Essay App

Essay is a web and mobile application that provides a structured writing environment, designed to help writers of all levels to find a topic of interest, organize their thoughts, improve their ideas, and communicate more effectively.

I found the Essay app while learning more about writing from videos from Jordan Peterson. His son, Julian Peterson, is the founder of Essay. You can see more about that part of my writing journey in my first article on it.

I've found the four-step framework that Essay uses to be very helpful in learning to write better. If you want to learn more about the framework for strong writing that they use, you can read the Writing Guide.

The content items below were all drafted using Essay...

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Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0 book cover
Book

Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0

Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company
Daring Greatly book cover
Book

Daring Greatly

How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead.
Traction book cover
Book

Traction

Get a Grip on Your Business.
Dare to Lead book cover
Book

Dare to Lead

Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
Strong Ground book cover
Book

Strong Ground

The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit.
High Growth Handbook book cover
Book

High Growth Handbook

The playbook for growing your startup into a global brand.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things book cover
Book

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers - Straight Talk on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship.
Reset book cover
Book

Reset

How to Change What's Not Working.
So Good They Can't Ignore You book cover
Book

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love.
Submarines DevCon 2025 Keynote Speech
Talk

Submarines DevCon 2025 Keynote Speech

I was asked to give a keynote speech at the Rolls-Royce Submarines Developer Conference in February 2025. The post below contains some sanitized details of the talk for both attendees to reference and others to learn from.
Right Kind of Wrong book cover
Book

Right Kind of Wrong

The Science of Failing Well.
PGP, GPG, Yubikeys, Oh My!
Article

PGP, GPG, Yubikeys, Oh My!

A cheatsheet for setting up and managing PGP/GPG keys on a Yubikey, including SSH key generation, GPG backup and restore, and updating expiring subkeys.
First, Break All the Rules book cover
Book

First, Break All the Rules

What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently.
calvium interview
Article

Interview with Calvium

Calvium is an amazing company I've had the pleasure of working with over the past few years. We've worked on a number of projects together and they asked if I'd do an interview with a professional copywriter.
Escaping the Build Trap book cover
Book

Escaping the Build Trap

How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value.
A World Without Email book cover
Book

A World Without Email

Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload.
prompt injection attack in google colors
Article

Google GenAI App Silliness

Manipulating prompts in a generative AI app built during a Google Workshop.
Turn the Ship Around book cover
Book

Turn the Ship Around

A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders.
Zero to One book cover
Book

Zero to One

Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future.
No Rules Rules book cover
Book

No Rules Rules

Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention.
Switch book cover
Book

Switch

How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.
Building a Storybrand book cover
Book

Building a Storybrand

Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen.
Supercommunicators book cover
Book

Supercommunicators

How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection.
Anxious Generation book cover
Book

Anxious Generation

How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.
document with red ink
Article

My Writing Journey

I'll never forget the first report Randy reviewed. I'm pretty certain he went through multiple red ink pens on that five page document.
Behind the Product Podcast
Podcast

Behind the Product Podcast

I was recently a guest on the Behind the Product podcast. We discussed my career, digital transformation, and the Rolls-Royce Software Factory.
Nudge book cover
Book

Nudge

Small nudges, big changes: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness.
Nonviolent Communication book cover
Book

Nonviolent Communication

A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships.
Made to Stick book cover
Book

Made to Stick

Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.
Thinking Fast and Slow book cover
Book

Thinking Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think.
Only the Paranoid Survive book cover
Book

Only the Paranoid Survive

How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.
Make Space to Lead book cover
Book

Make Space to Lead

Break Patterns to Find Flow and Focus on What Matters.
The Icarus Deception book cover
Book

The Icarus Deception

How High Will You Fly?
The Fiefdom Syndrome book cover
Book

The Fiefdom Syndrome

The Turf Battles That Undermine Careers and Companies - And How to Overcome Them.
Fear of Missing Out book cover
Book

Fear of Missing Out

Practical Decision-Making in a World of Overwhelming Choice.
Tribes book cover
Book

Tribes

We Need You to Lead Us.
Making Work Visible book cover
Book

Making Work Visible

Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flow.
Finite and Infinite Games book cover
Book

Finite and Infinite Games

A Vision of Life As Play and Possibility.
Change book cover
Book

Change

How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times.
Software Architect Elevator book cover
Book

Software Architect Elevator

Redefining the Architect's Role in the Digital Enterprise.
The Culture Code book cover
Book

The Culture Code

The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.
Decision Quality book cover
Book

Decision Quality

Value Creation from Better Business Decisions.
The Digital Mindset book cover
Book

The Digital Mindset

What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI.
Essentialism book cover
Book

Essentialism

The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.
Sharks in the Moat book cover
Book

Sharks in the Moat

How to Create Truly Secure Software.
The Clean Coder book cover
Book

The Clean Coder

A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers.
Think Again book cover
Book

Think Again

The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know.
Clean Architecture book cover
Book

Clean Architecture

A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design.
The Dip book cover
Book

The Dip

A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick).
Upstream book cover
Book

Upstream

The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen.
XLR8 book cover
Book

XLR8

Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World.
Talking to Strangers book cover
Book

Talking to Strangers

What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know.
Breath book cover
Book

Breath

The New Science of a Lost Art.
Mindset book cover
Book

Mindset

The New Psychology of Success.
Container Security book cover
Book

Container Security

Fundamental Technology Concepts that Protect Containerized Applications.
The Servant book cover
Book

The Servant

A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership.
Build book cover
Book

Build

An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making.
How to Have Impossible Conversations book cover
Book

How to Have Impossible Conversations

A Very Practical Guide.
Understanding Software book cover
Book

Understanding Software

Max Kanat-Alexander on simplicity, coding, and how to suck less as a programmer.
DevOps for the Modern Enterprise book cover
Book

DevOps for the Modern Enterprise

Winning Practices to Transform Legacy IT Organizations.
Indistractable book cover
Book

Indistractable

How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.
The Startup Way book cover
Book

The Startup Way

How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth.
Accelerate book cover
Book

Accelerate

The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations.
The Lean Startup book cover
Book

The Lean Startup

How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.
Linchpin book cover
Book

Linchpin

Are You Indispensable?
Measure What Matters book cover
Book

Measure What Matters

How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs.
Team Topologies book cover
Book

Team Topologies

Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow.
The DevOps Handbook book cover
Book

The DevOps Handbook

How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, & Security in Technology Organizations.
The Innovator's Dilemma book cover
Book

The Innovator's Dilemma

When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change).
War and Peace and IT book cover
Book

War and Peace and IT

Business Leadership, Technology, and Success in the Digital Age.
Radical Candor book cover
Book

Radical Candor

Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.
The Chemistry of Innovation
Talk

The Chemistry of Innovation

The post below contains a readable version of what I discussed in the TechPoint Community Connect event including some graphics and the actual slide-deck embedded. If you missed the talk, this post is a great way to catch up on what was discussed.