What's on Your Mind?

After years of pressure from the pandemic, the challenges of managing remote, hybrid, and RTO workplaces, and inconsistent organizational support, managers are on the brink of a crash. The coming manager collapse is kicking off a vicious cycle for organizations. As managers struggle, Gen Z sees the toll of the job and backs away, leaving fewer employees to rise into management roles. This puts more pressure on remaining managers. At the same time, several years of manager layoffs have left fewer people taking on these responsibilities. In 2023 alone, middle managers made up over a third of all layoffs. The remaining managers are under more pressure, with growing s…

Manchester United unveiled plans on Tuesday to build the “world’s greatest” soccer stadium. A proposed 100,000-seater arena would replace its iconic Old Trafford home and surpass Wembley as the biggest in the United Kingdom. “Manchester United is the world’s most favourite football club and, in my view, is the biggest and deserves a stadium fitting of its stature,” part owner Jim Ratcliffe said. Ratcliffe, who is one of Britain’s richest people, said the new venue could be a tourist attraction in the manner of the Eiffel Tower. “We have 1 billion people around the world who follow Manchester United. They will all want to visit this stadium,” he said. D…

Twice a year, New Yorkers and visitors are treated to a phenomenon known as Manhattanhenge, when the setting sun aligns with the Manhattan street grid and sinks below the horizon framed in a canyon of skyscrapers. The event is a favorite of photographers and often brings people out onto sidewalks on spring and summer evenings to watch this unique sunset. The first Manhattanhenge of the year takes place Wednesday at 8:13 p.m., with a slight variation happening again Thursday at 8:12 p.m. It will occur again on July 11 and 12. Some background on the phenomenon: Where does the name Manhattanhenge come from? Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson coined the ter…

A majority of those expecting a holiday bonus this year are planning to check out once the check clears. According to a recent survey of 2,000 American workers by AI job application assistant JobHire AI, 59% are “maybe” or “definitely” expecting a bonus this year. Among them, 48% are already job hunting or planning to quit after their bonus is paid, and another 20% are considering leaving in the new year. The job market often sees a lot of activity following the holiday lull, as many spend the break reflecting on the previous year and setting goals for the next. This year, however, may see even more aggressive job -hopping, as many workers have become more f…

Billionaire entrepreneur, NBA owner, and CEO of Wonder Marc Lore reveals that he plans all his meals with AI—and he loves it. It’s just one part of his vision for transforming people’s relationship to food and health. His startup, Wonder, has already acquired Blue Apron, Grubhub, and the media brand Tastemade. Lore shares how these acquisitions and embrace of personalized AI-driven dining are all laddering up to a “superapp for mealtime.” This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by Robert Safian, former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations wit…

Super Bowl Sunday always mints a lot more winners and losers than just those who play in the game. It’s the biggest day in sports betting annually, with the American Gaming Association estimating a record $1.39 billion in the big game last month. For casual sports bettors, a Super Bowl wager might be enough gambling to last the entire year. For many others, though, it was just a warm-up for the 67 games of March Madness, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, which kicks off this week. Sports betting has been a huge growth industry in the U.S. since it was legalized nearly seven years ago. With the help of online gambling companies such as DraftKings, legal …

Perhaps the surest sign that artificial intelligence really is taking over the world will come the day it wins your favorite March Madness bracket pool. The day could be coming soon. In an experiment that a) was bound to happen, b) might actually make us all look smarter and c) should probably also scare the daylights out of everyone, a successful CEO-turned-disruptor is running a $1 million March Madness bracket challenge that pits his AI programmers’ picks against those belonging to one of the world’s best-known sports gamblers. “We’re not a crystal ball,” says Alan Levy, whose platform, 4C Predictions, is running this challenge. “But it’s going to start to …

Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of film—and for the most part, critics are falling in the “hate it” camp. The new adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel is catching flak as critics say it oversimplifies a complex story of generational trauma and racial tension into a straightforward romance laced with Fennell’s signature shock value (she’s also the director behind Promising Young Woman and Saltburn—infamous bathtub scene and all). But a recent comment from star and producer Margot Robbie takes criticism out of the equation, instead saying that as an artist, critics’ opinions never cross her mind. At a recent panel for Vogue Au…

Mark Cuban’s enthusiasm for artificial intelligence is well known. He has called the technology the “ultimate time-saving hack” and bluntly stated that if you’re not learning AI, “you’re f—ed.” But with his latest investment, the billionaire bypassed the plethora of AI startups and focused instead on something more human-centered. Cuban has invested an undisclosed amount in live events company Burwoodland, which produces nightlife experiences throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. The investment will make him a minority owner in the company. Founded in 2015 by Alex Badanes and Ethan Maccoby, the New York City-based company says it has sold more than 1.5 million…

Billionaire businessman, investor, former shark, and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban knows a bit about running a company and leading employees. The serial entrepreneur has founded and invested in successful businesses from food brands to tech startups and pretty much everything in between. Cuban often shares his insights about sweat equity and staying involved in running one’s own business. Here are three of the most actionable pearls of leadership wisdom from Mark Cuban—and how you can put these quotes into action in your own leadership. 1. Embrace Sweat Equity “Sweat equity is the most valuable equity there is.” Put simply, “sweat equity” is the val…

Mark Manson’s 2016 book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck delivered some hard truths and prescient advice to millions of readers seeking answers. Now he’s building an AI-based application to do the same. At that time, Manson says the self-help field was “unrealistic, not very evidence based—just designed to make you feel good,” inspiring him to write a book that offered “a more skeptical, realistic, and zero bull shit approach to personal growth and self-help.” Nearly a decade later, Manson says he’s seeing the same pattern in the digital world, with millions turning to generic AI platforms for guidance, only to receive unrealistic, potentially harmful advice. T…

The social media trial brought by a 20-year-old Californian plaintiff known as Kaley or KGM, putting Meta and YouTube in front of a jury, has captured the world’s attention. The bellwether trial is a test case for the liability of social media platforms and how much they could be on the hook financially if found to have caused harm to their users. KGM, for her part, alleges that she faced anxiety, depression and body image issues after using Instagram. The proceedings could establish the first real legal boundaries for what has been up to now largely unregulated algorithmic design, determining whether amplifying harmful content amounts to negligence. A verdict against…

Mark Zuckerberg’s new house in Miami Beach has sweeping waterfront views. It also sits at ground zero for climate change. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are the latest in a string of billionaires and celebrities to move to Indian Creek, a private island in Miami’s Biscayne Bay. Neighbors include Jeff Bezos, who owns three homes on the island, as well as investor Carl Icahn, Ivanka The President, and Jared Kushner. Like much of Miami, the area faces mounting climate risks. “It’s very subject to flooding and rising seas,” says Stephen Leatherman, an environmental professor at Florida International University who studies the state’s islands. Miami’s sea…

The latest Big Tech-funded effort to improve affordable housing sees the solution in people’s backyards. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced today that it’s providing seed funding for a startup that helps turn backyard dwellings into new homeownership opportunities for Americans who are increasingly getting locked out. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) announced a $750,000 investment in BuildCasa, a California-based startup seeking to increase the supply of ADUs, or accessory dwelling units. The funding is part of CZI’s Affordable Starter Home Initiative, which aims to provide funding for a number of pilot programs addressing housing accessibility and affordab…

When it comes to market segmentation, I don’t see truly well-documented cases often. At a more simplistic level, we think of classic matrices such as BCG or McKinsey’s. But the real exercise of segmentation is far more complex. In certain contexts, it comes close to the behavior of a tensor: multiple dimensions, cross-dependencies, distinct weights, temporality, and contextual factors that shift the meaning of data depending on the axis being analyzed. Thinking like a tensor is practicing Model Thinking, which remains, above all, an analog discipline. It requires a brain, not a machine. The challenge is necessarily multidisciplinary, and this is exactly where …

Rare earth stocks find themselves underground on Monday as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expects that China and the U.S. will work out a trade deal in the near future. Meanwhile, stock markets largely soared on news of the trade optimism, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up roughly 0.5%, the S&P 500 up 1%, and the Nasdaq up 1.6% as of midday Monday. Bessent, appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday news program, said that he anticipates that China will resume soybean purchases from the U.S., and that there could be an announcement on Thursday when President The President and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in South Korea. “I’m not going…

Wall Street was largely unchanged early Wednesday as markets hovered near record levels on a holiday-shortened trading day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1% as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern. The S&P 500 index was up less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1%. Markets will close at 1 p.m. ET for Christmas Eve and are closed for Christmas. Markets will reopen for a full day of trading on Friday, however volumes are expected to be light this week with the holiday and most investors having closed out their positions for the year. Much of the focus remains on the state of the U.S. economy and where the Federal Reserve will move interest rates. Investors ar…