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More Clarity, Less Noise
by Rick Pollick
Two volumes — writings on mindset, people, process, product, data, and AI.
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2026
2025
14 minMembersGoing Off-Grid
There's a moment that hits a lot of people in fast1paced tech jobs. You're sitting in front of three monitors, eight Slackchannels are on fire, PagerDuty is glaring at you like a smoke alarm, and a totally reasonable thought pops into your head:"What if I just threw my phone in a lake and learned to whittle?"You're not broken. You're normal. And there's research behind that urge to go "low-tech" or even "off-grid" outside of work,especially around technostress, digital overload, and the way mode
20 minMembersMore Clarity = Less Noise
When Vision is Clear, Less Micromanaging is Needed: The Truth Behind Trust, Alignment, and Empowered TeamsLook, we've all been there. Sitting in yet another meeting that could've been an email, watching your day evaporate into a black hole of status updates and check-ins. Meanwhile, the actual work? It's piling up on your desk, waiting for you to finally get five uninterrupted minutes to tackle it.Here's the thing, though: when vision is clear, direction makes sense, and communication is good, l
15 minMembersDon't Fear the Bot
Don't Fear the Bot: Why AI Mastery is Your Next Essential Skill (And What Happens If You Ignore It)Remember hearing about when people thought electricity would kill them in their sleep?In the 1880s, when electric lights first flickered on in city streets, people called them "devil's fire" and "witch's light". Stories spread that spirits were trapped in wires, waiting to burst out as fire and death. The New York Tribune reported in 1889 that citizens genuinely believed that "any metallic object—a
8 minMembersBecause I Felt Like It
How I Turned Fantasy Football Into an AI-Powered Data Playground
6 minPhases of Focus
How I try to divide my day into phases of focus — and why it works better than just prioritization.
5 minAI ≠ Just LLMs
Why AI Doesn’t Always Mean Large Language Models
5 minWhen Leadership Is the Roadblock
When Leadership Is the Roadblock: Underprepared, Stuck, or ContrarianWe’ve all been there. You’re working hard to move a project forward, rally a team around a vision, or launch something innovative – but instead of support from leadership, you’re faced with a roadblock. The kicker? Sometimes the biggest obstacles aren’t budget constraints, technology gaps, or talent shortages. They’re the very people meant to guide the ship (Goleman, 2000).Today, let’s talk about three common leadership roadblo