Brian Elliott

wsj.comExclusive | At Davos, Kimberly Guilfoyle Boasted of Private Jet Trips, Luxury StaysA recording captured the U.S. ambassador saying that Greek businessmen were paying for her travels and pleading for an invitation to an event with Eric Trump.

Is it ex-grifter-daughter-in-law, or ex-daughter-in-law-grifter? Not sure on the grammar.

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social

Another bad report for Kim Guilfoyle: According to an audio recording reviewed by WSJ, Guilfoyle boasted at Davos about her close ties to two Greek tycoons and said they were bankrolling her high-rolling trips around the world.

I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to find out that the CEO who ignored his original Board’s concerns about safety also ignored his employees’ concerns about the same.

26 Aug

Hey @nytimes.com could you please fix this embarrassing crap? Every news alert in gmail now carries this massive mess ahead of the content.

wsj.comOpinion | The Dumbest Trade War RevisitedTrump’s decision to escalate a tariff brawl with Canada makes no economic or political sense.

24 Aug

Even the WSJ OpEd is taking Trump's trade war from dumb to dumber status: "President Trump took exception last year when we called his tariffs against Canada and Mexico the dumbest trade war in history. It got dumber this weekend" www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...

Brian Elliott reposted

dr. rich traditions, JD

@helldude.bsky.social

the fact that john ossoff can kick off a two-day media cycle by saying that the president is uninterested in doing his job and is sleeping through meetings and traveling around with a young blonde, suggests that not enough of these guys are speaking plainly and effectively about these assholes

nbcnews.comNorth Korea stole billions in crypto in 2025, new research saysThe report from Chainalysis comes as crypto theft has surged worldwide.

Why would the US President give favorable treatment to N Korea? Is it just that Trump has another of his "special relationships" with KJU? Even given they arm Iran? Maybe follow the money. In 2026, 64% of crypto hacks, over $2b, were done by NK. www.nbcnews.com/tech/crypto/...

trmlabs.comNorth Korea Stole 76% of All Crypto Hack Value in 2026 — With Just Two Attacks | TRM LabsNorth Korea stole USD 577M in just two crypto hacks in 2026 — Drift Protocol and KelpDAO — accounting for 76% of all hack losses through April.

North Korea is 74% of hacks through April 2026, already over $570M www.trmlabs.com/resources/bl...

cbsnews.comTrump family crypto business World Liberty gets preliminary approval to establish a bankThe plan has sparked criticism from Democrats, who argue that granting bank status to a business affiliated with the Trump family poses a conflict of interest.

Being clear, I know jack sh*t about crypto and how it works, any way in which the NK crypto is turned into liquid assets, nor whether or how they'd be tied to Trump. Whose $1.4b in crypto gains are tied in part to World Liberty, which he's trying to turn into a bank. www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-f...

charterworks.comHow the 'machine pace' of work is burning out your best employeesHow the heaviest AI users—and best performers—are burning out trying to ‘outrace irrelevance’

11 Aug

"Our top performers are trying to outrace irrelevance." The fear of losing your job to AI is far lower than the fear of unrelenting pace, the piling-on of more responsibilities. We can’t operate at machine pace, yet many are trying. Something’s going to break. www.charterworks.com/how-the-mach...

theworkforward.substack.comThe winners lose their nerveBefore dessert with Jamie Dimon, the people who won the economy told me they think it's coming apart

8 Aug

What happens when even the modern-day Masters of the Universe think it's all coming apart? theworkforward.substack.com/p/the-winner...

nl.nytimes.comTrump Demanded Details of Agents’ Interview of Comey, New Filing SaysThe request suggests the intense personal involvement of President Trump in investigating one of his longtime critics, the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey.

30 July

Just freaking horrible.. "Secret Service agents tailed Comey’s car from North Carolina to Virginia.....The agents who were following Comey even lost him briefly. He had turned off the highway to visit the gravesite of his son who died in 1995." nl.nytimes.com/f/newsletter...

federalnewsnetwork.comAfter returning to the office, federal employees report low productivity, morale | Federal News NetworkIn a Federal News Network online survey, over three-quarters of respondents said they are less productive now than they were prior to returning to the office.

21 July

76% of Fed workers say the Trump admin's return to office demands made them less productive. “I work in what is essentially a supply closet with three other colleagues, making it extremely challenging to take calls” "We’re able to do less of our jobs." federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/20...

8 July

What day is it? Borrowed, and I don’t remember from whom, but yet again appropriate.

theworkforward.substack.comThe tokenmaxxing trapWhy mandating AI usage backfires, and who profits when you do it anyway.

4 May

Parents this weekend: is this "tokemaxxing" thing really, like, a thing? Me: Sadly, yes. Nice to know they read my newsletter... theworkforward.substack.com/p/the-tokenm...

sfstandard.comBi-Rite is bringing its first non-profit grocery store to the Sunnydale neighborhoodDo not expect subsized Saba jam or Fishwife sardines. In 2027, Bi-Rite, 18 Reasons, and the Crankstart Foundation are teaming up on a non-profit grocery in Sunnydale where day-to-day food will sell at...

4 May

20-25% of San Franciscans are food insecure. It's ridiculous in a city with this much tech wealth rolling around. Last week, 18 Reasons, Bi-Rite, & Crankstart Foundation announced a step forward that will help: a non-profit grocery store in the Sunnydale neighborhood. sfstandard.com/2026/05/04/s...

8 Apr

Dear managers: the beatings will continue until morale approves. Not surprisingly, Gallup’s 2026 “State of Workplace” found that employee engagement dropped again last year: down to 20% overall. Managers took the biggest swing: down 30% over the course of the last 3 years, from 31% to 22%.

8 Apr

Why should bosses care? After, AI can allow us to replace managers, right? Managers enable AI transformation. Managers who support team’s use of AI are: 8.7X more likely to say AI has transformed how work gets done. 7.4X more likely to say AI gives them more opportunities to do what they do best

8 Apr

CEOs keep whacking layers at lower levels. From 6-8 people to 10-12, but no change in bureaucracy or senior layers. Managers with no time for craft, coaching, or experimentation. Overtaxed, undertrained, wondering when the axe is coming for them. The people that are essential to enabling change.

sfstandard.comCan you put dog poop bags in other people’s trash cans? An ethical investigationIn a city overrun with dogs and light on public trash cans, this is the question dividing our community.

16 Mar

7 out of 7 ethicists say my wife is right and I'm wrong: Take the baggie of dog poop to a public trash can, or take it home. No putting it in the neighbor's bin, even out on the sidewalk on trash day. From the @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2026/03/15/d...

3 Mar

69% of c-suite leaders are using AI less than an hour a week. 28% of them don't use it at all: zero, zilch, nada. At the same time, 50% of CEOs say they fear for their jobs if they don't make progress on leveraging AI in 2026. All hype, little lived experience.

time.comBlock’s layoffs are an outlier. Their influence might not be.Four factors to keep in mind in response to Block’s layoffs of 40% of its workforce

4 Mar

While you’re here, my column yesterday re Jack Dorsey’s attempt to move the goalposts on how aggressive you can get about AI and jobs. time.com/charter/7382...

If you're falling into the hype cycle but not using the tools, you not only risk getting it wrong, you're telling your team (yet again) "do what I say, not what I do." My column today in TIME: time.com/charter/7382...

time.comCEOs are betting big on AI while barely using itNew research surveying 6,000 executives finds AI hasn't disrupted jobs yet—but they expect that to change.

2 Mar

Jack Dorsey is trying to move the goal posts on AI and layoffs. Block’s 40% cut in staffing is likely to inspire other leaders to follow suit, just not as extreme. Like Elon’s 80% cut at Twitter inspired 10-20% cuts and Andy Jassy’s demand for 5 days in office led to 3 day demands in most of tech.

2 Mar

It’s about shifting the Overton Window. Jack’s also got other motives. He’s selling AI-enabled tech products to businesses. As their web site puts it, “The next era of computing will run itself.” Block also is 2X larger in 2025 than it was in 2020, while the stock had dropped 75% in the same period.

time.comBlock’s layoffs are an outlier. Their influence might not be.Four factors to keep in mind in response to Block’s layoffs of 40% of its workforce

2 Mar

This is a restructuring play, not a universal AI productivity playbook. Shades of Twitter, where when Jack was CEO “absent” was the word most often used to describe him and he took the blame for bloated headcount. Where do you think this goes next? My column in TIME: time.com/charter/7382...

20 Feb

Bad news: US economy only grew 1.4% in Q4. Good news: Supreme Court has (finally) determined that President Trump's tariffs weren't legally imposed That's a win for consumers: the Federal Reserve found that "nearly 90 percent of the tariffs’ economic burden fell on U.S. firms and consumers.” /1

What happens next with tariff rollbacks and other efforts by Trump to replace them, only time will tell. But given the US economic growth in 2025 was almost entirely dependent on AI-related spending, it would be excellent news to see a boon outside of tech. /3

20 Feb

Not to mention a return to normalcy on trade deals that aren't negotiated based on whims and applied based on who transits the White House with the best golden statue.

Tariffs didn’t reduce the trade deficit (~$900b in '25, same as '24). Manufacturing jobs continued to shrink in '25. They put a regressive tax on consumers and created not just challenges but massive uncertainty for businesses, which resulted in a weaker economy and weaker job market. /2

sfstandard.comA tech CEO says AI is about to do to everyone what it is doing to coders. Is he right?Matt Shumer’s viral essay comparing AI to the early days of Covid has more than 80 million views. The concern is understandable. The timeline is another story.

16 Feb

Grappling with fear vs hope on AI's impact on jobs? Start with a dose of reality: Jacob Clemente digs into Matt Shumer's essay for the @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2026/02/14/a...

16 Feb

"The bottleneck isn’t tech. It’s everything around it: organizational change, complexity of real-world jobs, new work AI creates, regulatory friction that slows adoption. ..Pace of disruption will be set by the slowest-moving force, not the fastest. Every year counts for workers’ ability to adapt."

charterworks.comThe AI challenges HR leaders face mostHigh AI adoption doesn't mean transformation. Here's what HR leaders say is holding their companies back.

9 Feb

Brandon Sammut at Zapier: “We’re at 97% adoption. We might be 10% of the way there” on transformation. Leaders are grappling with the messy middle of AI: usage is not results. More often than not, stress being applied from top to bottom, making change harder: www.charterworks.com/the-ai-chall...

charterworks.comThe 2026 AI SummitLearn from workplace leaders redesigning how work gets done with AI.

9 Feb

Interested in hearing from more leaders grappling with #AI? Check out Charter’s Leading with AI Summits. → Tuesday Feb 10th, #NYC and online → Tuesday Feb 4th, #SF and online Virtual registration is still open for Feb 10th, and it’s FREE: www.charterworks.com/events/ai-su...

sfstandard.comHow Foursquare scrapped engineering manager titlesThe company eliminated nearly all manager roles in engineering and the results have been dramatic.

4 Feb

Do we need managers? Foursquare redesigned to focus on team performance. No more eng manager titles, strong tech leads, team coaching and systems for perf and career dev. Will it work? Will it scale? Let me know what you think. In today’s @sfstandard.com: sfstandard.com/2026/02/03/f...

charterworks.comHow to respond amid ICE raids, protests, and violence in MinneapolisStrategies for deciding on public statements, supporting workers, and preparing managers

1 Feb

“Speak out, [and] you are quite likely to get retaliation from the government. If you don’t, you are going to really lose trust with your customers and employees.” The cost of silence is going up. Leaders finally, tentatively, start to find their voices. www.charterworks.com/how-to-respo...

sfstandard.comTech Bro 2.0: The new Silicon Valley archetype dominating the AI ageHe’s not what he used to be. He’s jacked, cracked, and thinks he might save America.

29 Sept 2025

In the dotcom era, the influx of banker bro types into tech was followed by the bubble bursting. B2B became "Back to Banking," B2C was "Back to Consulting" Will the modern tech bros usher in AGI and the last-ever gold rush, or will we get B2B 2.0? @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2025/09/29/t...?

29 Sept 2025

Giving someone a meditation app to help with burnout is like treating a third-degree burn with a bandaid. What works? Learn to recognize the signs, clear priorities, and opportunities to grow -- not just taking breaks. 👉 sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-... Image credit @omarwhatworks.bsky.social

5 Sept 2025

Just a reminder of how hard Trump had to work to mess up this economy.

open.substack.comThe Job Market Squeeze: When Uncertainty Meets AIWhy the employment downturn has more to do with anxiety than technology

5 Sept 2025

It’s not AI-driven automation that’s killing the job market, it’s tariffs and uncertainty. The big hope of Big Tech is to compound it by cranking up AI-driven losses. Otherwise, an economy propped up by AI investment collapses. We are so screwed. open.substack.com/pub/theworkf...

theworkforward.substack.comReturn to Office, Return to BiasWhy the gender gap in return to office isn't just about caregiving

3 Sept 2025

Why do women have a far greater preference for remote and hybrid work than men? It’s not just that they’re far more often the primary caregiver. It’s that bias and discrimination are twice as likely to happen to a woman on-site than working remotely. theworkforward.substack.com/p/return-to-...

31 July 2025

Stack ranking and removing the bottom XX% is back in vogue, esp in Big Tech. As a reminder, here's the org chart that resulted in at Microsoft in the 2000's: internal competition. Research on why it backfires long term, and alternative paths: theworkforward.substack.com/p/stop-ranki...

theworkforward.substack.comLearning While LeadingHow Zoom's Izabella Lorenz Transformed Workplace Strategy Through Customer-Centric Design

24 July 2025

The best leaders embrace being uncomfortable. They know that challenges that test us today become our biggest accomplishments tomorrow -- that's how we learn and grow. My interview with Izabella Lorenz: theworkforward.substack.com/p/learning-w...

Five major studies on AI adoption recently dropped. The findings are insightful & alarming. The employees getting the biggest productivity gains are also 2X more likely to quit, with 88% higher burnout rates. Even scarier? Heavy AI users say they'd rather chat with ChatGPT than their colleagues.

Those perceptions of productivity gains might not be real: recent research found developers estimated they were 20% more productive using AI tools, when they were actually 19% slower.

theworkforward.substack.comWhen ChatGPT Beats Your Colleagues as a TeammateFalse positives on AI gains, the real drivers of adoption and the risk of profound losses of human connection

Leaders demanding more output (code, emails, content) without understanding how AI actually works or investing in proper implementation. The drive for efficiency squeezing out all time for human connection - leaving users alone with their bot “coworkers.” theworkforward.substack.com/p/when-chatg...

theworkforward.substack.comThe Meeting Plague: Why Your Calendar Is Killing ProductivityHelp us research what's working (and what isn't) by sharing your experience in our 5-minute survey

9 July 2025

If we invested half the energy spent debating office attendance into fixing how we spend our time, we'd have higher productivity – and lower burnout. We keep stumbling into packed calendars and ending weeks frustrated. Want to do something about it? theworkforward.substack.com/p/the-meetin...

theworkforward.substack.comWhen ChatGPT Beats Your Colleagues as a TeammateFalse positives on AI gains, the real drivers of adoption and the risk of profound losses of human connection

It's not the tools; leaders must: 1. Invest in training; 5-10 hours brings adoption from 18% to 82% 2. Leaders have to roll up their sleeves. Engaged leaders drive 2X higher adoption. 3. Focus on outcomes, not outputs. Carve out time for connection. theworkforward.substack.com/p/when-chatg...

axios.comWhy CEOs are using AI to scare workersCEOs warn the new technology could make many workers obsolete, while urging them to start using it right away.

20 June 2025

The CEOs who are AI arms merchants aren't the only ones telling employees to adopt or else, but they're certainly the loudest. Thanks @emilypeck.bsky.social for talking to me about your latest: www.axios.com/2025/06/20/a...

18 June 2025

“He thought he was the King of America… Now he’s a brilliant mistake.” Elvis Costello & the Imposters