What's on Your Mind?

Recently, I have developed a conflicted relationship with Lego. I love it. There’s so much Lego in our apartment that you can remove the brick and mortar, and I would still have a standing home. But lately, I’m getting fed up with how hard the Danish company is pushing it. Pushing the absurd licensing deals. Pushing nostalgia. Pushing the gigantic sets that adults want, kids dream of, but so many parents can’t afford. And sure. I can’t really blame Lego for wanting to make money. It’s a private company, and they are in the business of, you know, selling stuff. But by pushing so hard in every department, Lego risks brand exhaustion. At least, it’s exhausting the br…

Bitwarden is one of the more likable tech companies. It offers a great password manager for free, charges modestly for its paid version, and has mostly stayed in its lane with its focus on security products. So it’s disappointing that it isn’t being more transparent about the first price hike in its 10-year history. Bitwarden’s Premium version now costs $20 per year, up from $10 per year previously. But instead of announcing the change directly, the company buried the news in a blog post about new features, such as more attachment storage and alerts about weak passwords. Meanwhile, Bitwarden isn’t rushing to let customers know about the increase. They’ll only get …

Whether you call him groundhog, woodchuck, or whistle-pig, or use the full genus and species name, Marmota monax, the nation’s premier animal weather forecaster has been making headlines as Punxsutawney Phil for decades. The largest ground squirrel in its range, groundhogs like Phil are found throughout the midwestern United States, most of Canada, and into southern Alaska. M. monax is the most widespread marmot, while the Vancouver Island marmot (M. vancouverensis) is found only on one island in British Columbia. In total, there are 15 species in the genus Marmota, found around the world from as far south as the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico and the Pyrenees Moun…

Eat this, not that. This one food will cure everything. That food is poison. Cut this food out. Try this diet. Don’t eat at these times. Eat this food and you’ll lose weight. With society’s obsession with food, health, and weight, statements like these are all over social media, gyms, and even healthcare offices. But do you need to follow rules like these to be healthy? Most often the answer is no, because health and nutrition is much more complex and nuanced than a simple list of what to eat and what to avoid. Despite this, rules about health and nutrition are so common because of diet culture—a morality imposed by society that sees falling outside the arbitrary idea…

There is a deeply unsettling paradox in how aging women are represented today. The louder the discourse on inclusion and diversity becomes, the fewer women we see who actually look like women over 45. Women who age “normally”—who live in their bodies, with their features, their lines, their visible age—have almost vanished from public view. When women in their 50s or 60s do gain visibility, it is often with a body and a face that belong to the strange category of Forever 35: perfectly smooth, ageless, suspended in time. This is not a trivial aesthetic issue because it has major consequences for work, careers, and power. When women disappear from view as they age, they…

Have you ever watched someone try to come up with a creative idea: Post‑it notes, coffee, laptop, a determined glint in their eye and a solemn expression on their face? If the idea isn’t coming, add a few sighs, some squirming, and the magical rearrangement of every object on the desk. Most workplaces still reward this “try harder” ritual. This is rarely where creative energy actually emerges. We all know the stories. The best ideas come in the shower, on a walk, doing dishes, or even during everyone’s beloved folding of laundry. Here’s the thing: it’s not a quirk. Movement helps foster creativity. It occupies the body in a repeating pattern that doesn’t require …

In the months after a 2018 Supreme Court decision opened the door for states to legalize sports betting within their borders, giddy lawmakers across the country couldn’t move quickly enough. No one wanted to miss out on the billions of dollars in tax revenue that the high court had suddenly placed within their reach—or, worse yet, to watch that easy money go to neighboring states whose leaders had the presence of mind to move first. Within a month of the decision, Delaware Gov. John Carney bet $10 on a Phillies game—the first legal single-game sports bet outside of Nevada. Many states were more concerned with getting sportsbooks online in time for a big-ticket event (…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Zillow economists use an economic model they call the Zillow Market Heat Index to gauge the competitiveness of housing markets across the country. This model looks at key indicators—including home price changes, inventory levels, and days on market—to generate a score showing whether a market favors sellers or buyers. Higher scores point to hotter, seller-friendly metro housing markets. Lower scores signal cooler markets where buyers hold more negotiating power. According to Zillow: Score of 70 or higher = strong seller’s market Score f…

Though I long resisted the label, I have been a solopreneur ever since I started working as a freelance writer in 2010. As the owner, manager, and only employee, all decisions about my solo freelancing business are up to me—which continues to feel simultaneously invigorating and terrifying. But not all daunting solopreneurship decisions are the same. While taking creative risks and pitching big names continue to cause some minor fingernail-chewing even after all these years, investing in my business is the leading cause of second-guessing (and third-guessing, fourth-guessing) my own abilities as an entrepreneur. Many other solopreneurs share my lack of confidence …

Listen, I don’t know about you, but I’m generally not so big on listening. I tend to be more of a “words in front of my eyes” kind of guy when it comes to taking in information (which, as I’ve come to learn, also means I’m “an old person” by modern-day standards—hey, I’m okay with that). Sometimes, though, there’s something to be said for sitting back and enjoying an aural experience—or, as the cool kids call it these days, a podcast. Whether you’re seeking out important info or just casually checking out a conversation about tech, comedy, or whatever floats your dinghy, oceans of options are out there that exist only in the form of audio. But what happens when yo…

More than 11.5 million fans signed up for presale tickets to Harry Styles’s upcoming Madison Square Garden residency for the Together, Together tour. But when tickets went on sale January 26, amid the excitement, many fans were left frustrated by lengthy virtual queue waits. For those who made it through, the relief proved fleeting when they encountered ticket prices exceeding $1,000. Many turned to social media to direct their ire at both Ticketmaster and Styles himself. “$1000 for lower bowl at msg is genuinely the most insulting thing ive ever seen. that’s one months rent,” one person posted on X. “Its getting to the point where I feel like im being f…

For many people, the word sabbatical conjures a very specific image: a long break from work, perhaps time spent on a beautiful beach, maybe a few weeks of rest before returning “recharged.” It’s often perceived as indulgent, impractical, or reserved for academics and executives with generous benefits. That image misses the point. A sabbatical isn’t a more extended vacation. It isn’t an escape from responsibility. And paradoxically, it isn’t even primarily about rest. When well executed, a sabbatical is a deliberate interruption that creates the conditions for identity discovery, integration, and renewal. When done poorly, it can leave people just as disoriented as whe…

Rarely have I more appreciated the chasm between me and Silicon Valley than I have while using OpenClaw. This new AI program, which previously went by Moltbot and before that Clawdbot, has achieved virality over the past week for its ability to control your digital life via text message. It’s an unashamedly geeky tool at the moment, but those who’ve been using it have hailed it as the future of digital assistants. There’s just one problem: OpenClaw is exorbitantly expensive to use. Okay, maybe not for the AI boosters who think nothing of dropping $200 per month on ChatGPT Pro or Claude Max. But definitely for me as someone who balks at even a $20 per month AI subs…

Record cold temperatures are once again expected to hit a swath of the country this weekend—even plunging Florida into its coldest stretch of the last 15 years, potentially bringing snow to areas of the state that haven’t seen it in four decades. This arctic blast is actually a sign of climate change—and of how extreme weather happens in an increasingly warming world despite erroneous claims by the president and others. There’s a difference between weather and climate Ahead of the winter storm that brought intense snow, ice, and freezing temperatures to about two-thirds of the United States earlier this month, President The President took to Truth Social to r…

Record cold temperatures are once again expected to hit a swath of the country this weekend—even plunging Florida into its coldest stretch of the last 15 years, potentially bringing snow to areas of the state that haven’t seen it in four decades. This arctic blast is actually a sign of climate change, and how more extreme weather happens in an increasingly warming world, despite erroneous claims by the president and others. There’s a difference between weather and climate Ahead of the winter storm that brought intense snow, ice, and freezing temperatures to about two-thirds of the United States earlier this month, President The President took to Truth Social …

The feeling of “languishing” is likely relatable for many workers—even if they don’t quite have that exact language for it. And new research shows it’s not many workers who feel this way. It’s most. “What gets a little confused in people’s minds is that they assume languishing is almost like distress and mental illness,” says Oscar Ybarra, business professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “But it’s more like: I’m just kind of stuck. I’m not really engaged. I don’t know where I’m going.” Ybarra wanted to capture the malaise that employees often experience in the workplace, which doesn’t always rise to the level of mental illness. When he first pol…

If you’ve received any text messages from California-based healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente, you could be eligible for cash under the terms of a new settlement. The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan agreed to pay $10.5 million to settle a class action suit filed in August 2025. That suit alleged that the healthcare company sent marketing texts to people who had already replied “stop” to opt out of receiving them. That practice could run afoul of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a law protecting consumers from aggressive telemarketing and robocalls, and the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act. Jonathan Fried, the plaintiff who brought the suit, lived in …

What many applicants may not realize is that, nowadays, the first hurdle in applying for a job is dealing with AI. Candidates now often must clear an artificial intelligence system that screens their résumés that quietly determines who advances, and whose application is filed away in a drawer or spam folder, never to see the light of day. Now, a new lawsuit filed on Tuesday is the first in the U.S. to accuse an AI hiring company of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Eightfold AI, a venture capital-backed artificial intelligence hiring platform, is being sued by two workers in California for allegedly compiling reports used to screen job applicants without their…

The Farmers’ Almanac isn’t going out of business after all, but it is leaving Maine for the bright lights of New York City and a new owner. Beloved by farmers and gardeners, the almanac was first printed in 1818 and — like the arguably more famous Old Farmer’s Almanac — relies on a secret formula of sunspots, planetary positions, and lunar cycles to generate long-range weather forecasts. It’s been acquired by Unofficial Networks, a digital publisher focused on skiing and outdoor recreation. That means the almanac will keep operating despite announcing in November that its 208-year run was coming to an end. A new Farmers’ Almanac website will be “a living, brea…

If you enter a query into Quili.AI on January 31, your question won’t be answered by a large language model, but instead by residents from the Chilean community of Quilicura. The project aims to replace artificial intelligence with “analog intelligence,” to both highlight the environmental impact of AI, and to get people thinking consciously about their AI use. “We’re inviting people to have a day without AI,” Lorena Antiman from Corporación NGEN, an environmental organization focused in part on protecting Quilicura’s wetlands, says while speaking through a translator. Corporación NGEN spearheaded the project. Instead of going through a data center, each pr…