What's on Your Mind?

I just got back from a week on the beach. The water was crystal clear, the sky blue, and my butt was in a lounge chair all day. I certainly enjoyed myself and caught up on a ton of sleep. But did I return to work today bursting with ideas and fresh energy? If I’m honest, not really. It feels more like I left my brain sunning itself on the seaside. Meanwhile, I need to dig myself out from under a mountain of work and complete my massive back-to-school to-do list. Where did I go wrong in my vacation planning? If I was looking to maximize floating time and the amount of tasty fish I ate, nowhere. But according to psychology, as much as I enjoyed my break, I al…

Police are getting a boost from artificial intelligence, with algorithms now able to draft police reports in minutes. The technology promises to make police reports more accurate and comprehensive, as well as save officers time. The idea is simple: Take the audio transcript from a body camera worn by a police officer and use the predictive text capabilities of large language models to write a formal police report that could become the basis of a criminal prosecution. Mirroring other fields that have allowed ChatGPT-like systems to write on behalf of people, police can now get an AI assist to automate much dreaded paperwork. The catch is that instead of writing the…

U.K. banks and government tech systems going down. University students in Australia struggling to complete their coursework. Homes across Europe losing access to their Ring doorbells. While you were sleeping, large parts of the Amazon Web Services (AWS)-based internet went offline around the world. According to the AWS outage monitor, the problem stemmed from a misconfiguration of Domain Name System (DNS) resolution within the company’s cloud infrastructure. The problem was remedied within three hours of being encountered—by people unable to log onto Roblox or search the web with Perplexity. But the outage highlights just how much the web’s day-to-day function…

President Donald The President and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a critical-minerals deal at the White House on Monday as the U.S. eyes the continent’s rich rare-earth resources when China is imposing tougher rules on exporting its own critical minerals abroad. The two leaders described the agreement as an $8.5 billion deal between the allies. The President said it had been negotiated over several months. “Today’s agreement on critical minerals and rare earths, is just taking” the U.S. and Australia’s relationship “to the next level,” Albanese added. This month, Beijing announced that it will require foreign companies to get approval from t…

Many news outlets have reported an increase—or surge—in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, diagnoses in both children and adults. At the same time, health care providers, teachers, and school systems have reported an uptick in requests for ADHD assessments. These reports have led some experts and parents to wonder whether ADHD is being overdiagnosed and overtreated. As researchers who have spent our careers studying neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD, we are concerned that fears about widespread overdiagnosis are misplaced, perhaps based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the condition. Understanding ADHD as one end of a spectrum Discu…

Not long ago, one of our coaching clients called us in a panic. His team was floundering, his peers were keeping their distance, and the feedback from HR was . . . not glowing. He was baffled. “I’m hitting the numbers,” he said. “What else do they want from me?” We’ve had this conversation more times than we can count, and this is what we’ve learned: Leaders rarely fall short because they lack intelligence, but because they lack emotional intelligence. The emotional gaps are what bruise egos, stall progress, and erode trust until there’s nothing left to stand on. Research supports this: High emotional intelligence in leaders is linked to stronger team communicatio…

A major Amazon Web Services outage disrupted scores of online platforms on Monday — leaving people around the world unable to access some banks, chatting apps, online food ordering and more. History shows these kinds of system outages can be short-lived, and are often minor inconveniences — such as placing a lunch order in person or waiting a few hours for a gaming platform to come back online — than long-term problems, but recovery can be a bumpy road. And for people trying to move money, communicate with loved ones or work using impacted services, disruptions are especially stressful. Consumers may not realize how many platforms they use rely on the same back-end tech…

Crypto heavyweight Coinbase said on Tuesday it has bought investment platform Echo in a nearly $375 million cash-and-stock deal, aiming to bring fundraising tools to its platform. Dealmaking within the digital assets industry has picked up pace this year as a crypto-friendly The President administration encourages companies to expand their business in the U.S. Last week, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken unveiled a $100 million deal for futures exchange Small Exchange, paving the way to launch a fully U.S.-based derivatives suite. Echo’s platform makes raising capital and investing more accessible to the crypto community through private and public token sales. …

Love it or hate it, iOS 26 brought the most radical software redesign to the iPhone in over a decade. The company’s new design language, Liquid Glass, mimics how light in the real world warps and transforms when passing through physical glass. Many iPhone users find Liquid Glass refreshing, fun, and technically impressive. Detractors of the new design say Liquid Glass’s myriad transparent toolbars and other UI elements, which let the content behind them bleed through, make iOS 26 harder to navigate than its predecessors. Regardless of where you stand, Liquid Glass isn’t going away. Yet, if you fall into the latter camp and find the new design element distracting, …

Though many companies are still in the early days of AI adoption, one thing is clear: Many of our interactions—between employees and even organizations—are already being carried out entirely by agentic technology. As this trend increases, the need for leaders to keep humanity at the core of their businesses is critical. That’s why this year’s annual meeting of the Fast Company Impact Council was centered on the theme of “Maintaining a Human Touch in a Digital World.” In May, 123 of the Impact Council’s 422 members gathered in New Canaan, Connecticut, at the 80-acre headquarters of humanitarian nonprofit Grace Farms. In panels and roundtables held across the organizati…

JPMorgan Chase unveiled its new 60-story headquarters to the public on Monday, one of the first major office buildings to be constructed after the COVID-19 pandemic and one that will remake the New York City skyline for decades. The bronze and steel tower at 270 Park, which reportedly cost $3 billion, replaced the Union Carbide Building, which sat on a full city block at 48th Street and Park Avenue for nearly 60 years. JPMorgan expects to house roughly 10,000 of its 24,000 New York-based employees in the new building, with employees starting their first workday at the tower at the same time as the company holds its ribbon cutting ceremony. “For 225 years, JPMorgan…

OpenAI has released a new web browser, the company’s latest bid to become consumers’ chief gateway to the web. The new browser, called ChatGPT Atlas, will initially be available on macOS on the desktop. Versions for Windows, iOS, and Android are coming soon, OpenAI says. OpenAI worked hard to build as many AI-driven features into Atlas as possible. For example, Atlas learns the user’s browsing history and, in some cases, can make content suggestions proactively. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested that this first version of the browser is just the start, pledging to add “way more stuff that we will tell you about later” and adding that the company “can take thi…

Melinda French Gates has been very busy since her divorce and subsequent departure from the Gates Foundation. For example, she launched her own venture, with $12.5 billion to put toward advancing causes she cares about, specifically those related to women and families. She has even gotten involved in politics, endorsing a candidate for the first time ever. French Gates isn’t new to leading an organization, or to leading people. She has spent the past few decades leaving her imprint on what is arguably the most influential charitable organization in the world. Still, I imagine it can all get a little overwhelming at times. The key to managing it all isn’t to work const…

The best thing I can say about Google’s Pixel Watch 4 is that I don’t think about it all that much. Whenever I wear my Apple Watch, it’s kind of a nuisance. Stand up. Breathe. How are you feeling right now? Looks like you’re on a walk. Was that an exercise you just started? Even just regular notifications for emails and text messages can get overwhelming. The Pixel Watch 4 is unintrusive by comparison. While it’s full of fitness tracking features and can put notifications on your wrist, it doesn’t ask for much of your attention in return. In a way, that’s pretty refreshing. Fitness optional My big disclaimer with this review is that I’m not big into quantif…

Cable giant Charter Communications is laying off close to 1,200 employees, or just over 1% of its 95,000-person workforce, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The job cuts will be related to corporate management positions within the company and will not impact sales or service roles, the source said, adding that the layoffs are intended to streamline operations. Charter follows other media and cable peers that are trimming their workforce. Last month, Reuters reported exclusively that Comcast was planning to cut jobs at its biggest unit, housing broadband and pay TV, to centralize operations. Newly merged Paramount Skydance will begin ma…

Stocks are drifting near their record heights on Wall Street Wednesday, while the price of gold falls again to trim more off its tremendous gain for the year. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% in early trading and is sitting just underneath its all-time high, which was set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 65 points, or 0.1%, coming off its own record. The Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time. Bank stocks were holding relatively steady after Capital One Financial, Western Alliance Bancorp and others reported stronger profits for the summer than analysts expected. The report from Western Alliance was particularly welcome af…

In today’s world, where success is often tied to financial accomplishments, status, and impressive job titles, Warren Buffett offers a refreshing perspective: True success is about the love we share. Yes, love. Buffett once said, “Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.” Buffett’s wisdom gets to the core of what matters, reminding us that, ultimately, life’s real currency is the relationships we nurture that lead to two-way love. Who do you want to have love you? Are you a leader, manager, founder, or CEO with scores of people looking at you f…

Hurricanes are America’s most destructive natural hazards, causing more deaths and property damage than any other type of disaster. Since 1980, these powerful tropical storms have done more than US$1.5 trillion in damage and killed more than 7,000 people. The No. 1 cause of the damages and deaths from hurricanes is storm surge. Storm surge is the rise in the ocean’s water level, caused by a combination of powerful winds pushing water toward the coastline and reduced air pressure within the hurricane compared to the pressure outside of it. In addition to these factors, waves breaking close to the coast cause the sea level to increase near the coastline, a phenomeno…

Insincerity is the mother of deceit. Whenever we say something we don’t mean, we tell a lie. It may be a small misrepresentation, but it’s still a lie as we are being dishonest to hide what we truly think and feel. Repeated insincerity breaks down trust, communication, and understanding. So why do organizations, often without even knowing it, encourage insincerity in their employees? The answer lies a little with social media and a lot in narcissism. NARCISSISTS, NARCISSISTS, EVERYWHERE Since the early 1980s, psychologists have been tracking a steady rise in narcissism: a growing self-consciousness and preoccupation with our image and what other people say abou…

The government shutdown has reopened debate on what has been a central issue for both major political parties in the last 15 years: the future of health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Tax credits for people who get health insurance through the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, expire at the end of the year. Democrats say they won’t vote to reopen the government until Republicans negotiate an extension of the expanded subsidies. Republicans say they won’t negotiate until Democrats vote to reopen the government. Lawmakers in both parties have been working on potential solutions behind the scenes, hoping that leaders will ev…

There’s not a more fairy-tale story in business. Nike CEO Elliott Hill began as an intern. Worked about every job imaginable at the company. Was passed up as a fave for the CEO role in 2020 when John Donahoe was brought in from Bain. And then, finding himself retired, and charter member of a silver fox baseball league in Austin, the swoosh boomeranged in from the clouds and Hill hitched a ride back to Beaverton. Now, after a year at the helm, Hill’s still dealing with Nike’s COVID hangover, brought about (at least in part) by Donahoe, who bolstered profits by selling waves of retro sneakers to people at home, all while reorganizing the core innovation team structure t…

Transparency comes up a lot with respect to the use of AI in journalism. There are obvious reasons for this—journalism is all about bringing transparency to what happens in the world, after all—and AI is a new thing that many people (rightly) view with skepticism. But that desire for transparency brings an opportunity to improve audience trust, something that’s in short supply lately. In fact, a recent report on the use of AI in news media from the Reuters Institute showed a pretty clear pattern of audiences’ trust declining the more AI was used in the journalistic process. Only 12% of people were comfortable with fully AI-generated content, increasing to 21% for most…

Clippy, the animated paper clip that annoyed Microsoft Office users nearly three decades ago, might have just been ahead of its time. Microsoft introduced a new artificial intelligence character called Mico (pronounced MEE’koh) on Thursday, a floating cartoon face shaped like a blob or flame that will embody the software giant’s Copilot virtual assistant and marks the latest attempt by tech companies to imbue their AI chatbots with more of a personality. Copilot’s cute new emoji-like exterior comes as AI developers face a crossroads in how they present their increasingly capable chatbots to consumers without causing harm or backlash. Some have opted for faceless s…

Not content with having hundreds of millions of users peppering ChatGPT with queries and conversations every day, OpenAI wants to further embed itself in our digital lives. This week the company released Atlas, an AI-laden web browser it hopes will challenge incumbents and be adopted at scale. Atlas is one of a raft of AI-powered browsers that have been unleashed on the market in recent months. Perplexity, the AI answer engine, has Comet. Opera, a smaller European competitor to the likes of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, released Neon, which has its own AI functionalities. OpenAI stands a better chance than most of dislodging Google Chrome, whi…

Today many people wish to break away from their corporate jobs and become entrepreneurs. And apparently they find satisfaction in doing so, because 96% of people who are self-employed have no desire to go back to a “regular job.” View the full article