> “For What It’s Worth” is an open notebook capturing ideas and tools related to knowledge work. They are all inspired by collaboration with authentic people on real world problems. But pulling the thread on those issues frequently leads to research and writing that runs a little deeper.

Although we are practical people, we aren’t Sorcerer’s Apprentices, only applying what works without understanding why and how. If you’re mostly just interested in practical tools, checklists, frameworks and that sort of stuff, check out the “Work” and “Infrastructure” categories. The underlying first principles of how work works are grouped under the “Culture & Science” banner. (And if you’re curious how I came up with the categories, read the “Pace Layers” essay).

I build in public, not always waiting to publish until an article or essay is completely finished. The homepage does not list what’s still Work In Progress, but if you want to take an early peek at what I’m working on, it’s visible through this page. Be aware that the WIP can get messy to the point of being completely unreadable.

> About me. My name is Stefan. I live in Belgium – the birthplace of surrealism, and hence the perfect vantage point to contemplate the absurdities of contemporary knowledge work. Formally trained in Engineering, I worked in a wide variety of fields and roles – in an earlier version of this page I listed them all, but just check my LinkedIn if you really want all that detail. As my friends in the triathlon club could have told you: I sometimes have a little trouble staying in my swim lane. But most of what I do today falls in the “Bermuda triangle” between Sales, Finance, and Operations. No shortage of mysterious and dangerous stuff there.

I write for two reasons, and Henrik Karlsson explained them better than I can. First, you don’t truly understand anything until you try to write it down. Second, every text is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to my inbox. (His words.)

…So here – for what it’s worth – reflections on how work works. If you made it this far, that must mean you are one of those fascinating people Henrik talks about. The inboxes to route your interesting stuff to are on LinkedIn or email. Just saying hi is OK too. Let’s play ball!

–Stefan