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If there’s any doubt whether people are willing to pay $900 for a premium credit card, just look at the latest quarterly results for American Express: The credit card issuer reported Friday that it beat third-quarter earnings estimates and raised its full-year outlook. It’s been a month since American Express refreshed its Platinum line of credit cards, raising the annual fee by $200 to $895, and that change is already paying dividends. The company has seen “strong” demand for these cards and more than 500,000 people have requested the New York-based issuer’s new pocket mirror card. “The initial customer demand and engagement exceeded our expectations, with new U…

Below, J. Eric Oliver shares five key insights from his new book, How To Know Your Self: The Art & Science of Discovering Who You Really Are. Eric has been teaching at the University of Chicago for 20 years as a professor of political science. He has published six books and numerous scholarly articles on topics ranging from the “obesity epidemic” to the sources of conspiratorial thinking in American politics. He is also the host of the Knowing podcast. What’s the big idea? We suffer because we mistake the fluid process of being for a fixed identity. Flourishing begins when we learn to bring into alignment and balance the forces that shape the self. List…

Early in my career, I learned a valuable lesson that has stayed front and center. I was working for a company struggling to meet its marks. We were doing fine, but not knocking it out of the park. I walked into a quarterly business review, confident in our marketing metrics. We were hitting or surpassing every KPI, and I presented our achievements with pride. My CEO made a statement that stopped me in my tracks: “Marketing success means nothing unless the company as a whole is winning.” That moment was a turning point. In our focus on metrics, it’s easy to overlook what really matters. It’s a lesson I was grateful to learn early and one I believe every leader should e…

When a new general-purpose technology emerges—be it railroads, electricity, computers, etc.—companies react in predictable ways. A small minority tries to reinvent themselves around it; the majority looks first for ways to cut costs. Right now, in the middle of the most significant technological inflection since the internet, many organizations are choosing the second path. They deploy artificial intelligence to automate call centers, reduce head count in back offices, and squeeze marginal gains out of existing processes. They measure “AI ROI” in payroll savings and hours reclaimed. It feels rational. It feels disciplined. It feels safe. It is also the fast…

In too many organizations, design is treated as a downstream function or even a cost center. In the best case, it’s a nice-to-have that is applied to refine or beautify after strategy is set, budgets are approved, and decisions are largely already locked. It could be used to communicate strategic choices made earlier in the innovation or creation process. Perhaps it is leveraged in the sales and business development process. Yet the world’s most forward-looking organizations do the opposite: They start with design. To begin, let’s establish the fact that I do not believe design is about aesthetics or brand polish. Design is a strategic lens—a way of seeing syste…

Interior designer and stylist Jonny Carmack has a “fruit room” in his Danbury, Connecticut, home. Colorful faux produce bedecks every inch, from the cherry-shaped ceiling fixture to a strawberry side table and a bunch of other juicy gems in decorative forms. He’s part of a trend: Love for fresh fruits and vegetables is showing up not just in the kitchen but in imagery throughout the home. Carmack sees it as fun escapism, and “a cause for conversation and celebration.” Design experts say it also reflects a cultural embrace of sustainability and an upbeat connection to nature. “There’s a certain romance to the farmstand — it speaks to the pastoral lifestyle ever…

For generations of Americans, the soundtrack to spring weekends has been a rise in birdsong and the loud, constant “virrrrrr” of neighbors cutting their growing grass. But the gas lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and weed eaters that have been used for more than a century to keep lawns manicured aren’t only noisy—in the past few years, researchers have discovered that they also pose an outsize risk to the environment and to human health. In response, cities across the U.S. are experimenting with incentive programs to encourage residents to opt for more environmentally friendly electric lawn equipment. The shape these programs take isn’t one size fits all: From bans to rebat…

These days, you can’t swing a vintage pair of Doc Martens without hitting a new study or article describing why Gen X won’t live up to its retirement potential. Prudential warned us in 2023 that more than a third of Gen Xers had less than $10k in retirement savings. In 2024, Natixis Investments found that 48% of Gen Xers said it would take a miracle for them to retire securely (up from only 41% of Generation X counting on divine intervention as of 2021). Even the much-lauded great wealth transfer—the $124 trillion in assets that baby boomers will pass along to their heirs by the year 2048—will largely skip over Gen X. The wealth management firm Cerulli Associates …

Small talk can be awkward and boring. It’s also a requisite skill to learn to participate as a socially adept person in society—as well as the workplace. But mustering “So, where are you going for lunch?” to that one guy from sales in the elevator might be a no-go for the workforce’s youngest members. In a discussion sparked by a viral TikTok, many have dubbed the ritualistic nicety as “cringe”—Gen Z’s go-to dig for anything perceived as try-hard or uncool. In the TikTok skit (with nearly 3 million views), the user acts out a conversation in which every attempt at small talk is brusquely shut down, mixed with plenty of drawn-out “umms” and eye rolls. “POV: You’re…

The retail platform eBay is set to acquire fashion resale app Depop from Etsy in a $1.2 billion transaction. Ostensibly, the deal will help eBay to cultivate a new audience of Gen Z and Gen Alpha shoppers. But I think there’s a deeper reason that eBay might want to lock Depop down: it’s simply the best looking resale interface out there right now. The deal was announced on February 18 in a press release from Etsy. It’s expected to close some time in the second quarter of 2026, and, per an email sent to Depop’s customers, after the merger Depop will remain a stand-alone brand within eBay and retain its name, brand, and platform. For eBay, acquiring Depop makes a …

Over the next 20 years, an estimated $84 trillion will change hands in the U.S.; some call this the Great Wealth Transfer, others the Silver Tsunami. This wealth is held in cash and assets, but also in the estimated 2.9 million private U.S. businesses that are owned by those over 55. Many retiring business owners will look to sell their company to private equity or larger conglomerates, while others will pass their businesses on to their heirs. A few are considering something more radical: giving their company away to good causes, like Paul Newman who gave his eponymous food company to Newman’s Own Foundation when he passed away in 2008. This idea remains radical eno…

Getting a preschool-age child, let alone dozens of them, to wash their hands can be an exhausting chore. At Family Connections preschool in the Portola neighborhood of San Francisco, that used to be a constant challenge and frustration for educators. Without an outdoor sink, students’ outdoor activities were interrupted anytime a hand got dirty, as the whole group had to take a trip back inside, says executive director Yensing Sihapanya, noting how that would eat up precious minutes that could have been spent playing and learning. But in 2021, the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), a community development financial institution (CDFI), poured grant money into San Francisc…

You may have seen warnings that Google is telling all of its users to change their Gmail passwords due to a breach. That’s only partly true. Google is telling users to change their passwords, but not because of a breach that exposed them. In fact, Google’s real advice is to stop using your password altogether. Here’s what I mean. The breach traces back to Salesforce, whose systems were compromised by the hacker group known as ShinyHunters (also tracked as UNC6040). Attackers obtained business-related Gmail data, including contact lists, company associations, and email metadata. No actual Gmail account credentials were stolen, but the nature of the stolen data makes ph…

Commuting in New York City can be a relentless sensory overload—the hustling, the pushing, the yelling, the ads whirling from every side. Getting to work can feel like a frantic race of people trying to escape the train station all at once. While the city hurtles past in a blur, Brandon Stanton has stopped to write it a love letter—on the walls of Grand Central itself. For the first time, the terminal and its subway station have been completely cleared of flashing advertisements and replaced with art. Brandon Stanton More than 150 digital screens now display thousands of portraits and stories from Stanton’s Humans of New York—the largest and most diverse colle…

Early in my career, a boss encouraged me to leave a stable operations role for a position in sales. They noticed my natural persuasiveness in communication and approach to problems, skills they believed could translate into success in a completely different discipline. It felt like a gamble. I was trading a steady income for compensation directly tied to performance and sales volume. And, I would be venturing into a role where I had no prior experience. But I ultimately took the leap, and that shift changed the entire trajectory of my career. That experience taught me to embrace discomfort and trust in my capacity to grow. It also revealed something fundamental …

Grindr’s days as a public company could be numbered. The hookup and dating app, which went public via a SPAC merger in fall 2021, announced Tuesday that its largest shareholders, Raymond Zage and James Lu—who led the company’s go-public efforts—were exploring the possibility of acquiring Grindr’s outstanding stock, which would take the company private again. The confirmation of Lu and Zage’s goal of taking the company private followed reporting on Monday from Semafor, which outlined that a recent Grindr stock slide led a lender to seize shares that at least one of the men had used to back a personal loan. Semafor reported that the two were in talks with Fo…

For decades, women business owners have faced a persistent challenge: access to capital. Despite owning nearly half of all small businesses in the U.S., women often encounter barriers to financing. I’ve seen from my experience at the SBA and now First Women’s Bank, that one of the biggest drivers of the gender lending gap isn’t just rejection, it’s that many women don’t come forward for financing at all. Whether due to lack of awareness, confidence, or systemic hurdles, “access” captures both those who are denied and those who never apply. Also driving the gender lending gap is the type of capital women seek. Women often seek startup capital that is difficult to obtai…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. In a world increasingly shaped by the potential of artificial intelligence, the life sciences industry may be one of the largest beneficiaries of its transformative potential. Artificial intelligence (AI) has already revolutionized elements of the drug discovery and development process, redefined research methodologies, enhanced disease detection and diagnosis, and paved the way for personalized…

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Healthcare navigation was supposed to be the ultimate guide—a GPS for the healthcare maze. Instead it’s more like an old paper map with half the roads missing. What was meant to simplify care has become just another layer of complexity, dressed up as concierge support but too often steering people based on cost, not quality. At a time when AI, telehealth, and integrated care mo…