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Sam Spurlin

@samspurlin.bsky.social
503 followers 84 following 396 posts

Founder of Deliberate Works, a solo consultancy focused on building ever better organizations.

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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 9h
Happy new hockey season to all who celebrate.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 14h
It’s a damn shame that the seasons of the year don’t match up to the quarters of the year. Such a missed opportunity. (Spring = March, April, May; summer = June, July, August; autumn = September, October, November; winter = December, January, February).
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 19h
Been doing this solo consulting thing for about 6 months now. Not destitute! Doing good work! Still battling insecurities. Etc. Etc. substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
An End of Summer Update from Deliberate Works
Building a solo practice, navigating insecurities, and attracting the type of work I want
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 21h
Meaningless yet neat stat for today: I've logged 1,000 books as read in Goodreads since 2007. Books are good.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It's a goddamn shame that "whelm" basically has the same meaning as "overwhelm."
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Going into the work week with my Cinnamon Toast Crunch press-on tattoo that says “Must Cinnadust” prominently displayed on the inside of my forearm. I am a serious Business Man.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
@fionatribe.bsky.social Idly browsing Reddit this afternoon and suddenly… hey I know her!
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Not even THAT big of a baseball guy, but always emotional to watch a legend finish their career. Hope Verlander gets through a couple good innings here.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Simultaneously watching the new season of Slow Horses solo while rewatching S1 with a first-timer. A true scholar of the material.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
thankful I have a strong immune response to vaccinations, but also, come on man
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I’ve been asking Claude to push back on a writing project and it just told me to go re-read Part 3 of Fromm’s “To Have or To Be” and get crystal clear how what I’m trying to do isn’t what Fromm already did in this section.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Are humans wired to fear entropy? Are organizations wired to fear entropy?
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I mean, of course? We all knew he had no heart.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I hate coming back to my computer and Coming Online to a bunch of people talking about bestiality and just knowing it has something to do with our so-called government and being proven 100% right.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I hate the "tiny pants" trend in football.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
My independent mechanic is the most fascinating small business I regularly interact with. I’ve never not seen them insanely busy. Their facilities are just the absolute worst. It is barely controlled chaos every time I am there. And they seemingly do great work and know their shit. I love them.
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Reposted by Sam Spurlin
Craig Mod @craigmod.com · 11/09/2026
Writing in 2026 and Claude Voice: craigmod.com/roden/118/
craigmod.com
Writing in 2026, Walking Europe — Roden newsletter issue 118
Wherein Claude Voice infects the universe
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I’m curious how Jony Ive and all the folks working on a AI-specific hardware reacted to the first minute or two of yesterday’s Apple event. In what seemed like a direct shot across their bow, Apple made a pretty clear case for why iPhones are almost perfectly designed to be personal AI devices.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
My wife and I discovered we have a drinking problem while on vacation. Approximately 120 cans of seltzer between the two of us in two weeks. 😬🥤
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I'm recording my final episode of At Work with The Ready tomorrow. Approximately three years and 50+ episodes, in the books. Time to free up some attention for new endeavors! www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
youtube.com
At Work with The Ready - YouTube
Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin have helped teams around the world adopt more modern ways of working and on At Work with The Ready they’re sharing the inside sc...
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Labor Day hits harder when it’s the day before going back to work after a glorious two week vacation. Somehow have still not managed to stumble into generational wealth so it’s back to the salt mines* I go. * sitting in front of my computer.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
28 Years Later and its sequel were so much better than I expected them to be.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Almost literally giving the man toys to play with while consequential events of his own making (e.g. unwinnable yet optional war, cost of living crisis, food security lapses) spiral into chaos around him.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
@myke.social & @snell.zone just demolished all the episodes of Designed in California that dropped today. Great start! Feeling good about having supported the Kickstarter. Great call having @siracusa.social on, too. I hope he’s a frequent guest!
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Reposted by Sam Spurlin
Jason Snell @snell.zone · 02/09/2026
It's not just a Kickstarter project anymore, it's a real podcast. The first new Designed in California episode is out today (along with six previously previewed episodes), and members received the ENTIRE seven-episode series about Apple's '90s OS crisis. @myke.social and I hope you listen!
relay.fm
Designed in California - Relay
Expertly-told stories about the 50-year history of Apple and the world it created, from Jason Snell and Myke Hurley. We cover the entire range of the last half-century, from Apple's earliest days in a garage, to the rise of the Mac, to the return of Steve Jobs and the creation of some of Apple's most iconic products. Apple's history is also our shared tech history, and these are all stories worth telling.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Vacation. Which one of us is the default photographer in our relationship, do you think?
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
And academics in the social sciences wept.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Yes. But also, $20 hot dog 😩
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Job searching and entrepreneurship both require putting yourself in others’ perspectives so intensely that it’s easy to lose sight of yourself in the process. The quest for external legibility destroying internal legibility along the way.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
crawling into vacation. mere days away. brain empty. motivation negative. alas, responsibilities remain.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
PervPods
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I'm not a developer, so maybe I have this wrong, but I thought GitHub was essential infrastructure at this point? Doesn't basically every developer store source code here? It never even occurred to me it could go away.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Depressing, but hard to argue with.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Email from a VPN company I've used in the past letting me know some credentials of mine were found on the dark web. 45 minutes later, Google blocks suspicious activity form someone trying to access my account. It's sketchy out there, folks. Immediately went in and changed my password.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I’d be mad about the Spiderman BMW thing if it was happening to anybody except BMW owners.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
While I’m musing about advertising, I’m still waiting for someone to enlighten me about how men’s cologne commercials work. Are there agencies that specialize in these or is it some sort of reward you get after a certain amount of regular work?
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Ozempic with the Mac/PC commercial rehash is just the saddest capitulation. Just completely mailing it in, eh?
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
New article in The Deliberate this morning. An anonymized look at two projects I'm currently doing. Very different orgs, very different challenges, and yet surprisingly similar foundations: thedeliberate.substack.com/p/the-work-o...
thedeliberate.substack.com
The Work of Work Design
A solo work design consultant's answer to, "What do you do all day?"
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Accidentally turned the oven off when I put my bread dough in there and didn’t realize it until it had dropped to 380. This has turned into a rescue mission.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
This weekend’s reading.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Remember how Bridgewater Associates was some sort of renegade org for recording and making available all meetings and now we all just kinda do that now with AI? I'm not saying this is good or bad -- just marveling at something that made people take notice 10 years ago is just business as usual now!
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Zone 2 ”run” impossible this morning given the heat and humidity. More like a Zone 2 shuffle. Zone 4 jog. It’s brutal out there.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Not sure how I made it this far without reading this (or seeing the movie). Felt like I knew some of the main story beats just from how it has showed up in other pieces of media (thanks, Always Sunny in Philadelphia). Book 31 for the year.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
It’d be cool if things worked. I’d be happy with 50% less technology if shit just worked reliably.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Yo, somebody on AA5254 tell me what's up. Y'all are just sitting on the runway at DCA. What are they telling you? #AmericanAirlines #DCA
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I loathe how airlines will release a delay decision in little drips and drabs. The incoming plane is still sitting at its origin. We are not gonna be delayed "just another 20 minutes." Flighty makes me a menace.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The travel app Flighty rules because it just told me I've flown on this exact plane one other time, back in 2024, on a completely different route. That tickles some travel nerd part of my brain something fierce.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Thought I would ✨treat myself✨ to a flight to DC instead of taking the train because I had expiring American Airlines miles burning a hole in my pocket. Alas, I did not account for weather. The delays have begun...
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
99% sure I just saw one of these take off from the Westchester Airport.
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Sam Spurlin @samspurlin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
My newly entrepreneurial self feels this deep in my bones.
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