Bob Sutton

Opinion | We are losing our humanity. I am searching for an antidote. The challenge of our time is to recover what we have lost: in nature, and in our communities.

We are losing our humanity. I am searching for an antidote -- and I need your help. My column about my new @washingtonpost.com column. Gift link. wapo.st/472i9Gz

"When you throw shit at other people, some always end up on you in the process." Advice I got from a wise lawyer long ago. I am reminding myself of it more and more these days, as the vicious circle of angry times and ease of insulting and demeaning others on social media is so tempting to join.

Scam alert to friends. If you get an email from a Hotmail address "from" me, it is a scam. I do not have a Hotmail email, do not have cancer, and did not get 250K from the "The Administration of Federal Benefits." I am fine. Delete the email--and don't give them any personal information.

🎙️ NEW CASBS PODCAST EPISODE

Colin Camerer: Econ's Neurovisionary

@sweiwang.bsky.social chats w/@cfcamerer.bsky.social on his work on the neuroeconomics of habit formation, building & scaling behavioral models, & neuroscience as a wide-open field for economists

🎧 casbs.stanford.edu/podcast#coli...

Hah. Well put!

This part of their pitch made me smile--especially the "alpha status" part:

"Will it be expensive? Sure. But working with us means self-investment, downstream profits, and alpha status."

Home | Manuscripped LLC

Got a pitch from a company that provides Amazon reviews to authors that pay them. I don't know if this is legal or not (they say it is), but ain't kosher. I guess you can buy anything! This is the company: www.manuscripped.com

Q&A: Professor Robert Sutton on Communicating Difficult Decisions as a Leader In today’s uncertain economy, leaders must navigate the delicate task of delivering bad news, such as layoffs or project cancellations, with empathy and transparency. Robert Sutton’s framework, origin...

I was delighted to be interviewed by Dan McGinn, Harvard Business Review's editor, for this retrospective on my 2009 HBR piece "How to Be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy" (2009).

My evidence-based advice for making painful workplace changes humanely-- in good times and bad.

hbr.org/2025/07/qa-p...

Is anyone out there studying "bot assholes"? | Bob Sutton Is anyone out there studying "bot assholes"? (Is "Botholes" already a common phrase?) Earlier this week I dealt with a very rude "AI assistant" named "Kiran" by Skej. Even though I had an out of the ...

Here my post on the AI assistant that nagged me incessantly and wasted my time yesterday.

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

"Botholes" is my proposed to term for AI tools (such as AI assistants) that are massively efficient at wasting other peoples' time, nagging them incessantly, or otherwise acting like rude and selfish humans.

Great to see this new research Fabrizio...that stars often aren't as "portable" as it seems. Your findings also remind me of related research that, for leaders, shows promoting from within results in better performance than hiring those (often dazzling) external candidates.

Some advice from the late great Warren Bennis: "Don't take a job at a place where the best you can be is a perfect imitation of those who came before you."

He said that to me 40+ years ago, seems as pertinent as ever.

Congrats. A big loss for Stanford. Thanks for being such an excellent colleague and human.

The End of History All Over Again… | Digital Tonto Before 1789 the world was ruled by the divine right of kings and the feudal system. Yet that year would prove to be an inflection point. The American Constitution the French Revolution and the first I...

Check out this nuanced argument on why our institutions are under siege and options for repairing them.

I was surprised to learn Marshall McLuhan believed that becoming a global village would unleash unprecedented tribalism and violence. He might have been right!

digitaltonto.com/2025/the-end...

I am always impressed with your ability to weigh the facts in support of and in opposition to clashing beliefs. Just when I am sure you have a strong opinion strongly held, you start talking about evidence that supports a different view. A rare talent.

“Interdependence is the reason why nothing comes out quite the way one wants it to.”

I was thinking of this wonderful old line by Jeff Pfeffer and the late Jerry Salancik as I declined an invite to join an interesting group.

The playbook for fixing toxic culture, pointless friction and broken systems | Bob Sutton (Stanford) YouTube video by The Eric Ries Show

I love talking with @ericries.bsky.social. Eric wrote the blockbuster "The Lean Startup", launched Long-Term Stock Exchange , and so much more. We both believe companies can thrive financially and innovate, and treat employees and customers well, at the same time.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_Zc...

Why good people become bad bosses | Jamie Woolf and Dr. Chris Bell | TEDxSonomaCounty YouTube video by TEDx Talks

Here is the link to Jamie and Christopher's Tedx talk on "Why Good People Become Bad Bosses."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN6S...

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.

Are you worried about turning into bad boss? Are you struggling with a boss who is nasty, incompetent, or both? Jamie Woolf and Dr. Christopher Bell have a wonderful new TEDx talk on such things. Join us for a watch party on June 18th at 930 AM PT. Here's the link:
us06web.zoom.us/j/8488163408...

Most amusing take I've seen on the on the tit-for-tat spat between Elon and Trump.

More Evidence That Learning Economics Makes You Selfish - Evonomics The perils of teaching homo-economicus

I would add, however, that--as research on economic assumptions shows--when people BELIEVE that capitalism requires treating people like dirt, that is how they are prone to behave. See, for example, this old but compelling summary by
@adammgrant.bsky.social:

evonomics.com/more-evidenc...

I love talking with @ericries.bsky.social. We both believe that capitalism and caring about people (rather than acting like a selfish asshole) are compatible and desirable goals.

“Leverage” for starters

The most important part of an apology is not saying sorry. It's taking responsibility for what you did wrong and taking action to make it right.

Admitting mistakes doesn’t mean you're a bad person. It's an effort to be a better person—and a display of care for another person.

link.chtbl.com/RTAdam

The “Asshole Guy” Who Isn’t — A Tribute to Stanford Prof. Bob Sutton It takes an unusual human being to write a book titled The No Asshole Rule. It takes an exceptional one to live by it. Professor Robert…

Thanks to the multi-talented VR Ferose for his kind summary of the gathering that my friends including @sarahsoule.bsky.social and @decelles.bsky.social organized for me at @casbsstanford.bsky.social a few weeks ago

ferosevr.medium.com/the-asshole-...

Why the Paperwork Reduction Act needs to go, Part 2 We're the only country that has tried to reduce burden this way, and it hasn't worked. Especially with capacity being gutted, we should learn from what the rest of the world is doing.

Here's the post where I found this slide:

www.eatingpolicy.com/p/why-the-pa...

The wise @pahlkadot.bsky.social uses this slide with "Hill staffers who ask me what they should do to improve the performance of an underperforming agency." The key contrast is "something is wrong with these people" vs. "something is wrong with this system." Friction-fixers are system-fixers!

Awesome hosting CASBS fellow @decelles.bsky.social for a CASBS podcast recording. Fmr fellow & Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist @johnmarkoff.bsky.social chatted w/Katy on topics engaging her research on organizational design, human interactions & behavior

We'll publish the episode in a few months!

My friend Ferose just taught me a phrase, a goal, that I keep rolling over in my mind. That much good can be done for the human spirit by striving to make things "Unnecessarily Beautiful." Makes me think of Steve Jobs, Enzo Ferrari, Joni Mitchell, and the late Bill Moggridge (IDEO co-founder).

Ah. Love the science of assholes. There is a lot of serious research on bullshit too.