What's on Your Mind?

Picture two scenes. In the first, a Swiss train pulls away at exactly 10:02 a.m. If you’re not on the platform, it’s already too late. Precision is respect. It always comes first. In the second, a family minibus idles with the engine running. Somebody’s cousin is late. “We can’t leave without him.” The whole group waits because relationships matter more than the clock. These two images capture what anthropologist Edward T. Hall described in the 1950s as monochronic and polychronic relationships to time. In monochronic cultures, time is linear and segmented. You do one thing at a time. You respect deadlines. You don’t interrupt. In polychronic cultures, by contrast, ti…

The job market is tough right now: AI résumé filters, the rise of ghost jobs, and waves of industry-wide layoffs. Many workers cling tightly to their jobs in this environment, a phenomenon known as “job hugging.” But a surprising number of mid-career millennials aren’t scrambling to avoid redundancy. Instead, they admit they’d prefer an external push out the door because the alternative—voluntarily navigating a chaotic job market—feels far too risky. And experts say it’s a trend that should leave the cohort right below millennials worried. A recent survey of 2,000 Gen Z and millennial workers in the US by online education platform ELVTR found that 37% of mill…

Stock trading platform Robinhood has announced its newest offering: the Robinhood Platinum Card. The upgraded option comes two years after the company unveiled its first credit card, the Gold Card. “We built the Gold Card to be the best card for everyday spending, and customer demand showed us there was room to push the boundaries even further,” Deepak Rao, the vice president and general manager of Robinhood Money, said in the announcement. “The Platinum Card offers higher limits, elite rewards and luxury benefits, and raises the bar for what customers should expect from a premium credit card.” Although you can request access, the new Platinum Card is invit…

Picture this: It’s lunchtime in the 1960s, and you’re out with co-workers enjoying not one, not two, but three cocktails with your meal. While the three-martini lunch seems improbable today, workplaces still can be boozy places. After-work happy hours, corporate parties and client meetings at fancy bars are still expected in many areas of American corporate culture. Talking about sobriety with managers and colleagues therefore can be daunting for people in recovery from alcohol addiction. Professionals in some industries fear being judged for needing help or missing out on career advancement opportunities if social drinking is encouraged as part of a job. Treatment pro…

Jurors in a bellwether trial about the impacts of social media on children watched a deposition of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday that explored what the architects of Facebook and Instagram knew from internal research about the negative experiences of young users and how the company responded. New Mexico’s attorney general alleges that Meta violated state consumer protection laws in failing to disclose what it knew about the dangers of addiction to social media as well as child sexual exploitation on the company’s platforms. Attorneys for Meta say the company discloses risks and makes efforts to weed out harmful content and experiences — acknowledging that some ba…

Late last month, frozen food manufacturer Ajinomoto Foods North America announced a recall of roughly 3 million pounds of not-ready-to-eat products after customers reported finding glass in rice. In the U.S., many of the recalled products were sold at Trader Joe’s locations. Now that the recall has been dramatically expanded, with new products being pulled from the shelves. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? On March 3, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) posted a recall notice announcing that Ajinomoto Foods North America was expanding its earlier recall to include an additional 33 million pounds of various ready-to-eat and not-re…

In January, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, announced that it would use its chatbot to develop an AI tutoring system for more than a million students in El Salvador. The announcement came on the heels of similar ones from OpenAI, which is connecting students in Kazakhstan with its ChatGPT Edu services, and from Microsoft, which is similarly equipping students and teachers in the United Arab Emirates with AI-based tools and training. While other countries are executing on national infrastructure projects for the AI era and treating it as an economic imperative, here in the United States, we can’t seem to move past a narrative of how AI makes it easier…

The Social Security Administration is rolling out some big changes to how it handles disability payments while also upgrading its customer service. The changes come in the aftermath of a major overhaul by DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, in 2025, which resulted in the layoffs of more than 7,000 workers. First, let’s take a look at disability payments. The new process aims to cut the time it takes to determine eligibility for Social Security, speed up the time it takes beneficiaries to receive their checks, and, according to the Washington Examiner, reduce the agency’s current backlog. The SSA had a backlog of claims that was on track to exc…

In the high-stakes world of revenue orchestration, a quiet but costly friction is slowing down deals. It isn’t market volatility or budget cuts—it’s a fundamental disconnect between the generations tasked with closing the sale. Steve Cox, CEO of the newly merged sales tech powerhouse SalesLoft and Clari, sat down with me recently to discuss a startling finding from their latest report: generational conflict is costing sales organizations an estimated $56 billion in lost productivity annually. That’s not a typo. Billion, with a B. “When Boomers hear ‘AI makes you faster,’ what they really hear is ‘You’re too slow,’” Cox explains. Meanwhile, 39% of Gen Z sellers pre…

There’s a new exercise trend making the rounds on the internet: Tai Chi walking, inspired by a centuries-old Chinese martial art that incorporates flowing hand and foot movements with breath and mindfulness. Also know as “meditation in motion” (and dubbed “medication in motion”), Tai Chi is a gentle form of exercise that has a number of reported health benefits, primarily strength, flexibility, and balance, and, to a lesser degree, aerobic conditioning, according to an article from Harvard Medical School. Without using weights or resistance bands, you can gain upper-body strength through arm exercises that use your core and back muscles in a similar way. Another s…

Raising venture capital for a physical-world company can feel harder than getting struck by lightning. You could be standing on a mountain for months, holding a metal pole in a storm, waiting. And you probably still wouldn’t get hit. Meanwhile, it can seem like founders in San Francisco announce a new AI round every other week. Capital moves quickly when you’re building software that rides the current hype cycle. If you’re building something that touches atoms instead of code, like manufacturing, energy, agriculture, or materials, you’re often grinding quietly. The timelines are longer. The checks are fewer. The rejections stack up. And pardon my French, but you get y…

On the northern outskirts of Beijing, massive holes in the earth bear the scars of what it’s taken to fuel the Chinese capital’s growth into a sprawling megacity that more than 22 million people call home. The site was a quarry that from 1990 to 2015 provided the raw material to help Beijing grow at hyperspeed, supplying everything from skyscrapers to roads to the main stadium built for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Last operated by Beijing Xingfa Cement Co., its closure left behind a negative space that is the inverse of the vertical urbanity of Beijing. Now, after nearly a decade of planning and design, the quarry’s rehabilitation into a striking and surreal 265-acre p…

It’s well known that artificial intelligence has driven skyrocketing demand for electrical power, computing hardware, and network connectivity at data centers. But AI has also quietly shifted how consumers use their home internet service. AT&T reports a recent boost in the share of data that customers upload through its network as they communicate with AI systems. “In 2025, customers’ upload traffic grew two times faster than download traffic,” says Jenifer Robertson, executive vice president and general manager for AT&T Mass Markets. “And that’s driven by AI use.” Historically, home internet use has centered on downloading data—accessing websites, scroll…

The numbers on a new patriotic Pennsylvania license plate were designed to be easy to read, but they’ve actually introduced a new point of confusion. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced the “Let Freedom Ring” specialty license plate last summer to promote the commonwealth’s role in America’s founding 250 years ago. The cream-colored plate depicts a dark blue Liberty Bell in the background, along with the previously mentioned slogan and commonwealth’s name in red. None of that is at issue, though: The problem is the style of the zero. The number has a slash through its counter to prevent confusion with the letter O. Now, however, Pennsylvania toll came…

I may have just seen the biggest interface breakthrough in years. Or not. But I think so? Things are moving so fast that it’s hard to tell. Ryo Lu, head of design at the white-hot coding tool Cursor has invited me to their charcoal-hued San Francisco studio. Before anyone says hello, I’m greeted by a pile of footwear in the entry of the no-shoes open office. I suddenly regret my choice to wear my New Balance loafers without socks. The softspoken Lu, donning the creative-approved uniform of flowy wide-legged pants and a button down, weaves me through desks—past half a sports bar’s worth of uptime monitors and a shelf of knicknacks including a New Jeans record …

In 1994, Bernard Tschumi, then Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture in New York, launched an experiment that banned paper and hand drawings, requiring architecture students to use computers instead. Together with the rise of computer-aided programs, Tschumi’s “Paperless Studio” accelerated the profession’s embrace of digital tools and reshaped how architects conceived ideas. Now that AI has entered the picture, you’d be forgiven for thinking the architectural sketch as we know it is dead. Quite the opposite. “We are in a world that is now completely dominated by digital tools, but something strange is happening: The hand sketch is back,” says …

When you visit the Samsung booth this week at the Mobile World Congress 2026—which, as always, is being held at the Fira Gran Via convention center in Barcelona—you can make your way past the array of brand-new devices to find a timeline of old Galaxy S phones mounted to a wall. It’s a neat piece of history, but I’m not sure it had the intended effect. Rather than demonstrating Samsung’s progress over the years, it highlights how the South Korean tech giant—still the No. 2 phone maker in the world, right behind Apple, according to data from Counterpoint—has been treading water at the top of its lineup. This year’s Galaxy S26 Ultra, announced a few days before the …

Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issues—everything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor. A reader asks: Last fall, I left a beloved job and assisted them in hiring two people to replace me. One was an internal hire, the other required an outside interview process. We received over 50 applications, narrowed it down to 13 phone interviews, then seven in-person interviews, and finally made a very satisfying hiring decision. At each step along the way, I sent out polite rejection emails to those who didn’t make the next level. It was very professional, and a…

We’re only two months in, but 2026 is already shaping up to be the year of agents. The current surge began with Claude Code, which achieved critical mass over the holidays. That led to all kinds of lobster-themed software names (long story), which culminated in OpenClaw, an open-source agent creation and management system. It might also be a stealth marketing campaign for Apple to sell a ton of Mac Minis, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s too early to say what kind of productivity gains the current wave of agents will create, but the push to agents is undeniable. It’s also very exclusive. For all the talk of, “the only coding language you need to know is English…

Job interviews can trip up even the most qualified candidates with verbal landmines. In this article, we discuss specific phrases candidates should avoid using in interviews and more effective alternatives recommended by experts. Discover common phrases that send the wrong message to interviewers, as well as stronger alternatives that demonstrate genuine value, so you can effectively communicate your skills and experience. Lead With Curiosity, Not Critique If you’re interviewing for a tech role, here’s a fast way to tank your chances: Walk in and immediately trash the company’s systems. You know the move. “Honestly, your system is outdated. I’d replace it with some…

My team often jokes about the “Vulcan Mind Meld.” They say I need to share a brain with a founder before we can write a check. They aren’t wrong, but the process isn’t science fiction. It’s usually just a walk. Specifically, it’s a walk to the Stanford Dish. The path is a 3.5-mile loop in the foothills above the university. It’s steep, exposed, and offers little place to hide. I don’t take founders here for exercise. I take them here because the controlled environment of a boardroom practically demands rehearsed answers. The trail does not. I don’t prepare a script for these walks. In fact, that’s the point. The pitch is already done; I know the metrics. Now I…

Every important endeavor in your life needs some kind of North Star to help you determine whether you’re succeeding. Fitness professionals recommend having an overarching goal when planning a workout regime. Similarly, it’s valuable to have strategic aims for your career. Professional goals are important, because they help you evaluate which of a variety of paths available to you is the ideal one to pursue. For example, if your aim is to play a leadership role in a company, then you might choose to get an advanced degree that hones your leadership skills. That time in school might slow your progress in getting promotions in your vertical in the short term, but will en…