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Encore Career

The work you do next. Fractional roles, consulting, advising, board seats, buying a small business — the real options for an executive who isn't finished, with honest numbers attached. Not a second career in the sense of starting over. A second career in the sense of finally charging properly for what you already know.

Encore Career

+1

Payroll costs less than $250 a month

Oct 6, 2026

•

5 min read

Payroll costs less than $250 a month

Agencies say AI adds 10% to margins. My old P&L says that's the wrong number.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Creator Economy

+3

Year 3: fewer subscribers, better newsletter

Sep 29, 2026

•

6 min read

Year 3: fewer subscribers, better newsletter

What changed, what I cut, and what's in the machine room. Plus: help me build year 4.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+2

Write your own permission slip

Sep 22, 2026

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5 min read

Write your own permission slip

Forty years of experiments, and a four-box test for an easy win

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+2

812 lawyers and counting

Sep 15, 2026

•

7 min read

812 lawyers and counting

The work got free. The responsibility didn’t.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+2

Nobody hires a calculator

Sep 8, 2026

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5 min read

Nobody hires a calculator

A billionaire admitted a machine wrote his op-ed. The reaction tells you where the value moved.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Innovation

+3

We built AI governance before AI needed governing

Aug 25, 2026

•

6 min read

We built AI governance before AI needed governing

An old friend called about blockchain. I told him I'd moved on. Then I spent the morning realizing I hadn't.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+2

The autopilot did its job. That's what killed them.

Aug 18, 2026

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6 min read

The autopilot did its job. That's what killed them.

What a 2009 plane crash can teach late-career professionals about handing judgment to AI.

Rob Norris
George Pillari
Rob Norris, +1

Encore Career

+2

Don't Fund the Bubble.

Aug 11, 2026

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5 min read

Don't Fund the Bubble.

Most of what's happening is garbage. The infrastructure underneath it isn't.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+2

Design was always a Business Result

Aug 4, 2026

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5 min read

Design was always a Business Result

Pretty got commoditized. Then usability. Here's where the value goes next.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+2

Drucker solved this in 1966

Jul 28, 2026

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5 min read

Drucker solved this in 1966

Drucker got the diagnosis right sixty years ago. The cure showed up last year.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+2

Old folks rule (the data agrees)

Jul 21, 2026

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3 min read

Old folks rule (the data agrees)

AI has made your experience worth more — not less.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+1

It's all your fault

Jul 14, 2026

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4 min read

It's all your fault

The confession is the easy part. The turn is where it counts.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+1

Technology is always the commodity

Jul 7, 2026

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4 min read

Technology is always the commodity

350 veteran engineers, one JD Power ranking, and the thing AI still can't do.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Essential Reading

+2

Start a Business Without Risking Your Retirement

Jun 30, 2026

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7 min read

Start a Business Without Risking Your Retirement

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

Severance as seed capital

Jun 30, 2026

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4 min read

Severance as seed capital

The restructuring email isn't a crisis. It's ignition — if you're ready.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+1

Become a Beginner Again (On Purpose)

Jun 23, 2026

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4 min read

Become a Beginner Again (On Purpose)

Apprentice Yourself to Your Next Chapter

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+1

Everybody starts too big

May 26, 2026

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4 min read

Everybody starts too big

Stop thrashing and do one thing

Rob Norris
Patrick McLean
Rob Norris, +1

Creator Economy

+2

Build your own door

May 19, 2026

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5 min read

Build your own door

Don't wait for gatekeepers to let you in

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+2

Your agency of one

May 12, 2026

•

5 min read

Your agency of one

How to build a screen porch side hustle

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Creator Economy

+2

A Newsletter Became a Community Became a Fund.

May 5, 2026

•

5 min read

A Newsletter Became a Community Became a Fund.

What I learned helping my son build the audience he's now raising a venture fund on top of.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+1

You've Been a Copywriter for 30 Years. You Just Called It Something Else.

Apr 28, 2026

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4 min read

You've Been a Copywriter for 30 Years. You Just Called It Something Else.

The flood is here. The filter is the part you already built.

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+1

Sun Tzu didn't have a 5-Year Plan

Apr 21, 2026

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5 min read

Sun Tzu didn't have a 5-Year Plan

And you don't need one either

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+1

Listen to your father

Apr 7, 2026

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8 min read

Listen to your father

80's advice holds true today

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Essential Reading

+2

The Late-Career Entrepreneur: Why Starting After 50 Is a Competitive Advantage, Not a Handicap

Apr 4, 2026

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8 min read

The Late-Career Entrepreneur: Why Starting After 50 Is a Competitive Advantage, Not a Handicap

Rob Norris
Rob Norris

Encore Career

+2

Mastery is in high demand

Mar 31, 2026

•

9 min read

Mastery is in high demand

Experience and judgement are exactly what the AI economy needs

Rob Norris
Rob Norris
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