What's on Your Mind?

People remember many things about Windows 95, which turned 30 a couple of months ago. There were its signature new features, such as the Start Button, taskbar, and long file names. The launch event—hosted by Jay Leno—at Microsoft’s campus. The TV commercials with the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up.” The crowds of PC users so eager to get their hands on the upgrade that they descended on computer stores at midnight. Here’s a fact about Windows 95 that isn’t exactly iconic: It was the first voice-enabled version of Microsoft’s operating system. A collection of technologies known as the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI) provided support for speech recognition and synthesis, lett…

Protein powders are notoriously hit-or-miss when it comes to taste. But according to a new study from Consumer Reports (CR), gym bros and casual proteinmaxxers should be less concerned with how their protein powders taste, and more concerned about whether they might contain lead. The study, published on October 14, tested 23 of the most popular protein powders and ready-to-drink shakes for heavy metal contamination. CR purchased multiple samples of each product, including two to four distinct lots, over a three-month period beginning in November of 2024. The samples were then tested for protein, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and other elements. The results were st…

Senate Democrats are poised for the 10th time Thursday to reject a stopgap spending bill that would reopen the government, insisting they won’t back away from demands that Congress take up health care benefits. The repetition of votes on the funding bill has become a daily drumbeat in Congress, underscoring how intractable the situation has become as it has been at times the only item on the agenda for the Senate floor. House Republicans have left Washington altogether. The standoff has lasted over two weeks, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, even more without a guaranteed payday and Congress essentially paralyzed. “Every day that goes by, the…

Nestle will cut 16,000 jobs, new CEO Philipp Navratil said on Thursday, as the world’s largest packaged food company seeks to cut costs and win back investor confidence. The jobs being cut represent 5.8% of Nestle’s around 277,000 employees. Navratil said Nestle had raised its cost savings target to 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.77 billion) from 2.5 billion francs by the end of 2027. U.S. import tariffs are a headwind for Nestle, despite the bulk of the company’s U.S. sales being manufactured locally, while food producers across the board are grappling with fragile consumer confidence and changing habits as people seek to eat more healthily. “The world is changin…

Who doesn’t love a little cinnamon sprinkled on their toast or oatmeal? Unfortunately, lovers of the spice now have more things to worry about. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded its list of ground cinnamon products to avoid over fears that they could contain elevated levels of lead. Here’s what you need to know about the latest cinnamon products the FDA is warning consumers to avoid. What’s happened? On October 10, the FDA updated its ongoing list of ground cinnamon products that consumers should avoid due to fears that the products may contain elevated levels of lead, which could be harmful. The most recent updates to the list of products…

Every day another industry leader proclaims that everything will change with AI. While there is no question AI is the most transformative tech shift since the industrial revolution, all the hype means leaders lack real answers about how those changes will roll out or improve critical decisions that will impact the future of their business. As the CEO of a technology company that has invested over $2 billion in evolving our cloud and managed services platform over the past 14 years, I have seen firsthand how foundational innovation sets the stage for transformational leaps. Two years ago, we recognized that AI had matured from future potential to strategic imperative—p…

There’s no shortage of challenges facing employers and the U.S. workforce. From economic concerns to the impact of AI, both workers and organizational leaders are navigating big changes. One trend deserves particular attention: working mothers are reevaluating their place in the workforce. As reported by the Washington Post, the share of mothers aged 25 to 44 with young children who are in the workforce is on the decline, reaching its lowest level in more than three years. This shift has direct implications for recruiting, retention, and overall market competitiveness. But it also opens the door for leaders to make a meaningful difference for their employees. Unde…

If you hear your organization talking about the Great ShakeOut, it has nothing to do with Taylor Swift or Florence and the Machine. Instead, this international event promotes earthquake preparedness. Having a plan greatly improves outcomes and saves lives. On October 16 at 10:16 a.m. local time, millions will be practicing how to properly drop, cover, and hold on. Let’s take a look at the science behind earthquakes, the regions they impact, and how to participate in the Great ShakeOut. What actually causes an earthquake? The Earth’s outer layer is made up of seven major tectonic plates. Think of these as patches of a quilt that isn’t stitched together per…

The Interborough Express line—the long-awaited light-rail link between Brooklyn and Queens in New York City—hasn’t broken ground yet. But on my computer screen, one part of the route is already operational. A new simulation game called Subway Builder lets you design, build, and operate subway systems in 26 U.S. cities, from New York to Boston to San Francisco. The game uses real-life U.S. Census Bureau and employment data to map where residents and workers live, allowing you to simulate realistic passenger flows. Players must also contend with real-world constraints like tunnels, viaducts, existing foundations, and road layouts. The goal is to design a subway …

The whole idea of advertising—using pictures and words to get people to buy stuff, or to do something—is old indeed, with the first known example dating back almost 5,000 years to the heady days of Ancient Egypt. The ads business changed a lot since we were writing notices on papyrus, but one thing that—until recently—remained the same was that it was a deeply intentional business. The advertiser had to think about the language they used, the imagery they employed, the types of people they sought to reach, and how they would go about doing that. Whether the advertiser was touting a weaving shop on the banks of the Nile during the days of the Pharaohs, or selling…

To announce its entrance into 5G home internet service, Mint Mobile found the real-life version of a new AI-generated actress, even if only in (nick)name. Tilly Norwood is the name of a so-called AI actress launched by AI talent studio Xicoia. It also happens to be the name of a woman who stars alongside Ryan Reynolds in Mint Mobile’s new ad for its home internet service, which it’s branding “Minternet.” “It’s hard to believe that Mint is launching 5G home internet. It’s also hard to believe that a real version of an AI actress is out there,” a Maximum Effort representative tells Fast Company. “And thanks to the incredible and somewhat disturbing stalking detectiv…

The J.M. Smucker Co. says it doesn’t have a problem with other companies selling their own prepackaged, crustless sandwiches like its own popular Smucker’s Uncrustables. They just have to get their own design. Uncrustables is on its way to becoming a $1 billion brand, so of course there will be knockoffs, but according to Smucker, a recent Trader Joe’s version of Crustless Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jam Sandwiches is a bit too blatant. The company is using the design of the Trader Joe’s product and packaging to prove its point in a new lawsuit. Smucker accused the grocery store chain of “an obvious attempt to trade off of the fame and recognition” of Uncrustab…

I was interviewing for a job as a customer service agent with Anna. She had a low, pleasant voice and she’d nailed the pronunciation of my name—something few people do. I wanted to make a good impression except I had no idea what Anna was thinking because Anna couldn’t think. Anna wasn’t technically a person. She was AI. Not only is AI changing how we do our jobs, it’s also changing how we get jobs. This ranges from using AI to screen resumes, schedule interviews, even conduct them. According to a 2025 report, 20% of companies are using AI to interview candidates. Even so, nothing can replace human recruiters, the folks who’ve deployed Anna into the wild stressed …

Generative AI is evolving along two distinct tracks: on one side, savvy users are building their own retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, personal agents, or even small language models (SLMs) tailored to their contexts and data. On the other, the majority are content with “LLMs out of the box”: Open a page, type a query, copy the output, paste it elsewhere. That divide — between builders and consumers — is shaping not only how AI is used but also whether it delivers value at all. The difference is not just individual skill. It’s also organizational. Companies are discovering that there are two categories of AI use: the administrative (summarize a report, dr…

A majority of Gen Z workers are turning to AI chatbots during the workday for personal reasons, including mental health support, with 40% saying they talk to AI for at least an hour every day, according to a new Resume.org survey. “Many Gen Zers entered hybrid or remote jobs where casual mentorship or watercooler chats never formed, so AI fills that relational void,” said Kara Dennison, Resume.org’s head of career advising. “It listens, it responds thoughtfully, and it never criticizes.” She added: “That creates a sense of psychological safety that’s often missing in corporate hierarchies. It’s about connection, control, and immediacy. They’re using AI the way ear…

Below, Scott Anthony shares five key insights from his new book, Epic Disruptions: 11 Innovations That Shaped Our Modern World. Scott is a clinical professor of strategy at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. His research and teaching focus on the adaptive challenges of disruptive change. Previously, he spent over 20 years at Innosight, a growth strategy consultancy founded by Harvard Business School professor (and father of the idea of disruptive innovation) Clayton Christensen. What’s the big idea? In 1620, Sir Francis Bacon wrote that there were three technologies for which it was possible to draw a clear line before and after: the printing pre…

Every office has that coworker that turns up to a meeting coughing and sniffling while proudly proclaiming they have never once taken a sick day in their career. (If there isn’t one, maybe it’s you.) But as one viral TikTok makes clear, those attitudes towards taking sick days may be changing—just as sick days themselves are changing, as some think being sick isn’t a real excuse to not work in the WFH era. The skit—which has more than 2.3 million views—sees popular TikTok creator Delaney Rowe adopting the role of that coworker, turning up to a meeting with a hospital tag still on wrist, oh-so bravely battling through the workday while simultaneously making it eve…

Office work is officially back from the dead—if New York is any indication, that is. In Manhattan, businesses are leasing more office space than they have in close to a decade, in a sign that the return-to-office movement is likely to stick around. According to real estate investor CBRE, during the first nine months of 2025, Manhattan businesses leased 23.2 million square feet of office space, the most since 2006. Leasing has already surpassed last year’s total, with 143 leases at more than $100 per square foot. However, as the epicenter of business, New York City is an outlier: Nationally, leasing is still around 11% below the pre-COVID average. Unsurprisingly, …

When Steve Jobs wanted to motivate his Mac team at Apple, he didn’t give them corporate pep talks or send them to management retreats. Instead, he told them they were “pirates” fighting against the “navy.” The message was clear: stay scrappy, stay rebellious, and don’t let the corporate machine slow you down. That pirate mentality worked. The Mac team moved fast, took risks, and delivered something revolutionary. But here’s the irony: Apple was itself the navy they were once fighting against. Today, with over 160,000 employees and a market cap exceeding $3 trillion, Apple faces the same challenge that confronts every successful company—how do you stay pirates when you…

Have you ever felt like your brain was one of those viral egg experiments, cracked open and sizzling on a bare sidewalk that was truly, much too hot? You may have been experiencing signs of burnout (and dehydration). As an introverted professional, I’ve been there as well, many times in my career. Over the years, I’ve developed healthy reflective coping methods to recharge my batteries and prevent (or at least combat) that intense feeling of overwhelm. As a LinkedIn Top Voice and a very public keynote speaker who’s learned to grow in the spotlight on my own terms, I’m not the best at pretending to be an extrovert for any extended period of time—it’s too tiring! Inste…

In January 2025, Los Angeles suffered an unspeakable wildfire tragedy, destroying at least 17,000 structures, and with tens of thousands of people forced out of their homes. Almost immediately, government officials declared a state of emergency and laid out a path to rebuild “like for like.” However, in the aftermath of such disasters when rebuilding from the ground up, is “like for like” the best way to proceed? These disasters provide an opportunity to future-proof our neighborhoods for the next generation of environmental challenges. In face of seemingly endless, floods, fires, rising temperatures, and energy crises, we must take the time to rethink our way forward. …

“We are fully committed to AI adoption,” the CEO told me, proud of the company’s recent employee training initiatives. “But is AI just another tool in their toolbox, or a new way of working?” I asked. Silence. “Your number one enemy is the lack of an answer to this question,” I continued. “Your employees are hearing doomsday predictions about how AI will soon eliminate their jobs, so they resist and reject these technologies. Most importantly, they have no idea who they will become after AI is adopted,” I concluded. This isn’t the first time I’ve witnessed this overly enthusiastic, roll-the-dice approach to AI. Once again, technologists are scaring busines…

It’s been a long, hot summer for America’s universities. Columbia, accused by the The President administration of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, settled with the federal government for a whopping $200 million, while Harvard is struggling to defend itself against allegations that it unduly favored some students based on ethnicity, in violation of the prohibition to consider race in college applications. Similar cases abound, making it seem as if our institutions of higher education are little more than heated ideological battlegrounds, offering students an uncertain future and therefore, considering the ever-rising price of tuition, a risky bet. Apologies,…

Grindr’s days as a public company could be numbered. The hookup and dating app, which went public via a SPAC merger in fall 2021, announced Tuesday that its largest shareholders, Raymond Zage and James Lu—who led the company’s go-public efforts—were exploring the possibility of acquiring Grindr’s outstanding stock, which would take the company private again. The confirmation of Lu and Zage’s goal of taking the company private followed reporting on Monday from Semafor, which outlined that a recent Grindr stock slide led a lender to seize shares that at least one of the men had used to back a personal loan. Semafor reported that the two were in talks with Fo…

If you have ever welcomed a new baby into the world, you know the mix of hope and uncertainty that comes with those first days. For decades, newborn screening has been a quiet triumph of public health, catching rare but serious conditions before symptoms appear and giving families a head start on care. Now, genomic newborn screening, which includes whole genome sequencing, is poised to take this life-saving work further by screening for hundreds of genetic conditions at birth and changing the standard of care. FROM RESEARCH TO REAL-WORLD IMPACT The GUARDIAN study is pioneering genomic newborn screening in New York City. As the largest genomic newborn screening prog…