Talk1986
You and Your Research
Richard Hamming
Work on important problems with open doors and compound effort — why some capable people do significant work and most do not.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Thinking & Personal Effectiveness
Career & Life Design
Long-horizon choices about work.
10 topics · 10 curated works
Topics
- 01Foundations & Overviews1
- 02Career Capital1
- 03Skill Stacking1
- 04Choosing What to Work On1
- 05Networking Honestly1
- 06Mentorship1
- 07Job Search & Interviewing1
- 08Freelancing & Independence1
- 09Work-Life Boundaries1
- 10Retirement & Later Life Planning1
Reading in Career & Life Design
10A way in
Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
You and Your Research
Richard Hamming · 1986
Work on important problems with open doors and compound effort — why some capable people do significant work and most do not.
+1 more at this level
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
A Continuity Theory of Normal Aging
Robert C. Atchley · 1989
Argues against the idea that retirement and old age require inventing a new self, proposing instead that people who age well do so by extending the…
+5 more at this level
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis
Gary S. Becker · 1962
Treats education and training as investment decisions rather than consumption, arguing that people rationally weigh the cost of acquiring a skill…
+1 more at this level
10 works
Essay2006
How to Do What You Love
Paul Graham
Argues that most people are trained by schooling to distrust the idea of enjoying their work, and that finding what to work on requires noticing what you would do anyway rather than what looks prestigious from outside.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Paper1989
A Continuity Theory of Normal Aging
Robert C. Atchley
Argues against the idea that retirement and old age require inventing a new self, proposing instead that people who age well do so by extending the habits, relationships and self-concept they already have rather than replacing them.
PaidIntermediate
Paper2000
Work/Family Border Theory: A New Theory of Work/Family Balance
Sue Campbell Clark
Proposes that people are daily border-crossers between the domains of work and family, and argues how much a person blends or keeps the two separate is shaped less by personal preference than by the permeability and flexibility of the borders each domain actually allows.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Paper2004
Balanced Skills and Entrepreneurship
Edward P. Lazear
Finds that people who founded businesses had, as students, taken a wider spread of subjects than those who became employees, and argues entrepreneurship rewards being competent across many different skills over being excellent at one, because a venture fails on its weakest necessary function.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Essay2007
The Landscape of Mentoring in the 21st Century
Belle Rose Ragins & Kathy E. Kram
Surveys three decades of mentoring research and argues the field has moved from a single dyadic apprenticeship model toward relational and network views of mentoring, which changes what counts as a mentoring relationship at all.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Paper2014
The Contaminating Effects of Building Instrumental Ties: How Networking Can Make Us Feel Dirty
Tiziana Casciaro, Francesca Gino & Maryam Kouchaki
Finds that networking felt purely instrumental — done for what it can get you — produces feelings of moral impurity and lowers the very activity meant to help a career, while networking framed around genuine connection does not.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Report2016
Independent Work: Choice, Necessity, and the Gig Economy
James Manyika et al.
Surveys some 8,000 working-age people across the US and Europe and argues independent work is not one thing: satisfaction depends heavily on whether someone freelances by choice or out of necessity, a split that cuts across income and education levels.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Paper1962
Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis
Gary S. Becker
Treats education and training as investment decisions rather than consumption, arguing that people rationally weigh the cost of acquiring a skill against the higher earnings it is expected to produce over a working life.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Paper1998
The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology
Frank L. Schmidt & John E. Hunter
Synthesises 85 years of research on hiring methods and finds that unstructured interviews, the technique most candidates and employers rely on, predict job performance far worse than structured interviews or a general mental ability test.
link checked 17 Sept 2026In order written
1962 – 2016- 1962Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical AnalysisGary S. Becker
- 1986You and Your ResearchRichard Hamming
- 1989A Continuity Theory of Normal AgingRobert C. Atchley
- 1998The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel PsychologyFrank L. Schmidt & John E. Hunter
- 2000Work/Family Border Theory: A New Theory of Work/Family BalanceSue Campbell Clark
- 2004Balanced Skills and EntrepreneurshipEdward P. Lazear
- 2006How to Do What You LovePaul Graham
- 2007The Landscape of Mentoring in the 21st CenturyBelle Rose Ragins & Kathy E. Kram
- 2014The Contaminating Effects of Building Instrumental Ties: How Networking Can Make Us Feel DirtyTiziana Casciaro, Francesca Gino & Maryam Kouchaki
- 2016Independent Work: Choice, Necessity, and the Gig EconomyJames Manyika et al.