What's on Your Mind?

In 1994, Bernard Tschumi, then Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture in New York, launched an experiment that banned paper and hand drawings, requiring architecture students to use computers instead. Together with the rise of computer-aided programs, Tschumi’s “Paperless Studio” accelerated the profession’s embrace of digital tools and reshaped how architects conceived ideas. Now that AI has entered the picture, you’d be forgiven for thinking the architectural sketch as we know it is dead. Quite the opposite. “We are in a world that is now completely dominated by digital tools, but something strange is happening: The hand sketch is back,” says …

Jurors in a bellwether trial about the impacts of social media on children watched a deposition of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday that explored what the architects of Facebook and Instagram knew from internal research about the negative experiences of young users and how the company responded. New Mexico’s attorney general alleges that Meta violated state consumer protection laws in failing to disclose what it knew about the dangers of addiction to social media as well as child sexual exploitation on the company’s platforms. Attorneys for Meta say the company discloses risks and makes efforts to weed out harmful content and experiences — acknowledging that some ba…

Just days after abandoning its planned Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, Netflix is back with a very different kind of deal: The streaming giant has acquired InterPositive, a startup founded by actor and director Ben Affleck that is developing AI tools for filmmakers. InterPositive’s entire team will join Netflix as part of the acquisition, and Affleck himself will become an advisor to the streamer. Financial details of the deal weren’t disclosed. Affleck founded InterPositive in 2022 after realizing that existing AI video models weren’t ready to produce Hollywood-grade footage from scratch. “Together with a small team of engineers, researchers and creatives, I bega…

It could have easily become a high-rise luxury condo complex. Or maybe a struggling office tower now being converted into luxury condos. Maybe a parking garage, or a data center. But instead, 30 years ago this spring, Alameda County Parcel Number 8-641-8-5 became home to the Oakland Ice Center—where recently-crowned Olympic gold-medalist figure skater Alysa Liu still trains. Located just north of downtown Oakland, in what the city considers the Uptown Retail and Entertainment Area, parcel 8-641-8-5 was just a vacant, privately-owned lot back in 1991. But in that year, Oakland’s now-defunct Redevelopment Agency acquired it as part of a three-parcel transaction for …

You know Graza—or, at least, you’ve probably seen its squeeze bottles of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) on grocery store shelves. They’re green, opaque to protect the contents, and sold in two variations: Sizzle, for cooking, and Drizzle, for finishing. Since the brand launched its direct-to-consumer site in 2021, it’s become a staple of the olive oil aisle. With national distribution across stores like Whole Foods, Kroger, and Costco, its squeeze bottles (sometimes accompanied by its beer-can refills) are sold in more than 28,000 stores. It has also been making small excursions into other parts of the store, with Ithaca using Graza oil for a co-branded hummus. B…

If 2024 was the Year of AI, 2025 became the Year of AI Slop. In the race to maximize all of its potential, we came to view AI results as a finished product. But as Balaji Srinivasan points out, AI is intended to function middle-to-middle; humans, by contrast, are end-to-end. By ceding it all to AI, outputs suffered; we suffered. Both people and machines settled for less than what was possible. Generic, hollow, clean, and devoid of subjective taste or judgement. Master of summary but without significant depth. Yet capable of complex analysis and able to perform tasks or generate high volume outputs with unprecedented ease and speed. This is the reality of AI. …

For the past decade, “Bring your whole self to work” has been heralded as a marker of organizational progress. A shorthand for inclusion, psychological safety and modern leadership, the message is seductive: you no longer need to edit yourself to succeed. But for many, that promise doesn’t match reality. In practice, “whole self” culture often asks people to take personal risks within systems that haven’t changed to accommodate them, with no established boundaries or expectations regarding what “whole self” actually means. The language may have evolved, but the meaning remains ambiguous, open to individual interpretation and subject to systemic power dynamics. The…

Hiroshi Fujiwara is perhaps the most dramatically lit person I’ve ever interviewed on Zoom. Joining me at his preferred time (midnight) from Tokyo, the man known as the godfather of streetwear—who launched his own label at 26, was among the first hip-hop DJs in Japan, wrote a regular column for Popeye, and now runs his own consultancy, Fragment—has met with me to discuss his latest collaborations with Nike. But when I dig in, asking about the hidden details lurking in his shoes? He admits, “I don’t really want to talk about it,” without an ounce of rudeness. “Sometimes, if you see a movie and you don’t really get the ending, you have to guess what [the creators] t…

Dollar General’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 earnings report shows some successes—though you wouldn’t know that by the reaction of its stock. Shares of Dollar General Corp (NYSE: DG) fell more than 6% in premarket trading on Thursday following the report’s early-morning release. And yet the discount retailer’s financial results include figures such as a 5.9% increase year-over-year (YOY) in quarter-four, with net sales increasing to $10.9 billion. Its 2025 net sales saw a similar jump of 5.2% YOY to $42.7 billion. Same-store sales also rose 4.3% YOY in the last quarter and 3% YOY for 2025. Notably, Dollar General did predict slower growth for 2026.…

René Redzepi, the chef behind Copenhagen’s Noma, has resigned from the iconic restaurant he co-founded and its food non-profit MAD, amid abuse allegations. The move comes after protesters gathered outside Noma’s 16-week Los Angeles pop-up Wednesday. A recent New York Times article reports that former employees of the restaurant allege a pattern of abuse, including “punching, slamming, screaming,” from 2009 and 2017. The Times interviewed dozens of former employees throughout 18 of the chef’s 23 years at the restaurant. The report also alleges unpaid interns worked 16-hour days. On Wednesday, protestors outside Noma’s L.A. pop-up chanted and held up signs that read…

A new research note just named Waymo the “Kool-Aid man” of the ride-haling economy. And it might leave Uber, Lyft, and Tesla playing catchup. The study, published on March 16 by Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson, is a 21-page exploration into how Alphabet’s self-driving car company is poised to disrupt the existing ride-sharing landscape as it continues to aggressively scale. “Waymo’s incursion into the U.S. rideshare narrative reminds us of the Kool-Aid commercials from our childhood,” the analysis begins. “The Kool-Aid man kicks down walls, causes havoc, screams ‘oh yeah,’ and runs off into the next scene.” In the case of Waymo, it continues…

College basketball is like a comet. It burns at the center of the national sports world for exactly three weeks, and then largely disappears until the next year. During this brief window American sports fans become obsessed with figuring out who is going to win March Madness games, often involving teams they’ve never watched play and know nothing about. The old adage is that the more college basketball you watch, the worse your NCAA Tournament bracket will be. But in the information age, you can gain an edge. If you know where to look and how to parse the information, you can find all the data you need to make educated calls on your tournament bracket. Here are se…

Nvidia has unveiled DLSS 5, a new PC gaming technology that uses AI to re-render video games in real time. It’s basically a make-it-realistic filter, affecting characters, foliage, textures, and lighting. It’s but another example of how in the age of AI, the world may never be the same. And the gaming community doesn’t quite know what to think yet. While the previous versions of DLSS simply upscaled a game’s resolution using AI, this version turns a tree that looks like a 3D model into a tree that looks like a real tree. It’s a monumental change. And a bold move. Unsurprisingly, the gaming community is fiercely divided. While some embrace the leap in visual fidel…

Parents make “deals” with their kids everyday. Mow the lawn and get your allowance. Finish your dinner, and you’ll get some ice cream. When Corey Scholibo was eight, his mother made him an offer: if he stopped sucking his thumb, he’d earn $20. He stopped in a week, and she made good on the promise. Now 47, Scholibo has a business designed around these childhood “deals.” In January, he launched an app-based service, Dayo Deals, that enables parents to strike bargains with their teenage children—specifically to help them reduce their screen time and social media use. Together, both parties work together to establish time limits and a monetary reward. If the te…

The housing market is about to step out of its prolonged slump. And, according to a new report from Realtor.com, selling conditions are about to become favorable. According to the real estate destination’s 2026 Best TIme to Sell report released today, the market is set for a major spring turn around. That’s because, in addition to warmer spring weather, mortgage rates have also been on the downslide, dropping to their lowest rate in at least three and a half years. That, coupled with the typical springtime surge, is likely to inspire more home shoppers to begin their spring time search. The best week for listing, the report says, will be the week of April 12 throu…

Last year, the CEO of the department store chain Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS) announced the closure of 27 locations in order to help shore up the company’s struggling finances. But in November, a new CEO took the helm, prompting many to wonder whether he would implement additional store closures. Now that CEO has made his plans clear. Here’s what you need to know. Kohl’s shut 27 stores in 2025 In January 2025, Kohl’s announced it was closing 27 underperforming locations in 15 states, as well as its San Bernardino E-commerce Fulfillment Center (EFC) in California. At the time, the company’s then CEO, Tom Kingsbury, said the closures were a “necessary” step “to suppo…

For most, ChatGPT is nothing more than a tool to write emails or ask silly questions. But for some, their chat is their partner, and they want more. Back in October, just a few months after OpenAI rolled out its new GPT-5 model, CEO Sam Altman announced that the company would roll out new features that would mimic its predecessor 4o. “We plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!),” he said via X. But his announcement was also accompanied by an enticing promise to those most attached to 4o: members of online forums who claim to be in romantic re…

The Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, may be visible in nearly 19 U.S. states tonight, Wednesday, March 18 into Thursday, March 19, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center. The aurora borealis is the result of a geomagnetic storm that occurs when a coronal mass ejection (CME), an eruption of solar material, reaches Earth and causes swaths of green, blue, and purple colors to appear in the dark sky. We are currently seeing increased solar activity as the result of an 11-year sun cycle peak. NOAA says this G2, or moderate geomagnetic storm is partially thanks to Friday’s upcoming spring …

The used-car e-commerce platform Carvana Co. (NYSE: CVNA) is planning to do something it has never done before: split its stock. If completed, the move will significantly reduce the per-share price of CVNA stock, without affecting the company’s total value. But first, it needs to be approved by shareholders. Here’s what you need to know about Carvana’s proposed stock split. What is a stock split? A stock split is a mechanism by which a company can increase or decrease the number of its shares by dividing those shares or combining them. There are two types of stock splits: a forward split and a reverse split. A forward split is the most common, and the …

Fifteen years after his passing, Steve Jobs’s thoughts on innovation, entrepreneurship, design, and leadership still make a meaningful impact. Since there’s a Jobs quote for many situations, winnowing it down to five isn’t an easy task. Still: Here’s my attempt. Here’s Steve Jobs on starting your own business, perseverance, leadership and responsibility, intelligence, and money. Jobs’s thoughts on starting a business Maybe you don’t want to start your own company, much less build a thriving business. Even so, Jobs felt everyone should dip a toe in the entrepreneurial water, even if it’s just a side hustle. Why? As Jobs said: I think that without owning…

With AI capabilities doubling in a matter of months, agility is no longer a competitive advantage for business leaders—it’s now become a survival skill. “The entire order of companies and the way in which they deliver value and the entire business models that they have been built on for the last few decades or longer are being rewritten in front of us,” Peter Smart, chief experience officer and managing partner of product design firm Fantasy, said during a discussion at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW. “The new agility is coherence: Can you create the conditions by which it’s very clear what we do, what the value is that we produce, and how we’re going to get there?” …