Free Book Giveaway, Announcing an Award, and More Ways Higher Ed Is Changing
In today’s newsletter, I’m thrilled to offer:
a free book giveaway for my friend Jessica Lindl’s new book, The Career Game Loop: Learn to Earn in the New Economy;
more information about the new book, School Rethink 2.0: Putting Reinvention into Practice, that I edited with Rick Hess and Julie Squire;
a plug for my brother Jonathan Horn’s latest book that came out Tuesday, titled The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright and the Epic Battle for the Philippines;
and links to two new Future U. episodes about how Indiana is putting into place an apprenticeship system based on the Swiss model and what the impact of a new classification system could be on colleges.
But first… I was surprised—and moved—when the Harvard Business Review informed me, Ethan Bernstein, and Bob Moesta that our November cover story for HBR, “Why Employees Quit” had won the 2025 Warren Bennis Prize. The prize honors the previous year's best Harvard Business Review article on leadership and is presented jointly by HBR and the USC Marshall School of Business.
The article is based on the insights in our national bestselling book Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career. If you haven’t yet read the book or the article, please do so. The research is groundbreaking in that it identifies the root causes of why employees quit that go way deeper than the usual symptom-level diagnosis. And then the article (and Chapter 12 of the book) gives managers a roadmap for what to do to retain top talent.
Winning the award is also gratifying because I got to know the late Warren Bennis, a guru in the field of leadership studies, during my first job out of college working for David Gergen. Warren had joined the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard, which David was leading, and he was a key figure in my choice to apply to business school. That Warren took care to get to know me—when I was fresh out of undergrad—and offer his advice at multiple stages as I was figuring out what to do in my own career, left a mark on me. To then win this award in his name for an article about people’s careers—and the implications for companies—is extra special.
The Career Game Loop
Jessica Lindl was one of the initial folks I met when Disrupting Class was first published in June of 2008. She recently wrote her own book, The Career Game Loop—and you can order a free copy here by April 22 or while supplies last! I caught up with Jessica, who works at Unity, to ask her a couple questions about the book:
Q: Why write a book? And why write a book on careers? I suspect people are wondering why the Vice President of Ecosystem Growth at Unity decided to work on this problem.
Jessica: Over the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of upskilling millions of young people—many of them gamers—into mostly more fulfilling, financially rewarding careers. Again and again, I saw the same pattern: these individuals were navigating their careers like pros not because of traditional schooling or rigid career advice from family, but because of the skills they’d honed through play—adaptability, curiosity, strategic thinking, and resilience.
Meanwhile, our culture still clings to outdated career advice: follow a linear path, earn a degree, get a job, retire. That model is broken. It doesn’t reflect the reality of today’s economy, especially in the face of AI, automation, and continuous disruption.
So, I wrote The Career Game Loop to offer a new, more relevant playbook—one inspired by the very mindset that helped these gamers thrive. This book is my way of saying: the world has changed, and we need to change how we prepare for it. It's time to stop fearing the chaos and start leveling up within it.
Q: Can you share a couple of the big ideas in this book that will help people be better prepared for the new economy given the rapid growth of AI and automation and the fast-changing nature of skills?
Jessica: Absolutely. One of the core ideas in the book is what I call the Career Game Loop: Choose Quest, Level Up, Job Hunt, Job Craft—then repeat. It’s a cycle that mirrors how gamers play and progress in their favorite games. It’s not about climbing a static ladder anymore—it’s about navigating loops, learning continuously, and adapting boldly.
Another big idea is this: chaos is a ladder. The uncertainty in today’s economy can spark panic—but it’s also an invitation for reinvention. The people who thrive aren’t those with perfect pedigrees or plans. They’re the ones who treat their careers like games: seeking quests, building skills, joining the right teams, and leveling up through every win and loss.
By applying the principles of game design to career design, the book empowers readers to build adaptable, resilient, and deeply fulfilling careers—on their own terms.
In my family, my brother Jonathan is the real writer. His way with words has always stood apart. And his third book came out THIS WEEK.
I’m beyond excited to have it in my own hands—and you should pick up a copy, too.
Titled The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright and the Epic Battle for the Philippines, It’s a World War II story of bravery, survival, and sacrifice—the vow Douglas MacArthur made to return to the Philippines and the oath his fellow general Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright made to stay with his men there whatever the cost.
Rethinking School
In my last general update, I offered reflections from Kristen DiCerbo, Scott Ellis, and Beth Rabbit on the biggest takeaways from their chapters in our new edited volume, School Rethink 2.0: Putting Reinvention into Practice. Today, the authors of three more chapters offer their key takeaways.
In “The Choice Revolution,” Stand Together’s
says:The most important lesson I hope readers take away is that education choice is no longer a theoretical debate—it is a reality that is reshaping the American education landscape. The movement has reached a pivotal moment where parents are demanding more options, educators are pioneering innovative models, and policymakers are responding with unprecedented reforms. But continued success is not inevitable. To ensure that education choice becomes a lasting feature of our system, we must continue to challenge outdated structures, support new learning models, and expand access to every family. The future of education belongs to those willing to push boundaries, remove barriers, and empower students with opportunities that fit their unique needs.
In “School Size,” EdChoice’s
writes:For at least two decades, the education reform movement has been obsessed with scale. Looking at the size of the challenges to the American education system, the belief was that we need big solutions. A single site charter school was not good enough. Could it open 20 campuses? Can we get all schools in America aligned to the same learning standards? Can we find ways to evaluate all of the teachers in a state?
But what if the answer isn’t one big solution, but rather a lot of little ones? Particularly post-pandemic, there has been increasing desire for small learning environments, be those microschools, hybrid homeschools, co-ops, or other small educational structures. Supporting these environments, nurturing their growth, and recognizing both their possibilities and limitations can be fertile ground for durable and meaningful educational improvement.
And in “Unleashing a Movement for Profession-Based Learning,” the president of the CAPS Network Corey Mohn says:
The biggest takeaway I hope readers get from my chapter in School Rethink 2.0 is that profession-based learning—an education model that immerses students in real-world work environments, allowing them to solve authentic industry challenges alongside professionals—isn’t just a model, it’s a movement. Too often, our school systems operate on autopilot, missing opportunities to rethink how students engage with learning in ways that are relevant, authentic, and deeply connected to their future aspirations. The CAPS model proves that when students are empowered to lead their own learning their confidence, skills, and sense of purpose soar. This isn’t about incremental change; it’s about flipping the system to prioritize context alongside content, adaptability over compliance, and self-discovery over standardized pathways. My hope is that this chapter sparks bold conversations and, more importantly, action toward a future where every student experiences the power of self discovery through profession-based learning. Let’s unleash this movement together!
Indeed, let’s do it.
Future U.
Two new episodes of Future U. are out, and both have big implications for the future of postsecondary education.
In “Building an apprenticeship system in Indiana: How the Hoosier State is Adapting the Swiss Model,” Jeff Selingo interviewed Claire Fiddian-Green, president and CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, about Indiana’s ambitious efforts to adapt lessons from Switzerland’s gold-standard model. I first met Claire when she was in Boston, as she led a large group from Indiana continuing to explore how to accelerate their business-led apprenticeship systemic initiatives. After her conversation with Jeff, I was even more impressed.
The two explored how Indiana is transforming high school graduation requirements, building industry-led talent associations, and designing scalable pathways that center real-world work experience.
The industry-led talent associations are a huge piece of this. But I also had another aha listening to the conversation, which I talked about on the show:
There's been this growing movement to increase the supply of career technical education high school, CTE high schools. But then it's been noted, you know, people push back and say, well, those schools are expensive to build and outfit. You have to have, like, all this stuff in there for different career paths, and you gotta bring in expertise around that and equipment and so forth. And then there was this argument that
of American Compass made where he said, well, that's actually still cheaper, though, than sending him to college. But, actually, maybe I I you know, maybe you disagree with this, but I think the better argument I took away from your conversation with Claire was that, like, let's just put them in the workplace itself for part of the day because then you're leveraging the infrastructure of the workplace. It's what you said. Like, learning happens in the job. That's huge. And then I think the second piece of that on the high school change is the course taking on top of the apprenticeship or or or job based learning. And I think it solves the problem that Alec Resnick of Powderhouse Schools made to me in a in a piece that and I did for Education Next around CTE for All. And [Alec’s] worry essentially was that if we too narrowly train people for certain vocations, like you figured out how to install solar panels on a roof, great. You know how to install solar panels on a roof, but you don't know the underlying physics and mathematics that will create an upwardly mobile trajectory for you over time, or frankly, as equipment changes and maybe we don't need people doing that.”
In the second episode we released, “Reclassifying Higher Ed: Will the New Carnegie Groupings Change the Race for Prestige,” Mushtaq Gunja, Executive Director of the Carnegie Classification Systems and Senior Vice President at ACE, joined me and Jeff to unpack the sweeping changes to the Carnegie Classifications. These changes aren’t simply cosmetic. The goal is to change how colleges act—and to prioritize not just looking like Harvard or breadth and depth in research, but student success in terms of employment and more. The question is will it work? Jeff and I are hopeful but had some questions as well.
As always, thanks for reading, writing, and listening.