What's on Your Mind?

In the past week, I had “conversations” with two leaders who talked too much. They were good people with interesting stories to share. But they went on for far too long while I just sat and listened. Characteristically, they asked few questions and, when they did, didn’t seem to be interested in my responses. These two leaders were engaged but seemingly not curious or fully present. These encounters crystallized something I’ve observed repeatedly in my decades of executive coaching: A damaging leadership blind spot is the simple inability to stop talking. I call this a “leadership trap” because it ensnares otherwise effective executives in a paradox: The same verb…

The next frontier of consumer tech isn’t just about adding more screens to your life or boosting your devices’ processing power. Instead, it’s empowering users to accomplish more, from powerful new maker tools to more efficient skincare solutions. On the home front, assistive robots are suddenly in reach, and AI cameras are learning to provide better pet care instead of just surveilling humans. Of course, there’s cool screen-related stuff too, including wildly thin foldable phones and increasingly immersive AR glasses. Anker For 3D printing onto pretty much anything Printing 3D textures onto materials such as wood and metal usually requires industrial-grade tools, but A…

It is 6 p.m. You have logged off from work and are unwinding with a glass of wine. You turn on the TV, but instead of Netflix, you click on a new app called 6pm in Paris, and spend the next 30 minutes learning French. Not on your desk. Not on your phone. But on your couch, watching a short movie. This is the vision behind a new language learning platform that recently launched. 6pm in Paris merges Netflix’s addictive streaming format with the short lessons style of Masterclass. The concept is simple yet effective: Each week, you pick a short film from a curated collection of French licensed movies. Then, you dive into the story and language through an informal video l…

Elon Musk’s foray into government has proven disastrous for his business life. Since taking up work for President Donald The Presidents’ so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk’s electric car company Tesla has seen sales slide and has become a target for protests. Now some believe that damage could be terminal and that Musk poses a risk to companies outside of his own. The Reputation Risk Index looks at reputational threats facing companies and organizations. It recently found that being associated with Musk posed the second biggest threat to companies, between the harmful or deceptive use of artificial intelligence and backtracking on DEI. The…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Speaking to investors last week, Lennar co-CEO Jon Jaffe said that the spring 2025 selling season for America’s second-largest homebuilder is off to a slower-than-normal start. “We do not see the seasonal pickup typically associated with the beginning of the spring selling season,” Jaffe said. “So we continue to lean into our machine focusing on converting leads and appointments and adjusting incentives as needed to maintain sales pace. These adjustments came in the form of mortgage rate buydowns, price reductions, and closing cost assistance. La…

Influencers often face more negativity than most people experience in a lifetime—and with that comes a significant mental health toll. Now, a new therapy service has been launched specifically for content creators. CreatorCare, cofounded by digital creator Shira Lazar and backed by Creators 4 Mental Health and Revive Health Therapy, aims to break down both financial and systemic barriers to mental health care. While some creators earn millions of dollars, many struggle to make ends meet. To ensure therapy is accessible to all, CreatorCare offers sliding-scale rates starting at $60, with or without insurance. Launched initially in California, with plans for nationa…

The benefits of taking time off from work are well-documented. In previous coverage, Fast Company has detailed how vacations stave off burnout, promote engagement, and may even help you be healthier. There are a number of ways to get more out of your vacation days, says time-off expert Jackie Swayze, founder of Maximizing My PTO, a website that helps people use a number of tips and tricks to plan unusual getaways. She says that one size does not fit all when it comes to paid time off. “There’s so much more creativity to be had than the standard, you know, take one week off in the summer,” she says. Here are some ways others have made their time off distinctly thei…

A woman paid a witch on Etsy for a love spell. Instead of following through, the witch found the man online and sent him screenshots of the conversation. Now, people are calling it a WIPPA violation. “Guys the Etsy witch told on me,” @andtheg4gis cried in a TikTok posted on Monday. “I said the guy’s name, his birthday and stuff, and she literally DM’d him on Instagram and exposed me.” The video has since been viewed 2.4 million times and spread across other social media platforms. “Imagine getting a “hey girly” text from a witch,” one person commented. Many in the comments are calling for the TikTok user to drop the name of the Etsy seller, just so they know who …

A study has confirmed what we all suspected: “K” is officially the worst text you can send. It might look harmless enough, but this single letter has the power to shut down a conversation and leave the recipient spiraling. According to a study published in the Journal of Mobile Communication, “K” was ranked as the most negatively received response in digital conversations—worse than being left on read or even a passive-aggressive “sure.” The study found that the single-letter reply often signals emotional distance, passive-aggressiveness, or outright disinterest. Despite its brevity, “K” carries surprising emotional weight. Adding an extra letter—making it “kk”—so…

It’s fair to assume that most of us can relate to the famous saying, “in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” This is just the second half of one of Benjamin Franklin’s last great nuggets of wisdom, but more on that to come. As Franklin would likely have reminded you, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, is the last day to file your federal income taxes for 2024. With everything going on at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), including reported layoffs at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), it might be tempting to try and fly under the radar this year and not file your taxes, hoping to dodge an audit. However, even with all th…

Between the rise of quiet quitting, the evolution of hybrid work, and concerns about artificial intelligence, we live in tumultuous times. In order to retain talent, it’s important for leaders to adapt to the changing needs of their employee population. This is a particularly large challenge at the moment since it requires understanding and supporting very different groups. There are currently five different generations from all walks of life in the workplace. They have a wide range of preferences when it comes to money management, lifestyle, and retirement goals. Finding ways to better understand and engage with the needs of unique employee segments can enhance …

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…

Bellevue, Washington, is the home of thousands of Microsoft employees. Its AI-powered traffic monitoring system lives up to such expectations. Using existing traffic cameras capable of reading signs and lights, it tracks not just crashes but also near misses. And it suggests solutions to managers, like rethinking a turn lane or moving a stop line. But this AI technology wasn’t born out of Microsoft and its big OpenAI partnership. It was developed by a startup called Archetype AI. You might think of the company as OpenAI for the physical world. [Image: Archetype AI]“A city will report an accident after an accident happens. But what they want to know is, like, where are the…

After Chobani owner and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya and his wife welcomed a baby in late 2015, he started to wonder whether his company was fully supporting its employees as they became parents. When he returned to work, he inquired about the company’s parental leave policy. “I asked, what happens at Chobani when someone has a baby or a new member of their families?” Ulukaya recalled. “The response was: We don’t have [a policy]. We have disability insurance. That insurance in New York offers up to 75% coverage for six weeks, basically. And that’s what we offered for birthing parents.” Ulukaya says he was “shocked” and immediately asked his team what they could do differentl…

Parental leave is often treated as a checkbox issue—handled quietly by HR, focused on paperwork, and confined to a narrow window of time. But Amy Beacom, founder and CEO of the Center for Parental Leave Leadership and author of The Parental Leave Playbook, is reshaping that view. With over 25 years of experience in executive coaching and organizational development, Beacom, who has an EdD degree in industrial and organizational psychology from Columbia University, partners with leading companies to transform parental leave into a strategic advantage for retention, equity, and leadership growth. In this conversation, Beacom unpacks some of the biggest misconceptions abo…

Fast Company’s Creative Director Mike Schnaidt shares a first look at the magazine redesign. So if you are a typeface fanatic, you won’t want to miss this breakdown. View the full article

Artificial intelligence: it’s not just for tech experts anymore. Instead, a heaping helping of free online resources has emerged. These classes are specifically designed to welcome beginners into the world of AI, even if they possess little or no prior technical background. I selected these Coursera courses for their beginner-friendly approach, high ratings, and comprehensive coverage of foundational concepts and key AI domains. AI For Everyone If you’re taking your very first steps into AI, “AI For Everyone” on Coursera is a great starting point. The course requires no prior experience in AI or programming, making it truly accessible to everyone, and it’s …

On Monday, Starbucks rolled out a new dress code as part of its larger corporate overhaul. But union workers say the change is both restrictive and unproductive—and now, baristas are walking out. The dress code comes as new CEO Brian Niccol is on a mission to bring the brand “back to basics,” including by scaling back its menu, returning hand-written notes on cups, and introducing ceramic mugs in stores. Employees are now required to wear a more simplified palette of solid black tops along with khaki, black, or blue denim bottoms under the company’s signature-green apron. However, in an email to supporters, Starbucks Workers United—the union representing Starbuck…

The climate tech sector is at a crossroads. We have the tools we need to fight climate change, but the real challenge is scaling and deploying them. This is where “climate-curious” outsiders play a crucial role. At Epic Cleantec, a company I cofounded to tackle water scarcity through innovative reuse technology, none of us came from an environmental background. That outside perspective turned out to be a huge advantage. When I began this journey, I didn’t know much about water. I wasn’t a trained environmental or civil engineer, which meant I never even learned about how things were traditionally done. This lack of traditional expertise freed us from being tied down b…

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that a worrying mystery illness is spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The unknown disease has so far sickened hundreds and killed dozens since reports of it first emerged in early January. Here’s what to know about the outbreaks so far. What is the disease? At this time, health officials do not know what the disease is. In the WHO’s weekly bulletin for the February 10- 16 period, the agency says the unknown disease “poses a significant public health threat.” The disease is currently active in two regional clusters, according to the report, and worryingly, of those who have died from it, nea…