What's on Your Mind?

In Uganda’s Mbale district, famous for its production of arabica coffee, a plague of plastic bags locally known as buveera is creeping beyond the city. It’s a problem that has long littered the landscape in Kampala, the capital, where buveera are woven into the fabric of daily life. They show up in layers of excavated dirt roads and clog waterways. But now, they can be found in remote areas of farmland, too. Some of the debris includes the thick plastic bags used for planting coffee seeds in nurseries. Some farmers are complaining, said Wilson Watira, head of a cultural board for the coffee-growing Bamasaba people. “They are concerned—those farmers who know the effects …

On Friday, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar in the northern part of the country. Reuters reports the quake’s epicenter was about 17.2 km (about 10.6 miles) from Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city with a population of about 1.5 million people. The quake destroyed buildings, roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure in the country. So far, 1,700 people have been confirmed dead and 3,400 injured, but officials say the final death toll may pass 10,000. The quake also hit neighboring Thailand, bringing down a 33-story building with people inside. In Myanmar, the effects of the natural disaster are intensified due to the civil war the country has…

A New York-based AI startup called Hebbia says it’s developed techniques that let AI answer questions about massive amounts of data without merely regurgitating what it’s read or, worse, making up information. To help generative AI tools answer questions beyond the information in their training data, AI companies have recently used a technique called retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG. When users ask a question, RAG-powered AI typically uses a search-engine-style system to locate relevant information it has access to, whether that’s on the web or in a private database. Then, that information is fed to the underlying AI model along with the user’s query and an…

Over the course of its 40-year history, J.Crew has explored all kinds of design collaborations. Last year, for instance, it partnered with the designers Christopher John Rogers and Maryam Nassir Zadeh. But if you walk into a store, you might also come across slightly more unexpected collaborations. On a recent visit to J.Crew’s Columbus Circle store in New York, I found a collection of kids’ clothes emblazoned with the logo of the Fire Department of New York. In February, to celebrate The New Yorker magazine’s centennial anniversary, J.Crew created a special line of sweaters, rugby shirts, and baseball caps featuring the magazine’s logo. And last summer, it dropped wo…

Those of us living in the harsher climates can all commiserate about what felt like a really long winter. It was cold! And windy! Perfect weather for staying inside, inert, and keeping warm with dense carbs and saturated fats. Well, the party’s over. As the chill of winter melts away and spring begins to bloom, it’s time to shed those extra layers—both figuratively and literally. So whether you’re counting calories, trying new workouts, or simply trying to move a little more, these free tools are here to help you reach your goals. MyFitnessPal MyFitnessPal (iOS, Android) is a do-it-all weight loss tool that helps you monitor your daily food intake, exer…

Fast Company is extending its application deadline for Best Workplaces for Innovators 2025 to Friday, April 4, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. This marks the seventh year Fast Company will be recognizing companies and organizations from around the world that most effectively empower employees at all levels to improve processes, create new products, or invent whole new ways of doing business. In addition to honoring the world’s 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators, we will recognize companies in more than a dozen different categories. What differentiates Best Workplaces for Innovators from existing best-places-to-work lists is that it goes beyond benefits, competitiv…

Gerardo Valerio had been looking for a bathroom in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo neighborhood for 20 minutes when he stumbled across a blue and white trailer with “FREE BATHROOM” at the top. At first, he was hesitant to enter the bathroom, which had been installed by the Washington, D.C.-based portable toilet startup Throne. To get in, he had to scan a QR code which pre-loaded a text onto his phone. After sending the text, the door would automatically slide open. “What do I text, ‘I need to pee’?” he jokes. All in all, he says, it was a positive experience: “It was pretty to look at but it definitely has a smell to it. It needs to be maintained a bit more. But overall…

After making his mark in Silicon Valley, Icelandic designer and tech mogul Haraldur “Halli” Thorleifsson is now solving a far more analog problem: the inaccessibility of local storefronts. As a wheelchair user, Thorleifsson knows firsthand how exclusion can be built into a city. “If you don’t see anyone using a wheelchair,” he says, “it’s not because they don’t exist—it’s because they have nowhere to go.” Thorleifsson has experienced such access barriers to public spaces throughout his life, but the turning point came on a late-night walk with his family in downtown Reykjavík, when he couldn’t join his son in a corner store because of a single step at the entrance. …

Celebrity assistants have a demanding job. The role requires being on call outside of normal working hours, working proactively to anticipate the needs of their boss, and protecting their boss’s schedule and privacy. It takes someone who is engaged, professional, and a team player—and searching for the right person to fill the role takes skill. “I might as well be a scientist instead of a recruiter, because I’m putting people under a microscope,” says Susan Levine, founder and CEO of Career Group Companies, which has placed assistants with celebrities including Kevin Costner, Maria Shriver, and the Kardashian-Jenners. “I need to be a very good listener with the clien…

If you’re feeling anxious about AI right now, you’re not alone. It’s reasonable to wonder whether AI will soon be able to do a lot of what we used to think of as human work. As of now, this technology has already shown some degree of promise for all of the following very human psychological skills: diagnosing diseases, writing code, summarizing and teaching information, predicting markets, brainstorming, product design, project management, coaching, and much more. We probably all know some optimists who think AI will be merely an efficiency tool that gets you 80% there and humans will still be needed for the other 20%. But even in a scenario like that, some current j…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Speaking to investors last week, Lennar co-CEO Jon Jaffe said that the spring 2025 selling season for America’s second-largest homebuilder is off to a slower-than-normal start. “We do not see the seasonal pickup typically associated with the beginning of the spring selling season,” Jaffe said. “So we continue to lean into our machine focusing on converting leads and appointments and adjusting incentives as needed to maintain sales pace. These adjustments came in the form of mortgage rate buydowns, price reductions, and closing cost assistance. La…

It can be difficult to assert yourself during a negotiation. You may feel emotional about the process, especially if you are countering a lower offer than you expected or are nervous about being up against a seasoned negotiator. Or perhaps you’re uncomfortable with the idea of selling yourself to a potential employer or partner. Whatever the case may be, your approach to negotiations could be working against you. The best way to make sure you don’t botch a negotiation is to prepare for it in advance, writes Lydia Fenet, a leading charity auctioneer and expert in selling and negotiations. That can involve using friends and family to practice how a negotiation may unfo…

Law school applications typically spike in times of financial and labor market distress, but a significant recent surge may be more driven by other factors. According to the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC)—which, among other things, administers the law school admissions test (LSAT)—application volume for the 2025 school year is up 20.5% compared to last year. “When we ask test takers and applicants ‘Why are you applying to law school?,’ the primary reason is ‘to make a difference,’” says LSAC’s interim president and CEO Susan Krinsky. As a result, she attributes the latest increase to “the world around us,” explaining “there have been a few very interesting…

Have you ever wanted to sign up for an online service but you didn’t want to provide your real email address as part of the process? There’s a good chance your email address has your actual name in it. Or perhaps you want to avoid the risk of getting spammed. What if you’d rather just sign up privately and have a quick “no more emails please” button? That’s precisely where a reliable email forwarding service can save the day. It empowers you to create a special disguised email address and then use it when signing up with a new app, services, or website. You’ll still get any emails sent to the anonymous email address in your normal email inbox—but the service y…