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High-speed rail systems are found all over the globe. Japan’s bullet train began operating in 1964. China will have 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) of high-speed track by the end of 2025. The fastest train in Europe goes almost 200 mph (320 kph). Yet high-speed rail remains absent from most of the U.S. Stephen Mattingly, a civil engineering professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, explains why high-speed rail projects in much of the country so often go off track. Dr. Stephen Mattingly discusses the problems that come with implementing high-speed rail in the U.S. The Conversation has collaborated with SciLine to bring you highlights from the d…

For all the talk of how artificial intelligence will revolutionize the way we live and work, there are few industries where generative AI has already had a profound impact. Across the education space, however, from K-12 schools to universities, AI has been widely adopted by students and teachers alike. Educators are using AI to create lesson plans and save time on administrative work and even grading. And students now regularly use AI chatbots in the classroom and for help with assignments—to varying results. The rapid clip of AI adoption has raised fraught questions about academic integrity and responsible use of the technology, among both teachers and students. But …

“We doubled our marketing team, and still fell behind.” That’s what one founder told me in January, frustrated after months of hiring, onboarding, and budgeting…only to lose ground anyway. In 2025, the old formula of “more people equals more results” just isn’t working. Let’s face it, traditional hiring is broken. It’s costly, time-intensive, and built for a world that no longer exists. Training takes months, and even the best employees can’t be experts in everything. And scaling up or down? That’s nearly impossible when your budget is tied to headcount. That said, full-time employees are still the heart of any great company. Their creativity, dedication, and dr…

With uncertainty as the new norm, leaders are understandably searching for psychological anchors. They’re looking for ideas that can steady people and sustain energy through change. One of those anchors is hope. Across corporate mission statements, fresh publications from thought leaders, and HR manifestos, corporations have elevated hope from a state of being to a strategic imperative. But what happens when an emotion becomes a business model? How to define hope in an organizational context Psychologically, hope is a cognitive and motivational state defined by three elements: agency (belief in your capacity to shape outcomes), pathways (the ability to identify…

A century ago, work was unsafe and openly adversarial. Strikes were common. Turnover was extreme. Productivity suffered. HR—then called personnel—was created to manage this instability. Its job wasn’t to make work fulfilling. It was to reduce friction between employees and the company, keep people on the job, and protect output. As companies matured, so did HR. The function expanded to include hiring, pay, benefits, training, grievance handling, and legal compliance. On paper, this evolution gave HR a broad view of how people experienced work—and the potential authority to shape it. But that authority was never fully claimed. Instead, HR generally settled into adminis…

Think back to the shifting tech landscape of 2015. “Uptown Funk” was blaring on digital music outlets, Snapchat filters were laid over every selfie, and hoverboards were all the rage. At the same time, marketing teams were facing an uphill battle to prove ROI as new digital marketing opportunities, like the rise of video content marketing and the shift towards mobile, led to changing tactics, and budgets came under more scrutiny. Now, a decade later, human resources teams are facing similar circumstances. Just like marketing leaders had to establish their digital campaigns’ values, HR pros now need to demonstrate how their tech-forward people programs drive business r…

While we are a tech company focused on financial services, we’ve realized a hard truth: in the high-stakes world of regulated AI, your model is only as good as the person who built it. While the rest of the industry is obsessed with “GPU-first” strategies, we are betting on a “human-first” approach to technology. In our newly released white paper, The Making of the Brillianeers, we outline a strategy, inspired by Toyota’s “just-in-time” manufacturing philosophy, that treats engineering talent not as an operating expense, but as a strategic, investor-level asset. THE TOYOTA PARALLEL Toyota revolutionized the automotive industry by moving away from massive, ineff…

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. At the Exceptional Women Alliance (EWA), we enable high level women to mentor each other for personal and professional happiness through sisterhood. As the nonprofit organization’s founder, chair, and CEO, I am honored to interview and share insights from some of the thought leaders who are part of EWA. This month I introduce to you Emily Moorhead, president of the Henry Ford Jackson Hospital. …

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. At the Exceptional Women Alliance, we enable high-level women to mentor each other to achieve personal and professional happiness through sisterhood. As the nonprofit organization’s founder, chair, and CEO, I am honored to interview and share insights from thought leaders who are part of our peer-to-peer mentoring program. This month, I’m pleased to introduce Roslyn Schneider, MD, a physici…

Hyper-independence looks like your best employee. The one who never says no, stays late, and carries the team on their back. Leaders often interpret it as strength, but researchers and workplace experts warn it is often a coping mechanism that masks burnout, erodes collaboration, and stalls leadership growth. The behavior has gained cultural visibility. On TikTok, the hashtag “hyper-independence” has racked up millions of views in videos tagged “hyper-independence is a trauma response” and “signs of hyper-independence.” For many viewers, the content is striking because they assumed this was simply how success was achieved, not a survival strategy with hidden costs. Th…

The smartest financial move I ever made was to stop contributing to retirement savings. It may sound counterintuitive, even reckless. Dave Ramsey would have stress dreams about this article, but it may be time to get a divorce from your 401(k). Here’s the truth: You actually don’t need millions to retire. Those retirement calculators love to spit out impossible numbers: $3 million, $5 million, sometimes more. Numbers so big they make financial freedom feel like a five-decade slog. Here’s the part they leave out. Most people following the “save for 40 years” script never hit those numbers. They keep working and waiting, but they’re aiming for a moving goalpost.…

Fast Company is delighted to make this article available to any student for free. Please request a copy by email. I was sitting on the steps of Duke Chapel at 2 a.m. in December 2023, the Gothic towers looming above me, a 210-foot reminder of everything I was about to walk away from. My phone was exploding with notifications: Y Combinator had just accepted us. ChatGPT had hit 100 million users in two months—faster than TikTok, faster than Instagram, faster than anything in human history. And I was about to break my single mother’s heart. The chapel bells rang twice, echoing across the empty quad. In six hours, I’d be dropping out of one of America’s best univ…

Last month I posted a job description on our blog for a chief of staff role at my venture capital firm, Graham & Walker. Turns out, that job description really hit a nerve. Within an hour, more than a hundred candidates had put their hat in the ring and filled out the long Google form that served as our only form of application. Quickly overwhelmed by the interest, I asked everyone I knew for tips on how to review all those applications most efficiently. They recommended several tools, from LLMs to custom built. I was deep in research when something happened that made me change my mind. Our Google form included an optional field for “anything else you’d like t…

My team often jokes about the “Vulcan Mind Meld.” They say I need to share a brain with a founder before we can write a check. They aren’t wrong, but the process isn’t science fiction. It’s usually just a walk. Specifically, it’s a walk to the Stanford Dish. The path is a 3.5-mile loop in the foothills above the university. It’s steep, exposed, and offers little place to hide. I don’t take founders here for exercise. I take them here because the controlled environment of a boardroom practically demands rehearsed answers. The trail does not. I don’t prepare a script for these walks. In fact, that’s the point. The pitch is already done; I know the metrics. Now I…

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. I rely on Ideogram, an AI image generator, to help me create posters, banners, social posts, newsletter illustrations, and video thumbnails. Context: Ideogram competes in an exploding market. Gemini’s new Nano Banana Pro makes remarkable infographics, ChatGPT’s image generator produces fantastic illustrations, and Canva, Adobe, and Midjourney keep getting stronger. Yet I still find myself returning often to Ideogram. 10 reasons I like Ideogram Your prompt gets automatically improved. Ideogram’s magic prompt algorithm refines …

An inclusive economy is no longer a moral aspiration or a side project. Business leaders must understand that without inclusion, we cannot create a resilient, growing economy that delivers sustainable returns for all. In places where inclusion is part of the infrastructure of their economy—supply chains, procurement processes, capital access, or business ownership—people thrive. Inclusive economies create more resilience by expanding the base of potential business owners who can build, own, innovate, and hire. They allow more opportunities for homeownership and investing in the longevity of communities. As our economy becomes increasingly stratified and volatile, we n…

People keep telling me that big agencies are the future—that you need massive scale, deep pockets, and cutting-edge tech to survive. But after 25 years in this business, I’ve seen firsthand that raw creativity and genuine curiosity still drive the best work. Sure, some folks think enterprise platforms and huge teams are the answer. I believe the future belongs to nimble agencies that can pivot quickly and bring fresh ideas to the table. The old “bigger is better” mindset is shifting. These days, brands want partners who truly get them and bring something distinctive to their work, and that’s where independent agencies shine. Why brands go independent At MOCE…

The challenges businesses face today are increasingly unpredictable and interdependent. Traditional business structures were built for different times and different challenges. These models helped companies to scale and thrive in a more predictable world, where efficiency, clear hierarchies, and specialization were the keys to success. But as the world has evolved, so too have the conditions for innovation. In today’s fast-paced, globalized, and complex world, these outdated models actively hold teams back. Silos trap expertise—preventing the flow of fresh ideas—rigid hierarchies create bottlenecks that slow down decision making when speed is essential, and a lack of …

Synchrony’s CEO, Brian Doubles, shares with Stephanie Mehta how a mindset of “productive paranoia” fosters a workplace where curiosity, collaboration, and creativity drives real change. View the full article