What's on Your Mind?

When the new Chevy Bolt arrives early next year, it will start at $29,995, making it one of the most affordable new EVs in the U.S. It’s thousands of dollars cheaper than Tesla’s “affordable” new versions of its Model 3 and Model Y. It’s also significantly less expensive than the average gas car, and like other EVs, it’s cheaper to operate. GM faces major headwinds with the loss of the $7,500 tax credit for electric cars, and it’s scaled back production plans and cut jobs in response. But the new Bolt is so affordable that it could win over consumers even without the incentive. “We wanted to get that under-$30,000 number,” says Jeremy Short, chief engineer on GM’…

It’s widely known that social media can quickly turn into a toxic cesspool of hate speech and ragebait, particularly during times of political turmoil. Across social media platforms, amplified by the algorithm, hate often breeds hate. But what exactly makes toxicity so contagious? It turns out, the problem may be coming from within. A study published this month in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, co-authored by Alon Zoizner and Avraham Levy, looked at how social media users react when they’re exposed to toxic posts from people on their own political side, defined as the “ingroup,” compared with those from the opposing side, the “outgroup.” Hig…

Elon Musk is the kind of entrepreneur who likes to have an enemy as motivation—traditional carmakers, the mainstream media, the “deep state.” His newest undertaking, launched October 27, is no exception: Grokipedia is positioned as an alternative to Wikipedia, which Musk claims is biased and “woke.” A product of Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, Grokipedia’s inner workings are unclear, but the pitch is that it’s an AI-generated compendium of what Musk calls “truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” One major factor that makes Grokipedia different from Musk’s other rival-fueled enterprises is that Wikipedia is quite popular, well-liked, and widely …

In the defining years of American business, founding CEOs were virtually synonymous with the companies they led. Walt Disney was Disney incarnate; Dale Carnegie came to represent the steel industry itself. These figures were not just company leaders; they were the gravitational center around which entire industries revolved. Those days are gone. Though we still have echoes in modern chief executives like Tim Cook or Richard Branson, these figureheads, too, are becoming rarer. In fact, the average CEO tenure is the lowest in recent history. Over the past three years, CEO turnover has reached record highs, with 58 leadership changes in the S&P 500 alone. This patter…

Research is clear that multitasking significantly undermines career progress despite its popularity in modern workplaces. But why does multitasking harm workplace productivity? And how can you maintain concentration to get more accomplished? Below, experts share proven strategies that replace multitasking habits with intentional productivity systems to improve focus and work quality. No-Stacking Rule Drives Meaningful Project Completion Trying to multitask is the workplace version of spinning plates . . . except they all end up smashed! In my experience, multitasking is the fastest way to look busy while achieving very little. On the surface, it feels productiv…

Few objects embody the endurance of the human spirit better than a medal. This Sunday, when the projected 55,000 breathless souls cross the finishing line of the annual TCS New York City marathon, they will be receive a one-of-a-kind medal to remember this achievement. The NYC marathon medal looks different every year. While many previous versions have attempted to etch the experience onto metal, the 2025 medal takes an even more tangible approach. At first glance, the surface of the new medal appears to be brushed with an array of diagonal stripes. But flip it on its side, and you will notice that the stripes are ribbed, and they reflect the actual elevation of the f…

Bill Gates has invested billions over the last two decades to help fight climate change. But in a new blog post, he argues that world is too focused on cutting short-term emissions. “The doomsday outlook is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals,” he writes, calling for a “strategic pivot” to focus on “improving lives” by focusing development dollars more on agriculture and disease and poverty eradication. The logic is flawed, and built on a series of false trade-offs that ignore how interconnected climate and development goals are. Gates criticizes the “doomsday” view that climate change will “decimate civilization” i…

Americans know AI runs on electricity — and they’re starting to realize they’re the ones paying for it. A recent nationwide survey of more than 1,400 U.S. households found that two-thirds of Americans believe AI is already driving up their power bills, and most said they can’t afford more than a $20 monthly increase. They’re right to be worried. As tech companies pour hundreds of billions into new data centers, the surge in electricity demand is rewriting the economics of the grid — and households are footing the bill for an “AI power tax” they never voted for. The frustrating truth is that this isn’t about running out of power. As prices keep rising and politicians …

A deadly outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes linked to prepared pasta meals is continuing to spread across the United States. Since September 25, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have identified three new states with infections, bringing the total number to 18 states. The agencies first reported food recalls associated with the outbreak in June. In the last month, seven new cases have been identified, alongside six new hospitalizations. That brings their respective totals to 27 cases and 25 hospitalizations since the outbreak began. Two more deaths have also been reported, with six deaths record…

Think about the last time you made a purchase using your phone. Maybe you were at a coffee shop and when your turn came, you opened your payment app, tapped your phone on the payment device, grabbed your cappuccino, and were done. Quick and easy. Maybe too quick and easy. Did the coffee shop miss a chance to engage with you? Did Mastercard miss an opportunity to show how their brand made this “priceless” moment possible? Did you miss an opportunity to teach your 8-year-old daughter a lesson on the value of money? As business leaders in an increasingly digital landscape, we’ve learned to treat “friction” as a dirty word. “Remove friction at all costs” is the ra…

We don’t talk enough about what doesn’t scale. Which is ironic, because we talk about scale constantly. Scale is the shorthand for success in just about every industry. If it can’t scale, is it even worth doing? That’s the kind of thinking that floods strategy decks, venture capitalist meetings, and quarterly reviews. But here’s the question I keep circling back to: Can it still matter if it doesn’t scale? Because I’ve seen real impact in spaces where scale wasn’t the point. And frankly, it wasn’t even possible. THE MYTH OF “MASS = MEANING” There’s a quiet arrogance baked into how we treat scale, as if the size of a thing is what determines its signific…

Leonardo da Vinci is often credited with writing the first resume in 1482, meaning the resume has been with us for more than five centuries. And though its layout has evolved over the years, the premise hasn’t: a piece of paper that tells someone where you’ve worked, what you studied, and maybe a bullet or two about what you’ve accomplished. That’s the problem. The resume is designed to tell us where someone has been—not what they can actually do. It shows what the last person who hired you needed done in their company that they thought you could handle. It looks backward when the world of work we live in today demands that we look forward. It inflates titles, overval…

The The President administration’s widespread cancellation and freezing of clean energy funding is also hitting essential work to improve the nation’s power grid. That includes investments in grid modernization, energy storage, and efforts to protect communities from outages during extreme weather and cyberattacks. Ending these projects leaves Americans vulnerable to more frequent and longer-lasting power outages. The Department of Energy has defended the cancellations, saying that “the projects did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.” Yet before any f…

A momentous week in the technology sector made it clear there is no sign the boom in building artificial intelligence infrastructure is slowing — despite the bubble talk. Nvidia, whose processors are the AI revolution’s backbone, became the first company to surpass $5 trillion in market value. Microsoft and OpenAI inked a deal enhancing the ChatGPT maker’s fundraising ability and OpenAI promptly started laying groundwork for an initial public offering that could value the company at $1 trillion. Amazon said it would cut 14,000 corporate jobs, just days before its cloud unit posted its strongest growth in nearly three years. These developments, along with numer…

If you plan to hand out chocolate this Halloween, you might be in for more trick than treat. The price of cocoa remains high after spiking last year – a trend that has shoppers turning away from a perennial favorite sweet treat, even on a holiday that revolves around candy. Compared to the Halloween season last year, chocolate costs more this year and consumers are buying less of it. Overall candy prices have risen a whopping 78% since 2020, according to an analysis from consumer finance site FinanceBuzz, which tracked candy prices across four major retailers. A 100-piece bulk bag of Halloween candy costs an average of $16.39 in 2025, up from $9.19 in 2020 and $14…

Spot the robin’s egg blue of a Tiffany box, and you know there’s luxury inside. Or the sturdy brown of the UPS truck, and you expect reliable service. Yellow Minions make you smile, and Valentino’s vivid Pink PP Collection makes you want to step out and step up. Color is more than decoration. Color is a powerful tool that drives business and creates cultural relevance. The right hues build trust, drive sales, and make brands unforgettable, while the wrong ones can cost you customers and credibility. The launch of Coke Life in a green rather than familiar red can probably contributed to the product’s uphill battle with consumers. Even tinkering with a color combina…

Imagine living in a house with the latest smart home system: lights dim on voice command, your thermostat learns your schedule, your refrigerator orders milk before the carton runs out. It’s practical yet delightful. It improves your daily life. Now imagine that same house built on shaky foundations: the electric wiring is aging, and the plumbing is rotting. No matter how advanced your devices are the structure won’t support them reliably. That’s the difference between AI and blockchain. AI is the smart tech; blockchain is the well-designed infrastructure that ensures everything works reliably, predictably, and with integrity. Similar to how a home needs both …

Cheating has long been an unwelcome but expected risk in the hiring process. While most people are honest and well-intentioned, there are always a handful of candidates who attempt to game the system. Today, however, the problem is evolving at an unprecedented speed. Generative AI has made new, more sophisticated types of cheating possible for any position, from software development to finance to design. In my work with hundreds of employers helping them hire and develop talent, I’ve seen firsthand the myriad ways candidates attempt to game the system. So, why are candidates resorting to these methods? Sometimes, candidates are attempting to secure a position they’re …

Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald The President’s administration must continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown. The judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island gave the administration leeway on whether to fund the program partially or in full for November. The rulings came a day before the U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s s…

Amazon is leading the U.S. stock market on Friday to the finish of another winning week and month. The S&P 500 was virtually flat after giving up a modest gain from the morning. The index is still near its all-time high set on Tuesday, and it’s on track to close a third straight winning week and a sixth straight winning month, which would be its longest monthly winning streak since 2021. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 102 points, or less than 0.2%, as of 1 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher. Amazon led the way after jumping 10.3%. The retail giant was by far the strongest force pushing upward on the market after reportin…

Ted Bundy had courtroom groupies. Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Ramirez were sent love letters in prison. Now, in the age of social media, thousands like, share, and thirst in the comments over stylized fan edits of serial killers. There’s a term for this psychological phenomenon: hybristophilia. A new study has found a connection between young women’s engagement with this type of TikTok content and their sexual attraction to criminals. Those who liked or repeatedly watched clips glorifying notorious serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer or fictional villains like Joe Goldberg from Netflix’s “You,” scored higher for hybristophilia, than those who scro…

It’s certainly been a spooky week for the Walt Disney Co. and Google. The two corporations are in the midst of a carriage dispute that has resulted in a blackout of Disney’s networks on Google-owned YouTube TV, leaving viewers unable to access popular channels including ESPN and ABC. Disney began notifying viewers on October 23 about the dispute and warning that its networks could be removed from the pay-TV streaming platform. All of that came to a head in the last 48 hours as the two parties failed to come to an agreement on a new deal, and YouTube TV began removing Disney’s networks about 30 minutes before the previous carriage deal expired at midnight Eastern t…

AI’s explosive growth depends on a backbone of vast energy-hungry, water intensive data centers, costing hundreds of billions of dollars in resources. The challenge—and opportunity—of the moment is ensuring this infrastructure scales without hollowing out long-term value. Across the U.S., states are racing to attract data center facilities with lucrative incentives. The promise is economic growth and prestige. The reality is more complicated: hidden costs borne by communities, power grids, and ecosystems. As a venture capitalist focused on hardtech and sustainability, I see this tension as both risk and opportunity. The future of AI will belong to those who reconc…

A voluntary layoff? In this economy? The mass layoff meat grinder is out in full force this week. In just the past couple of days, thousands of workers have fallen victim to job cuts at Amazon, Target, Paramount, CBS, and other large companies. YouTube has also quietly introduced voluntary exit packages for employees who are willing to be laid off with severance benefits, according to an internal memo first reported by Alex Heath’s Sources AI newsletter. Adding words like “opt in” or “voluntary” in front of separation, retirement, and severance packages is the new way to soft-launch layoffs, in the hope of making the idea of losing one’s job slightly more pal…

Earlier this week, I had AI handle all of my grocery shopping. Using Perplexity’s Comet browser, I provided a link to my shopping list on Google Keep, then asked it to put everything in my cart for a Kroger pick-up order, making sure to select previous purchase items when multiple options are available. Within a few minutes, Comet had picked out all the correct items—including the taco shells and fake meat we usually get for taco night—and plopped me onto the check-out page. This kind of scenario explains why so many AI companies are now trying to build their own browsers. Perplexity’s Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia both became widely available without an…