{Generic section about how weird this year was. Choose your own adjectives.}
I did this in 2019, but I honestly don’t think I had ever done it before that. I’ve been blogging since 2013, so I guess I missed a few opportunities herein. Well, so be it!
Here’s my 2020 hot list, in order:
(1) The biggest cover your ass moves at work: Title mostly says it all on this one.
(2) Transactional analysis and adult-parent-child: Fun fact — this has somehow been popular since I wrote it. The backstory is that I was seeing a therapist in 2015. He gave me a book to read by Eric Berne. I read it on a plane to Paris, which was my ex-wife and I’s delayed honeymoon. In an apartment in Paris, I wrote this blog post (fancy). It has horrible SEO and title, but it’s been performing well for me for five years now.
(3) Could COVID scale the four-day work week? As you might guess from the title, this was actually written this year. The short answer is “It should,” but the more complex answer is “It probably won’t.”
(4) Jeramy Carl Burt disappearance: Used to blog a decent amount about true crime, and this is from that era. This is a case in Idaho and I think this post ranks pretty high on Google, so whenever it comes up on a TV show, I get traffic spikes herein.
(5) River Phoenix and Leo DiCaprio: This is basically an investigation of whether Leo would be as famous if River Phoenix had lived. I wrote it depressed in an apartment in Minneapolis probably seven years ago, but I guess people find the topic intriguing.
(6) Can we finally get rid of racist hiring managers? This is tied to a bunch of LinkedIn DMs from Adam Karpiak as racial justice issues intensified this past summer.
(7) Company culture is not just listing core values: This is one of the better cultural (work) things I’ve written, and it keeps performing well for me.
(8) “Hop on a call:” For whatever reason, this biz phrase offends me a lot. I wrote about it in 2015, and people keep finding it despite poor SEO.
(9) The bad attitude work myth: I believe this has a cameo from Judd Nelson in it.
(10) Middle managers are crippling the economy: This is probably my favorite “Man, management is a lot of garbage” take of mine, so I’m glad it made top 10 for this year.
Some other 2020 pop-outs
- Katrina: A HR gal online dragged me in an email blast and I responded, then I went too far so I retracted it to this post.
- The evolution of adult friendships: How they change over time, especially relative to COVID (and cancel culture).
- What type of failure might predict success? Weirdly, I wrote this later in the year (12/15).
- Six years, down in Texas: A look at my life, warts and all.
- What might actually change in society because of COVID? I guess we will see if any of this stuff comes true.
