What's on Your Mind?

With layoffs still dominating headlines, many job seekers assume the biggest challenge in today’s market is competition. But new research suggests another obstacle may be quietly draining applicants’ time and emotional energy: job postings that may not actually be hiring. Recent analysis of more than 175,000 job listings across industries found that roughly one in seven postings remain active for more than 30 days, even when companies may no longer be accepting candidates. Some listings remain online for months, continuing to collect applications long after hiring decisions have effectively been made. These roles are often referred to as “ghost jobs.” For job seek…

Women have never lacked talent or ambition. What we’ve lacked, and still lack, is a fair shot to lead. In the U.S., only 37% of leadership positions are held by women despite women comprising 47% of the workforce. And according to research from McKinsey & Company, for every 100 men promoted to manager, only about 93 women, and just 74 women of color, are promoted. The issue isn’t who is capable of leading—it’s how organizations decide who gets to lead. That gap begins at the very first promotion and compounds over time. When fewer women move into management roles, fewer are positioned for senior leadership later on. As careers progress, the pipeline narrows e…

When you think of an operating system, you probably think of interfaces to open, workflows to follow, screens to move through. Work has always lived inside those boundaries. At Anthropic, that logic is starting to break. The company is reorganizing itself around a simple, destabilizing premise: work no longer needs a fixed system to run through. Anthropic says employees now rely on Claude, its flagship AI model, along with its products Code and Cowork, for most of their day-to-day work. The model is starting to function as an “internal operating system.” What once required navigating multiple systems, stitching together data, and coordinating across teams now begins w…

Entrepreneurship has always required resilience—nearly half of new businesses don’t make it past five years. But today, the nature of running a business is shifting. It’s no longer just about how hard the work is—it’s about how constant it feels. I see this tension every day from the conversations I have with entrepreneurs from around the world. For many business owners, the mental load of running a business often overwhelms the joy of building it. For the modern small business owner, financial pressure is no longer a seasonal wave. It’s a steady, background hum of rising costs and economic volatility. New research into the “emotional tax” of running a small business …

When Palantir CEO Alex Karp called for a suite of new recruitment programs to spot raw young talent and prioritize aptitude over experience, the team moved quickly. Within a week, the idea became an actual fellowship. “We did a speed run from April to June,” says Jordan Hirsch, a senior counselor at the defense tech contractor. “We designed the curriculum, recruited faculty, reviewed applications, brought on the fellows, and arranged housing.” The inaugural four-month Meritocracy Fellowship drew over 500 applicants for 22 salaried spots. Fellows completed intensive training, used Palantir’s software, and worked alongside full-time employees, and undertook a four-…

During his commencement address at Dartmouth College in 2024, Roger Federer cited a statistic that people rarely associated with his success. In the 1,526 singles matches he played in his career, while he won almost 80% of the time, he only won 54% of the points he played. He told the audience, “To succeed, you must become a master at overcoming hard moments. To me, that is the sign of a champion.” His speech attracted millions of views because it was unusual for a champion to reveal the wrinkles beneath such a successful career. But I suspect that was the point Roger was trying to make. No successful sporting star, politician, CEO, or community activist is immune to …

At long last, design nerds everywhere can build an outfit that’s (almost) entirely composed of apparel inspired by the works of the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Since his passing in 1959, Wright’s portfolio of iconic buildings and homes has become the inspiration for homeware, building block sets for budding designers, and even a Hollywood documentary that’s currently underway. But he’s also become the muse for a more unexpected segment of the American population: Gen Z fashion heads. In 2023, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation expanded its collaboration repertoire to include a colorful sneaker partnership with New Balance and two T-shirts with Kith. Now…

“Same soulless vibes. Fewer fossil fuels.” So says the website for Mumumelon, a new project that made exact dupes of Lululemon staples like hoodies and yoga pants—but with renewable energy and a detailed plan to cut emissions. Inside a fake pop-up store in London in late March, a fake employee gave customers the pitch: “We stole Lululemon’s designs and made them less terrible for the environment.” “We’ve been campaigning on Lululemon for a few years now to push them to invest in the renewable energy transition and phase out fossil fuels from their supply chain,” says Ruth MacGilp, a climate campaigner at the advocacy group Action Speaks Louder. “We wanted t…

When I was growing up in Turkey, the hallmark of a successful career was staying with one company for years, even decades. Today, that idea seems almost quaint. The Great Resignation may be receding into the rearview mirror, but workers are still job-hopping, especially younger ones. The average Gen Z tenure is 1.1 years, according to Randstad. Compounding the issue, newer hires are more likely to leave: employees with two years or less at a company are 38% more likely to quit within the next year. Companies must “earn” retention continuously. Some startups have come up with clever strategies for boosting retention, like offering employees early liquidity. AI tools ca…

We’re well past the point where “remote work” is a novel perk. In 2026, if a tech company isn’t offering some form of home-office flexibility, they’re basically recruiting from a time capsule. But as the novelty of the Zoom-from-the-couch era fades, a new frontier is emerging. The next evolution isn’t just about working from your home office, it’s about working from anywhere. We’re talking about companies that have decoupled productivity from time zones and borders. These “digital nomad” pioneers don’t care if you’re hitting your KPIs from a flat in London or a beach in Bali, as long as the work gets done. If you’re looking to upgrade your “out of office” …

It’s no secret that a brand alliance with a Formula One team requires a major investment. Whether a company joins at the title level or as a technical partner, the commitment is significant. For most executives, the first question is straightforward: Is the visibility worth it? Drawing on our experience as a global cybersecurity company partnered with one of the sport’s most recognizable teams, this article offers practical insights to help organizations decide whether such partnerships align with their business goals. F1 delivers global exposure that few properties can match. With an estimated 800 million fans worldwide and a race calendar spanning Europe, the Ameri…

I have spent the better part of a decade helping thousands of first-time founders raise their first round of outside capital, and evaluating thousands more for investment. In all of these data points, I found a pattern that explains every single VC round. In the last six months, I’ve seen this pattern play out more dramatically than ever before. Founders are failing to raise without ever really knowing why. I find myself bringing it up again and again to help folks who are raising. So I decided to write about it. Because every founder should know exactly where they fall, and plan accordingly. The only 3 types of rounds in venture capital There are thre…

Below, Anthony Klotz shares five key insights from his new book, Jolted: Why We Quit, When to Stay, and Why It Matters. Klotz is a professor of organizational behavior at UCL School of Management in London. He is best known for predicting the pandemic-related Great Resignation. He has written for the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal, and his research is regularly published in leading academic journals in management. What’s the big idea? Even when quitting feels like a slow burn that dances around your mind for months—or even years—the truth is that finally leaving is caused by a sudden spark. Unexpected “jolts” drive us to rethink our work, o…

Dr. Anne Welsh had her dream job as a clinical psychologist at Harvard University Health Services, working with undergraduate and graduate students. But in 2011, while pregnant with her second child and raising a toddler at home, she decided that her 60-client caseload was no longer sustainable. Welsh and another pregnant colleague developed a plan. They would share a caseload, splitting responsibilities so they could continue working part-time while caring for their growing families. They created a detailed job-share proposal covering logistics, scheduling, and continuity of care. Welsh brought it to their practice director. Their director barely glanced at it. …

The real question about Anthropic’s new Claude Mythos Preview AI model is whether it (and future models like it) will be more helpful to defensive cybersecurity or to hackers. To find out, Fast Company asked a number of cybersecurity pros. Claude Mythos, released in “preview” on April 9, is Anthropic’s biggest and most capable frontier AI model. Anthropic researchers say that during its training, the model showed a unique ability to find security vulnerabilities deep within software code, then create exploits to gain administrator-level access to software systems, including operating systems. Because of this, Anthropic says, Mythos is too dangerous to release to…

Back in July 1971, Coca-Cola debuted a TV commercial that would become one of the most iconic in the brand’s history. “Hilltop” featured a diverse group of people gathered on an Italian hillside, sharing their voices and bottles of soda, and famously singing, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.” It was a Don Draper-approved multicultural, apolitical masterpiece. It was also a complete fantasy. Despite the kumbaya vibes of the spot, 1971 America was a much more complicated and volatile place than what was depicted in the ad. It was the peak of the Vietnam War protest movement, with 60% of Americans opposing the war and 500,000 people demonstrating in D.C. just a few mo…

Filling up your gas tank didn’t always require a second mortgage. But since the onset of the war in Iran, global oil prices have soared–and we’re the ones paying for it at the gas station. And nobody knows this better than hypermilers, drivers obsessed with squeezing every last possible mile out of each gallon of fuel. While the April 7 ceasefire caused an immediate 16% drop in crude oil prices, as of April 8, the American Automobile Association (AAA) reports that the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is $4.164, with prices approaching $6 per gallon in California. But even if crude oil prices continue to sink, fitting these elevated gas prices into…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. While active listings are rising year over year in most regional housing markets, a slight majority of markets are still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels. Generally speaking, housing markets where inventory (i.e., active listings) has returned to pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced weaker home price growth (or outright declines) over the past 46 months. Conversely, housing markets where inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced more resilient home price growth over the past 46 months. …

Imagine you need to organize a meeting with people in Portland, Tokyo, and Sydney at the same time. Off the top of your head, what’s a time that’d actually work for everyone? Don’t feel bad if you’re befuddled. Time zones are confusing! You can try to memorize the time difference between different cities, but even that only works some of the time. Daylight Saving changes the time in some places but not others, for one thing—and in the hemisphere opposite yours, it changes it in the opposite direction. That’s why you shouldn’t try to schedule meetings across time zones off the top of your head. No matter how crafty you may be, there are just too many factors to kee…

Using AI chatbots opens people up to numerous risks. The most obvious is that, given their propensity to hallucinate, an AI chatbot’s answers may be factually incorrect while sounding completely authoritative. But beyond this informational risk lies another worrisome one: the risk to your privacy. When you prompt and chat with an AI chatbot, the company behind it uses your queries and conversation to further train its models. Many companies, including ChatGPT maker OpenAI, say they anonymize this user data so it can’t be traced back to individuals. However, given that no major AI company has let independent auditors verify their privacy claims, you just have to take A…

Below, Jon McNeill shares five key insights from his new book, The Algorithm: The Hypergrowth Formula That Transformed Tesla, Lululemon, General Motors, and SpaceX. McNeill is a serial entrepreneur and business leader. He was president of Tesla during a period of rapid growth, later helped take Lyft public, and today works with leadership teams as a board member at companies like General Motors and Lululemon and as the CEO of his venture fund, DVx Ventures. What’s the big idea? What if the biggest obstacle to growth isn’t what you’re missing, but everything you’ve added? The fastest teams win by questioning, cutting, and simplifying far more than anyone else. …

On my last day at my old job, I couldn’t go in. I’d been burning through sick days for months (more than I could explain to my manager) because I didn’t yet have words for what was happening to me. I was 25, running product at a tech company, trying to build a career while quietly unraveling. I’d been to the ER twice that year, seen a string of specialists, and been told by more than one doctor that my symptoms were probably psychological. I was terrified. Eventually, I was diagnosed with autoimmune disease, a condition where the immune system attacks the body’s own tissue. An estimated 50 million Americans live with an autoimmune disease, and women make up 80% of…

Amazon Prime members in the US can regularly save on gas, but many might not even know it. Now might be the best time to jump on it—for a limited time only, fuel savings can double. The savings perk dates back to October 2024, when Amazon partnered with, BP’s rewards and fueling app earnify, allowing Prime members save 10 cents a gallon. Now, from April 3 to May 29, members can double the savings once a week on Fuel-Up Fridays. To start saving, Amazon Prime members need to activate the perk and must link their accounts to earnify. Then, members can find the 7,500 participating BP, Amoco, Thorntons, and AM/PM gas stations and fuel up there. “You can then apply…