Articles
The reading list.
The Post That Started Sift
Two years before the show had a name, it had a grievance. I found the receipt.
Every show has an origin story, and most of them are written after the fact, which makes them marketing. This one comes with a timestamp.
Read →Why SiftIssue Zero: Advice, Under Review
The manifesto, the verdict system, and the rules we're committing to on the record. Before a single episode airs.
Movies get reviewed. Restaurants get reviewed. The advice flooding your professional feed does not get reviewed. It gets reposted.
Read →Episode 1 essay“People Don't Quit Jobs, They Quit Managers.” Does It Hold Up?
The most reposted line in management content has a research pedigree, a fan club, and a problem. A review.
The most reposted line in management content goes under review: is the manager really the reason people leave?
Read →Episode 2 essay“QBRs Are Dead.” Does It Hold Up?
Every quarter, someone posts the obituary. I run these meetings for a living, so this week the review has skin in it.
Every quarter someone declares the quarterly business review dead. This week's review comes with a disclosure: Mike runs these meetings for a living.
Read →Episode 3 essay“Never Accept a Counteroffer.” Does It Hold Up?
The famous statistic says most people who accept are gone within a year. I went looking for where that number comes from.
“Most people who accept a counteroffer are gone within a year.” The review goes looking for the study behind that number.
Read →Episode 4 essay“AI Won't Take Your Job. Someone Using AI Will.” Does It Hold Up?
The most comforting sentence of the AI era has a real author, real research behind half of it, and a piece of arithmetic it hopes you won't do.
Richard Baldwin's viral line turns fear into agency: learn the tools. The review makes the strongest case for AI fluency, then tests the arithmetic when one person can do the work that used to take five.
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