Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

In today’s fast-paced business environment, effective problem-solving isn’t just about finding quick fixes—it’s about developing a systematic approach that leads to innovative and sustainable solutions. While many leaders get caught up in complex frameworks and lengthy processes, I’ve found that the following three simple yet powerful questions will revolutionize how you and your team tackle challenges. These questions—”What if?”, “So what?”, and “Now what?”—form a natural progression that guide you from creative ideation to practical execution. Let’s explore how each question serves as a crucial waypoint in your problem-solving journey. Start with “What if?” I…

Need a train station shelter in a hurry? You can now print that. In Arida, Japan, a Japanese architectural firm and 3D-printed house manufacturer partnered with JR-West, a railway network, to build what they claim is the world’s first 3D-printed train station. Assembled in less than six hours between the station’s last train of the night and first train of the following morning, it’s a promising first look at how infrastructure improvements might be done faster and cheaper. The station is the work of the 3D-printed house manufacturer Serendix and the architecture studio Neuob. It’s made from four 3D-printed mortar pieces that were printed offsite and filled with concrete …

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once considered separating Instagram from its parent company due to worries about antitrust litigation, according to an email shown Tuesday on the second day of an antitrust trial alleging Meta illegally monopolized the social media market. In the 2018 email, Zuckerberg wrote that he was beginning to wonder if “spinning Instagram out” would be the only way to accomplish important goals, as big-tech companies grow. He also noted “there is a non-trivial chance” Meta could be forced to spin out Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in five to 10 years anyway. He wrote that while most companies resist breakups, “the corporate history is that most com…

Grindr is expanding its scope in a way that is entirely on brand. On Tuesday, the company unveiled Woodwork, a telehealth service that will help users access medication for erectile dysfunction. Currently available to Grindr users in Illinois and Pennsylvania, Woodwork will expand nationwide throughout the rest of 2025, according to the company. Grindr CEO George Arison says the company performed internal research that found more than a third of its users take erectile dysfunction drugs. “That gave us a very clear opportunity,” he tells Fast Company in an exclusive, in-depth interview on how he’s growing Grindr’s scope. “Users want it, but they’re buying these product…

Artificial intelligence. It’s pretty cool, I guess? Look at those neat videos. And the thousands of product design iterations just to get those creative balls rolling. Sure. Awesome. Or is it? Maybe. Who knows. All that seems to be the summary of Figma’s 2025 AI Report, based on a survey of 2,500 designers and developers. While tools like ChatGPT and Figma’s AI features are embedded in daily workflows, the report reveals a stark disconnect. Enthusiasm for AI’s potential is high, but its practical impact remains uneven, the numbers show, constrained by vague goals, quality concerns, and cooling expectations. The report underscores a paradox: professionals see AI as es…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. In a world with a constant information deluge and a labyrinth of disinformation to continually navigate through, people are exhausted. What is true? Who is honest? Who and what can I believe? Who can I trust to lead in a way where I know they understand what I need? Will anyone do what is best for me? It is no wonder that people are frustrated with those in charge—everywhere. Politic…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Speaking to ResiClub in December, Jay Bray, CEO of mortgage servicer Mr. Cooper, told me that real estate would see a lot of mergers and acquisitions in 2025—and that Mr. Cooper was out shopping—as the industry continues to “grind” through the prolonged housing activity slump that started back in summer 2022. “You’ve seen consolidation already. If you think about this industry going forward, you’re going to need a balanced business model. You’re going to need the capability to invest in technology, to use everybody’s favorite two initials: AI,” Bray …

It has been an odd few weeks for generative AI systems, with ChatGPT suddenly turning sycophantic, and Grok, xAI’s chatbot, becoming obsessed with South Africa. Fast Company spoke to Steven Adler, a former research scientist for OpenAI who until November 2024 led safety-related research and programs for first-time product launches and more-speculative long-term AI systems about both—and what he thinks might have gone wrong. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. What do you make of these two incidents in recent weeks—ChatGPT’s sudden sycophancy and Grok’s South Africa obsession—of AI models going haywire? The high-level thing I make of it …

Nearly 30 million Americans annually are impacted by water scarcity and don’t have reliable access to clean water. The water crisis stems from a wide range of issues, ranging from extreme weather events like hurricanes and flooding to depleted aquifers and overuse of wells. Our aging water infrastructure alone leaks 6 billion gallons per day, while pipe failures lead to nearly 10,000 “boil water” notices every year. Water is an essential and increasingly limited resource. It shapes where we live (or don’t). Vast lands across America remain undeveloped due to a lack of natural water resources, exacerbating the housing crisis. Water increasingly restrains and defines h…

Switch, PS5, and XBox might be the biggest names in video games, but David Lee and a group of entrepreneurial alums from companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta are carving out a niche market with Nex, a new alternative. The company’s Nex Playground device has sold more than 200,000 units. Instead of buying individual games, families buy a subscription-based collection of 40-plus titles. Like the old Nintendo Wii, Nex focuses on family-friendly, movement-based games. The Nex device plugs into TVs for motion-controlled experiences. Instead of controllers, the device uses a built-in camera that enables you to play games by moving your hands and feet. …

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Have you ever wanted to break up with your doctor—not because of the practitioner, but because of the difficulty in engaging with their practice? You’re not alone. I’ve left doctors for that reason and McKinsey has found that nearly 25% of consumers have delayed care because they hate everything about the process. System complexity is not doctors’ fault, but making the care experience easier for…

There’s Blue Sky and then there’s Bluesky. Blue Sky, a paper goods company founded 16 years ago, appears to be seeing a massive bump in traffic to its website, www.bluesky.com, thanks to the newfound popularity of the social media platform of a nearly identical name. Blue Sky’s website saw 215,100 visitors in March of this year compared to 56,300 visitors in March of 2024, marking a 282% increase in visits, according to data from digital market intelligence firm Similarweb. At the same time, Bluesky, the X competitor hosted at bsky.app, saw a 864% growth in visitors. In March 2025, Similarweb tracked 169.8 million visitors, compared to 17.6 million in March 20…

Lately, the conversation about office policy has been dominated by reports of return-to-office mandates, with many employers aiming to get all of their workers back in person by the end of the year. But a new study shows that, despite the best efforts of many RTO proponents, hybrid schedules represent a lasting shift in the way we work—and employees like it that way. The study is the ninth annual “State of Hybrid Work” report from Owl Labs, a company that offers remote work tech like videoconferencing. It found that, across industries, hybrid work isn’t just “a trend.” Rather, it’s now become a priority that workers are “often willing to trade compensation or quietly …

After years of AI disrupting industries and streamlining repetitive workflows, the technology is now poised to transform animation. In 2024, director and writer Tom Paton’s AiMation Studios released Where the Robots Grow, a fully AI-animated feature film. Everything from animation and voice acting to music was generated using AI, at a cost of just $8,000 per minute—totaling around $700,000 for the 87-minute production. While IMDB reviewers criticized the film as “soulless and uninspired,” it proved that AI can deliver full-length animated features at a fraction of traditional budgets. But it’s not just filmmakers driving this shift. Indie game developers want to prototy…

In a small village in Senegal, almost no one has electricity, but that’s about to change. Last year, a 40-foot-shipping container rolled into town, unfolded an array of solar panels on its roof, and crews began running wires to connect the whole village to clean power. After final approvals from the local government, the new microgrid will soon switch on. The project had an unusual funding source: ChargePoint, the EV charging company known for its network of a million chargers in the U.S. and Europe, spent six figures helping get it built, working with a technology partner called Africa GreenTec. The EV charging company used money that it earned selling carbon cre…

Alexandra Shaker, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with a background across inpatient and outpatient treatment settings. She has experience in research, teaching, and clinical practice. Dr. Shaker’s writing is an interdisciplinary exploration of the human condition: she integrates psychology, literature, history, anthropology, and language to speak to the meaning and vitality we find in the stories we tell one another and ourselves. Dr. Shaker received her PhD in clinical psychology from The New School for Social Research and conducted her doctoral research at the Brief Psychotherapy Research Program at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. She completed her clinical training …

A decade ago, inventor Jeneva Bell launched a startup called Ruggable that seemed radical at the time: A rug brand with products that you could throw in your home washing machine when they got dirty. Rugs have been a household staple for thousands of years, adding warmth and color. But wool and cotton rugs are delicate and require expert cleaning—which creates challenges for people who have toddlers, or pets, or cups of coffee that occasionally spill. Bell knew there was another way, so she designed a rug with two parts—a base and a polyester top layer—that could be separated and cleaned in a home washing machine. She believed that if she created a product that lo…

Cambodia and China have signed a $1.2 billion deal to finance an ambitious canal project that aims to boost trade efficiency by linking a branch of the Mekong River near Phnom Penh to a port on the Gulf of Thailand, the Cambodian government agency heading the project announced Friday. The deal to fund the Funan Techo Canal was signed Thursday during the state visit to Cambodia of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the agency said in a news release. Xi returned home Friday after a three-nation Southeast Asian tour that also included Vietnam and Malaysia. Construction of the 151.6-kilometer (94-mile) canal began last year but was halted shortly after the Aug. 5 groundbre…

Since 1974, William Stout Architectural Books in San Francisco’s Jackson Square has been one of the city’s most iconic destinations for its seemingly endless stock of art, design, and architecture books. As the store was approaching its 50th year in business with a fresh owner, the Eames Institute for Infinite Curiosity, it discovered a problem: It had run out of stickers to label its books. Then it discovered another problem—it didn’t have a formalized logo to print more. But as luck would have it, a fairly competent design firm resided just across the street that offered to help: LoveFrom. “It’s a store we loved. And if we didn’t get to design [their brand], it would ha…

Kim Atchison was hunkered down in her grandmother’s storm shelter with her 5-year-old grandson Saturday night in their tiny Alabama hometown of Plantersville when her husband and son raced in. “Get down; get all the way down to the bottom of the cellar,” they told her, saying they could see a twister coming. Atchison said she remembers first the “dead silence” and then hearing the wind that felt like a funnel and things outside hitting against each other. “All was quiet after that because it was that fast,” she said. “Like a snap of a finger and it was gone.” Atchison and her family were among the fortunate ones to avoid being killed in the three-day outbreak of sever…