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Planner vs. Engineer is a well-known professional rivalry in the infrastructure world. The arguments are sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile, sometimes about important issues, sometimes insignificant. I’m in a peculiar spot because of my career as a “plangineer.” My parents helped me buy a civil engineering degree, but several years into my career, I bought the certified planning certificate. I know the two camps very well. The roundabout question Roundabouts are one of the many Planner vs. Engineer debates, and it happens to be a very important issue where emotions cloud good judgment. As much as I criticize the engineering profession, they are generally correc…

When cities throw out single-family zoning rules—like Minneapolis did in 2018, or Cambridge, Massachusetts, voted to do this year—the first new multifamily construction projects on a block often come from developers, not homeowners converting existing dwellings. And no matter how desperately a city needs new housing units, change often happens slowly. In part, that’s because even if someone is interested in adding apartments to their own house for extra income, they might not know where to start. But in Toronto, which ditched single-family zoning in 2023, a tool kit makes it easier for “citizen developers” to understand their options and how much construction might cost. …

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s net worth surged to $749 billion late Friday after the Delaware Supreme Court reinstated Tesla stock options worth $139 billion that were voided last year, according to Forbes’ billionaires index. Musk’s 2018 pay package, once worth $56 billion, was restored by the Delaware Supreme Court on Friday, two years after a lower court struck down the compensation deal as “unfathomable.” The Supreme Court said that a 2024 ruling that rescinded the pay package had been improper and inequitable to Musk. Earlier this week, Musk became the first person ever to surpass $600 billion in net worth on the heels of reports that his aerospace startup SpaceX…

What’s up, type nerds? Fast Company’s latest print issue features some of the brightest minds in AI, and creative director Mike Schnaidt wanted to choose a typeface that looked futuristic. So go pick up a copy now. View the full article

You might have a go-to hot sauce already. But for the past year or so, Sichuan condiments brand Fly by Jing has been repositioning to capture mainstream heat seekers, and its subtle packaging update, rolling out now, is the DTC darling’s latest move to optimize for its new distribution channel of choice: mass retail. To call the visual changes a “rebrand” would be a stretch, but the subtle updates point to how the company is pivoting its messaging for analog sales. It’s packaging uses pared-down graphics and copy, with more negative space and a strict focus on must-have details that allow first-time buyers to quickly make a purchase decision just by looking at the pro…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Back in his 1996 letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett famously wrote: “If you aren’t willing to own a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.” That statement only makes the recent homebuilder stock purchases and sales by Berkshire Hathaway—led by Buffett, who will step down as CEO at the end of 2025—even more eyebrow-raising. Here’s the timeline. August 2023: Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that in Q2 2023, the company made a bet on U.S. homebuilders and bought 5,969,714 shares of D.R. Horton, 152,572 shares of Le…

When Apple launched the App Store in 2008, it was impossibly influential to the future of the internet. The all-powerful world wide web was sliced and diced into bite-sized apps oft-dubbed Web 2.0. What followed was not just software that fit in your pocket. From TikTok to Uber, these camera-wielding, GPS-integrated, cloud-connected platforms changed the way we lived. Now, in the wake of AI, the app store is arising anew. But instead of being built as tappable icons inside a mobile OS, they are plugging directly into the conversations of LLMs like Microsoft CoPilot and Anthropic’s Claude. Today, OpenAI—the largest AI platform with 800 million weekly users—is openi…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings beyond seasonality could suggest a market that is heating up. Since the national Pandemic Housing Boom fizzled out in 2022, the national power dynamic has slowly been shifting directionally from sellers to buyers. Of course, across the country that s…

Organizations look structured and logical from the outside—boxes and lines, reporting relationships, KPIs, and performance frameworks. But walk into any real meeting, and you’ll sense it: side glances, shifting energy, people going silent when one voice enters the room, unexplained resistance to change, and power dynamics no slide deck could predict. That’s not just dysfunction. That’s the system speaking, and most leaders aren’t listening. That is why we need something called systemic intelligence. Systemic intelligence is the capacity to sense and respond to the invisible forces shaping an organization’s behavior, culture, and outcomes. It’s not about…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Baiju Shah is constantly bridging different worlds. His formative years were shaped by observing his mother, who trained as a commercial artist, and his father, who was an engineer. As global CEO of agency AKQA, he leads an organization that deploys creativity and technology on behalf of cl…

I saw my first holiday-themed ad on TV before Halloween. I was startled, yet not surprised. Kind of a funny feeling, really. Yes, the annual holiday shopping sprint is upon us. For years, the process has been defined by frantic comparison searches and endless product review scrolling. But this year, you can finally delegate the busywork to an army of digital assistants. AI is no longer just a party trick: it’s a legitimate, price-savvy, personal shopping engine. Want to skip the agonizing research and focus on finding that perfect gift without blowing your budget? Here are four essential AI tools you should be using right now. Gift Idea Generator You ne…

Hello again, and thank you for spending time with Fast Company’s Plugged In. Last October, I visited the Silicon Valley headquarters of 1X Technologies—the startup behind a humanoid home robot called Neo—and spoke with its VP of product and design, Dar Sleeper. Among the points he made was that long-standing public expectations have set a high bar for household robots. Naturally, he name-checked the world’s most iconic one. “The ultimate, North Star, in a lot of people’s minds, is Rosie the Robot,” he told me. “A Jetsons world where you ask and receive, and it makes your life better, you spend more time with your family, you’re more present.” Sleeper’s referen…

Catherine Bracy is the Founder and CEO of TechEquity, an organization working at the intersection of tech and economic equity. The company advocates on behalf of policies that ensure people—not companies—control how technology shapes their economic futures. She was previously Code for America’s senior director of Partnerships and Ecosystem, and founded Code for All. During the 2012 election cycle, she was director of Obama for America’s Technology Field Office in San Francisco. What’s the big idea? Venture capital isn’t just funding innovation; it’s shaping what kind of innovation is possible. Right now, that system is failing us. It forces startups to sacrifice re…

Whenever I tell people I’m an auctioneer, there are inevitably two follow up questions: First: “Do you talk really fast like those guys on TV?” followed by a cartoonish imitation, complete with an imaginary microphone and a pseudo Southern accent. Second: “What’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever sold?” After two decades of auctioneering, the answer is usually “something in the many millions.” I typically just name the last item I sold for over a million dollars. Whether someone pictures a fast talking cattle auction or a refined British gentleman selling Picassos in black tie, auctioneers are assumed to do one thing: talk. A lot. Which is why most peop…

Reading the news, it can feel like no one is partying anymore. People seem more excited to stay home than go out. Gen Z is drinking less than any other generation. Wellness clubs have replaced night clubs as the go-to spots to socialize. But partying is not dead — priorities have simply shifted, as highlighted in the Evite’s Pregame Report 2026 released today. The online invitations platform surveyed more than 5,000 party enthusiasts to uncover the hottest trends and the biggest pet peeves for party planning in 2026. As it turns out, partying no longer happens only at the club. It has shifted to smaller, connection-focused affairs. After birthdays and …