What's on Your Mind?

In a rapidly evolving financial landscape, technology is transforming how money moves—making payments of tomorrow faster, smarter, and easier than ever before. Consider this snapshot of the near future: You’re in a taxi on the other side of the world. You pay your driver with the same digital wallet you use at home, and he receives the money in his wallet linked to the local instant payments network. He’s set a rule in his bank app—“send 30% of every payout to my family back home”—and funds are converted immediately to a third currency and delivered to relatives in a country thousands of miles away. Nobody needs to download a new app or think about payment methods…

January filled our inboxes with productivity advice. Set stretch goals! Think bigger! Dream audaciously! What was conspicuously absent from all that exhortation was any practical guidance on how to move from grand vision to daily action without becoming paralyzed by the enormity of what we’ve committed to. And now, it’s February. Here’s a counterintuitive truth I’ve learned from decades of navigating complex creative challenges: The secret to tackling big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAG) isn’t summoning more willpower or grinding harder. It’s learning to approach complexity the way babies learn to eat solid food: one tiny, digestible bite at a time. I call it t…

How I spend my hours in the day is how I live. To make the most of my waking hours, I practice the one-hour rule—a simple habit that helps me learn, reflect, and think. I give myself 60 uninterrupted minutes a day to try and become a little wiser than I was yesterday. I consciously take control of my growth to transform how I think, how I decide, or live. It takes commitment. But just an hour a day learning, thinking, and reflecting is helping me improve my life processes. That’s it. Sixty minutes. Five hours a week. And you are upgrading yourself daily. That means reading something that stretches you. Reflecting on what went wrong and why. Sitting in silence and lett…

Should I take this project? Say yes to the new job offer? Stick with this plan or walk away? Every choice we make can feel huge. And every path has its own set of risks and rewards. There are always more questions for every life-changing decision. Sometimes the pros-and-cons lists feel more like busywork than progress. You check off the boxes, stare at the lists, and still end up confused, stuck in the same mental loop. That’s why I rely on the rule of 3 framework to make tough decisions. I hope it helps you clarify your life-changing choices. How it works Whenever you’re stuck, force yourself to create three paths: B, C, and D. Why not A? A is usually the defa…

In the second season of Severance, there’s an unexpected character: a child supervisor named Miss Huang, who matter-of-factly explains she’s a child “because of when I was born.” Miss Huang’s deadpan response is more than just a clever quip. Like so much in the Apple TV+ series, which has broken viewership records for the streaming service, I think it reveals a devastating truth about the role of work in the 21st century. As a scholar of childhood studies, I also see historical echoes: What constitutes a “child”—and whether one gets to claim childhood at all—has always depended on when and where a person is born. An age of innocence? Americans are deeply in…

When a door broke loose on a new electric bus in Des Moines, Iowa, and nearly fell off, it was one in a long list of problems for the local transit agency. The city began using its fleet of seven electric buses, made by the startup Proterra, in 2021. The vehicles soon showed defects in the suspensions, weatherproofing, and wheelchair ramps. After only 18 months of use—and unsuccessful attempts to get the manufacturer to fix the problems—the agency had to pull them off the road. Other cities had similar issues. In Philadelphia, Proterra buses were sidelined in 2020 after the heavy batteries started to crack the vehicle chassis. (This summer, one of those vehicles s…

In this episode of FC Explains, hosted by Josh Christensen, we break down why the 2024 WNBA Draft is being hailed as the moment that changed everything for women’s sports. From record-breaking viewership and unprecedented media attention to historic endorsement deals and social media buzz, this draft marked a new era for female athletes and the business of sports. View the full article

The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history appears to be nearing an end, but not without leaving a mark on an already struggling economy. About 1.25 million federal workers haven’t been paid since October 1. Thousands of flights have been canceled, a trend that is expected to continue this week even as Congress moves toward reopening the government. Government contract awards have slowed and some food aid recipients have seen their benefits interrupted. Most of the lost economic activity will be recovered when the government reopens, as federal workers will receive back pay. But some canceled flights won’t be retaken, missed restaurant meals won’t be made u…

“Well, it took a minute,” said Spike Lee, surveying the glittering Met Gala crowd during cocktail hour through bright orange glasses that matched his New York Knicks cap. “But we’re here now, that’s the most important thing.” Lee was referring to the fact that for the very first time, the Met Gala was making a point of celebrating Black style and Black designers — something he felt was an overdue milestone, but a very welcome one. “Long overdue,” Lee repeated. “But we’re here to celebrate. And who knows what’s gonna happen because of this event? There’s gonna be reverberations around the world.” Lee was echoing an excitement that many of the approximately 400 guests — …

Below, co-authors Jared Lindzon and Joe O’Connor share five key insights from their new book, Do More in Four: Why It’s Time for a Shorter Workweek. Jared is a freelance journalist who has been reporting on the future of work for publications like Fast Company, Time magazine, and the Globe and Mail for over a decade. Joe is the CEO and cofounder of Work Time Reduction, a global consulting and research organization that helps organizations find innovative ways to reduce working hours. Over the last eight years, it has helped hundreds of companies and thousands of employees pilot a four-day workweek in North America, Europe, the U.K., and Australia. What’s the b…

Artificial intelligence is doing more than just automating workflows in 2025: It’s dismantling the very idea of education. Once seen as one-time achievements, a bachelor’s degree, a professional certificate, or an annual corporate training session, are no longer guarantees of relevance in a world where knowledge ages almost as quickly as technology itself. Nearly half of talent development leaders surveyed in LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report say they see a skills crisis, with organizations under pressure to equip employees for both present and future roles through dynamic skill-building, particularly in AI and generative AI. Likewise, the AI in education mark…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. What do David Beckham, Shaquille O’Neal, and Serena Williams have in common—aside from their standout sports careers? They’ve all built thriving businesses. Sure, having capital and global name recognition helps. But reducing their business success to just fame only tells half the story. The other half is that top athletes spend years honing discipline, resilience, and the ability to think s…

The erosion of freedom rarely happens overnight; it’s written into law, one ruling at a time. ACLU’s Chase Strangio lays bare how the U.S. legal system is failing its people under a growing wave of authoritarianism and systemic rollbacks of civil liberties. View the full article

Every year, Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley issues a challenge to his team that would make most executives—and their teams—break into a cold sweat: Reinvent 50% of the Australian Open. Not subtle changes or a few tweaks. Half of everything, so no two tournaments are ever the same. Today, to help satisfy Tiley’s mandate, the event has evolved into a three-pronged innovation machine. There’s an in-house R&D lab that’s been developing analytics, broadcast, and fan engagement advancements for more than 15 years, alongside a startup accelerator that’s piloted 40 companies, and a $40 million VC fund to capitalize those startups. “The 50% innovation challenge create…

You know you’ve said it. We all have. “Mmm, that looks so delicious—I want to try some!” That’s because when it comes to what we eat, it’s not just a matter of taste. What foods and drinks look like—the colors we see before the first morsels or sips hit our taste buds—have mattered to people for millennia. And nowhere has that been more blatant than the American food palate, where the visual spectrum we choose from includes not only the primary colors but artificial ones that nature couldn’t even dream up. For well over a century, food manufacturers in the United States have used synthetic dyes in their products as part of their production and marketing efforts. O…

As companies pull back on their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, will their commitments to equal pay also waver? View the full article

The Empire State Building is nobody’s idea of a hidden gem. The 1,472-foot Art Deco landmark of stone and steel dominates the streetscape and world view of New York City—and all of pop culture. From King Kong’s battle with biplanes to the annual ESB Run-Up to its iconic 86th Floor Observatory, the “World’s Most Famous Building” is both myth and monolith. This alone could not have explained what happened last June, though: The Empire State Building Observatory Experience was ranked the No. 1 attraction in the world in Tripadvisor’s 2024 Travelers’ Choice Awards: Best of the Best Things to Do. At 93 years young, the skyscraper became ostensibly the top attraction on the…

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. could deliver a policy win for the The President administration in just a few months after the Food and Drug Administration enlisted GSK to help it fast-track approval of a decades-old drug to treat an autism-related disorder. The FDA’s unusual move will allow it to bypass a lengthy label update for generic versions of the drug, leucovorin, or new clinical trials, a tactic academics, lawyers and doctors questioned. A GSK spokesperson told Reuters it plans to complete the new use application for the branded version of leucovorin “as quickly as possible.” Once the British drugmaker does that work, the FDA would normally…