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Ninite has long been a godsend for anyone setting up a new computer. With it, you can install a number of applications in just a couple of clicks, as opposed to downloading a bunch of individual installers. Ninite is well known for simplicity, too. There's no package manager to learn or commands to type; just visit the website and pick the apps you want to install, then download and run the installer. Installations all run in the background, with no prompts. It's magical, and I've long wondered why Microsoft hasn't built anything similar—something powerful, yet easy to use. Well, it seems like someone at the company finally got around to it. A new Microsoft site called App Pack is exactly this. It allows you to visit a page on the Microsoft Store website, check from a selection of applications, and then install those applications by downloading and running a single installer. That's exactly how Ninite works, though there are a few differences between these two options. Credit: Justin Pot The main difference is that Microsoft's App Pack uses the Microsoft Store to install the applications, and the installer you download instructs the store to make the downloads. This means updates will also be handled by the store, which is a real benefit, but it also means the supported applications are limited to those offered in the store. That's part of why Ninite offers a lot more software. App Pack offers 32 applications in four categories; Ninite offers over 90 distinct applications in all sorts of categories. But there's also the Microsoft of it all. You cannot use App Pack to install Chrome, which isn't in the Microsoft Store. But you also can't use it to install Firefox, which is. Given that one of the first things many Windows users do is replace Edge, that's a real shortcoming; given that Microsoft seems to really want Windows users not to replace Edge, it's not surprising. Meanwhile, Ninite lets you install Chrome and Firefox, as well as other browsers like Opera, Brave, and, ironically, Edge. But it's not as though App Pack only offers Microsoft software. Zoom is offered, as are several apps from Apple (iCloud, Music, and TV). There are desktop apps for all the big social media networks (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Discord, and LinkedIn). And there are a few customization tools, including TranslucentTB for customizing the taskbar and F.lux for adjusting the color temperature of your display. There are also multiple apps for working in media, including Photoshop, Audacity, and OBS Studio. It's just that Ninite offers more, including power user staples like VLC, WinDirStat, 7-Zip, and Handbrake. If you don't need these additional apps, however, App Pack is a diverse set of tools, and I could imagine the one-click install saving a lot of time for many Windows users. You can find it here or by clicking the "Multi-app install" button in the top-right corner of the web version of the Microsoft Store. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. This Lenovo ThinkCentre M90q Mini PC (2021) is on sale for $455.99 on StackSocial right now, offering business-grade performance in a compact form factor small enough to hide behind a monitor. Inside its 7-inch frame sits a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor with six cores, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. That’s enough muscle for multitasking, large spreadsheets, or running several browser tabs at once without slowdown. It’s not built for heavy graphics work or gaming, but for office productivity or remote setups, it’s more than capable of keeping up. And with Windows 11 Pro preinstalled, it’s ready for modern workflows right out of the box. Where this PC really stands out is in its flexibility. You can mount it behind a screen, tuck it under a desk, or leave it visible as a minimal addition to your setup. The design is simple—matte black, compact, and focused entirely on function. It supports up to three monitors via HDMI and DisplayPort, making it a good fit for anyone managing multiple windows or dashboards. The front-facing USB-C port is convenient for fast charging and quick file transfers, while Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 ensure a seamless connection without the need for a tangle of cables. It also includes thoughtful business features, such as Smart Power On and expansion slots for upgrades, which are useful if you want to add storage later. The M90q Mini also features TPM 2.0 encryption, BIOS-level protection, password controls, and a chassis intrusion switch that alerts you if someone attempts to open the case. It’s also built to military-grade durability standards (MIL-STD-810H), ensuring it can withstand years of use without issue. There’s no included warranty, which might give some buyers pause, but for those looking for a compact, strong performer for work or as a small home office machine, this sale is a great option. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Wireless Earbuds — $84.99 (List Price $129.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $324.99 (List Price $349.00) Shark AV2501AE AI XL Hepa- Safe Self-Emptying Base Robot Vacuum — $297.99 (List Price $649.99) Apple Watch Series 10 — $309.99 (List Price $429.00) Google Pixel 9 128GB Unlocked 6.9" OLED Smartphone (Obsidian) — $544.98 (List Price $799.00) Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) — $69.99 (List Price $139.99) Sony WH-1000XM5 — $328.00 (List Price $399.99) Blink Outdoor 4 1080p Wireless Security Camera (5-Pack) — $159.99 (List Price $399.99) Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Plus 1080p Security Camera (White) — $99.99 (List Price $179.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Government seeks to bear down on long wait times to qualify in EnglandView the full article

While Rocket increased 15 points, it slipped to 11th overall as other mortgage lenders had higher customer service score growth, J.D, Power said. View the full article

Jonathan Haidt, author of ‘The Anxious Generation,’ breaks down the psychology behind Gen Z’s social media addiction and what digital dependance actually does to a young person’s brain. View the full article

It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that an AI-powered tool called “Oz” is heading out of, or near, the Emerald City. On November 12, Microsoft and Land O’Lakes announced that the two companies have co-developed an AI-powered agricultural science tool called “Oz,” designed to help farmers and agricultural operations. Specifically, farmers are facing some very serious problems: labor shortages and lower yields associated with changing climates. Further, costs for fuel, fertilizer, equipment, and tools, not to mention international trade issues, have put agricultural operations in an even tighter vise. Oz was built to help agronomists and farmers do more with what they have, tapping into Land O’Lakes’s vast reams of agricultural data and insights, previously available only in a bound, 800-page book. Oz itself is an AI application that is accessed and used on a mobile device, tapping into Land O’Lakes’s intellectual property to offer guidance and information on the fly. “We’re putting 20 years of data into [farmers’] hands,” says Leah Anderson, who serves as SVP of Land O’Lakes and president of its crop inputs and insights business, WinField United. “Oz is designed to be put into the hands of an agronomist,” or an agricultural scientist, she says, who can then offer the farmer on the ground insight and guidance about what to plant, where to plant it, and when—along with myriad other things, such as weather insights, pest and pesticide information, and more. “What we’re doing with AI . . . is using the structured, high-quality, standardized data from over the past 20 years and feeding it into Oz. That cuts out the noise,” Anderson says, noting that it also helps farmers trust that “the data source was correct.” In other words, using Oz as an AI assistant or tool to ask questions about a given farming operation should be more trustworthy and less prone to hallucination than a broader AI tool, such as ChatGPT, which is trained on the entire internet. Oz, instead, generates insights from only one source, which is known and trusted by farmers. Oz is currently in beta testing and is in the hands of numerous retailers across the country, with plans for further expansion this year. It’s also been in the works for a while—the product of a now five-year-long partnership between Land O’Lakes and Microsoft. Lorraine Bardeen, corporate vice president of AI transformation at Microsoft, says she has worked at the tech giant for more than two decades in numerous departments, from finance to the Xbox team. But she decided to work on the project with Land O’Lakes because it was a chance to get AI tech into the field—literally. “The first major waves of our partnership were about digitally transforming American agriculture, bringing a lot of workloads and capabilities to the cloud,” she says. “Over the last five years, Land O’Lakes has really established itself as an innovator in American agriculture.” Farming on the brink The timing is critical, too, because the agriculture industry is in crisis. A June 2025 study published in Nature finds that even if farmers adapt to a changing climate, staple crops will be 24% lower by the end of the century than they are today. This year, farmers are facing an estimated $44 billion in crop losses due to rising costs, low crop prices, and international trade issues. Farmers are also struggling to find workers, a problem exacerbated by the The President administration’s immigration raids. Unchecked, these issues could compound, leading to less food production, higher prices, and even shortages. While a tech tool can’t help on the trade war front, it may be useful when deciding how much or little to water certain crops, when weather patterns are expected, what types of fertilizer may be the most effective given specific soil compositions, and more. In all, it could help replace lost manpower and make better decisions with materials on hand in order to reduce waste and costs. Again, all the suggestions and insights that Oz generates draw on data that Land O’Lakes has compiled over many years. “Land O’Lakes has created this really rich set of intellectual property,” Bardeen says. “But it’s historically been brought to bear in an 800-page tome. It brings incredible value, information, and insights to farmers. Oz shifts everything from a literal, static book to a dynamic, AI-powered coach.” Anderson adds that farmers have more to look forward to from the Land O’Lakes-Microsoft partnership. “American farmers are under incredible pressure—we see the stress on their faces,” she says. For those farmers, “it’s about reducing uncertainty, and nobody knows more about that than we do. What we’re doing with Oz is really the tip of the iceberg as to what we’re going to be able to do with AI.” View the full article

Growing up, WNBA star Paige Bueckers says she was “huge” on sports memorabilia. She collected items across a range of sports from her favorite players, including their posters, autographs, and jerseys. Today, she’s having a full circle moment: Bueckers just announced an exclusive, multi-year deal with Fanatics, which will make the sports apparel juggernaut the sole provider of her memorabilia and collectibles. The Paige Bueckers Fanatics collection pulls from both her collegiate career with the UConn Huskies (which she led to four Big East Tournament wins, four Final Four appearances, and a National Championship title) and her current professional career as a guard on the Dallas Wings, and includes autographed and inscribed basketballs, jerseys, photos, shoes, and select game-used equipment. The collection is currently live across Fanatics’ network of sites, including Fanatics.com and WNBAStore.com. Bueckers, who graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2024, was one of the first college athletes to benefit from the Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling allowing amateurs to profit off of their own name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. She became a trailblazer in using strategic NIL deals to expertly market her own brand, racking up an estimated $1.5 million net worth by her final 2024–2025 NCAA season. Now, with this Fanatics partnership, she’s bringing that honed business savvy into her pro career—and using her own visibility to uplift her fellow athletes. Paige Bueckers Inside the new Paige Bueckers Fanatics collection Prior to this deal, Bueckers’s likeness was already a sales hit for Fanatics. After being selected first overall in the 2025 WNBA draft by the Wings, Bueckers became this year’s Rookie of the Year and an All-Star player. According to a Fanatics press release, “Her jersey and other merchandise was an immediate hit and flew off the shelves all season long, with sales on draft night becoming the second best by a WNBA player in league history.” For Fanatics, this partnership is part of a larger plan to become “the Amazon of sports,” as Fast Company put it in a 2023 feature. The brand is currently the single biggest manufacturer and distributor of sports fan apparel in the U.S., sitting at a valuation of an estimated $31 billion as of 2022. Still, it’s set its sights on growing even further by expanding into—and eventually dominating—the collectibles market. Bueckers says Fanatics’s “incredible reach” will also help her connect with as many young fans as possible, echoing her own early memories of collecting memorabilia of her favorite athletes. Beyond that, the Fanatics deal is a recent example of how Bueckers leverages brand partnerships to give back to young athletes. Dominating on the court and in the brand world Bueckers is no stranger to brand deals. In fact, she’s something of a leader in a new era of financial empowerment for emerging athletes. In 2021, Bueckers became the first college athlete to sign with Gatorade mere months after the implementation of NIL. During the remainder of her college career, she penned deals with major names including Bose, Intuit, Verizon, Madison Reed, Google Chrome, and Epic Games. Just before her pro debut, she joined DoorDash as its first-ever athlete creative director. And, this June, she partnered with Nike and Levi’s on a sporty, denim-centric apparel collection. In short, Bueckers has expertly curated a portfolio of some of the most recognizable brand partners in the sports world, despite entering college with what she’s described as very limited experience managing her own finances. Still, she says, the most important lesson that she learned after being cast into the deep end of sports sponsorships during college was to only work with brands that align with her values. “Having a team that understands that and negotiates that in every single one of my deals was really important,” Bueckers says. “Continuing to give back was the most important thing of all, because you can easily make NIL about yourself only.” Dealmaking for a more inclusive sport Bueckers has historically been outspoken on a number of issues impacting women’s sports, and basketball in particular—especially as the WNBA has recently hit record viewership and attendance benchmarks, drawing new attention to the league. In a June interview with Time magazine, she highlighted racial discrepancies in player brand deals, citing the need to uplift her Black teammates: “I do think there’s more opportunities for me,” she said. “I feel like even just marketability, people tend to favor white people, white males, white women.” Recently, she demonstrated her support for the WNBA’s players union, which is currently negotiating with WNBA leadership to secure better compensation for players. At a July All-Star game, Bueckers joined her fellow players in donning a black T-shirt that read “Pay Us What You Owe Us” during warm-ups. She’s also invested in and recently joined Unrivaled, a three-on-three women’s basketball league that plays in the winter and features WNBA stars. The league was cofounded by Napheesa Collier, vice president of the players union, and offers competitive salaries to players. Off the court, Bueckers runs an eponymous foundation dedicated to promoting social justice in youth sports and providing support to low-income children and families. When selecting brand partners, she says her college career taught her to prioritize companies that will contribute to her foundation and others, as well as include her teammates. If those goals aren’t shared, it probably won’t be a good fit. “I want my deals to be very inclusive and not just a one-off,” Bueckers says. The Fanatics deal is a demonstration of those values in action. According to the press release, Fanatics will make a “significant annual donation to the Paige Bueckers foundation” as part of the partnership. Fanatics declined to share specifics on the terms of the deal or its annual donation with Fast Company. “I think there are great, creative ways that I can connect with the people that support me and provide people with a special collection of memorabilia,” Bueckers says. “Along with that, the values are aligned with them supporting my foundation and donating so I can continue to use basketball and my platform for good.” View the full article

A few years ago, when I was working at a traditional law firm, the partners gathered with us with barely any excitement. “Rejoice,” they announced, unveiling our new AI assistant that would make legal work faster, easier, and better. An expert was brought in to train us on dashboards and automation. Within months, her enthusiasm had curdled into frustration as lawyers either ignored the expensive tool or, worse, followed its recommendations blindly. That’s when I realized: we weren’t learning to use AI. AI was learning to use us. Many traditional law firms have rushed to adopt AI decision support tools for client selection, case assessment, and strategy development. The pitch is irresistible: AI reduces costs, saves time, and promises better decisions through pure logic, untainted by human bias or emotion. These systems appear precise: When AI was used in cases, evidence gets rated “strong,” “medium,” or “weak.” Case outcomes receive probability scores. Legal strategies are color-coded by risk level. But this crisp certainty masks a messy reality: most of these AI assessments rely on simple scoring rules that check whether information matches predefined characteristics. It’s sophisticated pattern-matching, not wisdom, and it falls apart spectacularly with borderline cases that don’t fit the template. And here’s the kicker: AI systems often replicate the very biases they’re supposed to eliminate. Research is finding that algorithmic recommendations in legal tech can reflect and even amplify human prejudices baked into training data. Your “objective” AI tool might carry the same blind spots as a biased partner, it’s just faster and more confident about it. And yet: None of this means abandoning AI tools. It means building and demanding better ones. The Default Trap “So what?” you might think. “AI tools are just that, tools. Can’t we use their speed and efficiency while critically reviewing their suggestions?” In theory, yes. In practice, we’re terrible at it. Behavioral economists have documented a phenomenon called status quo bias: our powerful preference for defaults. When an AI system presents a recommendation, that recommendation becomes the path of least resistance. Questioning it requires time, cognitive effort, and the social awkwardness of overriding what feels like expert consensus. I watched this happen repeatedly at the firm. An associate would run case details through the AI, which would spit out a legal strategy. Rather than treating it as one input among many, it became the starting point that shaped every subsequent discussion. The AI’s guess became our default, and defaults are sticky. This wouldn’t matter if we at least recognized what was happening. But something more insidious occurs: our ability to think independently atrophies. Writer Nicholas Carr has long warned about the cognitive costs of outsourcing thinking to machines, and mounting evidence supports his concerns. Each time we defer to AI without questioning it, we get a little worse at making those judgments ourselves. I’ve watched junior associates lose the ability to evaluate cases on their own. They’ve become skilled at operating the AI interface but struggle when asked to analyze a legal problem from scratch. The tool was supposed to make them more efficient; instead, it’s made them dependent. Speed Without Wisdom The real danger isn’t that AI makes mistakes. It’s that AI makes mistakes quickly, confidently, and at scale. An attorney accepts a case evaluation without noticing the system misunderstood a crucial precedent. A partner relies on AI-generated strategy recommendations that miss a creative legal argument a human would have spotted. A firm uses AI for client intake and systematically screens out cases that don’t match historical patterns, even when those cases have merit. Each decision feels rational in the moment, backed by technology and data. But poor inputs and flawed models produce poor outputs, just faster than before. The Better Path Forward The problems I witnessed stemmed from how these legacy systems were designed: as replacement tools rather than enhancement tools. They positioned AI as the decision-maker with humans merely reviewing outputs, rather than keeping human judgment at the center. Better AI legal tools exist, and they take a fundamentally different approach. They’re built with judgment-first design, treating lawyers as the primary decision-makers and AI as a support system that enhances rather than replaces expertise. These systems make their reasoning transparent, showing how they arrived at recommendations rather than presenting black-box outputs. They include regular capability assessments to ensure lawyers maintain independent analytical skills even while using AI assistance. And they’re designed to flag edge cases and uncertainties rather than presenting false confidence. The difference is philosophical: are you building tools that make lawyers faster at being lawyers, or tools that try to replace lawyering itself? I see this different approach playing out in immigration services, where the stakes of poor decisions are particularly high. Consider a case where an applicant’s employment history doesn’t neatly match historical approval patterns, perhaps they’ve had gaps, career shifts, or worked in emerging fields. A traditional AI tool would flag this as “non-standard,” lowering approval probability and becoming the default recommendation. A judgment-first system does something entirely different: it surfaces the exact factors that make the case atypical, explains why precedent might or might not apply, and explicitly asks the immigration officer, “What do you see here that the algorithm misses?” The officer remains the decision-maker, armed with both AI efficiency and the cognitive space to apply nuanced expertise. The tool didn’t replace judgment; it enhanced it. That’s the difference between AI that makes professionals dependent and AI that makes them sharper. Taking Back Control None of this means abandoning AI tools. It means using them deliberately: Treat AI recommendations as drafts, not answers. Before accepting any AI suggestion, ask: “What would I recommend if the system weren’t here?” If you can’t answer, you’re not ready to evaluate the AI’s output. Build in friction. Create a rule that important decisions require at least one alternative to the AI’s recommendation. Force yourself to articulate why the AI is right, rather than assuming it is. Test regularly. Periodically work through problems without AI assistance to maintain your independent judgment. Think of it like a pilot practicing manual landings despite having autopilot. Demand transparency. Push vendors to explain how their systems reach conclusions. If they can’t or won’t, that’s a red flag. You’re entitled to understand what’s shaping your decisions. Stay skeptical of certainty. When AI outputs seem suspiciously confident or precise, dig deeper. Real-world problems are messy; if the answer looks too clean, something’s probably being oversimplified. The legal professionals who thrive with AI aren’t those who defer to it blindly or reject it entirely. They’re the ones who leverage its efficiencies while maintaining sharp human judgment, and who insist on tools designed to enhance their capabilities rather than circumvent them. Left unchecked, poorly designed AI assistants will train you to make terrible decisions. But that outcome isn’t inevitable. The future belongs to legal professionals who demand tools that genuinely enhance their expertise rather than erode it. After all, speed and convenience lose much of their appeal if they compromise the quality of justice itself. View the full article

There are many ways to set a schedule, from using a pen and paper planner to getting out some dry erase markers and scribbling on your clock. They range from tedious to totally archaic, but there's a technique for everyone. One method I have come to enjoy aims to work by giving you more insight into how you spend your time—and helping you manage your day down to the minute. It’s called time blocking. What is time blocking?Time blocking is the act of arranging your schedule so every activity you need to do in a day is accounted for visually. Ideally, you’ll do this using a digital calendar tool like Google Calendar or iCal, but it's possible with a planner and some highlighters. Even if you’re writing it all down by hand on a piece of paper, consider the way a Google Calendar looks before you start. Each day is represented by a column split up into 15-minute increments, from midnight until 11:59 p.m. When you add a meeting or appointment into the calendar, a box appears and fills up the space representing how much time the event will take out of your day. With time blocking, your goal is to fill the entire column with boxes, leaving no blank space. Even your rest periods should be marked as such (and yes, you need rest periods to be your most productive, so don't skip those). No activity—from having breakfast to running errands to calling your mom—is too small to add to the list. Then, you get to classify everything with a pretty color (when it comes to time management, you have to find your own fun). How to create a time blocking scheduleStart by making a list of everything you’re going to do tomorrow. For instance, you might wake up, check the news, shower, make coffee, commute to work, grab breakfast, answer emails, attend a meeting, get lunch with an old friend, work on a project, commute home, take the kids to a baseball game, pick up dinner, eat that dinner, watch your favorite show, get ready for bed, lie awake thinking about climate change, and actually sleep. Get granular here. At first blush, you might think your to-do list on a given day is just something like "hit deadlines at work" and "make a doctor's appointment," but think of everything else in there, like packing your lunch, driving to the locations, stopping for gas, etc. Once you’ve written out the exhaustive list of your day’s tasks, mark down how long each might (or should) take. This part will take practice because we tend to give ourselves too much time for tasks—and that's bad for multiple reasons. First, you need a bit of urgency and stress (but not too much) to make you productive, so you need a limited amount of time. Second, the longer you give yourself to work, the more you'll drag out that work—and the less you'll get done. Give yourself a few weeks to get in the swing of cutting down the amount of time you estimate each task will take, but commit yourself to eventually shrinking those windows. Then, grab the paper (or open the software) you’re using to time block and enter every single event and responsibility in, according to the time you’ve allotted for it. If you want to see how you are splitting up your day, choose different colors to classify tasks, like blue for grooming/bathing, yellow for work, and green for meals. Be strategic about which tasks make the cut on a given day, though. Use a prioritization technique like the Eisenhower Matrix to determine which of your tasks are actually pressing and which can be bumped to another day. Then, use a to-do list organizing method like 1-2-3 to divvy up your daily time correctly. Remember, your time in a day is finite, so you can't do everything all at once. With 1-2-3, you select one major task, two medium-sized ones, and three smaller ones to do in a day. The smaller ones can be building blocks for the big one or can be simple maintenance activities like answering emails or picking up the dry cleaning. The trick after that is to treat each box the same way you’d treat a meeting: Don’t reschedule it. Don’t mess with it too much. Honor the time commitment it represents, commit to doing the task at the specified time, and do your best to get it done in the time you set aside to do it. This is called time boxing, a similar but slightly different concept that involves giving yourself a set amount of time to do something, only focusing on that task during that time, and stopping your work when the time is up. I've written more extensively on the similarities and differences between time boxing and time blocking, but all you need to know right now is that during the time you set aside to do something on your calendar, you should engage completely in deep work, avoid distractions, and turn all your energy toward the responsibility at hand. As with any pre-planned meeting or event, things will come up that disrupt the schedule, but in the absence of a major upheaval (the kind of thing you’d move a work meeting for), vow to stick with your time blocks. It's smart here to also implement some kind of time tracking, whether that involves writing down how long your tasks actually take you or using a software to monitor your work, so you can make adjustments to your time blocks as you get better at following the system. During the first week or two, you'll likely be guessing at how long each task will take you when you're building the schedule, but after a while, you should be able to identify if something takes a longer or shorter amount of time than you've been allotting, then adjust the schedule to match those needs going forward. The reason time blocking worksTime blocking is beloved by its adherents. As the Harvard Business Review points out, a regular to-do list gives you way too many choices and not enough structure. Adding in the time element helps you stay on task. Making a visual, color-coded representation of that time keeps you focused and helps you ensure you always know exactly what you're supposed to be doing. There is no more indecision paralysis. You look at your Google Calendar and simply know what to do and how long you have to do it. Plus, if you use a shared calendar with colleagues or your family, everyone else will also know when you're available and what you're doing. It also helps you meet deadlines and stay within your guidelines. If you know a certain project or task will take a combined 50 hours, time blocking helps you space those out and make room for them in your schedule, enabling you to get things done on a set timetable without having to guess whether you really have time for it. If you finish something ahead of schedule, great! Go ahead and add in a little block of time off. A final note on time blockingTime blocking is often confused with time boxing and a lot of productivity blogs and hacks will say "time boxing" when they mean time blocking. That Harvard Business Review article above does it, for instance. It's an easy mistake to make and, in fact, in a previous version of this post, I called time blocking time boxing. As long as you're sticking to the plan and making a detailed calendar, it doesn't matter what you're calling it, but this could cause some confusion while you read up on other guides, so just be warned. A complete rundown of the differences between the two can be found here. View the full article

Glassdoor Economic Research has released its Worklife Trends report for 2026. A key theme highlighted throughout is the growing disconnect between workers and their leaders. A notable contributing factor is that smaller, regular layoffs—which the report dubs as “forever layoffs”—are becoming more common than less frequent mass layoffs. Rolling layoffs are among several reasons why many employees feel anxious and less secure in the workplace. Let’s review the report findings. ‘Forever layoffs’ are becoming the norm Layoffs are back to pre-pandemic levels. And smaller, more frequent job cuts are now common. Glassdoor refers to these mini, rolling layoffs as “forever layoffs.” Glassdoor reviewed Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data from 2015 to August 2025. After a layoff spike in spring 2020 and historically low layoff levels in 2021 and 2022, the number of full-time workers laid off each month has crept back up to pre-pandemic levels: The average number of workers that were laid off or discharged each month from 2015 to 2019 was around 1.8 million. Meanwhile, around 1.7 million workers were laid off or discharged in August 2025. Glassdoor also examined Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act layoff notifications (excluding notices for company closings) for further insight. The WARN Act is a federal law that requires most employers with 100 or more workers to provide advance notice before a plant closing or mass layoff. Layoffs affecting fewer than 50 people accounted for 38% of WARN notices in 2015. 51% of layoffs affected fewer than 50 people in 2025. It’s worth noting, however, that the WARN Act doesn’t require filings for layoffs of fewer than 50 workers. Filings may not give a complete picture of the number of smaller layoffs. Glassdoor reviews give insight into how workers feel Company layoffs impact employee morale and job satisfaction. Many workers are feeling less secure in their jobs. “Rolling layoffs may give companies a way to reduce headcount without making headlines, but they create cultures of anxiety, insecurity, and resentment at companies,” the report says. Glassdoor examined 3.3 million Glassdoor reviews from current employees working remote and hybrid roles. The following related terms have surged in Glassdoor reviews in the last year: Misaligned (149%) Miscommunication (25%) Hypocrisy (18%) Distrust (26%) Industries with a noticeable decline in trust in leadership include management and consulting, media and telecommunication, and technology. Remote workers feel dissatisfied as confidence in leadership declines Overall ratings are falling for employees who use the words “remote” or “hybrid” when listing workplace pros. Here are some key findings: Remote employees are seeing fewer career opportunities. The average career opportunity ratings on Glassdoor have fallen from 4.1 in 2020 to 3.5 in 2025. Confidence in senior leadership is weakening. Ratings of senior leadership are now well below pandemic levels. For reviews that mention senior leadership or management, the share of reviews mentioning “disconnect” increased by 24% from 2024 to 2025. Many workers still give high ratings for work-life balance. Work-life balance ratings are still higher for workers who list hybrid or remote work as a pro, but ratings have declined since 2020. More workers are feeling more pressure to RTO Return-to-office (RTO) mandates have pushed workers back into the office. But that’s not the only reason more employees are likely to return to in-person work in 2026. Fewer opportunities for career growth also contribute to job dissatisfaction. Many employers are prioritizing in-person workers for promotions and career opportunities. Some remote and hybrid workers may feel pressure to trade in flexibility for more access to career advancement opportunities. Workers feeling the need to take whatever job offer comes their way, and AI adoption are other factors that contribute to the disconnect between employees and leaders. Average early-career earnings are rising Here’s one positive trend highlighted by the report: Early-career workers are on track to surpass pre-pandemic earnings levels in 2026. Real wage growth was down 4.1% for early-career workers from 2020 to 2022. But earnings started recovering in 2023 and are expected to surpass 2020 levels next year. View the full article

Something is going on with Marjorie Taylor Greene that’s making Americans furrow their brows and say, “What in the MAGA universe is going on?” The thing is, the Republican representative from Georgia, known as “MTG,” is a suddenly making more sense—even to her detractors. In recent months, the conservative The President devotee, from whom Americans have come to expect off-the-cuff and often crude commentary, has been undeniably good natured, coming across as astoundingly reasonable during a number of appearances on CNN, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and elsewhere. But if that weren’t enough to cast aside doubts about a major pivot with the congresswoman (who once harassed a school shooting survivor and chased a fellow member of Congress down a hallway), then a November 4 appearance on The View definitely did the trick. On the ABC daytime talk show, Greene was perhaps the most respectful version of herself that we’ve seen. She was calm, poised, and even kind, more upstanding politician than insulting-slinging firebrand. Cohost Sunny Hostin thanked MTG for showing up ready to converse, rather than fight. In response, Greene took the opportunity to do something we’ve rarely (if ever) heard her do before: say she didn’t want to fight. “No, I didn’t want to do that today, because I believe that people with powerful voices, like myself and like you, and especially women to women, we need to pave a new path,” Greene told the cohosts. “This country, our beautiful country, our red, white, and blue flag, is just being ripped to shreds. And I think it takes women to have maturity to sew it back together.” In a comment that felt like an early 2028 presidential campaign slogan, Greene added, “I’m with women, so I feel very comfortable saying this. I’m really tired of the pissing contest in Washington, D.C., between the men.” The View cohosts were clearly floored. In addition to her more focused and practical demeanor, MTG’s positions have seemed more centrist than ever, too. As of late, she has been critical of President The President on domestic policy, and on the government shutdown, calling it “an embarrassment.” Greene also criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson, who she said she had words with over his “complete and utter failure” in regard to the shutdown. Not to mention, Greene has been consistently fighting, alongside Democrats, for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking client list. She even had kind things to say about Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker and a longtime foil to congressional Republicans, who recently announced her retirement from Congress. It’s all a bit mind-blowing. But perhaps one of Greene’s most compassionate and unexpected positions (especially given her previous Islamaphobic rhetoric) is her stance on Palestine. MTG has been an outspoken voice for the people of Palestine, especially children who are the victims of Israel’s ongoing siege, making her one of the only congressional Republicans to speak out against the slaughter. “It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that October 7 in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,” Greene wrote in a July 2025 social media post. Critical of party leadership and policies It’s been hard to miss MTG’s pivot, and The President certainly hasn’t. He told reporters Monday that the congresswoman is “now catering to the other side” and that he’s “surprised at her.” Still, Greene herself has seemed to dismiss the idea that she’s rebranding. In a July 16 post on social media, Greene wrote, “My blind loyalty and faith is ONLY in God and Jesus Christ my savior. That is what will guide my decisions, actions, and votes.” And last week, she told the ladies of The View that she is her own person—that she’s always criticized both sides of the aisle. “Here’s something you may not know about me. I think a lot of people on the left are learning that when I ran for Congress in 2020, I ran criticizing Republicans and democrats. Equally.” It’s hard to know what exactly is going on with MTG. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York (aka AOC) has speculated on social media that Greene is on a “revenge tour” against The President. Still, it seems like something bigger is at play, most logically, perhaps, a 2028 bid for the presidency. Fast Company reached out to Greene’s team but did not hear back by the time of publication. Organic or carefully curated? Experts say that it would not be unusual for politicians to change their positions or reign themselves in when gearing up for a campaign. Kevin Mercuri, who teaches public relations at Emerson College and is the CEO of Propheta Communications, says it’s “apparent” that MTG is working with professionals to “soften her persona in preparation for a presidential run.” It’s notable, Mercuri says, that she has been distancing herself from The President in an effort to show she’s a “more moderate Republican,” in addition to opposing other Republican stances. However, when it comes to MTG, Mercuri says the congresswoman has her work cut out for her. “The question is, can MTG’s past outrageous behavior be easily discarded? Her claims of ‘Jewish space lasers,’ QAnon beliefs, and painful reframing of 9/11 as a ‘false flag’ event will be hard for voters to forget.” (Greene has said that she regrets some of the things “she was allowed to believe,” including conspiracy theories.) Either way, we’ve seen political rebrands happen hundreds of times before. Candidates gearing up for big elections work to distance themselves from previous statements they’ve made or show that they’ve grown. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of California has seemingly been attempting a brand pivot of his own. Still, with MTG, given just how brazen she’s been in the past, the shift is anything but subtle. Even if she’s suddenly making sense, rather than screaming into the void about gay pride or trans people, it still feels more like whiplash. From that lens, Mercuri questions whether winning the presidency is even the true goal: “At this point, I see her future candidacy not as a true quest for the White House, but a tried-and-true method to boost her brand and cash in on the notoriety a presidential run can yield.” Still, it’s 2025 and, as far as politics go, stranger things have happened than MTG’s rebranding, or even her being the tiniest bit likable to her staunchest political opponents. View the full article

It is not the story that the chancellor would like to tell youView the full article

When it comes to agentic artificial intelligence, the fear of missing out factor is clear. Organizations are plopping down agents, in part, because that’s what everyone else seems to be doing. But FOMO is not a business strategy. To make agentic AI work, business leaders need to ignore the hype and concentrate on establishing exactly what agents can do for them, how, and at what cost. Our own work has proved that AI agents, which independently plan and execute complex multistep tasks, can deliver substantial value by accelerating timelines and reducing costs. And that is just the start. The ever-improving ability of AI agents to work with people to plan, communicate, and learn, could evolve into a genuine paradigm shift in how business is done. Unclear business value But enthusiasm does not always translate into impact, something that many businesses are beginning to recognize. According to one study, 40% of agentic AI projects could be canceled by the end of 2027 due to unclear business value and escalating costs. In recent research, McKinsey studied dozens of agentic AI initiatives, including 50 in which we were directly involved. With the wisdom of hindsight, we’ve identified three critical factors in agentic AI success. 1. Start with workflows, not agents Agentic transformations are more likely to succeed when they focus on integrating agents into reimagined workflows, rather than tacking agents onto processes designed for another technological era. And the corollary is also true: even the most powerful AI agent will underperform if it is tethered to faulty and inefficient workflows. Already, agents are being successfully deployed in multi-step, dynamic workflows like IT help desks, software development, and customer service. The boldest leaders are also successfully deploying agents to frontier use cases. For example, an alternative legal services provider found substantial efficiency gains when it carefully modernized its contract review process. Every time a lawyer made a change in the document editor, it was logged, categorized, and fed back into the agent’s logic and knowledge base. In designing the agentic workflow, the team identified where, when, and how to integrate human input. Agents highlighted edge cases and anomalies for people to review. Over time, the agents were able to codify new expertise and provide more sophisticated legal reasoning, but it was up to the lawyers to sign off on critical decisions. 2. Stop the slop Many enthusiastic early adopters built agents whose outputs have become known as “slop”—that is, work that may be done quickly but then requires considerable effort to correct. This is annoying. Worse, it breeds distrust in the agents and in the idea of transformation more generally. To do better, companies should invest in agents just as systematically as they do in people, with managers, job descriptions, training, monitoring, and continuous development goals. 3. To support AI agents, engage the workforce It should be humans who onboard, train, and evaluate agents on an ongoing basis: “launch and leave” is not good enough. As agents begin to accomplish more, roles will shift. Leaders will need to train employees in a new human-agent hybrid operating model, including skills such as building and deploying agents effectively, training them, setting tasks for them, tracking and correcting their work, and stringing them together to perform more complex tasks. The essential principle is that agentic AI needs to work with, not against, time-honored business priorities like productivity and teamwork. The question, then, is not whether to deploy agents, as with any other technology, it is when can they help to solve real-world problems and create value? And the answer is: not always. For tasks related to parsing lengthy documents, generative AI applications such as chatbots are probably the better option. For highly structured or automated tasks like data entry, rules-based approaches—if x, then y—can be more efficient. And high-stakes decisions with little room for error are the domain of leaders and managers. Yes, agentic AI could be a once-in-a-generation opportunity—thus the FOMO effect. Success will come not from enthusiasm, however, but from a hard-headed analysis of how this tool can be used wisely—for the right task, at the right time. View the full article

The early darkness in most of the U.S. means that fall has set in. That also means it’s officially holiday shopping season. With the economic impact of President The President’s ever-fluctuating tariffs an open question, there’s an opportunity for shoppers to make their spending meaningful, which opens up a lane for companies that are offering something other than the e-commerce onslaught of nearly identical products that populate sites like Amazon and Walmart. What the Amazons and even Etsys of the world are currently missing is the sense of curation that defines Uncommon Goods, an online shop stocked with exclusive, offbeat items sourced from independent artisans. It’s a cheat code for gift givers—mostly signals, very little noise. Each click is a potential epiphany, connecting me to, say, smartphone-controlled paper airplanes for my nephew, or wooden wall art shaped like a soundwave from my wife’s favorite song. In the age of the Everything Store, it’s a Just the Right Thing Store. The remarkability of Uncommon Goods’s inventory has helped grow the shop’s revenue at an average annual rate of 25% from 2000 to 2020; it has received more than a million orders per year for the past five years. That je ne sais quoi has often caught the attention of Wirecutter, the New York Times’s product recommendation vertical, which has highlighted many of its wares. “As gift experts, we spend most of our time scouring the internet, visiting brick-and-mortar shops, and attending trade shows in search of gifts that sit right at the edge of practical and whimsical, with standout quality and value,” says Hannah Morrill, Wirecutter’s gifts editor. “We’ve noticed that Uncommon Goods tends to prioritize unique products from small makers that we haven’t seen before—that’s pretty rare from a large-scale online retailer.” Of course, as relatively effortless as Uncommon Goods might make holiday shopping, its leadership says that the site’s ever-changing, reliably surprising inventory is the culmination of a tremendous amount of work. An Uncommon Origin With shopping, a little lore can go a long way—making some goods seem even better. When an Uncommon Goods artisan has an interesting backstory, those details often make their way into the site’s marketing copy. Shoppers are less likely to encounter the site’s own origin story. Dave Bolotsky Founder and CEO Dave Bolotsky started his career in the mid-’80s as an analyst at investment bank First Boston. By 1999, he’d become a managing director at Goldman Sachs, where he was due to receive $10 million in stock when the bank went public. Instead, he walked away from the job, leaving that entire imminent windfall on the table. It was just what he felt he had to do. “I was not bored once in my 14 years on Wall Street, but it felt soulless,” Bolotsky tells Fast Company. “I felt like I was helping the wheels of capitalism spin faster, but not necessarily in a better direction.” Bolotsky says he got the idea for Uncommon Goods after visiting a Smithsonian Institution craft show. Walking along rows of vendors hawking handcrafted items, he observed how shoppers responded to the personal artisan touch. It raised their eyebrows and spirits as much as it did their inclination to spend money. The only problem was the rarity of such opportunities. Back then, makers had to act as traveling salespeople, schlepping from one regional show to another. It was all too easy to miss them. The insight Bolotsky had was that if he could take a craft show product, put it online, and sell it 24/7, it might be a huge evolutionary leap forward for retailing, and for artisans in particular. The challenge? Online shoppers proved stubbornly hesitant. It was the internet’s Wild West era, and trusting one’s credit card details to an online retailer was still considered fraught. When Bolotsky and his team would scout makers at trade shows, it took a lot just to persuade them that the internet was not inherently evil. He refused to buckle, though, and kept the ship afloat through several rocky, profit-free years. The outlook brightened only after Amazon terraformed the space, Bolotsky admits grudgingly. “As much as I don’t like them as a competitor, I do admire what they’ve done,” he says. “Amazon Prime was huge in driving online shopping. And to an extent, we ride their coattails.” One glaring difference between the two, though, is that Amazon has an estimated 300 million to 600 million items for sale at any given moment, while Uncommon Goods hovers around 5,000. What uncommon goodness actually looks like The Uncommon Goods site procures roughly 80% of its products through its buying team, while an in-house product development team fills in the remaining 20%, largely through partnerships with a roster of product makers it has worked with before. Although Uncommon Goods doesn’t chase trends, it often plays in the same sandbox as whatever is popping off in pop culture. When BookTok first exploded, for instance, the product development team rolled out a piece of functional nightstand decor dubbed the Book Nook reading valet, while the buying team sought repurposed book tulips—paper flowers in a paper vase, both created with upcycled books. John Berweiler, head of the site’s buying team, says there are a few criteria for what makes a product ready for the site. True to form, it has to be uncommon (ideally something that can join the 40% of the site’s exclusive inventory) and it has to be useful, beautiful, or handmade, but preferably all three. As for the other variables, well, as a SCOTUS justice once famously said of pornography: You know it when you see it. “Our customers want to win the gift competition,” Berweiler says. “For them, it’s the ‘why’ behind the product. Does it make them smile? Does it make them reminisce about a moment or spark a feeling? That wow factor sets us apart from a frame they might buy at Pottery Barn.” From idea to hit product Whenever a member of the buying team comes across a promising item they request a sample. Every Tuesday afternoon, the team gathers for a sample meeting that serves as an America’s Got Talent-like revue, in which each item competes for potential inclusion in the shop. If there’s a winner, or multiple winners, a gauntlet of other considerations follows, spanning from price to exclusivity, and whether the maker has a backstory worth featuring on the site. Some products developed in-house come out of brainstorming sessions. Bolotsky himself is responsible for more than a few, including a line of interactive mugs with QR codes on them. Other Uncommon Goods items are collaborations between the buyers, product development, and various makers. Last year, for instance, the buying team was looking for new ideas for dining and drinking items, right as limoncello surged back into fashion, and landed on making dedicated limoncello glasses. The team reached out to potter Maggy Ames, who ended up producing an adorable set of ceramic tumblers with grippy thumb divots and elegant hand-painted lemons. Though the artist was initially skeptical, the limoncello cups blew up. They sold so well that she couldn’t keep up with demand. That’s when the product development team stepped in to scale production on the cups, working closely with the original maker to ensure she was comfortable with how the new product turned out. Through a manufacturer in Thailand, the cups are now made on a larger scale, but can still be hand-painted—keeping their artisan aura alive. It’s a microcosm of how the company expanded from Bolotsky’s apartment to an operation with 144 year-round employees, all while elevating makers and maintaining the core promise. Gift-giving in the time of tariffs Although the buying team is already strategizing for Christmas 2026, first the company will have to get through this year’s holidays, which promise to be more challenging than usual. The president’s chaotic and aggressive approach to tariffs throughout 2025 has kept American retailers who work in the global marketplace in a bind. Bolotsky isn’t especially worried, though. About half of the products Uncommon Goods sells are made domestically, he says, and the rest are spread throughout 10 countries, keeping the company less dependent on Chinese-made products than many of its competitors. For the imported products, Uncommon Goods has been negotiating with vendors to meet at least halfway on the pricing or margin hit the company is poised to take. In some cases, Uncommon Goods ended up sourcing products elsewhere; in others, it has taken selected price hikes. “My biggest concern is actually that, because we sell discretionary products, and because there will likely be greater inflation across the board this holiday season, people may have less discretionary money to spend on gifts that we sell,” Bolotsky says. If people do end up having less money to spend on gifts this year, they may indeed have to be more discerning about what they buy. Perhaps enough of them will gravitate toward a shop that’s more discerning about what it sells. View the full article

America is in an overstock and returns crisis. Every year 8.4 billion pounds of products are returned to online sellers, according to the National Retail Federation. The typical solution from retailers is to send the roughly 17% of their inventory made up of returns to a landfill, regardless of the condition of the products. It’s a problem that sellers have little incentive to solve. Since dumping product can be written off as the cost of doing business in profit and loss statements, companies don’t invest in a complex reverse supply chain or inspect items for potential resale value. But recommerce site Rebel just raised a $25 million series B round to fuel its work building a resale network for retailers—and the software to power it. The funding round was led by Jay-Z’s MarcyPen Capital Partners, which, alongside Serena Williams’s Serena Ventures was part of Rebel’s $18 million Series A raise in 2024. Discount-retail veteran Emily Hosie—whose résumé includes time at Saks Off Fifth and TJ Maxx—says she launched the Toronto- and New York-based company to solve two problems while selling written-off products at a 40% to 70% discount. “The majority of returns are ending up in landfills and no retailers or brands want to talk about it because it’s not something to be proud about,” she says. How does Rebel work? At Rebel’s 300,000-square-foot warehouse in Kannapolis, North Carolina, the company processes more than 70,000 unique products a week—enough inventory that its website adds new deals every 15 minutes. To process that volume of returns, Hosie built a new technology and logistics stack. Using AI, Rebel can detect, log, and tag the condition of each return, and determine the most efficient way to receive it from retailers and ship it to consumers. “Every return is a snowflake,” Hosie says, noting that all products require inspection to determine their condition. “[An e-commerce company] processing a return versus processing inventory in general is asking a heart surgeon to do brain surgery. It’s a totally different infrastructure needed, and for a lot of companies that’s just mission drift.” Rebel, which is B Corp certified, aims to expand its physical presence on the West Coast in 2026. The company developed an AI-powered smart-pricing algorithm that auto-adjusts item prices based on demand, condition, and inventory more than 10 times a day. On top of that, Rebel’s consumer-facing tool lets buyers check the real-time resale value of an item when they’re deciding whether to purchase it. Rebel’s business, which started processing items in the baby category with Newell Brands, Evenflo, Dorel, and others, has grown 2,640% in just three years. The site now also sells travel products and home goods (including mattresses), and is expanding to outdoor/sporting gear and eventually consumer electronics. Getting retail’s attention As complex as Rebel’s logistics are, for Hosie the biggest obstacle was getting retailers to buy into the product—in part because in meetings with retail leaders, they balked at the premise of Rebel’s service. “We would get meetings with the most senior people on leadership teams at global iconic brands and mass retailers,” Hosie says. “They would look at us and say, ‘Congratulations on what you built, but we don’t have a returns problem.’” The company had a breakthrough early on when a large mass retailer going bankrupt decided to use Rebel to sell off its inventory. “That gave us the business case to go back to other retailers,” Hosie says. Unlike other retailers struggling with their supply chain as tariffs take hold, Rebel is immune because the products it deals with are already sold in the States. Rebel is also appealing to price-sensitive shoppers ahead of the holidays, at a time of layoffs and economic uncertainty. “We’re the only company with the tech to be able to process these returns at scale,” Hosie says. “Why not be that one-stop destination for those who love deal hunting and buying open-box, never-used returns?” View the full article

Believing that digital transformation is about changing technology is like thinking firefighting is about riding in a fire truck. Firefighting is about putting out fires to save lives and property. Digital transformation is about changing how your organization functions and creates value using data, systems, skills, and processes. That might mean building dashboards that give executives real-time visibility across thousands of staff, training hundreds in new ways of working like Agile or DevOps, or automating back-office processes to free up time for higher-value work. The common thread is that technology becomes a catalyst for organisational change in strategy, people, and operations—not just new software bolted onto old habits. If you’re replacing systems without changing how people work or what value you create, you’re running an IT project, not a transformation. That’s not bad, but the distinction matters because it determines whether change is sustainable. With failure rates between 26% and 88%, the odds are that your digital transformation is already failing. You might not know it yet, but the warning signs are there. Based on my work with dozens of organizations and research into what drives success, six reasons appear most often. 1. Your Digital Vision Could Mean Anything Visions for digital transformations are overrated. You need a clear vision for digital change, but for teams doing the work, that isn’t enough. A specific definition of done bridges the gap between the vision you want and the actions they need to take. As a consultant, I saw many digital visions that boiled down to “cloud-first,” “mobile-first,” “data-driven,” and now, “AI-first.” But what does AI-first actually mean? It could mean building internal AI tools before anything else, buying platforms that use AI, or designing customer journeys where an AI bot is the first point of contact. The definition of done comes from software development, where developers ask how someone will know when a feature is complete. If you think of baking a cake, the vision tells you what you want the cake to look like; the definition of done tells you that when it’s golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, it’s ready. 2. Your Documented Process Isn’t the Real One Most transformation plans are based on documented processes, even though those processes rarely match reality. Real work involves quick calls, side emails, copy-pasting, and workarounds, usually born from underinvestment in systems or skills. Over time, these informal processes become essential, creating manual rework that keeps the organisation running. People cling to them because they work and fear that transformation will only add more bureaucracy. Even when you know the real process, transformation itself never runs sequentially. It’s two steps forward, one to the side, two backward. Yet transformation programmes are still sold as linear, with milestones and timelines that look neat on PowerPoint. Those promises set unrealistic expectations and make failure more likely. 3. You’re Confusing Involvement with Engagement McKinsey research shows that 68% of successful transformations actively involve employees, yet only 35% seek feedback or new ideas. The difference lies in confusing participation with engagement, and compliance with commitment. Many transformation leaders prioritise participation because it’s easier to measure. You can track town hall attendance, survey completion, or training numbers. But engagement, real ownership and belief, is harder to quantify. Theatrics like “bringing people on the journey” are common, but what you actually need are employees with high buy-in who can advocate for change. They’re the ones who make transformation stick. 4. Your Leaders Think Cascading Messages Work Employees want to hear about major changes from two people: their direct manager and a senior leader. Unless managers can personally justify and role-model change, employees will stick with the status quo. Leaders often believe they can scale these conversations by having comms teams and line managers “cascade” messages through the organisation. But that assumes group dynamics stay the same as conversations scale. They don’t. You can have a genuine dialogue with five people, not 5,000. At scale, communication becomes about power and influence, not connection or understanding. 5. You’re Running Out of Political Capital The world’s largest leadership survey from DDI found we’re in a global leadership credibility crisis. Trust in immediate managers dropped from 46% to 29% in two years. For transformation leaders, that’s devastating. Our job is to create conditions for people to test and learn quickly, but that requires trust. In environments with competing priorities and scarce resources, politics fills the vacuum. Projects get defunded when sponsors lose confidence. Sponsors get replaced when they burn through credibility. Teams miss targets when they stop listening to leaders. Without credibility, there’s no trust. Without trust, there’s no confidence or political capital. And without political capital, you lose influence. You can’t change behavior if you don’t have the authority to persuade. 6. You Might Be Cost Cutting Your Way to Bankruptcy Most digital transformations include some cost cutting or downsizing, but the evidence on how that plays out is bleak. A study of 4,710 U.S. firms found that those that downsized were twice as likely to declare bankruptcy within five years as those that didn’t. I’ve seen it firsthand. Companies slash headcounts for quick savings, often starting with support teams labelled as “cost centres.” IT teams are replaced by smaller “agile squads” where titles change but workloads don’t. Nine to eighteen months later, they’re rehiring to fill the capability gaps they created. The most responsible companies cut differently. They remove toxic leadership, outdated systems, and redundant processes while protecting institutional memory. Transformations that build on existing strengths, rather than strip them away, are far more resilient than those driven by short-term savings. ‘Best practice’ transformation often becomes a one-size-fits-all comfort blanket. In reality, meaningful change requires leaders to be awkward, unpopular, and willing to call out uncomfortable truths. The six warning signs above are easy to spot but hard to confront. Doing so early and often may make you unpopular, but it also keeps your organisation out of the 70% of transformations that fail. 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As small business owners, we often wear more hats than we can count — designer, marketer, accountant, customer service rep, and everything in between. Balancing creativity with the demands of running a business can feel like walking a tightrope without a net. I know that feeling firsthand, and it’s one reason I was drawn to my recent conversation with Amanda Stewart, the founder of Mochi Kids. Amanda has built her brand from a handful of handmade T-shirts into a beloved children’s clothing company known for its minimalist design and inclusive themes — all while managing operations, production, and marketing largely on her own. During our discussion at Adobe MAX 2025, Amanda opened up about how she evolved from selling on Etsy to running a brick-and-mortar store and how tools like Adobe Acrobat and AI-powered assistants are helping her manage the less glamorous side of entrepreneurship — contracts, timelines, and content calendars — with the same creativity she brings to her designs. What stood out to me most was how she’s using technology not just to streamline her work, but to expand her capacity to create. For any small business owner trying to balance artistic vision with operational reality, Amanda’s story is both inspiring and instructive. Below is our full conversation, where she shares how creativity and productivity intersect in her business — and how technology is quietly helping her do it all. Leland McFarland: Amanda, for those who may not be familiar, can you start by telling a little about, uh, Mochi Kids and what inspired you to stay, start the brand? Amanda Stewart: So Mochi Kids is, it started as a children’s clothing brand almost 10 years ago. And we’ve evolved to include a brick-and-mortar store. I started my business super organically. I needed um, an a creative outlet and I wanted to create some tees for my son that matched his interests. He’s always been interested in things like science and space, but I couldn’t find though t-shirts with those designs at an aesthetic that I also liked, and so I used my design skills and started creating my own t-shirts. Um, and I sold them to friends and family, eventually strangers on Instagram started asking for them, and I opened an Etsy shop, and then a regular website, and then, um, a brick-and-mortar store. So. Leland McFarland: Great. Um, how has design and creativity shaped the way that Mochi Kids connects with customers and builds its community? Amanda Stewart: I would say design is like central to what I do. We have a very distinct aesthetic and, uh, a lot of people are are attracted to like our minimalist, um, cute designs. And our community is, um, very inclusive and we try to reflect that in our designs that we do. So we will, um, design based on themes that, um, make people feel included and represented. We have a lot of Asian-American themed designs and then designs that are a little more like on the nose promoting diversity and, um, things like that. Leland McFarland: That’s great. So you’re here at Adobe MAX. Uh, what does this event mean to you as a creative entrepreneur? Amanda Stewart: Yeah, this is my very first year at MAX and I’ve already… today’s the first day, right? We’re like halfway through the day and I’m already just kind of blown away by all the things that I’ve learned here. Um, I came to this conference with one goal in mind, which was how I can learn more about the AI tools that there are to increase the productivity in my business because I’m, you know, as a small business owner, I’m sure you are aware, we’re just often like one-woman shows and we don’t have full teams of, um, copywriters and marketing professionals and, um, production managers. It’s all kind of me. I’m wearing all the hats and so. Um, I’ve been learning a lot more about Adobe Acrobat this year and I knew that coming here I’d be able to find more tools to use to increase my productivity. So that… I like to just have one goal when I come in somewhere, something that feels attainable. And that was it for me is trying to figure out how to increase my productivity as like a one-woman show. Leland McFarland: So how do you use, uh, Adobe Acrobat in, you know, your day-to-day? Amanda Stewart: I use it a few different ways, uh, and I’m sure there are other ways to use it too. That’s one cool thing about coming here is I get to see other people speak about how they’re implementing it into their workflows. But for me, I love to use it as a place to keep all of my contracts. So our brand, um, we not only sell our own products, but we often will license our artworks to other, um, companies who want to use our designs. And that involves like a contract and deliverables and timelines and all of that is a lot to keep track of for one person when that’s just one of the many responsibilities that I have. So, um, I love Adobe Acrobat, um, PDF spaces, which is the new feature that they have, because I can upload all of my contracts there. I can also upload my email transcripts there and just any correspondence or anything I have regarding to the project. And then I can ask the AI assistant there like, “Please create a timeline of deliverables for this project,” and it will give that to me. So that’s one, one way I use it is like as a place to keep all of my contracts and to be able to communicate with those and get quick answers for what I’m looking for, as opposed to having to go back and scroll through my emails and be like, “I know they said something about this here sometime.” Um, and then kind of like the next step that I use it for is like, let’s say I want, I now have a timeline of my deliverables. I can ask it to create like a content calendar around it. And because it’s like an, uh, chat-based like AI assistant, I can really ask it whatever I want. Um, it will even give you like content ideas. So sometimes it’ll come up with like, okay, here’s a content calendar and then I’ll say, “Can you write me like a script for the first one?” and I’ll go in like greater detail to get exactly what I want from it. So, um, using it for content planning is great. And then another thing that I use it for is my production management. So I can go and say, like, you know, my spring launch, I know it’s going to be a certain day. And then I know how long the turnarounds are for each thing. Sorry, this is like so specific. Leland McFarland: Go for it. Go for it. Amanda Stewart: And I can just write exactly what I want, like, you know, “Please make a, um, production calendar for our spring launch.” Like, I, I know like production is two weeks, um, I have to order my materials like three weeks before that and just map out the whole year of like deadlines. Okay, I need to order my fabric for spring this day. I need to have items in hand by this day for my photo shoot this day. And, um, you know, throughout the year. So it’s a lot to manage as one person. Like how do you, how would I be on top of that? And before what I did is I had a paper calendar on my wall and then I would, once a year, fill out the whole calendar. And then I get behind, then my whole paper calendar system is messed up. Right? But this, I can very easily be like, “Okay, we got to move everything by two weeks. Move all the spring launch dates, everything.” So. Leland McFarland: So it’s kind of become sort of a secretary, you know, like assistant, uh, overall. Amanda Stewart: That’s like what the AI assistant is, I think is like, you can ask it to do things like that, like administrative, like planning kind of things and it does it for you. So. And I’m still, you know, learning how to implement all of this into my workflow, but it already it’s been changing my productivity and helping me to feel like more efficient and more organized. Leland McFarland: Were there any kind of growing pains when it came to implementing this and and learning how to use it or was it fairly smooth? Amanda Stewart: So, I would say, I think Adobe puts a lot of time into like the user experience and trying to make these intuitive. So I feel like on that front, it was really good. For me, personally, I’m not like a tech-savvy person, right off the bat, but um, I, I don’t think it was, like it was much easier than I was expecting it to be. Leland McFarland: That’s good to hear. Yeah, it is not. Leland McFarland: How does Adobe, uh, fit into the broader, um, creative toolkit, uh, alongside or Acrobat. How does Acrobat fit into the broader, uh, creative toolkits along with other Adobe apps like Illustrator or Photoshop? Do you use those as well? Amanda Stewart: Yeah, so I use Illustrator and Photoshop all the time, like on a daily basis. And when they asked me to be an Acrobat ambassador, I was like, “Oh, I guess I use Acrobat too,” but I I wasn’t as familiar with the software and all of the capabilities. So, but I was a little surprised. I was like, “Oh, wouldn’t like Illustrator be a better fit for me?” But, um, yeah, I use Adobe Illustrator, um, Adobe Express, Photoshop, and, um, now Adobe Acrobat all the time. I would say like as a creative person, I, I had this reaction that I told you about that I was like, “Oh, you want me to be an Acrobat ambassador? Okay.” But as a small business owner, it makes so much sense. I wasn’t seeing it from like a productivity and like workflow standpoint. I just kind of seeing it as like a design creative standpoint, but every like creative person that I know struggles with the keeping deadlines, planning, managing contracts, managing files. So they really do go hand in hand, like as far as creatives also need this tool to administratively be able to keep on top of things. Leland McFarland: I see. Good answer on that. Leland McFarland: Do you use, uh, the, uh, features in Acrobat such as e-signatures, commenting, um, reviewing PDFs together with, uh, teams or customers or anything like that? Amanda Stewart: I definitely use e-signature all the time. Um, before I started using that, I would like paint my signature on using Photoshop. But now it’s like much more legit and I can send it securely and I can ask for someone’s signature in a way more like official manner than just like, “Okay, here’s the JPEG, like sign it and send me a photo back.” But this way, you know, it has an electronic signature and they can’t the document can’t be altered after it’s been signed. So yeah, I’ve been loving that tool. Um, I don’t use as much like team collaboration because like I mentioned, it’s mostly me doing all of the work, but, um, hopefully someday I will get to that point. Leland McFarland: I’ve ran into that too. Uh, I used to have a salesperson who would send an Excel file, not a PDF or anything like that, an a raw Excel file, and one time it came back differently. So, I, yeah, and someone had modified the contract in their favor and… Amanda Stewart: Ooh. Leland McFarland: Yeah, so I I get it. You know, I I love the age of these digital signatures and you know, glad that Adobe has that as well. Amanda Stewart: And one nice thing about PDF spaces is you could upload both of those contracts and you could say, “Please find me any differences between these contracts” in case someone does, like through their revision process, sneak a change in. Leland McFarland: Yes, that that would be nice. Leland McFarland: Um, many, uh, creative entrepreneurs struggle to balance, uh, artistry and uh, business paperwork. Um, how has Acrobat helped you bridge that gap? Amanda Stewart: For sure, that is definitely a struggle. Um, I love like the PDF spaces like I mentioned to keep all my contracts organized. And I also think the Creative Cloud is a great tool. Um, so I can access, you know, designs that I’ve been working on on my desktop on my phone if I need to. And, um, yeah, I I’m almost prefer that to my Google Drive, which is what I I’ve been using before because it’s like, um, it’s just easier to find things, I feel like. Like the searchability is better and I can see like the image preview of whatever I’m working on, because sometimes in Google Drive, it’s just like, you know, a file looks like a file folder and like, sometimes it’ll show the image preview, but not all the time. So then I just have to like click on the photo image till I get to the one that I’m looking for. So. Leland McFarland: Um, do you find, do you find that, Acrobat makes administrative tasks like invoicing, legal forms, or proposals, uh, feel a bit more manageable, uh, even creative? Amanda Stewart: Yes. Um, so I do have Acrobat on my phone and I love that I can edit PDFs from my phone. I didn’t know I could do that until this year. So what I was doing before is like, sometimes I’d even like take a JPEG and then I would like Photoshop like a box over it to clear out whatever was there and then a new text box, which was like such a, it’s such a clunky way to do it. But yeah, I do love like on my phone, I’ll edit PDFs and send invoices that way, or I I have to send purchase orders as well, like when I buy um fabric or whatever we’re making. And I love doing that on my phone. A lot of old school people will like require you to have a purchase order from your brand with your header, with the all of your company info before they’ll sell you something. So. Leland McFarland: Yeah. Well, it helps, make those of, those official orders a little bit easier, right? Amanda Stewart: Yeah. Mhm. I can just, I just have the it in my creative cloud and I can just edit it real quick to what I want on it to say. Leland McFarland: Nice. Leland McFarland: Um, what advice would you give other small business owners about, uh, bringing the same creativity they put into design into their business documents? Amanda Stewart: Okay, let me ask you that again. Leland McFarland: Okay. Please. Sorry. What advice would you give other small business owners about bringing the same creativity they put into their designs into their business documents? Amanda Stewart: I feel like a lot of, um, creative small business owners that I know, we have, like I said, the similar struggle of like staying organized and being on top of the administrative things. And a lot of the times these things are like, for me, it’s like a weight on my shoulders a little bit and it’s like a thing on the back of my mind that is like a nagging that I need to like do or fix. And I feel like just starting a new system of like keeping things organized and, um, it’s like really freeing and can help you in your creative practice to feel like you have more like mental space for that and you’re not as like concerned as much. Yeah, I would say that’s definitely been true in my life. Like the tasks that I don’t like to do as a creative are now feel like a little more attainable. Leland McFarland: It’s easier to be creative when you’ve cleaned your room first, right? Amanda Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. Leland McFarland: A little more order, organized. You don’t have that hanging in the back of your head going, “Oh my gosh, that sock over there. It’s bugging me.” Amanda Stewart: Yeah, I am someone who has to clean like my entire house before I can get any work done. So, I can relate. Leland McFarland: I’m I’m the exact opposite. I’m more of the I’ll do the administrative, I’ll do the paperwork. Creativity is not necessarily my forte, so. Amanda Stewart: Oh, yeah. Leland McFarland: So, I I can make processes, I can do paperwork. My wife though, she’ll she’ll handle the creative part. Amanda Stewart: It’s funny, everyone has like their strengths and struggles and yeah. Leland McFarland: All right. What are some of your takeaways from what you’ve seen so far from Adobe MAX, uh, this year? Um, have have you gotten into like the Adobe MAX or uh, the Acrobat uh, demonstration? Have you, is there anything there that you’ve uh, seen that has piqued your interest? Amanda Stewart: Um, I will say I did not know anything about Firefly until today. And, um, as someone who has a clothing brand, I think it’ll be super helpful for me to like mock up my designs, um, with Firefly, because I, I use Photoshop, you know, to often like move my design from Illustrator onto like a piece of clothing. And I’ll do it manually, Photoshopping it over, and with Firefly, I can just like “eye drop that, eye drop that” and then it puts it together for me. So it’s going to be way easier to make mockups and do any kind of Photoshopping. So, that was a big takeaway for me. Um, yeah, I think I’m going to save a lot of time Photoshopping things. And then, I, I, I used Premiere like maybe a couple times, but I’m not like super versed in it. And, um, the Premiere app looks like it’s going to be awesome, too. Did you go to the keynote this morning? Leland McFarland: I did. Amanda Stewart: Yeah. So that… there’s just so many things. I’m like… Leland McFarland: I was impressed. Is that how it is every year? There’s just like, oh man. Brian Domingo: So, yeah, peek behind the curtain. Uh, you know, being PR, we work on these announcements, you know, obviously collaboration with our product teams and engineers for months. So like, just kind of the keynote is a, it’s very celebratory for us PR people because it’s like, we brought it to life with with the product engineers and with the product marketers, and we put their innovations to words and announced it to the world. So, yeah, it’s it’s like that every year. We have like a lot of announcements and it’s just so the labor of love over the course of a lot of time. Leland McFarland: Is it Is it hard to sit on these awesome new features? Brian Domingo: Not for me because I get to play with it internally before you guys. But, um, you know, like, I have friends who are also entrepreneurs and small business owners and creatives and they tell me about the stuff they’re working on. I’m like, “Wow, I wish I could tell you about this, or wish I could get you on the limited beta for this,” but, you know, that’s that’s kind of the fun part of it, too. Leland McFarland: All right. How do you see tools like Acrobat evolving to support creative small businesses in the next few years? I mean, what would you like to see? Amanda Stewart: I feel like Adobe Acrobat is on the right track as far as, um, like I mentioned, making it easier for us creative people to stay organized and the AI assistant. Um, I’ve been telling so many of my friends about the PDF spaces. Um, yeah, I have a friend who runs a nonprofit in Uganda and she has like a case file on every child in her, um, school that she runs over there. And it’s like a paper, it’s a paper case file. And so I’m like, “You got to get, you know, on this so that when you are emailed stuff about this kid, you can just file it in there.” So I would say just more tools for like productivity behind the scenes, kind of contracts. I think that’s what Acrobat is kind of known for is, um, doing like a paper trail, but electronically. So all that kind of like file management. I mean, if I knew the answer to this, I could probably be rich because I would come up with an incredible software. But yeah, I would love to see just more tools to help with that. Leland McFarland: All right, final question. What’s next for Mochi Kids and how does technology, especially tools like Acrobat, play in your future plans? Amanda Stewart: Hm, that’s a good question because I always said that opening a store is like my old lady job. So when I get like burnt out of doing my clothing brand, I can be like a shopkeeper and work in my store. And that still sounds very appealing, um, to kind of, you know, retire but like still own a business and work. Um, but I think I want to get back into doing more apparel. Um, it’s been, like we’ve been kind of going up and down with creating our own custom styles versus buying like blank sweatshirts and t-shirts that are already made. And, uh, yeah, we we are developing some new clothing styles right now. We just developed a new t-shirt pattern that’s really cute. And we have sweatshirts that are being made right now in LA. And then we have pajamas on order. And then we have like a cute woven like unisex kid pant that hopefully next year will come out. So, just getting more into doing more clothing styles. I think, um, a lot of my competitors have gone out of business, which is very sad, in the last few years or stopped making clothing because it’s a challenge. And a lot of the manufacturing in the US in apparel has gone overseas. And, um, and now overseas manufacturers, like with the tariffs, it’s so much more money to create things. So I’ve seen a lot of my fellow clothing brand people close, other fellow clothing brands. So I I do see like a gap in the market for, um, made in the US clothing for children. Leland McFarland: Well, here’s here’s hoping, you know, you can get into that market and continue to grow. Amanda Stewart: Thank you. Leland McFarland: Well, that’s all the questions I had for you. Amanda Stewart: Awesome. Thank… Listening to Amanda Stewart talk about her journey with Mochi Kids reminded me how much small business success depends on both passion and adaptability. It’s one thing to have a great idea; it’s another to sustain it over a decade while evolving with technology, market shifts, and creative demands. Amanda’s ability to keep her brand fresh — from developing new apparel lines to integrating digital tools like Adobe Acrobat and Firefly — is a testament to her resilience and willingness to learn. What resonated most was her practical perspective on using AI and Acrobat as part of her creative workflow. She isn’t replacing her artistry with automation — she’s augmenting it. For small business owners, that’s the real takeaway. Tools that once seemed designed for big enterprises are now becoming indispensable companions for one-person operations. They can help us reclaim time, reduce mental clutter, and refocus on what we love most — whether that’s design, storytelling, or building community. Amanda’s insight that organization fuels creativity struck a chord: when your digital workspace is clear, your mind is free to explore new ideas. It’s a principle many entrepreneurs overlook until they experience the difference. For me, this conversation underscored something simple but powerful — technology isn’t just changing how small businesses run; it’s changing how we think, create, and thrive. And as Amanda’s journey shows, the best creativity often grows from a foundation of order and innovation. This article, "Interview with Amanda Stewart – Founder of Mochi Kids" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

As small business owners, we often wear more hats than we can count — designer, marketer, accountant, customer service rep, and everything in between. Balancing creativity with the demands of running a business can feel like walking a tightrope without a net. I know that feeling firsthand, and it’s one reason I was drawn to my recent conversation with Amanda Stewart, the founder of Mochi Kids. Amanda has built her brand from a handful of handmade T-shirts into a beloved children’s clothing company known for its minimalist design and inclusive themes — all while managing operations, production, and marketing largely on her own. During our discussion at Adobe MAX 2025, Amanda opened up about how she evolved from selling on Etsy to running a brick-and-mortar store and how tools like Adobe Acrobat and AI-powered assistants are helping her manage the less glamorous side of entrepreneurship — contracts, timelines, and content calendars — with the same creativity she brings to her designs. What stood out to me most was how she’s using technology not just to streamline her work, but to expand her capacity to create. For any small business owner trying to balance artistic vision with operational reality, Amanda’s story is both inspiring and instructive. Below is our full conversation, where she shares how creativity and productivity intersect in her business — and how technology is quietly helping her do it all. Leland McFarland: Amanda, for those who may not be familiar, can you start by telling a little about, uh, Mochi Kids and what inspired you to stay, start the brand? Amanda Stewart: So Mochi Kids is, it started as a children’s clothing brand almost 10 years ago. And we’ve evolved to include a brick-and-mortar store. I started my business super organically. I needed um, an a creative outlet and I wanted to create some tees for my son that matched his interests. He’s always been interested in things like science and space, but I couldn’t find though t-shirts with those designs at an aesthetic that I also liked, and so I used my design skills and started creating my own t-shirts. Um, and I sold them to friends and family, eventually strangers on Instagram started asking for them, and I opened an Etsy shop, and then a regular website, and then, um, a brick-and-mortar store. So. Leland McFarland: Great. Um, how has design and creativity shaped the way that Mochi Kids connects with customers and builds its community? Amanda Stewart: I would say design is like central to what I do. We have a very distinct aesthetic and, uh, a lot of people are are attracted to like our minimalist, um, cute designs. And our community is, um, very inclusive and we try to reflect that in our designs that we do. So we will, um, design based on themes that, um, make people feel included and represented. We have a lot of Asian-American themed designs and then designs that are a little more like on the nose promoting diversity and, um, things like that. Leland McFarland: That’s great. So you’re here at Adobe MAX. Uh, what does this event mean to you as a creative entrepreneur? Amanda Stewart: Yeah, this is my very first year at MAX and I’ve already… today’s the first day, right? We’re like halfway through the day and I’m already just kind of blown away by all the things that I’ve learned here. Um, I came to this conference with one goal in mind, which was how I can learn more about the AI tools that there are to increase the productivity in my business because I’m, you know, as a small business owner, I’m sure you are aware, we’re just often like one-woman shows and we don’t have full teams of, um, copywriters and marketing professionals and, um, production managers. It’s all kind of me. I’m wearing all the hats and so. Um, I’ve been learning a lot more about Adobe Acrobat this year and I knew that coming here I’d be able to find more tools to use to increase my productivity. So that… I like to just have one goal when I come in somewhere, something that feels attainable. And that was it for me is trying to figure out how to increase my productivity as like a one-woman show. Leland McFarland: So how do you use, uh, Adobe Acrobat in, you know, your day-to-day? Amanda Stewart: I use it a few different ways, uh, and I’m sure there are other ways to use it too. That’s one cool thing about coming here is I get to see other people speak about how they’re implementing it into their workflows. But for me, I love to use it as a place to keep all of my contracts. So our brand, um, we not only sell our own products, but we often will license our artworks to other, um, companies who want to use our designs. And that involves like a contract and deliverables and timelines and all of that is a lot to keep track of for one person when that’s just one of the many responsibilities that I have. So, um, I love Adobe Acrobat, um, PDF spaces, which is the new feature that they have, because I can upload all of my contracts there. I can also upload my email transcripts there and just any correspondence or anything I have regarding to the project. And then I can ask the AI assistant there like, “Please create a timeline of deliverables for this project,” and it will give that to me. So that’s one, one way I use it is like as a place to keep all of my contracts and to be able to communicate with those and get quick answers for what I’m looking for, as opposed to having to go back and scroll through my emails and be like, “I know they said something about this here sometime.” Um, and then kind of like the next step that I use it for is like, let’s say I want, I now have a timeline of my deliverables. I can ask it to create like a content calendar around it. And because it’s like an, uh, chat-based like AI assistant, I can really ask it whatever I want. Um, it will even give you like content ideas. So sometimes it’ll come up with like, okay, here’s a content calendar and then I’ll say, “Can you write me like a script for the first one?” and I’ll go in like greater detail to get exactly what I want from it. So, um, using it for content planning is great. And then another thing that I use it for is my production management. So I can go and say, like, you know, my spring launch, I know it’s going to be a certain day. And then I know how long the turnarounds are for each thing. Sorry, this is like so specific. Leland McFarland: Go for it. Go for it. Amanda Stewart: And I can just write exactly what I want, like, you know, “Please make a, um, production calendar for our spring launch.” Like, I, I know like production is two weeks, um, I have to order my materials like three weeks before that and just map out the whole year of like deadlines. Okay, I need to order my fabric for spring this day. I need to have items in hand by this day for my photo shoot this day. And, um, you know, throughout the year. So it’s a lot to manage as one person. Like how do you, how would I be on top of that? And before what I did is I had a paper calendar on my wall and then I would, once a year, fill out the whole calendar. And then I get behind, then my whole paper calendar system is messed up. Right? But this, I can very easily be like, “Okay, we got to move everything by two weeks. Move all the spring launch dates, everything.” So. Leland McFarland: So it’s kind of become sort of a secretary, you know, like assistant, uh, overall. Amanda Stewart: That’s like what the AI assistant is, I think is like, you can ask it to do things like that, like administrative, like planning kind of things and it does it for you. So. And I’m still, you know, learning how to implement all of this into my workflow, but it already it’s been changing my productivity and helping me to feel like more efficient and more organized. Leland McFarland: Were there any kind of growing pains when it came to implementing this and and learning how to use it or was it fairly smooth? Amanda Stewart: So, I would say, I think Adobe puts a lot of time into like the user experience and trying to make these intuitive. So I feel like on that front, it was really good. For me, personally, I’m not like a tech-savvy person, right off the bat, but um, I, I don’t think it was, like it was much easier than I was expecting it to be. Leland McFarland: That’s good to hear. Yeah, it is not. Leland McFarland: How does Adobe, uh, fit into the broader, um, creative toolkit, uh, alongside or Acrobat. How does Acrobat fit into the broader, uh, creative toolkits along with other Adobe apps like Illustrator or Photoshop? Do you use those as well? Amanda Stewart: Yeah, so I use Illustrator and Photoshop all the time, like on a daily basis. And when they asked me to be an Acrobat ambassador, I was like, “Oh, I guess I use Acrobat too,” but I I wasn’t as familiar with the software and all of the capabilities. So, but I was a little surprised. I was like, “Oh, wouldn’t like Illustrator be a better fit for me?” But, um, yeah, I use Adobe Illustrator, um, Adobe Express, Photoshop, and, um, now Adobe Acrobat all the time. I would say like as a creative person, I, I had this reaction that I told you about that I was like, “Oh, you want me to be an Acrobat ambassador? Okay.” But as a small business owner, it makes so much sense. I wasn’t seeing it from like a productivity and like workflow standpoint. I just kind of seeing it as like a design creative standpoint, but every like creative person that I know struggles with the keeping deadlines, planning, managing contracts, managing files. So they really do go hand in hand, like as far as creatives also need this tool to administratively be able to keep on top of things. Leland McFarland: I see. Good answer on that. Leland McFarland: Do you use, uh, the, uh, features in Acrobat such as e-signatures, commenting, um, reviewing PDFs together with, uh, teams or customers or anything like that? Amanda Stewart: I definitely use e-signature all the time. Um, before I started using that, I would like paint my signature on using Photoshop. But now it’s like much more legit and I can send it securely and I can ask for someone’s signature in a way more like official manner than just like, “Okay, here’s the JPEG, like sign it and send me a photo back.” But this way, you know, it has an electronic signature and they can’t the document can’t be altered after it’s been signed. So yeah, I’ve been loving that tool. Um, I don’t use as much like team collaboration because like I mentioned, it’s mostly me doing all of the work, but, um, hopefully someday I will get to that point. Leland McFarland: I’ve ran into that too. Uh, I used to have a salesperson who would send an Excel file, not a PDF or anything like that, an a raw Excel file, and one time it came back differently. So, I, yeah, and someone had modified the contract in their favor and… Amanda Stewart: Ooh. Leland McFarland: Yeah, so I I get it. You know, I I love the age of these digital signatures and you know, glad that Adobe has that as well. Amanda Stewart: And one nice thing about PDF spaces is you could upload both of those contracts and you could say, “Please find me any differences between these contracts” in case someone does, like through their revision process, sneak a change in. Leland McFarland: Yes, that that would be nice. Leland McFarland: Um, many, uh, creative entrepreneurs struggle to balance, uh, artistry and uh, business paperwork. Um, how has Acrobat helped you bridge that gap? Amanda Stewart: For sure, that is definitely a struggle. Um, I love like the PDF spaces like I mentioned to keep all my contracts organized. And I also think the Creative Cloud is a great tool. Um, so I can access, you know, designs that I’ve been working on on my desktop on my phone if I need to. And, um, yeah, I I’m almost prefer that to my Google Drive, which is what I I’ve been using before because it’s like, um, it’s just easier to find things, I feel like. Like the searchability is better and I can see like the image preview of whatever I’m working on, because sometimes in Google Drive, it’s just like, you know, a file looks like a file folder and like, sometimes it’ll show the image preview, but not all the time. So then I just have to like click on the photo image till I get to the one that I’m looking for. So. Leland McFarland: Um, do you find, do you find that, Acrobat makes administrative tasks like invoicing, legal forms, or proposals, uh, feel a bit more manageable, uh, even creative? Amanda Stewart: Yes. Um, so I do have Acrobat on my phone and I love that I can edit PDFs from my phone. I didn’t know I could do that until this year. So what I was doing before is like, sometimes I’d even like take a JPEG and then I would like Photoshop like a box over it to clear out whatever was there and then a new text box, which was like such a, it’s such a clunky way to do it. But yeah, I do love like on my phone, I’ll edit PDFs and send invoices that way, or I I have to send purchase orders as well, like when I buy um fabric or whatever we’re making. And I love doing that on my phone. A lot of old school people will like require you to have a purchase order from your brand with your header, with the all of your company info before they’ll sell you something. So. Leland McFarland: Yeah. Well, it helps, make those of, those official orders a little bit easier, right? Amanda Stewart: Yeah. Mhm. I can just, I just have the it in my creative cloud and I can just edit it real quick to what I want on it to say. Leland McFarland: Nice. Leland McFarland: Um, what advice would you give other small business owners about, uh, bringing the same creativity they put into design into their business documents? Amanda Stewart: Okay, let me ask you that again. Leland McFarland: Okay. Please. Sorry. What advice would you give other small business owners about bringing the same creativity they put into their designs into their business documents? Amanda Stewart: I feel like a lot of, um, creative small business owners that I know, we have, like I said, the similar struggle of like staying organized and being on top of the administrative things. And a lot of the times these things are like, for me, it’s like a weight on my shoulders a little bit and it’s like a thing on the back of my mind that is like a nagging that I need to like do or fix. And I feel like just starting a new system of like keeping things organized and, um, it’s like really freeing and can help you in your creative practice to feel like you have more like mental space for that and you’re not as like concerned as much. Yeah, I would say that’s definitely been true in my life. Like the tasks that I don’t like to do as a creative are now feel like a little more attainable. Leland McFarland: It’s easier to be creative when you’ve cleaned your room first, right? Amanda Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. Leland McFarland: A little more order, organized. You don’t have that hanging in the back of your head going, “Oh my gosh, that sock over there. It’s bugging me.” Amanda Stewart: Yeah, I am someone who has to clean like my entire house before I can get any work done. So, I can relate. Leland McFarland: I’m I’m the exact opposite. I’m more of the I’ll do the administrative, I’ll do the paperwork. Creativity is not necessarily my forte, so. Amanda Stewart: Oh, yeah. Leland McFarland: So, I I can make processes, I can do paperwork. My wife though, she’ll she’ll handle the creative part. Amanda Stewart: It’s funny, everyone has like their strengths and struggles and yeah. Leland McFarland: All right. What are some of your takeaways from what you’ve seen so far from Adobe MAX, uh, this year? Um, have have you gotten into like the Adobe MAX or uh, the Acrobat uh, demonstration? Have you, is there anything there that you’ve uh, seen that has piqued your interest? Amanda Stewart: Um, I will say I did not know anything about Firefly until today. And, um, as someone who has a clothing brand, I think it’ll be super helpful for me to like mock up my designs, um, with Firefly, because I, I use Photoshop, you know, to often like move my design from Illustrator onto like a piece of clothing. And I’ll do it manually, Photoshopping it over, and with Firefly, I can just like “eye drop that, eye drop that” and then it puts it together for me. So it’s going to be way easier to make mockups and do any kind of Photoshopping. So, that was a big takeaway for me. Um, yeah, I think I’m going to save a lot of time Photoshopping things. And then, I, I, I used Premiere like maybe a couple times, but I’m not like super versed in it. And, um, the Premiere app looks like it’s going to be awesome, too. Did you go to the keynote this morning? Leland McFarland: I did. Amanda Stewart: Yeah. So that… there’s just so many things. I’m like… Leland McFarland: I was impressed. Is that how it is every year? There’s just like, oh man. Brian Domingo: So, yeah, peek behind the curtain. Uh, you know, being PR, we work on these announcements, you know, obviously collaboration with our product teams and engineers for months. So like, just kind of the keynote is a, it’s very celebratory for us PR people because it’s like, we brought it to life with with the product engineers and with the product marketers, and we put their innovations to words and announced it to the world. So, yeah, it’s it’s like that every year. We have like a lot of announcements and it’s just so the labor of love over the course of a lot of time. Leland McFarland: Is it Is it hard to sit on these awesome new features? Brian Domingo: Not for me because I get to play with it internally before you guys. But, um, you know, like, I have friends who are also entrepreneurs and small business owners and creatives and they tell me about the stuff they’re working on. I’m like, “Wow, I wish I could tell you about this, or wish I could get you on the limited beta for this,” but, you know, that’s that’s kind of the fun part of it, too. Leland McFarland: All right. How do you see tools like Acrobat evolving to support creative small businesses in the next few years? I mean, what would you like to see? Amanda Stewart: I feel like Adobe Acrobat is on the right track as far as, um, like I mentioned, making it easier for us creative people to stay organized and the AI assistant. Um, I’ve been telling so many of my friends about the PDF spaces. Um, yeah, I have a friend who runs a nonprofit in Uganda and she has like a case file on every child in her, um, school that she runs over there. And it’s like a paper, it’s a paper case file. And so I’m like, “You got to get, you know, on this so that when you are emailed stuff about this kid, you can just file it in there.” So I would say just more tools for like productivity behind the scenes, kind of contracts. I think that’s what Acrobat is kind of known for is, um, doing like a paper trail, but electronically. So all that kind of like file management. I mean, if I knew the answer to this, I could probably be rich because I would come up with an incredible software. But yeah, I would love to see just more tools to help with that. Leland McFarland: All right, final question. What’s next for Mochi Kids and how does technology, especially tools like Acrobat, play in your future plans? Amanda Stewart: Hm, that’s a good question because I always said that opening a store is like my old lady job. So when I get like burnt out of doing my clothing brand, I can be like a shopkeeper and work in my store. And that still sounds very appealing, um, to kind of, you know, retire but like still own a business and work. Um, but I think I want to get back into doing more apparel. Um, it’s been, like we’ve been kind of going up and down with creating our own custom styles versus buying like blank sweatshirts and t-shirts that are already made. And, uh, yeah, we we are developing some new clothing styles right now. We just developed a new t-shirt pattern that’s really cute. And we have sweatshirts that are being made right now in LA. And then we have pajamas on order. And then we have like a cute woven like unisex kid pant that hopefully next year will come out. So, just getting more into doing more clothing styles. I think, um, a lot of my competitors have gone out of business, which is very sad, in the last few years or stopped making clothing because it’s a challenge. And a lot of the manufacturing in the US in apparel has gone overseas. And, um, and now overseas manufacturers, like with the tariffs, it’s so much more money to create things. So I’ve seen a lot of my fellow clothing brand people close, other fellow clothing brands. So I I do see like a gap in the market for, um, made in the US clothing for children. Leland McFarland: Well, here’s here’s hoping, you know, you can get into that market and continue to grow. Amanda Stewart: Thank you. Leland McFarland: Well, that’s all the questions I had for you. Amanda Stewart: Awesome. Thank… Listening to Amanda Stewart talk about her journey with Mochi Kids reminded me how much small business success depends on both passion and adaptability. It’s one thing to have a great idea; it’s another to sustain it over a decade while evolving with technology, market shifts, and creative demands. Amanda’s ability to keep her brand fresh — from developing new apparel lines to integrating digital tools like Adobe Acrobat and Firefly — is a testament to her resilience and willingness to learn. What resonated most was her practical perspective on using AI and Acrobat as part of her creative workflow. She isn’t replacing her artistry with automation — she’s augmenting it. For small business owners, that’s the real takeaway. Tools that once seemed designed for big enterprises are now becoming indispensable companions for one-person operations. They can help us reclaim time, reduce mental clutter, and refocus on what we love most — whether that’s design, storytelling, or building community. Amanda’s insight that organization fuels creativity struck a chord: when your digital workspace is clear, your mind is free to explore new ideas. It’s a principle many entrepreneurs overlook until they experience the difference. For me, this conversation underscored something simple but powerful — technology isn’t just changing how small businesses run; it’s changing how we think, create, and thrive. And as Amanda’s journey shows, the best creativity often grows from a foundation of order and innovation. This article, "Interview with Amanda Stewart – Founder of Mochi Kids" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. AI assistants are now more than simple answer machines. ChatGPT’s new Study Mode, Claude’s Learning Mode, and Gemini’s Guided Learning represent a significant shift. Instead of just providing answers, these free tools act as adaptive, 24/7 personal tutors. Guidde | Create how-to guides with AI Tired of explaining the same thing over and over again to your colleagues? Guidde is an AI-powered tool that helps you explain the most complex tasks in seconds with AI-generated documentation. Turn boring documentation into stunning visual guides Save valuable time by creating video documentation 11x faster Share or embed your guide anywhere Just click capture on the browser extension. The app will automatically generate step-by-step video guides complete with visuals, voiceover and call to action. The best part? The extension is 100% free. Try it Free New Tools for Studying and Learning ChatGPT Study Mode Get Started: Select Study Mode from the plus menu when starting a new chat. [Screenshot]. Start with context. Tell ChatGPT what you want to learn, why, and what you already know. The model excels at adapting to your level and guiding you step by step. My take: I’ve been experimenting with AI learning modes to understand the intricacies of venture capital investing. ChatGPT initially overwhelmed me with info [screenshot], then seemed to notice I was drowning and adjusted its pace. It must have seen my confused frown. Note: You can use “Study and learn” mode on mobile and with ChatGPT in a browser, but you can’t yet access it in the desktop app or within a ChatGPT Project. Below is a quick example of a dialogue in Study Mode Gemini Guided Learning Get Started: Visit g.co/gemini/guidedlearning My take: Gemini has been an excellent tutor. It replies concisely to my questions about venture capital. For example, so far it has: Quizzed me (try a basic example) Created a helpful infographic Generated an audio overview, in the style of NotebookLM Made me a custom Web page Shared simple digital flashcards The tangible artifacts help me visualize concepts and test my own understanding. The model takes a minute or so to produce infographics and a little longer to create audio overviews. I’m repeatedly returning to these materials to review what still feels fuzzy — arcane details of valuation, cap tables, dilution, and convertible notes. Below is an example of a scientific infographic: Other Google Learning Tools Illuminate turns academic papers and research into audio summaries Learn About responds thoroughly and helpfully to any inquiry Learning Coach Gem is an assistant you can chat with. Little Language Lessons offers quick takeaways. LearnLM is Google’s family of language models for learning, grounded in educational research. Claude Learning Mode Get Started: Select “Learning” from the style menu. This step initially confused me because the other options in that menu are writing styles. My take: Claude’s scenario-based questions —like these— push me to think through real-world situations to practice applying what I’m learning. Tips: As you learn, ask Claude to create artifacts—little interactive apps— that help you practice what you’re learning. Also request occasional challenges, case studies, or quizzes. Advantage: Unlike ChatGPT, you can use Learning Mode within Claude Projects. That allows you to benefit from personalized learning alongside your uploaded documents and context. So you can upload a slew of files, reports, and research resources and let Claude tutor you on those materials. Learn Mode vs. Answer Mode Turn on the learning features for any of these AI assistants and you’ll quickly notice the difference. Learning modes use Socratic questioning — asking rather than telling. They adapt to your level of understanding. They nudge you to make your own observations. They help you test your understanding with informal quizzes. They guide you step-by-step through complex topics rather than rushing to throw answers at you. In learning mode, these assistants feel like tutors; in standard mode they’re more like interactive encyclopedias. The difference is significant. On previous occasions when I wanted to analyze data, I’d ask for quick insights. In study mode I’ve learned, among other things, how to use pivot tables more effectively so I can analyze data more thoroughly myself. Rather than getting fish handed to me, I’m learning to fish. Topics to try in learn mode “How do tariffs impact supply chains?” or “How does cryptocurrency work?” “Guide me through the basics of [science/math concept]” “In what ways might Shakespeare have influenced Montaigne’s essays?” “How do private equity firms operate? Help me understand the nuances.” 4 Ways to Learn with AI 1. Understand a complex concept or skill What it’s for: Work or school topics you need to grasp thoroughly, or just topics you’re curious about My experience: I’m using AI study modes to review probabilities for dice, tile and card picking for tabletop games like Qwixx, Splendor, Azul, Point Salad, and backgammon. The AI helps me move forward step-by-step, checking my progress and slowing down when I get confused. I like being able to ask dumb questions without embarrassment. 2. Indulge your intellectual curiosity What it’s for: Topics you find fascinating. Learning for its own sake. My experience: After reading Hernán Díaz’s Trust recently, I went down a rabbit hole learning about metafiction (stories within stories) and polyphony (stories from multiple vantage points) and discovering new connections between various authors. This pure intellectual exploration feels different from work-focused learning. It’s driven by curiosity rather than necessity. I like that I can leap from tangent to tangent whenever I feel like it. I can also stop suddenly and return to a thread days later. The assistant loses no momentum and continues as if we never paused. 3. Deepen your expertise What it’s for: Expand your understanding of something you’ve already studied. My experience: I’m using AI learning modes to explore connections between classical composers whose music I’ve spent my life listening to and playing. I’m also sharpening the way I use spreadsheets for data analysis. The AI builds on what I already know, rather than starting from scratch. 4. Learn how to learn What it’s for: Discover how you learn best. Learn about learning and how to sharpen your brain. My experience: I’m experimenting with AI learning approaches to see what works best for me, and getting to know more about learning science. Most valuable so far: Gemini’s quizzes and infographics, Claude’s short answer questions, and practicing summarizing and expanding on ChatGPT’s explanations. The most useful learning mode features Short quizzes with instant feedback that force me to apply what I’m learning Scenarios I have to analyze that force me to make nuanced distinctions Realistic case studies that require me to summarize new concepts Asking as many dumb questions as I wantRequesting tangible learning artifacts, like infographics, audio overviews, flashcards, and tables In my own teaching (at CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism) I’m planning to incorporate more formative micro-assessments — brief in-class ungraded quizzes using tools like Slido and Socrative to help me check what students understand and to give them more tiny opportunities to practice what we’re learning. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. View the full article

Let’s be honest: we’ve all got that one celebrity, influencer, or podcast host who lives rent-free in our heads. You know their dog’s name, their morning routine, their trauma story, and their oat milk brand of choice. You might even find yourself defending them in comment sections like they’re your actual friend. Congratulations, you’ve formed a parasocial relationship. For those who aren’t as active on social media, that’s a one-sided bond we form with people we don’t actually know. And while these connections can sometimes sound a little delusional, here’s the twist: they’re not all bad. In fact, parasocial relationships can meet some very real psychological needs. Where it gets dangerous is when you start to forget where the screen ends and real life begins. What’s a parasocial relationship anyway? Sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl coined the term in the 1950s. Parasocial relationships describe the illusion of intimacy audiences feel toward media personalities. Back then, it was people writing fan letters to their favorite TV hosts. Now, it’s me crying in sync with a YouTuber’s breakup vlog or feeling like I know my favorite podcaster personally. On a neurological level, this makes sense. After all, our brains don’t perfectly distinguish between real and mediated (through a screen) interaction. When someone looks into the camera and speaks directly to you, your mirror neurons light up just as if you’re talking to them face-to-face. This is why parasocial relationships can feel genuinely comforting. They activate the same circuits of familiarity and trust as real friendships. And in an increasingly disconnected world, that comfort definitely counts for something. The surprising benefits of one-sided bonds 1. They can buffer loneliness During lockdowns, many of us maintained a sense of social connection through our favorite online creators. Studies show parasocial relationships can actually reduce feelings of isolation and even improve mood regulation, especially when people lack strong offline networks. 2. They model vulnerability and emotional expression Watching creators openly discuss anxiety, grief, or trauma can normalize emotional honesty and destigmatize speaking about challenges like mental health. This helps us feel seen in our own mess. We can tell ourselves, “Okay, I’m not the only one falling apart on a Wednesday.” 3. They inspire growth A parasocial connection can serve as a mirror. It can show you the kind of energy, confidence, or values you want to embody. This is why certain influencers become aspirational figures. As long as you keep awareness intact, these relationships can spark genuine motivation. When parasocial relationships turn dangerous It is worth noting, however, that there is a very thin line between “inspired” and “attached” is thin. And unfortunately, powerful algorithms are built to blur it. These algorithms reward creators for being relatable, which means sharing enough personal details to make you feel like you’re in their inner circle. That emotional intimacy creates loyalty, engagement, and ultimately, a chance for monetization. This isn’t inherently evil, but it can distort our sense of reciprocity. You might start to feel like this person owes you honesty, consistency, or moral perfection. And when they slip up (as humans inevitably do), the disappointment can feel personal—like a friend’s betrayal. These one-way relationships can also subtly erode our capacity for deeper real-world intimacy. When we satisfy our social cravings with curated, low-risk digital connections, we stop practicing the messy vulnerability of actual human contact, the kind that requires our patience, discomfort, and presence. The psychology behind the pull Parasocial attachment is driven by the same neural systems that govern all bonding. Dopamine fuels the anticipation of new posts or updates. Oxytocin, the “bonding hormone,” spikes when we watch someone share emotionally or make eye contact with the camera. But here’s the kicker: unlike reciprocal relationships, parasocial ones never demand anything of you. No commitment. No conflict. No compromise. No vulnerability. It’s a connection on your terms: all of the closeness, none of the interpersonal risk. It’s no wonder our brains love it. Especially in a culture where real connection often feels draining, these one-sided bonds offer safe (and lazy) intimacy; it’s like a form of social snacking. The problem is that snacks, while comforting, don’t nourish us long-term. So where do we draw the line? Here’s the thing: you don’t need to quit parasocial connections. You just need to bring consciousness to them. Try this quick self-check by asking yourself a series of questions. Are you replacing or complementing real-world connections? If your closest relationship is with someone who doesn’t know you exist, it’s time to recalibrate. Do you feel possessive or reactive when your favorite creator posts (or doesn’t)? That’s a sign of emotional overinvestment and might be a sign to step back and reanchor. Lastly, figure out if their content is influencing your self-worth. If their wins make you feel inadequate, mute or unfollow for a while. Inspiration should energize you, not erode you. How to keep a healthy parasocial relationship Take the following steps to prevent a parasocial relationship from becoming unhealthy: 1. Diversify your social diet Online creators can be a supplement, but real relationships are the main meal. Reach out to friends, join local groups, or talk to someone face-to-face. 2. Practice digital discernment Notice the kind of creators you gravitate toward. Do they invite reflection and growth or feed comparison and self-doubt? 3. Set parasocial boundaries No DMs. No stalking their partner’s feed. And definitely not forming an identity around being in a relationship with them of any kind. 4. Do regular connection audits Once a month, ask: Who are the five people I feel most connected to right now? If you find that most of them are social media figures, it might be time to rebalance. Parasocial relationships aren’t a glitch in modern life; they’re normal. And they act as a mirror, showing us what we crave—intimacy, belonging, inspiration. When you hold them consciously, they can even bridge moments of loneliness or offer glimpses of our better selves. But the minute we start mistaking someone else’s content for actual closeness, we drift into illusion. That’s when we can confuse visibility for intimacy. So by all means, keep cheering for your favorite podcaster and cry with your comfort YouTuber. Just make sure you’re also tending to the relationships that see all of you—not just your username–because they’re the ones who will keep you grounded in what’s real. View the full article

There’s a commercial break on the TV — why not scroll through a few TikToks to pass the time. Ten minutes early for an appointment? Catch up on Instagram Stories. Train delays? A quick doomscroll of the news while you wait. It’s a common reflex: Americans check their phones 144 times a day, on average, according to a survey from Reviews.org. It’s also a habit many are trying to break. “My biggest fear is that I’ll lie on my deathbed and regret how much time I spent on my phone,” TikTok creator Sierra Campbell said in a video posted in May. Her answer? An analog bag. Campbell carries with her a bag of analog activities at all times, including crossword puzzles, watercolor paints, knitting needles, anything that can be reached for in those in-between moments to keep from scrolling. Inspired by Campbell, the analog bag trend has, somewhat ironically, caught on online. The hashtag #AnalogLife is up 330% this year, according to TikTok data shared with Axios. The idea isn’t “less technology,” explained Campbell. “It’s more analog fun.” Other screen-free alternatives include coloring books, journals, embroidery or word searches. By keeping a bag of activities in arm’s reach, it’s easy to resist the urge to mindlessly reach for our phones for a quick distraction or dopamine hit. This trend fits into a broader revival of analog hobbies — also known as “grandma hobbies” — to help us slow down and tackle digital fatigue. In a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults, 71% had participated in a craft project in 2024, said research firm Mintel. “Analog wellness” was named a top trend for 2025 by the Global Wellness Summit. The benefits of analog bags are backed by research. A study published in 2023 by Nature Medicine suggests that having a hobby is good for your health, mood, and more, while digital detoxes can improve focus, mood, and sleep quality. That doesn’t mean you need to give up your phone entirely and wholeheartedly embrace an analog life. But armed with a crossword or some knitting needles, each of us could all work towards being more mindful in those in-between moments during the day. In a world full of brain rot, be an analog bag. View the full article

It looks more like a racing yacht than a cargo ship. But this new 100% wind-powered vessel will soon begin bringing goods from Europe to the U.S.—and could make deliveries faster than conventional cargo ships. Vela, a French startup, pulled technology from the racing world to make the vessel run as fast as possible. It’s a trimaran, meaning it has three hulls, which helps it cut through water efficiently. The wide, stable shape allows it to carry large sails. As in racing yachts, the mast is made from carbon fiber, and the sails are made of high-performance fabric designed for strength. The ship also uses navigation tech developed for racing to help route toward ideal wind conditions as it crosses the Atlantic. “We’re using the exact same tools to navigate our vessel,” says Vela cofounder Michael Fernandez-Ferri. All of this “isn’t just a fancy gimmick,” he says. “It’s really about bringing speed in operations, because speed is of the utmost importance.” Vela is one of a small but growing number of startups working to make wind-powered cargo ships feasible. A wind-powered cargo ship from French company TOWT (TransOceanic Wind Transport) made its first cross-Atlantic delivery last fall, and a hybrid wind-diesel ship just made its first crossing in October. A workaround for bottlenecks at port Vela designed the ship to tackle one part of the global supply chain: companies making high-end goods, such as luxury cosmetics or pharmaceuticals, that are trying to find a way to decarbonize transportation. For these companies, air freight can be one of the largest parts of their carbon footprint. Shifting to sea transportation—even a regular, diesel-powered cargo ship—would help, but that hasn’t been an option because most cargo ships are unreliable. Typical cargo ships have long delays at ports. “Traditional container shipping has been evolving for bigger and bigger ships, to the extent that these ships are so big that they can only go to a few main harbors,” Fernandez-Ferri says. “This is the bottleneck now of the shipping industry.” The new sailing cargo vessel is much smaller than a container ship—around 220 feet long, versus as much as 1,300 feet for an ultra-large container ship. It carries only 600 European pallets, compared to hundreds of thousands on a large ship. But the small size means it can access less-crowded terminals at ports, avoiding long lines. It’s also much faster to load and unload than a container ship, which can take as long as a week to unload, depending on its size. The racing-inspired design helps Vela’s vessel cross the ocean at speeds similar to a standard ship. (Depending on the time of year, crossing from Europe to the U.S. could take 10 to 13 days, according to modeling based on wind patterns from the past decade; a regular cargo ship might take 9 or 10 days.) Because it saves time at ports and the total delivery time is shorter, it’s more reliable for customers. For freight—which can run as much as $1 million in commercial value for a single pallet—it’s also safer, since cargo stays inside the ship until it’s transferred to secure storage. Deliveries from the U.S. back to France will also be possible on the ship. Right now, large container ships have to travel in a large loop through the Northern Atlantic, taking as long as two months to reach France—too long to be viable for many customers. Vela can make it to France in 12 days. The cost is less than air freight, and similar in cost to “less than container load” shipments by sea, or cargo that shares space in a shipping container rather than filling the whole box. A system to cut emissions by 99% On board, the ship is plastered in more than 2,500 square feet of solar panels that feed a battery. Two hydro generators also create electricity as the ship moves through the water. This helps power refrigeration for cargo like pharmaceuticals, along with other electricity used on the ship. The ship’s propulsion runs almost entirely on wind, except for navigation inside ports. The system cuts emissions by 99% compared to air freight and 90% compared to container ships. It’s also better for marine life because it doesn’t create noise as it sails. (The noise from cargo ships makes it hard for whales and other animals to communicate, and can even cause permanent hearing damage.) It doesn’t pollute water with ballast water or fuel, either. The body of the ship is made from aluminum—lighter than a typical steel cargo ship, and easier to recycle at the end of a ship’s life. The company’s first ship is currently under construction in the Philippines, at a shipyard that specializes in three-hulled aluminum vessels. Next spring, it will begin the trip to France. A year from now, if all goes as planned, it will begin making its first deliveries for companies like Takeda Pharmaceuticals, medical device provider Echosens, and cosmetics company Greentech, among others. Vela raised 40 million euros (roughly $43 million) in a Series A round of funding in 2024, and after the first commercial journey, plans to raise more money to build another four vessels. With a fleet of five ships, it can make departures roughly once a week, enough to meet the needs of its customers. Later, it plans to license the tech to partners to build more routes in other parts of the world. Fernandez-Ferri says, “We see a future with a network of local players leveraging our technology to bring sailing transportation to its full potential.” View the full article

People often take walking for granted. We just move, one step after another, without ever thinking about what it takes to make that happen. Yet every single step is an extraordinary act of coordination, driven by precise timing between spinal cord, brain, nerves, muscles, and joints. Historically, people have used stopwatches, cameras, or trained eyes to assess walking and its deficits. However, recent technological advances such as motion capture, wearable sensors, and data science methods can record and quantify characteristics of step-by-step movement. We are researchers who study biomechanics and human performance. We and other researchers are increasingly applying this data to improve human movement. These insights not only help athletes of all stripes push their performance boundaries, but they also support movement recovery for patients through personalized feedback. Ultimately, motion could become another vital sign. From motion data to performance insights Researchers around the world combine physiology, biomechanics, and data science to decode human movement. This interdisciplinary approach sets the stage for a new era where machine learning algorithms find patterns in human movement data collected by continuous monitoring, yielding insights that improve health. It’s the same technology that powers your fitness tracker. For example, the inertial measurement unit in the Apple Watch records motion and derives metrics such as step count, stride length, and cadence. Wearable sensors, such as inertial measurement units, record thousands of data points every second. The raw data reveals very little about a person’s movement. In fact, the data is so noisy and unstructured that it’s impossible to extract any meaningful insight. That is where signal processing comes into play. A signal is simply a sequence of measurements tracked over time. Imagine putting an inertial measurement unit on your ankle. The device constantly tracks the ankle’s movement by measuring signals such as acceleration and rotation. These signals provide an overview of the motion and indicate how the body behaves. However, they often contain unwanted background noise that can blur the real picture. With mathematical tools, researchers can filter out the noise and isolate the information that truly reflects how the body is performing. It’s like taking a blurry photo and using editing tools to make the picture clear. The process of cleaning and manipulating the signals is known as signal processing. After processing the signals, researchers use machine learning techniques to transform them into interpretable metrics. Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence that works by finding patterns and relationships in data. In the context of human movement, these tools can identify features of motion that correspond to key performance and health metrics. For example, our team at the Human Performance and Nutrition Research Institute at Oklahoma State University estimated fitness capacity without requiring exhaustive physical tests or special equipment. Fitness capacity is how efficiently the body can perform physical activity. By combining biomechanics, signal processing, and machine learning, we were able to estimate fitness capacity using data from just a few steps of our subjects’ walking. Beyond fitness, walking data offers even deeper insights. Walking speed is a powerful indicator of longevity, and by tracking it, we could learn about people’s long-term health and life expectancy. From performance to medicine The impact of these algorithms extends far beyond tracking performance, such as steps and miles walked. They can be applied to support rehabilitation and prevent injuries. Our team is developing a machine learning algorithm to detect when an athlete is at an elevated risk of injury just by analyzing their body movement and detecting subtle changes. Other scientists have used similar approaches to monitor motor control impairments following a stroke by continuously assessing how a patient’s walking patterns evolve, determining whether motor control is improving, or if the patient is compensating in any way that could lead to future injury. Similar tools can also be used to inform treatment plans based on each patient’s specific needs, moving us closer to true personalized medicine. In Parkinson’s disease, these methods have been used to diagnose the condition, monitor its severity, and detect episodes of walking difficulties to prompt cues to the patients to resume walking. Others have used these techniques to design and control wearable assistive devices such as exoskeletons that improve mobility for people with physical disabilities by generating power at precisely timed intervals. In addition, researchers have evaluated movement strategies in military service members and found that those with poor biomechanics had a higher risk of injury. Others have used wrist-worn wearables to detect overuse injuries in service members. At their core, these innovations all have one goal: to restore and improve human movement. Motion as a vital sign We believe that the future of personalized medicine lies in dynamic monitoring. Every step, jump, or squat carries information about how the body functions, performs, and recovers. With advances in wearable technology, AI, and cloud computing, real-time movement monitoring and biofeedback are likely to become a routine part of everyday life. Imagine an athlete’s shoe that warns them before an injury occurs, clothing for the elderly that detects and prevents a fall before it occurs, or a smartwatch that detects early signs of stroke based on walking patterns. Combining biomechanics, signal processing, and data science turns motion into a vital sign, a real-time reflection of your health and well-being. Azarang Asadi is a data scientist at Oklahoma State University. Collin D. Bowersock is a principal scientist at the Human Performance and Neuromechanics Research Institute at Oklahoma State University. Matthew Bird is a performance science coordinator at the Human Performance and Nutrition Research Institute at Oklahoma State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

Phones have always been fashion statements. What started as simple cases to protect your phone has evolved into decking out the devices with every accessory imaginable: dangling charms and key chains, PopSockets, phone wallets, straps, and now . . . pockets? Apple just launched a new product called the iPhone Pocket, and it’s effectively a knitted bag for your iPhone. Apple designed the pouch in collaboration with high-end Japanese fashion brand Issey Miyake, whose relationship with Apple stretches back to the Steve Jobs era. (Jobs’s signature turtlenecks were designed by Miyake, who retired the iconic shirts following Jobs’s death in 2011.) The tech giant says the 3D-knitted design is meant to serve as an additional pocket for an iPhone and small essentials like AirPods or lip balm. The ribbed pleats—a nod to Miyake’s signature style—are designed to hold any iPhone, stretching just enough to offer a peek at the screen. Given the stretchy fabric, it can be carried by hand, attached to a bag, or worn across the body. The shorter version—available in bright shades like orange, pink, yellow, and turquoise—costs $149.95 and can be worn on the wrist or attached to a bag as a charm. The cross-body version comes in blue, brown, or black. That extra fabric will cost you, with a price of $229.95. The iPhone, accessorized Unsurprisingly, the internet is balking at the price. Marques Brownlee, an influencer with more than 20 million subscribers, reacted on X: “TWO hundred and thirty dollars. This feels like a litmus test for people who will buy/defend anything Apple releases.” A wave of responses quickly followed. “Can’t wait for the $8 Amazon knockoffs,” wrote one user. Another added: “What are they gonna do? Stop making pockets on our pants so we have to start wearing our phones like a purse? C’mon man, Apple will do anything BUT innovate on a new phone.” Many have noted that the pouch takes inspiration from Jobs’s 2004 iPod Sock, which he jokingly described at the time as “a revolutionary new product.” The Miyake collab lacks the same sense of humor, but it at least signals a hint of playfulness coming out of Cupertino. Apple has historically taken a minimalist approach to accessories, with iPhone cases designed to be a simple second skin to the devices. For the most part, the company has left any sort of self-expression to third-party accessory brands, which can have a heckuva lot more fun with their design. This year, though, Apple seems to have taken notice that people want to accessorize their phones—you know, the object that humans carry with them for hours a day and coddle like a baby. The company dipped its toes into wearable iPhone fashion with a $59 cross-body strap released alongside its September iPhone lineup. Now, the iPhone Pocket marks Apple’s second venture into phone-as-accessory territory. The Pocket is getting roasted, and perhaps fairly so. But the product very clearly has its audience in mind: the small Venn diagram of people who care enough about technology and fashion to wear it on their bodies—and have enough money to pay for the pleasure of doing so. View the full article

ONS wants to free staff to work on improving quality of critical statistics and surveysView the full article