Latest pick
How to Actually Read a Book (The Adler Method)
You finished 50 books last year and can't remember what was in any of them. Mortimer Adler diagnosed this problem in 1940 and his four-level method is still the best fix I've found.
Fresh reads
Latest posts
Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit for the Age of AI Slop
Carl Sagan wrote a critical-thinking checklist in 1995 that holds up better than 90% of media literacy content written this decade. Here are the nine questions, updated for AI content and productivity grifts.
Re-Reading The Alchemist at 40 (It Hits Differently)
I loved The Alchemist at 22. I rolled my eyes at it at 32. I picked it up again at 40 and found a third book hiding inside the first two.
Why the AI Sentience Debate Matters to Your Day Job
Jonathan Birch built a framework for thinking about beings on the edge of sentience. I keep accidentally applying it to my Claude tab. And the question it raises about trust is one we'll all have to answer.
Breathing Tricks That Actually Sharpen Your Focus
Most breathing advice is wellness branding. James Nestor's research isn't. Here's the one thing from Breath that actually shifted how I focus during work.
Build a Freelance Portfolio With No Experience
The chicken-and-egg of needing work to get work is fake. Here's how to build a freelance portfolio with no experience, using projects you make for yourself.
AI for Editing: The Writing Job It Genuinely Nails
AI is mediocre at writing your draft and genuinely great at editing it. Here are the specific editing jobs AI tools for editing writing actually do well.
Browse the shelves
The PickyFox hubs
Seven shelves into the catalog. Pick the one closest to what you're working through.
Primary hub
Freelancing & Career
The machinery of running a one-person business. And surviving inside someone else's.
Primary hub
Productivity & Focus
What survives a real week. And what was always a marketing campaign in disguise.
Primary hub
Books Worth Your Time
Honest reviews. Not summaries. Not five-star inflation. Just what the book actually argued.
Primary hub
Mental Models & Self-Work
Frameworks that survive contact with reality. And the limits they don't advertise.
Hub
Tools for Solo Operators
Reviews from someone who runs a one-person business and gets nothing for the endorsement.
Hub
Money for Irregular Income
Financial advice for people whose paycheck doesn't show up on the 1st.
Hub
Content & Creativity
Writing, making, publishing. The unglamorous parts and the strategic ones.
Hub
Health & Wellness
Sleep, stress, energy, burnout. The body running the business everyone else manages with a team.
Hub · Freelancing
Freelancing & Career
Freelance Discovery Call Questions That Filter
The right freelance discovery call questions do two jobs: they scope the work and they screen out the clients who'll wreck your month. Here's the short list to ask.
Social Anxiety at Work Is More Common Than You Think
Stop Playing Finite Games You Can't Win
How to Get Clients to Pay on Time (I Learned Late)
Why People Join Cult Communities (Including Productivity Ones)
How to Find Freelance Clients Without Job Boards
Why Bureaucracy Is Eating Your Freelance Business
Hub · Productivity
Productivity & Focus
What Walker's Sleep Research Means When You Have Deadlines
Matthew Walker's research turned my deadline math upside down. The eight-hour rule isn't a wellness suggestion. It's a hard limit on the work you can do.
A Simple AI Workflow for People Who Hate Setup
Using AI to Learn a New Skill Faster (For Real)
7 Ways Your Brain Sabotages You (And What to Do)
The 2-Minute Awareness Practice I Actually Stick With
Your Brain Is Predicting Your Day (Make It Predict Better)
AI Meeting Note-Takers Actually Worth Using
Hub · Books
Books Worth Your Time
Kalanithi's Memoir Will Reset Your Priorities
A dying neurosurgeon wrote a book about how he spent the last year of his life. I read it twice and rewrote my calendar both times.
Hub · Thinking
Mental Models & Self-Work
What a 13-Year-Old Migrant Knows About Risk That You Don't
Ousman Umar walked from Ghana to Spain at thirteen. Reading his story changed how I think about the word 'risk' and what most of us actually mean when we use it.
What Pollan's Psychedelic Research Means for the Stuck
The Pleasure-Happiness Confusion That's Wrecking You
Postman Saw TikTok Coming in 1985
The DARE Method for Panic (For People Who Tried Everything)
How Often Should You Change Your Mind? (More Than You Do)
