What's on Your Mind?

When companies advertise job openings, they often use buzzwords like ambitious and self-reliant to describe their ideal candidate. These traits sound appealing—what hiring manager wouldn’t want a driven employee? But there’s a catch. In my latest study, published in the journal Management Science with coauthors Scott Jackson and Nick Seybert, I found that these terms may attract job applicants with more narcissistic tendencies. As behavioral researchers in accounting, we are interested in executives who bend the rules. We decided to study job postings after noticing that the language used to describe an “ideal candidate” often included traits linked to narcissism.…

The new Netflix series Running Point stars Kate Hudson as president of a fictional pro basketball team, the Los Angeles Waves. And the Pepperdine Waves have a problem with it. Attorneys for Pepperdine University in Malibu have filed a lawsuit against the streaming service and Warner Bros. Entertainment arguing they “have taken valuable intellectual property” from the school and infringed on its trademark ahead of the show’s premiere today. Attorneys for the University claim the fictional team’s branding is too similar to its own, and that it uses the same blue and orange team colors and mascot. They argue this will create consumer confusion and falsely suggest a link …

Fast Company is the official media partner of Summit Detroit. From the mouths of most companies, the word “community” amounts to nothing more than another cliched buzzword drained of any substance. But in some instances, the idea of community is so intrinsic to what the company is and stands for that the meaning behind the word evolves into something more. It’s why Jody Levy, CEO of Summit, had a hard time defining the word as it applies to her organization that hosts conferences and immersive experiences around the world. “Community is not the right word. Network is not the right word. Tribe is not the right word. None of these words actually describe what bein…

As the 30th season of Major League Soccer (MLS) kicked off last month, the league unveiled an interesting new design addition: Each of its 30 teams sported a custom Apple TV logo on the left sleeve of its uniform featuring the colors and graphic elements of the team’s identity incorporated within the familiar Apple icon. For example, the Chicago Fire version includes the six-pointed star from the city’s flag and the team’s crest, while Atlanta United’s is filled with the characteristic five red and black stripes that adorn the club’s shirt. This effort, part of MLS’s 10-year deal with Apple to stream the league’s matches, represents an innovative step forward in its appro…

During Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearing for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Democratic Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota asked him about his stance on people who take antidepressants. “I know people, including members of my family, who’ve had a much worse time getting off of SSRIs than they have getting off of heroin,” Kennedy responded. While many of Kennedy’s beliefs are questionable, he’s voicing a common misconception around SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Approximately 13% of Americans take SSRIs, which are a type of antidepressant that work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. …

A new technology can pinpoint victims of intimate partner violence four years earlier than other detection systems and with 80% accuracy. The Automated Intimate Partner Violence Risk Support System (AIRS) utilizes clinical history and radiologic data to pinpoint patients seen in the emergency room who may be at a risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). Developed over the past five years, AIRS has been rolled out to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Emergency Rooms in Boston as well as surrounding primary care sites. Currently, the tool has been validated at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center and is being evaluated by the Alameda Health Syste…

Kendrick Lamar. Drake. Lady Gaga. The charts of music streaming services pretty much all look the same these days, with familiar names dominating the top spots—except on up-and-coming Spotify competitor Audiomack. The current No. 1 album on Audiomack belongs to Nigeria’s Seyi Vibez, whose hypnotic Afrobeats tracks have amassed around 1.8 billion plays on the platform. Vibez is one of many African and Caribbean artists who have found breakout success on the platform. Many of them consistently draw larger audiences on Audiomack than on Spotify or Apple Music, largely due to the platform’s strong presence in local markets. “We are the most-used streaming service in a…

For ages, real estate has been defined by the tangible: buildings, land, square feet. Nowadays, however, the world’s most valuable businesses make their money from what is intangible—brands, networks, knowledge, and experiences. As of 2020, 90% of the value at the S&P 500 comes from intangible assets, up from 32% 40 years ago. The equivalent figure for major European companies lags behind, at just over 74% in 2020, a factor that likely contributes to Europe’s lower growth rate and per capita GDP. Much of the difference is made by a few unmatched American technology platforms. Real estate, too, must evolve beyond its physical footprint. At Atrium Ljungberg,…

Meta wants to revive Facebook’s old-school appeal by introducing a new Friends Tab, which will focus solely on posts shared by a user’s friends and family. This Friends Tab will replace the section in the app that previously displayed friend requests and suggested friends. Instead, users in the United States and Canada will now see a scrolling feed featuring photos, videos, friend requests, birthday reminders, and text posts. “Over the years, Facebook evolved to meet changing needs and created best-in-class experiences across Groups, Video, Marketplace and more, but the magic of friends has fallen away,” the company wrote in an unattributed blog post. “We’ll be ad…

As the Los Angeles area stares down the long recovery process from recent wildfires that burned thousands of homes, one architecture firm is trying to help by giving away one of its residential designs. New York-based Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture is donating all the architectural plans, sections, and 3D models of a fire-resistant home, potentially saving homeowners tens of thousands of dollars in design fees. “We were archiving unbuilt projects around the time of the Los Angeles fires, and we came across this idea that we had for a house on a coastal area,” says Enrico Bonetti, the firm’s cofounder. “We loved the floor plans and then we realized that the design, the …

Los Angeles County said Wednesday that it’s suing Southern California Edison, alleging the utility’s equipment sparked January’s Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 17 people in the Altadena area. The lawsuit seeks to recover costs and damages sustained from the blaze that damaged “essential community infrastructure” and “massively impacted the County’s natural resources, harmed the environment and wildlife, and threatened public health,” LA County said in a statement. Additional costs have been incurred by county departments for ongoing support in assisting residents recovering from the fire’s destruction, according to the lawsuit. …

Gucci announced Thursday that the Balenciaga artistic director Demna will take over the creative direction of the Italian luxury fashion house, starting in July. Gucci and its French parent Kering said in a statement that Demna “has redefined modern luxury, earning global recognition and cementing his authority on the industry.” Demna, who goes by one name, has been at Kering-owned Balenciaga for a decade. He brings with him the title of artistic director. “I am truly excited to join the Gucci family,” he said in a statement. “It is an honor to contribute to a house that I deeply respect and have long admired.” Demna showed his latest and last Balenciaga ready-to-wear…

When it comes to how optimistic we are as a country, the glass is more than half full. According to a recent Marist Institute for Public Opinion poll, 56% of Americans feel optimistic about 2025, while 43% are pessimistic. You may feel like optimism and pessimism is an inborn personality trait, but which side you fall on is actually a choice. While it sounds surprising, Sumit Paul-Choudhury, author of The Bright Side: How Optimists Change the World and How You Can Be One, consciously decided to be an optimist after the death of his first wife. “It was initially black humor,” he explains. “I was saying, ‘Things are really grim right now, but I’ve decided that they’re g…

In summer 2022, when artificial intelligence-based text-to-image generation tools hit the mainstream, architects were cautiously excited. The ease of generating real-ish images of design concepts and buildings with just a few simple sentences was irresistible, and many architects began experimenting with ways of letting AI quickly do some of the sketching and ideating they’d gotten used to spending hours or days laboring over. “It’s almost like you’re speaking a building into existence,” one architect said. But now, with AI maturing and getting integrated into tools and industries far and wide, a surprisingly low number of architects are actually using AI in thei…

Pretty much everyone will sometimes struggle with anger at work. People fear the wrath of abusive supervisors, suppress anger to maintain a facade of professionalism, or vent anger toward coworkers who are, fairly or not, targets. Reactions to anger in the workplace can be strong, but they’re not always effective. As scholars who also fall prey to the pitfalls of anger ourselves, we are fascinated by anger. We have studied the causes, underlying processes, and consequences of anger from the perspectives of management, psychology, marketing, and negotiations. We recently reviewed more than 400 research articles across psychology, business, and related fields on top…

Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a generative-AI infused Alexa that it says will allow the popular voice assistant to have more personality, check a user’s tone and even plan romantic dates. But unlike before, when Alexa was offered for free on any Alexa-enabled devices, customers will have to pay Amazon a monthly fee of $19.99 for the revamped voice assistant, which it calls “Alexa+”. However, the generative-AI powered Alexa will be free for Prime members, who pay the company a monthly or annual fee for free delivery and other perks. At a media event held in New York City, Amazon executives showed off the update to the ten-year old digital assistant with the new feat…

WeWard, an app that offers real-world rewards for walking, announced Wednesday it’s signed tennis champ Venus Williams as an investor and ambassador for the app. The app, which offers users points called Wards for steps taken, lets users track their movements or import pedometer data from tools like iPhone’s Apple Health, Android’s Google Fit, or Fitbit. When they’ve racked up enough Wards, they can be redeemed for gift cards, charitable donations, or even cash deposits to user bank accounts. “We’ve decided to do something very simple,” says cofounder and CEO Yves Benchimol. “We just give cash to people to walk.” In addition to tangible rewards, users can also…

What if there were a battery that could release energy while trapping carbon dioxide? This isn’t science fiction; it’s the promise of lithium-carbon dioxide (Li-CO₂) batteries, which are currently a hot research topic. Li-CO₂ batteries could be a two-in-one solution to the current problems of storing renewable energy and taking carbon emissions out of the air. They absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into a white powder called lithium carbonate while discharging energy. These batteries could have profound implications for cutting emissions from vehicles and industry—and might even enable long-duration missions on Mars, where the atmosphere is 95% CO₂. To make…

Another day, another recall. It if seems like there have been a number of recalls recently, you’re not imagining it. In the last month alone, there has been a recall for particular brands of soup, sparkling water, and vegetables. This time, it’s for butter. What’s happened? Agri-Mark, the maker of Cabot Creamery dairy products, conducted a voluntary recall for a single lot of its Extra Creamy Premium Butter, Sea Salted, totaling 1,700 pounds in 189 cases. Testing revealed an elevated level of coliform bacteria. The recall was initiated on March 26. Coliform bacteria often are considered indicators of fecal contamination. The U.S. Food and Drug Administratio…

From devastating climate change to ongoing wars to the dismantling of the globe’s largest aid agency, there’s no shortage of problems facing the world. And now we can add another one to the list: An asteroid could conceivably hit the planet in just under eight years. And while the chances of that happening are very small, they have now nearly doubled. In December, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Chile, developed by the University of Hawaii and funded by NASA, discovered the existence of an asteroid known as 2024 YR4. That ATLAS should discover an asteroid is no surprise—there are millions of them in our cosmic neck of the woods alone.…

Featuring Matthew Prince, Cofounder and CEO, Cloudflare. Moderated by Brendan Vaughan, Editor in Chief, Fast Company. With a quarter of the global internet powered by Cloudflare—its network provides service to over 300 cities across more than 100 countries—the company is at the helm of delivering content and connecting millions. But as AI-powered bots grow at a prolific rate and cybersecurity risks become increasingly sophisticated, ensuring the safety of the internet requires innovative thinking. Join Cloudflare cofounder and CEO Matthew Prince for a one-on-one conversation on how the company plans to tackle the challenges of the future. View the full article

“China has already won the materials war.” Andrew Barron, one of the top materials experts on the planet, didn’t mince words when I interviewed him for a documentary on the dangers of our civilization’s dependency on China’s quasi-monopoly of rare earth minerals. If the world does not stop depending on China’s supply of rare earths, he warned two years ago, we could face an economic collapse in just a few decades. It sounds like a dystopian sci-fi movie, but this potentially catastrophic scenario began this week for the United States, when Xi Jinping’s government issued an immediate suspension of rare earth mineral and magnet exports, retaliating against Presiden…

The Lamborghini of baby strollers is literally a Lamborghini. Luxury carmaker Automobili Lamborghini is getting into baby gear by partnering with the British nursery brand Silver Cross for a limited-edition stroller called the Reef AL Arancio. Just 500 of the strollers will be made and each comes with a numbered edition plaque. Silver Cross calls it a “super stroller,” and it retails for about $5,000. [Image: Silver Cross] The stroller’s design borrows from the Lamborghini’s foundations, Silver Cross says, with an automotive-inspired brake pedal, hand-finished handlebar, and high-performance suede with Italian leather details. It comes with a high-gloss polycar…