A desk by a window, a laptop open, morning light

Conversations

What I called rigor

A head of engineering wrote one plain sentence where she used to write two defensive bullets. What that was about took eight months.

The calendar entry

A staff engineer hid his hour at lunch for three years. How it ended up on the calendar as what it is, and what happened when nobody asked.

The other chair

A Psychologist on the Six Days She Never Sees

We sat down with a therapist twenty years in private practice on why the hour is the smallest part of the week.

Conversations

The list

A founder two years into a seed company planned every session like a board meeting. The year she stopped, and what she keeps instead.

The other chair

Executives Don't Lack Insight. They Lack a Tuesday.

A coach, formerly a clinician, on the one thing every one of his clients is missing.

Conversations

Two walks home

A product designer and her partner, a year into couples work, kept leaving the same room with two different hours. What changed when they said so.

“I protect it the way I protect the board meeting. Harder, actually.”Spotlight

Spotlight

A CEO on the Thursday Hour She Has Kept for Eleven Years

Through two companies and one acquisition. "I protect it the way I protect the board meeting. Harder, actually."

More Stories

Lines

“I had mistaken defensibility for rigor, and rigor for being good, and being good for being loved.”What I called rigor

“I didn't recommend anything. I just stopped hiding a calendar entry.”Spotlight · a CEO

“Executives don't lack insight. They lack a Tuesday.”The other chair

Nobody tells you what the work of therapy looks like over a year. Oat & Olive publishes one person, the change people saw and what was beneath it, in their own words: people with demanding jobs in technology who are already doing the work. Alongside them, the other chair, where therapists say what they have noticed, and a spotlight on people with public lives who are in the work. No advice. Nothing asked of you.

Every other Sunday·Names changed on request·Every word approved by the person who said it

The Sunday note

One piece every other Sunday. A note on the Sundays between. Nothing else.

Leave any time, in one click, from any note.

From the Collection

Something soft to show for the year's work.

Mongolian cashmere, a handful of quiet colors, yours with the Annual plan.

See the Collection