Brookings fellow writing on AI, workers, and the future of good jobs.
In plain terms: This newsletter features writing from a Brookings fellow about artificial intelligence, workers, and the future of jobs. You can read it to stay informed about how technology impacts the modern workplace.
Why I recommend it: Her worker-first framing is exactly how to talk about AI in a job interview.
Read / subscribe freeA Substack newsletter on hiring trends and job market conditions written from inside recruiting, with posts on how employers screen and select candidates. Free posts are available to read and subscribe to by email.
Ramona C. Truta examines Alignerr's interview terms and privacy policy and raises concerns about rights to applicant recordings and data. This freely readable commentary presents the author's interpretation and allegations, not an adjudicated legal finding or individualized legal advice.
Grigory Sapunov describes how AI has changed his coding, research, company administration, reading and schedule. This is a personal account of AI-assisted work, not a representative study of software jobs.
Labor Matters analysis by Mels de Zeeuw and Gad Levanon of remote-work patterns and how they differ across worker groups. Published September 30, 2026; the article is publicly readable.
Psychologist Jacqueline Nesi's explainer on recent AI safety news and concerns, written for a general audience. Commentary, not an official lab report.
A project by the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator dedicated to researching and developing policy frameworks for AI governance, aiming to ensure that AI development aligns with public interest and regulatory standards.
A critical examination of the Effective Altruism movements influence on AI policy, arguing against certain regulatory approaches that may stifle innovation while addressing existential risks.
Substack post releasing agent-engineer, an open-source plugin for Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor that adds senior engineering skills, subagents, and hooks to AI coding assistants.
Substack essay tracing the evolution of American philanthropy and arguing that a new wave of giving is emerging, shaped by new wealth and new approaches to impact.
Next Play newsletter post collecting practical job-search advice from 23 startup recruiters on resumes, outreach and interviews.
Kevin Roose's newsletter post that publishes Dario Amodei's 2017 internal OpenAI memo, "The Big Blob of Compute Hypothesis," in full for the first time, with background on how it argued for making models bigger rather than more specialized and how it shaped OpenAI's early direction. Free to read on Substack.
Newsletter post from next play listing nine concrete, same-day actions job seekers can take to stand out when applying to high-growth AI and tech startups, including outreach and portfolio tactics.
Sabrina Ramonov's step-by-step Substack tutorial that walks from simple AI questions up to a first autonomous AI agent. Five stages: Ask AI, Think with AI, Teach AI, Delegate to AI, and Automate with AI - each with copy-and-paste prompts, ending with an agent that connects to your tools and prepares a weekly report on its own. Cites PNC Research (July 2026) finding that 98% of US households still are not paying for AI in 2026.
Labor economist Gad Levanon argues on his Labor Matters newsletter (Oct 1, 2026) that most of the public debate underestimates how much AI has already changed the US economy and labor market. He estimates underlying GDP growth at about 3 percent, driven largely by AI-related business investment, and says his reading of the evidence is not definitive proof.
Matt Mikalatos explains TESCREAL, the term coined by computer scientist Timnit Gebru and philosopher Émile P. Torres for a bundle of ideologies — transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism and longtermism — that he describes as billionaires and technologists pushing personal scientific projects while accepting fatal risks to people as the price of an "existential" need to advance the technology.
Newsletter on LinkedIn profile optimization and job search tactics from recruiter Kristof Schoenaerts. Free to read.
Newsletter teaching data science fundamentals to self-taught learners, written by David Langer. Free to read.
Ben Hylak argues that as AI agents start negotiating with each other on our behalf, our privacy will depend on how well those agents handle social situations.
Why I recommend it: An opinion essay by a startup founder, not research. Good prompt for thinking about what you let an agent share.
Free Substack newsletter by a principal cybersecurity engineer sharing career tips and cybersecurity news, including a recurring 14-day U.S. cyber threat forecast (e.g. the September 22, 2026 VECTR-CAST report on actively exploited Cisco, ScreenConnect and VMware vulnerabilities).
Why I recommend it: Good for people moving into cybersecurity who want a practitioner's read on current threats. The threat levels and forecasts are the author's own analysis, not an official CISA rating — cross-check CVEs against the CISA KEV catalog.
Gary Marcus's free newsletter post on the September 23, 2026 UN Security Council briefing where Yoshua Bengio, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei and Hugging Face's Clement Delangue spoke. He reprints Bengio's remarks in full (with permission) and argues the speakers agreed on pre-release safety testing, transparency audits, liability, international cooperation and immediate action.
Why I recommend it: An opinion newsletter written the same day, not a full transcript. Marcus is a long-time critic of AI companies and says the speakers agreed with points he has pushed for years, so read it as his take. Only Bengio's speech is reprinted in full.
Technical newsletter by Vinoth Govindarajan taking AI agents apart: control loops, memory, orchestration, evaluation and what breaks in production. Recent series walks through the OpenCode architecture end to end.
Why I recommend it: Free to subscribe, over 2,000 readers; written for people who build software, not for beginners. Substack publications can add paid-only posts at any time, so check the top of a post before counting on it.
Manoush Zomorodi (NPR's TED Radio Hour) coins p(joy) as a deliberate counterpoint to p(doom), the probability-of-catastrophe number traded around AI circles: instead of estimating disaster, estimate whether satisfying moments are increasing in your life and what reliably creates them. The second half is a long interview with Brian Elliott of Work Forward on knowledge work right now — identity loss as machines take a skill you spent decades building, cognitive overload from supervising AI agents, and executives privately saying their best people and heaviest AI users are the likeliest to quit. Elliott's summary: human-led, AI-enabled, because nobody's competitive advantage is being average faster.
Why I recommend it: Read this the next time an AI doom number is quoted at you as though it were measured. The piece cites Gizmodo's plain point that no one at the frontier labs has an actual method for producing a p(doom) figure. The useful part is Elliott's three patterns in companies getting value from AI: a scorecard covering business impact, quality and employee engagement rather than tool usage; aiming at teams instead of individuals; and leaders using the tools in public, mistakes included. Free to read in full, no paywall.
A newsletter for university students and early-career professionals on building a career deliberately: networking with low effort, building a portfolio when you are not an artist, reputation-building as a young professional, early-career growth rules, job hunting after graduation, and working in and around AI. Launched in early 2026. Every issue in the recent archive is free to everyone, and the whole archive is open.
Why I recommend it: Best for the first few years of a career, where the advice gap is widest — the pieces on networking and on building a portfolio without being a designer are the ones to start with. It is one writer's experience rather than researched guidance, so treat it as a practitioner's notes: take the habits, check any claim about hiring against a source that publishes its numbers.
I believe the time has come for a broad boycott of generative AI — a public argument from AI researcher and critic Gary Marcus on why the technology is not ready for widespread deployment.
From the site: I believe the time has come for a broad boycott of generative AI — a public argument from AI researcher and critic Gary Marcus on why the technology is not ready for widespread deployment.
Publishing platform for newsletters, podcasts and video. Free to start and publish with no fees until you choose to charge readers; Substack takes 10% of paid subscriptions if you do.
From the site: The app for independent voices
Why I recommend it: Free tier covers everything you need to publish and grow; you only share revenue if you turn on paid subscriptions.
Qiaochu Yuan (QC) on seeing Eliezer Yudkowsky as a prophet, and what that framing means for thinking about AI risk and the future.
From the site: I see Eliezer Yudkowsky as a prophet, and I mean that fairly literally.
Why I recommend it: Substack may show signup prompts, but the article itself was publicly accessible when added.
Substack from historian Rutger Bregman on moral ambition and doing work that matters, aimed at people considering a career built around impact.
From the site: Historian | Author of ‘Moral Ambition’ (2025), ‘Humankind’ (2020) and ‘Utopia for Realists’ (2014) | Co-founder of The School for Moral Ambition. Click to read Rutger Bregman, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
Why I recommend it: Directly relevant if you are rethinking what your career is for. It argues a position hard; take the questions, not the prescriptions.
A free newsletter of operating playbooks for software companies, organised by function — sales, marketing, operations, product and finance.
Why I recommend it: If you are building or joining a startup, the function-by-function playbooks are the practical part most advice skips.
Ed Elson's Simply Put essay on how AI, cost and weakening returns on a degree are reshaping education and the entry-level job market.
Why I recommend it: Useful context if you are deciding whether more school is the answer. It argues the credential is worth less than the proof of work.
A free newsletter briefing on AI developments from a pro-human standpoint, covering labor, safety, policy and the campaigns pushing back on automation-first decisions.
Why I recommend it: A steady weekly read if you want the human-impact side of AI news rather than product launches.
A practical walkthrough of building a good slide deck with AI: what to hand the model, what to keep yourself, and how to avoid the generic deck AI produces by default.
Why I recommend it: Decks are where AI output looks laziest fastest. Use the prompts here for structure, then write the words yourself.
A Substack essay from Prof. Pilyoung Kim on a recent study showing that warning users about sycophantic AI changes how they judge it — but not how much it shifts their views.
Why I recommend it: A sharp reminder that AI assistants can shape our opinions even when we know they are agreeing with us; relevant to anyone using AI for research or decisions.
A Substack essay from Ruben on privacy, data ownership, and the human side of digital trust.
Why I recommend it: Personal take on privacy that connects policy to everyday choices.
A weekly newsletter on the science of focus, energy and habits, written while balancing a full-time job and a growing creator business.
Why I recommend it: Practical habit writing from someone doing it alongside a day job.
Ten concrete things you could build that people actually want, with the reasoning behind each idea.
Why I recommend it: Useful if you want to start something but are stuck on what.
A plain-language guide to stock options, grants, vesting and what equity in a job offer is actually worth.
Why I recommend it: Read this before you accept a startup offer with equity in it.
Essay mapping the competing factions in the AI debate and what each one actually believes.
Why I recommend it: The clearest short explainer I have found for anyone confused by the AI shouting match.
Analysis of the current hiring market, why applications disappear, and what job seekers can control.
Why I recommend it: Read this when you start blaming yourself for a slow search. Some of it is the market, not you.
High-trust talent referrals from top founders, operators, and VCs. Built for fast-growing startups.
Why I recommend it: A referral-driven newsletter for people who want to break into high-growth startups through trusted introductions. If you're tired of cold applications, this is worth following.
A newsletter analyzing what actually performs on LinkedIn and social platforms, based on running experiments and reporting the data rather than repeating best-practice folklore.
Why I recommend it: Most LinkedIn advice is guesswork dressed up as expertise. This one tests things and shows the numbers, which is why I read it.
An essay weighing the argument that AI adoption could push unemployment into double digits, against the labor data we actually have so far.
Why I recommend it: I collect both the alarmed and the skeptical takes on AI and jobs on purpose. Read this next to the Census and Brookings data in this collection and form your own view rather than borrowing a headline.
Newsletter on career growth, leadership, and navigating work as a professional woman.
Why I recommend it: Short, honest writing about the parts of career growth that do not fit in a framework. Worth a subscription.
Playbook for building hiring relationships long before the roles you want exist.
Why I recommend it: This is the work most people skip until they need a job. Ten conversations a quarter now saves you a desperate search later.
Prompting framework and twelve worked prompts for using a top-ranked model on finance and analysis tasks.
Why I recommend it: Steal the prompt structure, not the finance specifics. The same framing works for market research or competitor scans in your own business.
Regularly updated roundup of open roles, warm introductions, and opportunities shared through a personal professional network.
Why I recommend it: Curated lists like this beat job boards because a real person vouched for the posting. Reply and introduce yourself.
Economist Noah Smith's newsletter covering labor markets, technology, industrial policy, and the economics behind AI hype cycles.
Why I recommend it: One of the few writers I trust to check the numbers before drawing a conclusion. Worth a standing subscription if you follow the economy at all.
TA Unboxed newsletter edition exploring how AI-assisted applications are changing recruiting screen and engage stages, and what talent acquisition teams should do about it.
Why I recommend it: Read this to understand the recruiter's side of the desk. The same AI tools candidates use are flooding their applicant tracking systems, which changes how you should stand out.
Personal Substack by 0xMovez AI covering AI, automation, and emerging technology for thousands of subscribers.
From the site: My personal Substack. Click to read 0xMovez's Substack, by 0xMovez AI, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
Why I recommend it: AI and automation commentary; sample a few posts to see if the angle matches where you are in your career.
The Job Hopper's roundup of no-cost tools for people switching careers — skills mapping, resume and profile help, research, and job tracking.
Why I recommend it: Start with the skills-translation tools. Career changers lose interviews on vocabulary far more often than on ability.
Guide arguing that nearly every paid job-search service has a free equivalent, with the specific free resources to use instead of coaching and resume packages.
Why I recommend it: This is the whole premise of this library too. Spend money only after free help has run out, not before.
A large curated list of free courses, certificates, and training programs across tech, business, and professional skills, organized by provider.
Why I recommend it: Do not try to work the whole list. Pick one credential that matches a job posting you actually want and finish it.
Linas Beliūnas's fintech newsletter issue rounding up funding, product launches, regulation, and hiring signals across banking and payments.
Why I recommend it: Industry newsletters are cheap market research. Read a few issues before a fintech interview and you will sound like an insider.
A Substack essay from the Side Work newsletter built on direct conversations about pay, showing what people in different roles actually earn and how they talk about it.
Why I recommend it: Real numbers from real people beat any salary calculator. Use it to set a floor before your next negotiation, and notice how plainly these folks discuss money.
Psychologist and professor Jacqueline Nesi translates new research on technology, attention, and mental health into practical guidance for digital life.
Why I recommend it: A research-backed counterweight to hot takes about screens and AI. Good source material if you write or speak about technology and people.
Newsletter breaking down system design and backend engineering concepts with clear diagrams — interview-grade explanations of how large systems work.
Why I recommend it: Use the diagrams as interview prep. If you can redraw one from memory and explain the tradeoffs out loud, you are ready to talk about it in a system design round.
Writer and ecosystem lead at a16z, publishing on startups, founder communities, and early-career paths into venture and tech.
Why I recommend it: A good window into how venture and startup ecosystems actually hire and connect people. Useful if you want a non-engineering way into tech.
Newsletter testing and comparing AI coding tools and prompts, with side-by-side results for developers.
Why I recommend it: Skip the hype cycle and read the comparisons. Pick one tool from a recent test, use it on a real project, and write up what happened.
FinTech and AI strategist writing on financial technology, startups, and where money and AI intersect.
Why I recommend it: Follow if fintech or payments is your target industry. His posts are a quick daily read on what the sector is reacting to.
Newsletter on building media and creator businesses that last, including the economics behind AI-generated content.
Why I recommend it: A good weekly counterweight to platform hype — it focuses on revenue durability instead of view counts.
next play's breakdown of the different categories of AI companies hiring right now and where the momentum is heading.
Why I recommend it: Read it as a target list: pick two or three categories that match your background before you start applying.
Practical AI guidance for small business owners who aren't high-tech, from a fellow small business owner.
In plain terms: This newsletter provides practical artificial intelligence guidance written by a small business owner. You can learn how to use AI to help your business succeed, even if you are not high-tech.
Why I recommend it: Written for Main Street, not for engineers — start here if AI feels like it is not for you.
Weekly synthesis of AI research and policy by Jack Clark, Anthropic co-founder. 130K+ subscribers.
In plain terms: This weekly newsletter summarizes the latest artificial intelligence research and policy. You can read it to keep up with developments in AI technology.
Why I recommend it: Best place to understand the policy fights that will shape AI jobs.
Newsletter of career opportunities, tech trends, and industry insight for current and aspiring Black technologists and entrepreneurs.
In plain terms: A newsletter mixing tech job opportunities with industry trends and commentary, built for Black technologists and entrepreneurs. A steady source of leads without scrolling job boards.
From the site: Career opportunities, tech trends, and industry insights delivered straight to your inbox. For current and aspiring technologists, entrepreneurs, and professionals.
Why I recommend it: Job leads plus honest industry commentary in one place. Subscribe and treat the opportunity posts as a weekly search prompt.
Analytics and Excel teacher helping professionals build real data skills and use AI to increase their impact at work.
In plain terms: An Excel MVP and author teaching practical analytics skills you can apply at work, including how to pair them with AI tools. Self-paced and beginner-friendly.
From the site: Helping you build real-world analytics skills so you can partner with AI to accelerate your impact at work. Author, LinkedIn Top Voice, Microsoft Excel MVP.
Why I recommend it: A good fit if you want data skills without a bootcamp. His lessons are built around work you actually do in a job.
A walkthrough of how to find and place the right keywords in your LinkedIn profile so recruiters and search actually surface you.
In plain terms: A short guide on choosing the keywords recruiters actually search and where to place them on your LinkedIn profile. Practical first step if your profile gets views but no messages.
From the site: Where it all starts
Why I recommend it: Start here before rewriting your whole profile. Keywords in your headline and About section do more work than clever wording.
Interview prep and career advice for developers from Fahim ul Haq, drawing on 15+ years in big tech.
In plain terms: A newsletter of coding interview prep and tech career advice from a longtime engineer and founder. Focused on interview patterns, system design, and growth in engineering roles.
From the site: Interview prep and career advice for devs. Tips and takeaways from 15+ years in tech.
Why I recommend it: Pair this with mock practice. The system design and interview breakdowns map closely to what big tech actually asks.
Founder-turned-investor writing a widely-read AI newsletter covering new tools, launches, and what is actually useful.
In plain terms: An exited founder and investor sharing what he learns about AI tools, products, and startups. A low-effort way to keep up with a fast-moving space.
From the site: Exited founder turned investor. Sharing what I see and learn along the way.
Why I recommend it: The fastest way to stay current on AI tools without living on social media. Skim it weekly, try one tool.
Executive recruiter writing about how search firms really screen candidates, plus LinkedIn and job-search tactics.
In plain terms: An executive recruiter shares what happens behind the curtain of a search process and how to run a tighter job search. Aimed at experienced and senior professionals.
From the site: Executive recruiter by day and LinkedIn expert by night, giving executives a peek behind the executive search curtain and helping them run an efficient job search.
Why I recommend it: Follow someone who sits on the hiring side. His posts explain what recruiters skip past in seconds, which is hard to learn any other way.
Free, hands-on AI tutorials and automation walkthroughs for people who want to actually build with the tools.
In plain terms: Free AI tutorials and automation guides written for practitioners rather than theorists. Good for learning tools you can use in your job this week.
From the site: Free AI tutorials, prompts, and automation walkthroughs.
Why I recommend it: Her tutorials are step-by-step, not hype. Pick one workflow you repeat weekly and automate it.
Newsletter reporting on the fight to reshape technology in the public interest.
In plain terms: This newsletter reports on efforts to reshape technology in the public interest. You can read regular articles to stay informed about technology ethics and industry reform.
From the site: Idea Trafficking. Click to read Hard Reset, by Trafficker 01, a Substack publication. Launched 5 years ago.
Why I recommend it: Skimmable and current — good for staying briefed in ten minutes a week.
Other resources that share this publication's topics.
A KDnuggets guide by Vinod Chugani that goes round by round through current data science hiring processes, including AI-assisted coding rounds and generative AI evaluation questions, and lists ways candidates can prepare.
A Built In survey of job seekers on how AI tools shape which employers they find and consider. Among respondents who use AI for employer research, 66% say they applied to a company they had not considered and 53% say they decided not to apply somewhere because of what AI showed them. Built In sells employer branding services.
Artificial Analysis reports Muse Ember benchmark scores and task-cost estimates, including an Intelligence Index score of 36 and $0.14 per task in its evaluation. These are evaluator-specific results, not a verified Meta launch announcement or evidence of free model access.
Epoch AI explains an Inference Performance Index for estimating chip capacity across agentic workloads and output-speed requirements. Its modeled comparisons, expressed in GB300 equivalents, depend on workload and hardware assumptions and are not universal real-world performance guarantees.
OpenAI announces that organizations can purchase ChatGPT Enterprise through AWS Marketplace using existing procurement and billing arrangements. The announcement is freely readable; ChatGPT Enterprise is a paid service, not a free tool.
Anthropic announces Claude Fable 5.2 and Mythos 5.2 and reports improvements in coding, reasoning and vision and outputs up to 30% faster than 5.1. The announcement is free to read, not free model access: listed API prices are $8 per million input tokens and $40 per million output tokens; Mythos requires organizational verification.
