#136 Complexity & Complicatedness - Sam Spurlin on playing hockey, why he quit teaching, studying at Claremont, leaving a PhD program, working pro bono too start his career, complicated vs complex systems, how to deal with ego in organizations, remote work failures, podcasting with his brother, and the importance of a retrospective meeting

• 0:00 – Video intro
• 0:51 – Introduction
• 1:32 – The scripts that Sam grew up with
• 3:33 – Scripts around suffering and work
• 5:13 – Hockey
• 10:16 – Teaching and why Sam quit it
• 13:56 – Advice from Sam’s mother
• 15:47 – What is a workologist?
• 17:22 – Claremont
• 20:40 – Letting go of the PhD
• 22:51 – Writing
• 24:18 – After quitting the Ph.D. program
• 26:08 – Working pro bono as a way to start the career you want to have
• 28:39 – Undercurrent, The Ready
• 31:45 – Complicated vs complex systems
• 34:47 – The problem of ego in organizations and how to deal with it
• 37:28 – Breaking the pattern to shake things up
• 38:48 – Navigating a distributed organization, in-person retreats
• 43:58 – What companies are doing wrong with remote work
• 47:49 – Dealing with getting worse in the short term
• 49:14 – “What is work”?
• 54:23 – Writing and how to protect what’s really important
• 57:03 – Sam’s brother - organic farmer and podcaster
• 59:06 – Doing something scary and unknown
• 1:01:09 – The importance of a retrospective meeting
• 1:01:48 – Sam’s path role models?
• 1:02:47 – The trap of a “dream job”
• 1:06:18 – What has inspired Sam in the last 6 months?
• 1:08:14 – Why did Sam leave New York?
• 1:08:41 – Where to find Sam?

Sam is a partner at The Ready - an organizational design consultancy operating fully remotely. He is also a prolific writer, passionate about personal development, self-managing organizations and adopting a more human, adaptive, and meaningful way of working.

🎥🍿 YOUTUBE: WATCH HERE

Links:

• Twitter: @samspurlin

• Instagram: samspurlin

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/samspurlin

• Sam’s writing: samspurlin.com/writing

• Sam’s writing on Medium: samspurlin.medium.com

• Newsletter: thedeliberate.substack.com/p/landing-page

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