What's on Your Mind?

Every December, something strange happens inside companies. Decisions that were stuck for months suddenly fly through. Projects get approved. Budgets get finalized. People stop debating and finally choose. Leaders usually chalk this up to “year-end energy” or “the holiday push.” That is an easy story, but it hides what is actually going on. December forces leaders into a tighter frame. There is less time to overthink, fewer acceptable choices, and clearer expectations. In other words, the environment is designed in a way that produces commitment instead of delay—even though for complex, novel strategic bets, the calendar alone is rarely enough. This isn’t holiday …

Airbnb may finally pay the price of long-simmering tensions about overtourism in Spain. The Spanish government announced on Monday that it has fined the online rentals giant 64 million euros ($75 million) for advertising unlicensed rental listings in the country. This decision is the latest in several months of back-and-forths, as the government previously ordered Airbnb to remove more than 120,000 listings it identified as unlicensed. While Spain’s Consumer Affairs Ministry said the fine was a final decision and couldn’t be appealed, San Francisco-based Airbnb is reportedly planning to challenge it in court. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request fo…

“There are boy aquariums all over the United States,” a TikTok creator explains in a recent post. The video then shows a clip of someone carrying a bucket filled with hockey pucks. “Come feed the fish at the boy aquarium with me,” the closed captions read. The person tosses the pucks onto the rink as players skate past. On TikTok, ice hockey arenas have been rebranded as “boy aquariums.” Videos show women tapping against the battered Plexiglas, filming the players warming up and encouraging others to go on a girls’ night to the rink. The players themselves are in on the joke. Earlier this year, the official TikTok of the Canadian junior ice hockey team Monc…

When the U.S. government cut funding for local news stations, the Knight Foundation moved quickly to help stabilize a rapidly eroding industry. President and CEO Maribel Pérez Wadsworth unpacks the evolving roles of philanthropy and government, and why philanthropic organizations must learn to move at the speed of the news cycle. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your p…

FIFA slashed the price of some World Cup tickets for teams’ most loyal fans following a global backlash and some will get $60 seats for the final instead of being asked to pay $4,185. FIFA said Tuesday that $60 tickets will be made available for every game at the tournament in North America, going to the national federations whose teams are playing. Those federations decide how to distribute them to loyal fans who have attended previous games at home and on the road. The number of $60 tickets for each game is likely to be in the hundreds, rather than thousands, in what FIFA is now calling a “Supporter Entry Tier” price category. FIFA did not specify exactly wh…

Dating in 2025 has been rough. According to articles, data, and personal narratives on social media, it seems that it’s never been more challenging to find a partner. But, according to a new report, when it comes to one qualification, daters may actually be lowering the bar. Tawkify, a matchmaking service, surveyed 1,010 U.S. adults to find out how work-related trends are shaping modern dating. Turns out having a job is no longer a must-have for a growing number of romance seekers. These days, only 29% of daters say that unemployment is a red flag that would make them inclined to turn down a potential partner. Likewise, while living with one’s parents would’ve once b…

Bitcoin investors are bracing for “Witching Friday” tomorrow, December 18, when billions of options are due to expire—making for what could be a highly volatile, roller-coaster ride at the end of the week for the markets. Some $23 billion in contracts are set to expire just on Deribit, the largest Bitcoin exchange, according to Bloomberg. Here’s what to know. What is ‘Witching Friday’? “Witching Friday,” also known as “triple witching” or “the triple witching hour,” refers to the last hour of the stock market trading session on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December, when three kinds of securities expire simultaneously, often leading to i…

The seven states that rely on the Colorado River to supply farms and cities across the U.S. West appear no closer to reaching a consensus on a long-term plan for sharing the dwindling resource. The river’s future was the center of discussions this week at the annual Colorado River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas, where water leaders from California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming gathered alongside federal and tribal officials. It comes after the states blew past a November deadline for a new plan to deal with drought and water shortages after 2026, when current guidelines expire. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has set a n…

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose in November from the previous month, but slowed compared to a year earlier for the first time since May despite average long-term mortgage rates holding near their low point for the year. Existing home sales rose 0.5% in last month from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.13 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. Sales fell 1% compared with November last year. The latest sales figure came in slightly below the 4.14 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Through the first 11 months of this year, home sales are down 0.5% compared to the same period last ye…

Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay $167.5 million to settle a long-running class action lawsuit. The suit, which was first filed back in Oct. 2011, accused the two major credit card companies of conspiring to keep ATM fees artificially high. The proposed settlement, filed on Thursday in Washington, if approved, it will mean an end to “almost fourteen years of vigorously contested litigation.” The lawsuit alleged that both companies “participated in an unlawful conspiracy” involving Visa and Mastercard blocking independent ATM operators from offering lower prices. If approved, the settlement will have Visa and Mastercard pay millions to ATM users who say the…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. During its earnings call on Wednesday, executives at Lennar—a giant homebuilder with a market capitalization of $27 billion—said the federal government is working on a plan to help alleviate strained housing affordability. Lennar executives said federal officials are actively engaging with homebuilders and industry groups to better understand constraints—and to avoid policies that could unintentionally damage supply. While no specific program was outlined, management suggested it would be “surprising” if no meaningful action emerged in 2026, given cu…

From boardrooms to startup garages, leaders need ideas that work in the real world. These 10 books offer a broader perspective on business, helping us see the patterns behind the day-to-day grind. Learn something new every day with “Book Bites,” 15-minute audio summaries of the latest and greatest nonfiction. Get started by downloading the Next Big Idea App today! Today Was Fun: A Book About Work (Seriously) By Bree Groff When we wish away the workweek, we wish away our lives. What would it take for us to look forward to Monday? Find out in this refreshing and unconventional take on the world of work. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Bree…

My bus rolls into Port Authority. I’ve got 10 minutes to get across town for my first meeting. I sprint down the escalator, run through droves of people, and arrive at a subway turnstile. I swipe my MetroCard through the magnetic reader, step forward—only to get crotch-checked by a locked metal bar and flipped the finger by a screen that displays “PLEASE SWIPE AGAIN.” I give it another swipe. “INSUFFICIENT FARE.” To refill my MetroCard, I power walk toward the kiosk. It refuses to read my credit card. I swipe a few more times. Nothing. I sift through my back pocket, discover a crumpled ten-dollar bill, and slide it into the machine. It won’t accept my cash. I waffle-i…

While the Lego Group has dipped its toes into tech waters before, the company hasn’t strayed far from its analog roots. But on Monday, the 94-year-old company unveiled a new product line that embraces the digital age, without abandoning its core business. At CES, Lego announced the upcoming launch of the Lego Smart Play system, an interactive technology that lets users’ Lego creations respond to player actions with tailored sounds, lights, behavior, and more. The company says it’s a way to further engage digital native kids without having them stare at yet another screen. While the toy market has struggled for the past few years, sales at the Lego Group have remai…

Workplace training invites are dropping in many employees’ inboxes now that the new year is underway. Most employers require staff to complete multiple HR modules annually: training on harassment, workplace relationships, or conflicts of interest, for example, followed by a quick quiz. Recently, however, a new TikTok trend imagining fake workplace “training modules” is going viral. “It’s 5 pm and you notice one of your colleagues is crying at their desk,” creator @pepsimasc posted in November. “Do you A: check in and ask how they’re doing, or B: tell them to shut the fuck up?” the skit begins. He continues on to the next imaginary scenario: “You’re in a meetin…

We’ve grown strangely comfortable separating things that were never meant to be separated: leadership from management, vision from execution, and perhaps most damaging, culture from strategy. Inside companies, this split shows up everywhere. A CEO announces a bold future about democratizing access or building a place where people take smart risks. Then culture gets handed to HR as if it belongs on a separate track, while the business strategy unfolds on its own timeline. The result is predictable. Employees are asked to navigate the distance between what leaders say and how the organization actually works. That distance is not neutral. It creates avoidable frictio…

If you signed up for an Amazon Prime membership between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, Amazon might owe you as much as $51. This comes after the online retail giant entered into a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations that the company used deceptive practices to enroll customers in its Prime membership. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? Amazon and the FTC have agreed to a settlement over allegations that the online retailer used deceptive practices to enroll people in its Amazon Prime membership, while also making it difficult for those same individuals to cancel the membership. The settlement was rea…

If Nike hired Michael Jordan to work at headquarters, would you expect the marketing team to start sinking three-pointers? Of course not. He’s extraordinary, but skill doesn’t spread by proximity. Here’s a better question: What do Nike employees need to know about basketball? The rules. Game duration. Equipment specs. Enough to design better shoes, write sharper campaigns, and forecast demand accurately. They don’t need to play in the NBA. And Nike doesn’t need to hire NBA players to improve its business. The same is true for AI. Most companies don’t need extreme AI talent to unlock real efficiency gains. They need people across the organization to underst…

Health tech gadgets displayed at the annual CES trade show make a lot of promises. A smart scale promoted a healthier lifestyle by scanning your feet to track your heart health, and an egg-shaped hormone tracker uses AI to help you figure out the best time to conceive. Tech and health experts, however, question the accuracy of products like these and warn of data privacy issues — especially as the federal government eases up on regulation. The Food and Drug Administration announced during the show in Las Vegas that it will relax regulations on “low-risk” general wellness products such as heart monitors and wheelchairs. It’s the latest step President Donald The President…

When a gunman began firing inside an academic building on the Brown University campus, students didn’t wait for official alerts warning of trouble. They got information almost instantly, in bits and bursts — through phones vibrating in pockets, messages from strangers, rumors that felt urgent because they might keep someone alive. On Dec. 13 as the attack at the Ivy League institution played out during finals week, students took to Sidechat, an anonymous, campus-specific message board used widely at U.S. colleges, for fast-flowing information in real time. An Associated Press analysis of nearly 8,000 posts from the 36 hours after the shooting shows how social medi…

Barely 10 days into the new year, it already feels like you can’t look away from the news. In the last week alone, the U.S. military captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and took over operations of the country; President The President withdrew the U.S. from dozens of international organizations, including a major climate treaty; and an ICE agent fatally shot a Minneapolis resident, sparking outrage and widespread protests. If it seems impossible to focus on work—or anything else, for that matter—amid all this troubling news, you’re not alone. Plenty of research in recent years has shown that Americans are overwhelmed by the state of politics and feel a heighte…