Ten years ago, WOBS was born. WOBS LLC is the name of my company. The first blog post on bernoff.com (which at that time was called withoutbullshit.com) was ten years ago. Today I’ll talk about how I went from a senior executive at a respected research company to to a 56-year-old freelancer with dreams to…
Yes. For the most part, my clients are my friends. This philosophy goes against most people’s advice. We freelancers are told that we have to maintain a professional distance. That we have to ask for money, which you don’t do with friends. That we might even have to our your clients — or they might…
Nonfiction writers need to tell the truth in a captivating way. Fiction writers just need to be captivating. At first glance, it seems like there are more constraints on nonfiction. After all, fiction writers can just “make stuff up,” while nonfiction writers are constrained by what actually happened. There are actually more constraints on fiction…
If you ask my doctors what is important about me, they are likely to say something like this: Josh is an obese 66-year-old man with essential hypertension, sleep apnea, vitreous detachment in both eyes, and history of prostate cancer. Why so negative? If you ask anybody else I interact with, they start with the positive….
I, like every other Microsoft Word user, started a document on January 16 only to find a strange icon cluttering up my word processor screen. This is Microsoft Copilot, which exists to provide me with artificial intelligence help in writing documents. I’ve been a professional writer since 1982 and am making my current living as…
John Taylor “Ike” Williams was my agent and publishing lawyer. He died on December 26, 2024 at the age of 86. Ike was a commanding presence at his literary agency, Kneerim & Williams, and law firm, Sennott & Williams. Six-foot-six and good-looking, he had a unique combination of unshakable Boston Brahmin confidence and good humor….
Two of my clients gave me unsolicited bonuses in 2024. Should I feel good about myself and my work? Or should I rethink how I work and how much I charge? Fundamental (and wrong) truths about freelancing Here’s what everyone tells freelancers: I reject all of that. Every bit of it. I don’t want to…
There may come a point in your life when you have an epiphany. You look at yourself and your own behavior and realize you’ve misjudged or mistreated people for decades. I’m talking about generally shitty behavior. But I’m also talking about casual race prejudice, homophobia, fatphobia, sexism, piggish behavior, elitism, and preconceptions about people with…
My Christmas present in 2024 is that I get to work all day with words, ideas, and idea people. I could retire, but this is much better. Thanks.