making Remote Work”. Finally, a couple of years ago, I landed on Humanity Working and began to integrate the podcast and the newsletter more tightly.

But throughout this journey, something has been nagging at me. In my day job at BillionMinds, I’ve been obsessing over how best to help employees build the skills they need to get hired, retained, and promoted. It’s become clear that a big part of that is HOW our programs are structured. We’ve found that a little and often (the Duolingo approach) is way more effective than anything long-form. So much so that we’ve abandoned delivering long in-person workshops and replaced them with 10-minute Learn/Do exercises.

Not only that, but work from the folks at Smart Brevity shows that no matter how interesting I make this newsletter, most of you will stop reading it midway through. You might not have even made it this far!

So, given some perspective, it seems pretty apparent that I should apply these lessons to Humanity Working, and my commitment to you is that I will do precisely that in 2025.

This is what to expect:

• Shorter, more frequent posts. Expect something at least once a week, sometimes more often. But (almost) no pointless rambling and a focus on practicality.
• Two types of podcast, delivered weekly. Starting soon(ish), we’ll be returning to a weekly release schedule, but the main feed will be sub-10-minute pods – just with me and Matt, each focused on a practical skill. Every so often, we will also feature our longer-form interviews, but this will be rare, and we will mark them clearly, so you can set aside more time if you are interested.

Oh, and one other thing. A few of you have asked about a paid option, which I greatly appreciate. I’ve resisted this for a while because I don’t want money to be a barrier for anyone. For me, Humanity Working is about helping anyone get the skills they need to thrive in the future of work, not just those who can afford to pay. But it was pointed out to me that as long as I make payment optional and give everyone the same content, I can still achieve what I want. So, if you want to contribute, you can do so here. Thanks in advance!

Alright, if I’m going to live by these principles, I better get out of here! Bye for now!