Addendum is a publication for thoughtful disagreement. We examine business writing, challenge weak assumptions, surface missing context and extend arguments that deserve a second look.
Featured addendum
Entrepreneurship
In response to Paul Graham
Manual work can reveal what customers need, but without an exit test it can also hide unpriced labor, bespoke service, and a product that never becomes repeatable.
Latest
Marketing Strategy
Responding to MIT Sloan Management Review
Brands can become easier for models to retrieve without becoming more desirable, and a recommendation delivered without a visit may be impossible to connect to a real decision.
Advertising Technology
Responding to Marketing Dive
AI advertising platforms promise automation while withholding mechanics, leaving marketers to supervise systems whose objectives, attribution, and data flows they cannot independently inspect.
Leadership
Responding to Farnam Street
Initiative prevents failures only when employees also have clear decision rights, usable escalation paths, and protection for responsible action.
How Addendum works
Every piece should make the reader better informed than the original article alone. Disagreement is useful only when it introduces evidence, context, reasoning or a more complete frame.
Explain what the original article actually argues before criticizing it.
Focus on a claim, assumption, omission, framing choice or limitation that can be examined clearly.
An Addendum should extend understanding, not simply score points against another writer.
Why “Addendum”?
We are interested in arguments that are almost right, incomplete in revealing ways, persuasive for the wrong reasons, or simply missing a perspective worth preserving.
