What's on Your Mind?

You’ve tried it all before. Waking up at 5:30 a.m. Journaling first thing in the morning. The exercises you’re supposed to do before work. But do your morning habits stick? Are you still practicing them? We all want to “win the morning,” to be productive and intentional. The trouble with morning routines is that they don’t work as they should if you don’t fix your evening habits. People are obsessed with morning routines. But they forget that winning in the morning starts the night before. Every single choice you make after dinner is either setting you up for a great morning or sabotaging tomorrow before it begins. That late-night binge doesn’t just keep you up. I…

In 2015, in Gallup’s “State of the American Manager” report, then CEO and Chairman Jim Clifton made an assertion that startled many and quietly confirmed what others already suspected: “Most CEOs I know honestly don’t care about employees or take an interest in human resources. Sure, they know who their stars are and love them—but it ends there. Since CEOs don’t care, they put little to no pressure on their HR departments to get their cultures right . . .” Given the unique vantage point Clifton had into American business at the time, he offered a rather harsh and honest assessment. And, more than a decade later, the obvious question worth asking isn’t whether Clif…

“AI;DR” is new internet speak for AI-generated slop posts have just dropped. It is a riff on the initialism “TL;DR” (“too long; didn’t read”), which is often wielded as a criticism of a piece of writing simply too long or confusing to be worth the time it takes to read. The AI slopification of LinkedIn, X, and other social media platforms has been much discussed. A 2024 study found that more than 50% of long-form LinkedIn posts are likely AI-assisted—a surprise to exactly no one who has spent more than a few minutes scrolling the feed. That number has likely only increased in recent years, as AI becomes more embedded in our daily processes. We’re now entering the era …

The hottest AI tool on the market today isn’t a powerful frontier model from the likes of OpenAI or Anthropic. Rather, it’s a kludgey, wildly complex, open-source platform that’s already provoked a trademark dispute, multiple corporate bans—and fawning praise from developers around the world. It’s OpenClaw, and it’s specifically designed to build AI agents. I set it up, built an agent of my own, and promptly trained it to do my job for me. Here’s what happened. Beware the Claw For more than a year now, Big AI companies have promised us an “agentic AI” future. AI wouldn’t simply answer our queries or help us shop for a toaster, companies like OpenAI …

Most workplace frustration doesn’t come from a lack of effort or commitment. It comes from expectations that weren’t met—not because people failed to try, but because those expectations were never clearly stated or truly understood. In our organizational research over the past 30 years, we’ve seen this pattern repeatedly: when expectations are unclear, trust in leadership and collaboration begins to drop. When this happens, the frustration that follows is real. But the deeper cost is often invisible—trust begins to erode. This dynamic is increasingly common. Roles evolve, priorities shift, and teams are asked to move faster with less certainty. People continue to …

When social psychologist Jonathan Haidt published The Anxious Generation in March 2024, his core proposal—that children should be kept off social media until at least age 16, with tech companies bearing the burden of enforcement—was treated by many as aspirational, even quixotic. The tech industry dismissed it. Libertarian critics called it paternalistic overreach. Skeptics questioned the evidence base. That was then. In barely two years, Haidt’s “radical” idea has become something close to a global consensus—a textbook example of what political scientists call the “Overton Window”—one that’s shifted at extraordinary speed. The Overton Window describes…

For decades, we’ve been told that the smartest organizations are “data-driven.” The phrase carries moral weight. To be guided by data is to be serious, rational, modern. If you’re not, you’re seen as ideological or sentimental. In the workplace, quantification has become synonymous with credibility and competence. And yet, the more data we accumulate, the less certain we seem to be that we are making better decisions. There’s a paradox. Organizations are drowning in dashboards, KPIs, performance metrics, behavioral traces, biometric indicators, predictive scores, engagement rates, and AI-generated forecasts. We have more data than we know what to do with. We pretend t…

A culture of fear makes it easy to cloud our judgment For thousands of years, walking and horseback riding were the fundamental modes of transport, and settlement patterns were a direct reflection of transport options. Compact, low-rise villages and cities made sense based on how far people could reasonably travel on foot or by horse. This was true all the way up until the late 1800s. Then came an invention that let people travel incredible distances in seconds, entirely reshaping cities with dense population clusters. The technology was a sturdy box designed to transport multiple people at once, but often carried just one. I’m talking, of course, about the elevat…

Reading or sending emails may seem like an innocuous task, but sometimes, this simple act can trigger a dramatic bodily response. Like forgetting to literally breathe. “Many of us have heard of sleep apnea: the condition where breathing gets interrupted during sleep.” Dora Kamau, Lead Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher at mental health app Headspace, told Fast Company. “Email apnea is a similar idea—just happening in the middle of your workday,” When we’re intensely focused on a task, the brain will “switch off” certain unconscious functions to redirect its processing power to the task at hand. In that state, a lot of people unknowingly alter their breathing, tak…

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. More than 600,000 podcasts released 27 million episodes in 2025. Keeping up with even a tiny fraction of those 70,000-plus daily releases is impossible. So I’ve been exploring new ways to keep up with audio: podcast summaries, audio digests, and cool new tools for finding and saving audio highlights. Podsnacks: Get podcast summaries by email Get podcast summaries delivered to your email with Podsnacks. Catch up on shows you don’t have time to listen to. The free digest includes AI-generated summaries drawn from 25 of the most popul…

Accessibility is often treated as a technical problem. Does it meet standards? Is it ergonomic? Is it safe? Those questions matter, but they are incomplete. Many products fail not because they don’t function, but because they make the user feel singled out. Shame is one of the most powerful barriers to product adoption, and it is rarely discussed in design reviews. People delay using canes, grab bars, hearing aids, or mobility supports even when they would meaningfully improve daily life. Why? Because many products still communicate something the user does not want to say out loud: Something is wrong with me. If we want accessible design to succeed, and we want pe…

At 12, I was walking around a very affluent neighborhood with my father and he said, “Mikey, all these people in these nice houses, not one of them could run a gas station.” That stuck with me. The gas station test isn’t about intelligence or ambition, it’s about aptitude for running a successful business. As a strong student, then an investment banking analyst, then a private equity associate, I was in this jetstream towards a career in investing. But can investors run gas stations? Does it matter? This concept was always in the back of my mind. I dove so deep into business details as an investor that my interest actually inhibited my performance. I was propelled…

With Netflix now streaming original podcasts and Apple announcing a “category-leading video experience” on its app this spring, the meaning of the word “podcast” has grown increasingly diffuse. It was much easier to pin down during the medium’s mid-aughts infancy. Back then, a podcast was simply asynchronous talk radio—the natural next step after moving from terrestrial radio, to satellite platforms like SiriusXM, to a new and purely digital format that could be downloaded and consumed on demand. In the years since, the definition has vastly expanded. Essentially, any form of episodic audio or video content that involves people speaking into microphones can now b…

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard University amid a campus review of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the university announced Wednesday. Summers, who has been on leave since November and whose name appeared hundreds of times in newly released Epstein files, will leave at the end of the school year, according to a statement from Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton. “Professor Summers has announced that he will retire from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until that time,” Newton said. In a statement, Summers said it was a difficult decision and e…

Companies want to hire workers with artificial intelligence skills, but don’t want to pay the premium. Those are the findings from a new report from Payscale, a leading online provider of data on salaries and compensation. Payscale’s 2026 Compensation Best Practices Report finds that while 60% of companies mention AI as part of their job descriptions, only 55% are willing to shell out extra money for those skills in the form of higher salaries, bonuses or even equity in the company. Why? Well, according to the report, there are a few reasons for the discrepancy, including the impact of a tight job market on hiring, coming at a time when businesses are also tighten…

At a time of broken climate pledges and an economy-wide bearhug of automation and artificial intelligence, the dominant themes of the recently announced 2026 National Design Awards—climate action, sustainability, dedication to craft—are a refreshing reset. Rewarding innovation and impact among U.S.-based designers, the awards are both an honor and a pulse check on the state of design. This year’s group of winners represent a diverse group of practitioners and firms exploring ways that work in design and the arts can counteract environmental catastrophe and re-center the human hand in shaping the future. Honorees include the indigenous underpinnings in the textiles…

Next week, a rare celestial event will take to the skies. On March 3, amateur astronomers will get to witness a blood moon and a worm moon all at once. According to Space.com, a blood moon occurs during a total lunar eclipse, as the Earth passes directly between the Sun and Moon and casts a shadow across the moon’s surface. The moon appears red due to the way the Earth’s atmosphere filters sunlight. “This effect, known as Rayleigh scattering, is the same reason that the sky takes on magnificent shades of red and orange around sunset,” the site explains. While different seasons often bring exciting astrological events, this one is exceptionally rare. According to N…

Gen Z still believes in true love, even if the pursuit looks a little different from their parents’ generation. That’s according to a new Tinder x Harris Poll white paper shared exclusively with Fast Company. The survey was conducted online in the U.S. on behalf of Match Group by the Harris Poll from September to October 2025, among a nationally representative sample of 2,500 single adults ages 18 to 79. Some 80% of Gen Z singles said they believe they’ll find true love, and 74% said they believe they’ll get married, compared to 57% and 43% of all singles, respectively. That might surprise some at a time when young people are reportedly having less sex, going …

The home of the “Mona Lisa” is getting a new boss. Art historian Christophe Leribault, a veteran museum director, is taking over at the Louvre, shouldering the challenge of getting the world’s largest museum out of crisis after the brazen heist in October of the French crown jewels. French government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon announced Wednesday that Leribault is taking over from outgoing Louvre director Laurence des Cars, who resigned Tuesday. The difficulties he inherits are formidable. The daylight robbery — among the highest-profile museum thefts in living memory — exposed alarming security holes at the Paris landmark. The former royal palace has also s…

The crypto market got some good news on Wednesday morning, as Circle reported better-than-expected earnings numbers, sending its stock soaring. Circle, a fintech company that issues and regulates stablecoins among other things, reported fourth-quarter and full fiscal year 2025 earnings early Wednesday, which showed that total revenue grew 77% to $770 million during the fourth quarter, and net income for the quarter increased by $129 million. Adjusted EBITDA also grew 412% during the quarter. For the full year, total revenue grew 64% to $2.7 billion. In response, Circle shares took off, skyrocketing more than 15% during pre-trading. By midday Wednesday, the stock …