What's on Your Mind?

Even in the age of electric cars and AI generated everything, we’re still using the same three technologies to insulate most of our clothing. And they work mostly the same way. Wool, down, and most recently, Primaloft (aka synthetic down) are all used to create “loft”—a fluffy substance that traps pockets of air. It’s that air that’s ultimately creating a barrier between you and the outside cold to keep you warm. But now, Nike is taking this premise to its ultimate conclusion, and launching its first coats that are insulated by nothing but air. And to tweak their warmth, you can even pump them up and deflate them as you like. The technology will debut in the T…

Elliott Hill spent his entire career at Nike. But he spent a full year as its CEO before giving his first media interview in the role. In mid-October, the company invited a select group of global journalists to Beaverton, Oregon, to see the latest in Nike innovations. We tried a slew of ambitious products that will hit the market over the next year plus: mind-altering footwear, exoskeleton sneakers, and a jacket that inflates to keep you warm. And a few of us got to speak with Hill. Hill is the third Nike CEO I’ve interviewed for Fast Company. He’s not as introspective or soft-spoken as the design leader Mark Parker. He’s not as unapologetic or headstrong as the …

I don’t know how Henri Cartier-Bresson would have reacted to Leica replacing the optical viewfinder on his camera with an artificial display. Perhaps the French photographer and cofounder of Magnum Photos wouldn’t have cared one bit about it. Or maybe he—a profound humanist—would have disliked the idea of it almost as much as I do. Cartier-Bresson once famously said that his Leica “became the extension of [his] eye, prowling the streets all day, feeling very strung up and ready to pounce, determined to ‘trap life’—to preserve life in the act of living.” That’s a little harder to accomplish with Leica’s new camera. Today, Leica is launching the M EV1. It’s the first M …

There’s not a more fairy-tale story in business. Nike CEO Elliott Hill began as an intern. Worked about every job imaginable at the company. Was passed up as a fave for the CEO role in 2020 when John Donahoe was brought in from Bain. And then, finding himself retired, and charter member of a silver fox baseball league in Austin, the swoosh boomeranged in from the clouds and Hill hitched a ride back to Beaverton. Now, after a year at the helm, Hill’s still dealing with Nike’s COVID hangover, brought about (at least in part) by Donahoe, who bolstered profits by selling waves of retro sneakers to people at home, all while reorganizing the core innovation team structure t…

In a company’s early days, culture is forged through proximity—shared desks, late nights, and the push-and-pull of turning ideas into reality. Decisions happen on the fly, and everyone knows each other by name. But as you scale—especially as a remote-first organization—that sense of connection can quietly fade. Suddenly, you realize you can’t attend every onboarding, celebrate every milestone, or even recognize every face on a Zoom call. That moment should give you pause. In fact, if it doesn’t, you’re missing a red flag. At Appfire, we’ve gone from a small crew to nearly 800 people across multiple continents. Our remote-first approach lets people “work where they…

Research shows that an employee’s perception of what makes an authentic leader is the most significant predictor of job satisfaction and happiness at work. And I experienced this firsthand when my boss said three simple words that changed everything. You see, as a journalist, I was always accustomed to someone checking, editing, and approving every piece before publication. So when I asked my new boss yet another question about a piece of content I was working on, his response shocked me. He turned around and said, “I trust you.” I was blown away because it was a huge shift. For the first time, Someone is encouraging me to trust my own judgement instead of seeking…

Headlines alternate between massive AI investments and reports of failed deployments. The pattern is consistent across industries: seemingly promising AI projects that work well in testing environments struggle or fail when deployed in real-world conditions. It’s not insufficient computing power, inadequate talent, or immature algorithms. I’ve worked with over 250 enterprises deploying visual AI—from Fortune 10 manufacturers to emerging unicorns—and the pattern is unmistakable: the companies that succeed train their models on what actually breaks them, while the ones that fail optimize for what works in controlled environments. The Hidden Economics of AI Failure …

Early in my (Chantal’s) career, my manager, Scott, shared something in my annual review that I’ll never forget. My sarcastic sense of humor made some people uncomfortable. He recommended that I “tone it down a bit.” I felt embarrassed and defensive. Since I was young, I’d always leveraged humor to connect and signal mental acuity. The feedback made me question what I thought I knew. Was my presumed superpower actually a liability? The conversation rattled me, and I didn’t know what to do with the feedback. So often, early-career professionals enter the workforce and receive technical feedback from managers: fix code this way, prepare for a check-in using this temp…

Twenty-five years ago, Google unveiled Adwords, which pledged to enable advertisers “to quickly design a flexible program that best fits [their] online marketing goals and budget,” Google cofounder Larry Page said at the time. The principle was simple. AdWords allowed advertisers to purchase individualized, affordable keyword-based advertising that appears alongside search results used by hundreds of millions of people every day. That decision was a game changer for Google. Advertising now accounts for around three in every four dollars of revenue the company has made so far this year, growing 10% in the last year alone. The product, since renamed Google Ads, has …

Insincerity is the mother of deceit. Whenever we say something we don’t mean, we tell a lie. It may be a small misrepresentation, but it’s still a lie as we are being dishonest to hide what we truly think and feel. Repeated insincerity breaks down trust, communication, and understanding. So why do organizations, often without even knowing it, encourage insincerity in their employees? The answer lies a little with social media and a lot in narcissism. NARCISSISTS, NARCISSISTS, EVERYWHERE Since the early 1980s, psychologists have been tracking a steady rise in narcissism: a growing self-consciousness and preoccupation with our image and what other people say abou…

Paris Hilton’s been an entrepreneur, a reality TV star, a DJ, an author, a model, a singer, and an activist. But she says school felt like torture. “Sitting still under fluorescent lights surrounded by beige walls made me feel trapped instead of inspired,” she tells Fast Company via email. “Traditional environments were too flat, too uniform, and too quiet to support the way I think.” It wasn’t until after being diagnosed with ADHD in her late 20s that Hilton began to understand how to hone her energy and creativity — and how the physical spaces where she worked impacted her ability to focus. “Over the years, I’ve learned that when a space feels alive, so do …

Hurricanes are America’s most destructive natural hazards, causing more deaths and property damage than any other type of disaster. Since 1980, these powerful tropical storms have done more than US$1.5 trillion in damage and killed more than 7,000 people. The No. 1 cause of the damages and deaths from hurricanes is storm surge. Storm surge is the rise in the ocean’s water level, caused by a combination of powerful winds pushing water toward the coastline and reduced air pressure within the hurricane compared to the pressure outside of it. In addition to these factors, waves breaking close to the coast cause the sea level to increase near the coastline, a phenomeno…

Job interviews are nerve-wracking at the best of times. But for those who see themselves as introverts, they can be extra intimidating. It’s not due to a lack of skill. The ability to think on your feet and sell yourself—no doubt important in the interview process—tends to come more easily to those who go through life a little more extroverted. And yet more Americans see themselves as introverted than extroverted. Contrary to conventional wisdom, that’s not necessarily a bad trait in the workplace: Research has found that introverted leaders outperform extroverts by 28%, driving higher productivity from their teams. Connar Walford, student success lead at t…

One minute, you’re watching a hilarious or even completely bland YouTube short. The next? You realize you’ve just lost an hour of work time or managed to stay up way too late—again. Losing track of time when watching shorts is not an uncommon experience. But now, YouTube wants to help you set limits to stay on task, hit the hay, or just, ya’ know, not lose precious hours of your life to Shorts. On Wednesday, the video streaming giant rolled out a new timer feature on its mobile app. When users log on, they can go into their settings and click on “shorts feed limit” to set a timer that will remind them to stop scrolling. Once users hit their time limit, the app wi…

Venture capital powers innovation, yet investment decisions still favor the familiar. From the original design of the industry to the women reshaping its future, the patterns that drive investment may be poised for change. Is venture capital ready for a new outfit? On October 25, 1988, the Women’s Business Ownership Act (H.R. 5050) was signed into law, granting women the right to own and operate businesses without a male cosigner. This landmark legislation was a breakthrough for women’s economic independence. Yet by that time, generations of deal making had already embedded a pattern of men investing in men. Pattern matching is woven into the fabric of venture cap…

Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI and three other entities on Wednesday, alleging their involvement in an “industrial-scale, unlawful” economy to “scrape” the comments of millions of Reddit users for commercial gain. Reddit’s lawsuit in a New York federal court takes aim at San Francisco-based Perplexity, maker of an AI chatbot and “answer engine” that competes with Google, ChatGPT, and others in online search. Also named in the lawsuit are Lithuanian data-scraping company Oxylabs UAB, a web domain called AWMProxy that Reddit describes as a “former Russian botnet,” and Texas-based startup SerpApi, which lists Perpl…

In today’s world, where success is often tied to financial accomplishments, status, and impressive job titles, Warren Buffett offers a refreshing perspective: True success is about the love we share. Yes, love. Buffett once said, “Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.” Buffett’s wisdom gets to the core of what matters, reminding us that, ultimately, life’s real currency is the relationships we nurture that lead to two-way love. Who do you want to have love you? Are you a leader, manager, founder, or CEO with scores of people looking at you f…

This year has not been a great one for grocery stores, with chains like Kroger and Safeway closing locations in recent months. Now, the Southeastern grocery chain Winn-Dixie appears to be following in their footsteps, with its parent company planning to sell or possibly shutter 32 Winn-Dixie stores by the end of 2025 as its focus shifts to its home state of Florida. It will also transition or close eight Harveys Supermarket locations. The 40 stores impacted span Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Southeastern Grocers (SEG), the Jacksonville, Florida-based company that owns both chains, posted a list of stores that it will transition, with some id…

Breakfast has started to get a little riskier. More than six million eggs have been recalled since Sept. 29 over salmonella concerns. This week those concerns grew when the FDA expanded its earlier recall from Arkansas-based Black Sheep Egg Company and elevated the recall to Class I, which describes the highest possible risk to public health. The move follows a string of other recent egg recalls. In August, the FDA announced the recall of large brown cage-free Sunshine Yolks produced by Country Eggs, LLC of Lucerne Valley, California, and sold under the Nagatoshi Produce, Mizuho, and Nijiya Markets brands. Those products reportedly sickened at least 95 people across 1…

It doesn’t look like a Rivian truck, but a new electric bike took shape at the EV company. A startup called Also, which spun out from the EV maker earlier this year and raised $105 million, launched the $4,500 e-bike today, along with a delivery quad for logistics companies and another four-wheeler that consumers could use instead of a typical cargo bike. The idea sparked three years ago, after Rivian founder RJ Scaringe met with Chris Yu, head of product and innovation at the bike brand Specialized. “We connected over a really basic question, which is: why doesn’t that magical experience that you get out of a Rivian exist in anything smaller than a car?” say…