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
Software Strategy
In response to Joel on Software
Old code preserves hard-won behavior, but it can also preserve unsafe platforms and obsolete contracts; the real asset is verified knowledge, not every implementation.
Latest
Startup Advice
Responding to First Round Review
Memorable advice can prompt reflection, but stripped of company stage, alternatives, and failure cases, contradictory startup maxims can justify almost any decision.
Personal Finance
Responding to Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
The official guide lists goals, risk, fees, and regulators, but beginners first need an order of operations that separates investable surplus from money they cannot risk.
Organizational Design
Responding to Entrepreneur
Micromanagement may reflect founder anxiety, but vague authority, punished mistakes, and concentrated information explain dependency more directly than identity metaphors do.
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.
