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Thinking forward is an automatic process. Cause, then effect. Input, then output. A to B. It feels logical—and normal to start with a conclusion, then find justification around it. But we can always take our thinking a step further. Sometimes, the best way to get the answers you want is to think backwards. It’s called mental inversion. Turn the whole thinking process upside down. As the great algebraist Carl Jacobi said, “Invert, always invert.” Put another way, “What would guarantee I fail at X?” is a better question than “How do I achieve X?” Most people focus on the obvious process because the brain doesn’t like to think through ugly pitfalls. Starting from B to A helps you avoid the results you don’t want. It’s one of the most powerful tools I use to think clearly. To turn your decision-making process upside down, start from the back. Thinking backwards works because it forces you to reflect on what may be missing. The human brain is wired to save energy. It wants quick answers. Slowing down to see the full picture helps you cover all the basics of your decision-making process. Inversion helps you ask better questions. It can improve your clarity. Psychology research backs this up. A study in Cognitive Science showed that framing problems in reverse helps people make fewer errors in judgment. It works because it breaks default thinking patterns. It slows you down just enough to think more deliberately. The antidote to mental fog Clarity disappears in abstraction. If I try to think through every possible positive outcome, I get overwhelmed. But if I ask, “What’s the dumbest mistake I could make here?” I suddenly see the risk clearly. When I want to be productive, I don’t just make a to-do list. I make a not-to-do list. That’s mental inversion. It opens up a whole perspective I’m missing. Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu has said, “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” When I write, I don’t just think about everything I should include. I also look for what to cut. What confuses the reader? What slows them down? I try to remove what makes the post unreadable. And try to get rid of that. Inversion works because subtraction is often more effective than addition. It applies to almost every area of life. In his book, The Bed of Procrustes, author Nassim Taleb writes, “Knowledge is subtractive, not additive — what we subtract (reduction by what does not work, what not to do), not what we add (what to do).” Think like a contrarian Reversing your thinking also trains you to be mentally independent, assuming the opposite of what you believe and testing it. It reveals hidden assumptions. Don’t just look for what’s true. Look for what could be false. You don’t always need a new good idea. Sometimes you just need to clear out the bad ones. Look at opposites. Always invert. “Indeed, many problems can’t be solved forward,” says philanthropist and investor Charlie Munger. By exploring the worst, you can unlock the best. When in doubt, reverse. Don’t just pursue outcomes. Find the blind spots people normally ignore. Sometimes the fastest way forward is to look backward first. How to apply inversion in life If you are stuck on big, knotty questions, invert. “How do I find happiness?” is vague. Instead, ask, “What are the specific, proven actions that make me miserable every single time?” For me, it’s skipping quality sleep, isolating myself, and overthinking. If life satisfaction is what you want, don’t just ask, “How do I live a happy life?” The more helpful question is, “What makes my life miserable?” List those things, and get rid of them first. Is it a specific experience in your relationship? Poor health or lack of purpose? Be specific. Detail the things that make you unhappy. Now try avoiding them. It’s a precise way to eliminate everything draining your soul. For good health, avoid everything that makes your body worse off over the long term. Bad sleep, ultra-processed food, no exercise, sedentary lifestyle. Think through how people ruin their health. Don’t start with “what should I do?” Start with “what habits destroy health?” Get rid of those first. Subtraction before addition. To improve your social relationships, spend less time with your connections who drain you. Career benefits If you want to apply inversion to your career, think about what people do that hinders their careers. Complacency. Refusal to adapt or learn new skills. Over-promising and under-delivering. Avoid those traps. You don’t need complex systems. You need fewer blind spots. Inversion applies everywhere. In business, you can focus on what would make your new project an absolute failure in record time. The answers will be clear. Ignore your customers. Spend money you don’t have on things you need. Assume you’re the smartest person in the room. Don’t validate your idea. Be inconsistent. Start with your anti-checklist. Your actual plan becomes the inverse of that list. Listen obsessively. Be ruthlessly frugal. Test everything. Be more consistent on what moves the needle. Seek smarter advisors. The path forward becomes clear from the list of things to avoid. Inversion gets rid of mental traps, shows you what matters, and stops you from making the same thinking errors. If you want to think clearly, start thinking backwards. View the full article

Halloween candy shoppers who bought Reese’s pumpkin-shaped candy said they felt tricked when the picture on the outside packaging didn’t exactly match the treat inside. They were so upset, in fact, that they filed a lawsuit in late 2023 seeking $5 million in damages. Now a judge has dismissed their claims. At issue is Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins, whose wrappers show an image of a pumpkin-shaped candy with a jack-o’-lantern face carved into the chocolate outer layer. In reality, the chocolate inside is faceless. In a class-action suit filed in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida, plaintiffs claimed Reese’s candy wrappers were deceptive. According to court documents, plaintiffs thought “the product contained a cute looking carving of a pumpkin’s mouth and eyes as pictured on the product packaging” and said they would not have made the purchase had they known the chocolates would not actually feature those decorative details. Reese’s maker the Hershey Co. didn’t buy it. The confectioner noted the Halloween-themed packaging also included images of uncarved pumpkin chocolates and a disclaimer reading “decorating suggestion” to indicate the carvings were an idea to try yourself. The class-action suit claimed the “decorating suggestion” disclaimer was printed in tiny letters on the back and thus inadequate, but a judge didn’t agree and wrote that these consumers ultimately got what they were after: edible candy. “Plaintiffs paid for a consumable good, and in return, they received a delicious, edible Reese’s product,” Judge Melissa Damian wrote in her order granting a motion to dismiss on September 26. “Plaintiffs have failed to allege facts demonstrating a concrete injury.” It’s common for packaged foods to include disclaimers like “enlarged to show texture” and “product may not appear exactly as shown” for exactly this reason. No, your Cheerios aren’t actually that big, and no, your Reese’s pumpkin-shaped peanut butter cup doesn’t come pre-carved. For Hershey, which accounts for some 36% of the U.S. chocolate market, according to PitchBook data, these disclaimers are a way to guard against frivolous lawsuits when the company wants to use something other than ultrarealistic product images on its packaging. Like a box of cake mix that shows a picture of a finished cake on the outside, the Reese’s wrapper wasn’t showing what the candy looked like upon opening it, but what it could look like after some DIY carving. For those who can’t bear to eat a pumpkin Reese’s without a jack-o’-lantern grin, the message here is clear: You’re better off with a toothpick and some creativity than a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. View the full article

A new business infrastructure is emerging with enormous potential impact but almost no conscious design. In this new world, algorithms negotiate with algorithms, making decisions that shape markets, determine the course of careers, and decide whether companies succeed or fail. Humans, meanwhile, risk being left to watch from the sidelines. On LinkedIn, posts written by AI models are liked by bots and commented on by AI assistants. In recruiting, candidates use AI to draft résumés while companies use AI to evaluate them. In procurement, some organizations are already using AI to draft requests for proposals, or RFPs—detailed documents that invite vendors to bid on supplying goods or services—while vendors are turning to AI to generate the proposals they have been invited to submit. The efficiency gains that AI can deliver are very real—automation can save time, cut costs, and improve consistency. But this does not mean we should ignore the dangers that those gains obscure. If we want to avoid slipping into a world in which humans are increasingly irrelevant, we need to be both alert to the risks and intentional about designing processes and tools to mitigate them. What Changes When Algorithms Interact In order to navigate this new reality, business leaders must first understand it more precisely. Here there are four important features of our algorithmically abstracted world: The Audience Changes New technologies often transform business, but what’s happening now is different. The new technology isn’t just providing new tools, but a new audience. This isn’t an entirely new phenomenon. Humans have been tuning content for algorithms in some areas for years, as in the case of search engine optimization for websites. But not only is the scale now changing, but the algorithmic audience is taking over both sides of the conversation. When algorithms speak to other algorithms, language changes from a medium for human understanding into code for machine processing. For a job seeker writing an application today, the best path forward is not always to try to tell their professional story in a way that will be compelling to a human audience. Instead, it will often be better for them to encode keywords and phrases to maximize their score in the applicant tracking system (ATS scores). And, ironically, the best tools for creating this kind of optimized application are often algorithmic themselves: generative AI models. This does not mean that communication has stopped. It has not. Rather, it has changed. In addition to, and sometimes in place of, human meaning, a different kind of meaning is becoming increasingly important, one that is measured in match scores, engagement rates, and ranking positions. Humans are still involved in the loop, but only at certain points, and much of the process goes on without human intervention. Metrics Are Replacing Reality In 1975, the British economist Charles Goodhart came up with what is now known as Goodhart’s Law—the idea that when a measure becomes the target for action, it ceases to be a good measure. The idea is that once people make decisions with the goal of meeting certain metrics, the underlying behavior that the metric was meant to measure is changed as people shift from focusing on the real, underlying goal to trying to optimize their score. Briefly put, once we understand there is a system, we always try to game it. Goodhart’s Law becomes increasingly relevant as we move toward autonomous algorithmic interactions. For example, ATS systems score candidates based on keyword matches, years of experience, and educational credentials. Candidates respond by using AI tools to optimize for exactly these metrics. But high scores in the assessment system then lose their intended meaning: Where a high score once meant that a candidate was probably a good fit for the job, now it may just mean that the candidate has access to tools that are good at gaming the scoring system. Tacit Knowledge Erodes Teachers and sports coaches have long known that much of the most important learning for their students or athletes happens in the process of doing the work rather than in a flash of insight when an explanation is given. When managers write performance reviews, they aren’t just documenting performance; they are also developing their ability to observe, evaluate, and articulate feedback. When teams craft project proposals, in addition to bidding for work, they are clarifying their thinking, discovering gaps in logic, and building shared understanding. This tacit knowledge—the skills and insights that emerge from doing rather than consuming information—erodes when AI takes over the process. Purpose Shifts Our current business functions evolved in a human-driven world. They contain processes designed by humans, for humans, to achieve some human goal. When these processes are outsourced to autonomous algorithmic interactions, often they stop serving the original purpose. In fact, the whole point of doing them can be lost. Take performance reviews. These originally had the clear goal of assessing employee capabilities to support actions aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the human worker. But if we end up with AI on both sides of the interaction, the whole process becomes performative. For instance, if a knowledge worker uses AI to write his reports, and his managers uses AI to generate the worker’s performance reviews, the original purpose of the review process is no longer being served. This doesn’t mean that nothing valuable is taking place: an AI assessment of the quality of AI outputs can still tell us something useful. But it does mean that the reason for carrying out the reviews is now a pretense—improving the effectiveness of the human worker has become irrelevant to the process that is actually being conducted. Four Strategic Responses As algorithms increasingly transact with algorithms, business now operates on two levels at once: an algorithmic layer where signals are exchanged between machines, and a human layer where meaning and value are created. Leaders must guide the interaction between these layers so that efficiency gains do not come at the expense of judgment, learning, or purpose. Here are four practical steps: Protect Human Judgment: Not every decision can or should be automated. Leaders must deliberately ring-fence certain domains—final hiring calls, creative development, setting organizational purpose—and ensure that human judgment retains the final say in these areas. Generally, where values, creativity, and culture are at stake, a human should be the final decision maker. Translate Between Worlds: As business language splits into two distinct tracks—signals for machines and meaning for humans—leaders will need translators. These are people and processes that can interpret ATS scores, SEO rankings, or engagement metrics and reconnect them with human insight. A résumé may score well, but does the candidate bring originality? A post may “perform,” but did it actually persuade? Translation layers stop organizations from mistaking algorithmic proxies for real understanding. Design for Learning: Some activities are valuable not only for their output but also for the tacit knowledge they generate. Leaders must protect key processes as sites of practice, even if they are slower or less polished. Short-term efficiency gains should never come at the cost of eroding the capabilities on which long-term success depends. Protect the Purpose: When business activities shift into algorithmic exchanges, it’s easy for the form to survive while the function disappears. A performance review still gets written, but the developmental conversation never happens. A proposal gets generated, but the shared thinking never occurs. Leaders must continually bring activities back to their underlying purpose and ensure that the process still serves that purpose rather than becoming an empty performance. Algorithms are now part of the basic fabric of business. Resisting this shift is as pointless as commanding the tide not to come in. But while this change is inevitable, it must still be managed and steered by leaders who are aware of what is at stake. By protecting judgment, translation, learning, and purpose, organizations can ensure that automation delivers efficiency without erasing the human meaning that business depends on. View the full article

Google AI Overviews increasingly overlaps with organic search results, especially for YMYL queries. The post Google AI Overviews Overlaps Organic Search By 54% appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Good speech but an alternative way of organising the economy and society was absent; and a scathing assessment of Pentonville prisonView the full article

ECB is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at next meetingView the full article

In part four of How YouTube Ate TV, Fast Company’s oral history of YouTube, insiders describe how the company’s Partner Program began sharing ad revenue with creators, kicking off the age of the professional YouTuber. As monetization transformed the platform, creators faced the newfangled challenges of managing fame in the viral video age. YouTube, meanwhile, wrestled with hate speech and other unsavory content. With YouTube increasingly competing with TV in its classic form, it also spent billions to bring one of broadcasting’s most iconic offerings—the NFL—on board. Comments have been edited for length and clarity. Read more How YouTube Ate TV Part one: YouTube failed as a dating site. This one change altered its fortunes forever Part two: Pit bulls, rats, and 2 circling sharks: The inside story of Google buying YouTube Part three: How YouTube went from money pit to money printer Ian Hecox, cocreator (with his high school friend Anthony Padilla) of the comedy duo Smosh: We were one of the first 10 channels on YouTube to get monetization [in 2007]. That allowed us to move out of our parents’ houses and into a house where we lived and worked for multiple years. Shishir Mehrotra, YouTube chief product officer/CTO (2008–2014): At first you had to know somebody to get into the Partner Program. The choice to open it up in 2009 was big. It was heavily motivated by our interaction with Sal Khan and Khan Academy, and how important it was to support creators like that. Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, the pioneering maker of educational videos: I think I got on YouTube’s radar because of [Mehrotra]. He’s a close friend. He used to say, “You know, Sal, I checked your viewership. If you turned your ads on, you could maybe make a living off of this.” Mehrotra: Of every dollar that came in [to YouTube], 55 cents went right back out [to creators]. That was a promise we were willing to make. It was a very hard decision at a time when we were losing a lot of money. Justine “iJustine” Ezarik, YouTuber: The first few years, I wasn’t making a lot of money. But then the YouTube Partner Program came along. And then the brand deals started coming. Zahavah Levine, YouTube general counsel, chief counsel (2006–2011): Paying this new generation of YouTube creators—who developed content specifically for YouTube—led to an entirely new ecosystem for unknown performers and filmmakers by giving these artists new ways to promote their work to a global audience and rise to fame. Meanwhile, YouTube’s cultural influence was still surging. Kevin Allocca, YouTube culture and trends executive (2010–present): In 2010, you had Double Rainbow and Auto-Tune the News. Some of the Lonely Island stuff from Saturday Night Live was popping as well. In 2011, you had Rebecca Black and Nyan Cat. It was kind of the peak viral video era. The parents of unknown 13-year-old singer Rebecca Black paid $4,000 to produce a video of her song “Friday.” It got about 1,000 views in its first month on YouTube—and then, after going viral, racked up 167 million more in four months. Rebecca Black, singer: “Friday” was never intended to be a part of the internet. The idea of it being [seen] by anyone more than my family and the people I was making it with was the furthest thing from my mind. Allocca: The things that were viral at that point were the ones that people were sharing across different social media platforms or that were being embedded across all the big blogs. Though Black’s song hit the Billboard charts, it was widely mocked online, and she was targeted for harassment, including death threats. Black: The idea of putting yourself out there, for me as a kid, was terrifying. I don’t think the internet knew at all what it was turning itself into, what it already was at that point. There was such a Wild West of the dark web and the deep web and strangers on the internet. As a child, there’s just no way that you even can truly grasp what that means. Founded in 2010, VidCon—an annual conference for creators, executives, and fans—helped make the platform’s community tangible. Tara Walpert Levy, Google ads director (2011–2021); VP, Americas at YouTube (2021–present): We started taking advertisers and agencies to VidCon, where they could see the relationship between the creators and the fans. Jim Louderback, general manager and CEO, VidCon (2017–2022): All you had to do was stand there and watch a famous creator walk across the Anaheim Convention Center. The teens would scream and yell and run after them. It was Beatlemania for YouTubers. Ezarik: At the first VidCon I brought T-shirts to give away, and I was handing them out in the lobby. You cannot do that now. There are too many people—it’s a safety hazard. But back then, we were all just hanging out. We didn’t know any better. How YouTube Shaped Culture “I Counted to 100,000!,” January 2017 Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson shares 40 hours of himself counting, sped up to 23 minutes. His increasingly lavish stunts eventually make him YouTube’s most followed creator. In 2014, Susan Wojcicki (1968–2024), a key architect of Google’s ad business, succeeded Salar Kamangar as YouTube’s CEO. She was soon confronted with complaints from marketers whose ads were being shown with videos that included hate speech and other offensive material. Some of them suspended advertising on the platform. Levy: People would send us videos and say, “This is a problem.” Johanna Voolich, YouTube VP of product management (2015–2021); chief product officer (2023–present): We needed to figure out how to lean into the community guidelines that we’d had, how to make them stronger, how to work on our advertiser guidelines, how to work on enforcement. How YouTube Shaped Culture “Cobra Kai,” May 2018 An updating of the 1984 movie The Karate Kid, this series is a hit among the company’s big-budget YouTube Originals. After two seasons, it goes to Netflix. Ultimately, creating YouTube videos is still about connecting with a community and staying human, even if the demand on creators can be incessant and the good stuff can feel like it’s swimming in a sea of slop. Rhett McLaughlin, cocreator and cohost of Good Mythical Morning (2012–present), whose recent topics have included a review of every flavor of Spam: You sit down and watch some videos that are designed for engagement, and you do that for an hour; you walk away and you feel like your brain has just had all its serotonin drained out of it. Link Neal, Good Mythical Morning cocreator, cohost: The cornerstone of everything we do is that we’re inviting viewers into our friendship. Chris Schonberger, CEO of First We Feast, which produces Hot Ones (2015–present) featuring celebrities chatting while eating increasingly spicy wings: [Hot Ones host] Sean [Davis] says that the audience is like a cat that tells you where it wants to be scratched. Michelle Khare, whose activities on Challenge Accepted (2018–present) have ranged from joining the circus to training at the FBI Academy: When we release an episode, we have immediate feedback. Many times we take those learnings and apply them to the next video, rather than having to wait for the next season of the show. Casey Neistat, filmmaker and YouTuber: You can have a moderately or mildly successful channel on the platform if you approach it with a moderate or mild level of attention. When I found a real inflection point in my YouTube channel by posting every day, I made the decision to go into that as aggressively as possible, to post every day for something like 800 days in a row. The demands on me were tremendous. Felicia Day, actress, singer, writer, and YouTuber: iJustine [Ezarik] is the survivor. She’s talked a lot lately about how she’s pacing herself, not sharing as much, because you cannot sustain it as a human being. If you can’t fill your well, because you’re always online, you’re going to burn out. Ezarik: Right now I’m obsessed with Labubu, so I have a bunch of Labubu content coming out. I like sharing it with my audience, and if they’re not interested, they’ll just click away and watch something else. Keeping consistent is key, even if you’re not posting every day. Just letting them know that “I’m still here.” How YouTube Shaped Culture “Skibidi Toilet,” February 2023 Generation Alpha binges on Alexey Gerasimov’s animated series about humanheaded toilets. It garners tens of billions of views within months— and spawns memes and merch aplenty. As YouTube grows ever more central to how billions of people entertain and inform themselves, its boundaries have gotten tougher to pin down—to the benefit of creators and viewers alike. Neistat: In the mid-2010s, YouTube was elevating specific creators. And in the decade since then, they’ve necessarily taken their foot off the gas of defining what it means to be a creator, because they breached this critical mass where they no longer needed to tell people what the platform was. Everyone had their own understanding. What’s come out of that is really special. It’s expanded the definition of what it means to be a YouTuber. Day: When I launched my company, Geek & Sundry, on YouTube [in 2012], YouTube was looking to Hollywood to make content. Native creators weren’t as encouraged or valued or seen as important. And now it’s like creators rule. It’s a wonderful place to be. Kevin Perjurer, a YouTube documentarian whose Defunctland channel tells the stories of abandoned theme park attractions: When I started on the platform [in 2017], it was all about regular uploading. You know, “You gotta pick your day of the week, and then hit that time with a video of similar runtime and a similar style, and that’s how you grow.” That is completely gone in terms of the modern-day YouTube, for better, I think. YouTube is now much more about longer projects that took a dedicated amount of time and effort put into them. Allocca: There’s not a day goes by that I don’t see something where I’m like, “I don’t even know what I’m looking at right now.” The ways that people use this technology evolve with the ways that society and human creativity evolve. Along with enabling YouTubers to explore new frontiers, YouTube has become essential to some of the world’s most well-established content providers as they seek mass audiences in changing times. One long-in-the-making landmark moment came in 2022, when it acquired rights to the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket package, formerly a DirecTV staple. Hans Schroeder, executive VP and COO, NFL Media: I go back to somewhere in 2005, even before Google bought YouTube. A couple of us took a day trip out to Google and met with Jennifer Feikin, who was running Google Video at the time. Our excitement only grew once they acquired YouTube, and you saw the growth of that platform. Mehrotra: In 2012, we tried to buy the rights to Sunday Ticket from the NFL. We were ready to pay $2 billion for it and ended up not being able to make the offer. We couldn’t get Larry [Page] to approve it. And YouTube ended up with the exact same deal for the same price 10 years later. Christian Oestlien, YouTube VP of product management (2015–present): As with all deals, it came together quickly. I was down in Australia at the time, so it was a lot of 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. type meetings. Schroeder: There was always excitement that we could do something together. They launched the YouTube TV platform and distributed NFL Network and RedZone on that. And that led to Sunday Ticket. Oestlien: One thing that’s really nice about NFL Sunday Ticket was it built on top of the several years of experience we had on YouTube TV of delivering sports as low-latency, high-quality broadcast-level experiences. We built a really big fan base on YouTube across sports with our clips and highlights business and our partnerships with the NFL and others. Levy: The NFL is doing incredibly creative stuff on YouTube, above and beyond distributing their content. Their strategy was very specific: They wanted to partner with us on younger and more female viewers. And so they did a whole series of partnerships with our creators where they let them backstage at exclusive events. Schroeder: As you think about the creator content that they have and how that gets wrapped around an NFL game, we’re just at the tip of the iceberg now. Oestlien: We’re 10 years into many of us working on our partnership with the NFL. It’s a really nice milestone to showcase how far the company has come and how invested we are in making sure that these great sporting moments can be a big part of the YouTube culture. Additional reporting by María José Gutiérrez Chávez, Yasmin Gagne, David Salazar, and Steven Melendez. View the full article

If you’re in charge of an editorial team, you’re used to objections from the rank and file about using AI. “It gets things wrong.” “I don’t know what it’s doing with my data.” “Chatbots only say what you want to hear.” Those are all valid concerns, and I bring them up often in my introduction to AI classes. Each one opens a discussion about what you can do about them, and it turns out to be quite a bit. AI hallucinations require careful thought about where to apply fact-checking and “human in the loop.” Enterprise tools, APIs, and privacy settings can go a long way to protecting your data. And you can prompt the default sycophancy out of AI by telling it to give you critical feedback. There’s another objection to AI that’s been growing, however, and you can’t just prompt your way out of this one. There’s a growing reluctance among some knowledge workers to use AI because of how much energy it consumes and the consequential environmental impact. It’s no secret that, as the number of people using AI grows, the colossal energy footprint of the AI industry increases. It’s true that chips powering AI continually become more efficient, but tools like deep research, thinking models, and agents ensure the demand for energy rises, too. It didn’t help that Sam Altman once said that saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT was needlessly burning millions of extra dollars. Data center construction alone has soared by 40% year over year, raising concerns about not just energy needs but also water consumption. When guilt over AI use turns into pushback In the eyes of those concerned about the environment, these stories and statistics can weigh on a person. Using ChatGPT starts to feel like a betrayal, with every query producing both intelligence and a commensurate amount of guilt. If they feel their employer is pushing them to use these tools anyway, that guilt can bubble up into anger, and even resistance. We’re already starting to see serious objections. Civil servants in the U.K. voiced reluctance to use AI tools because of net zero emissions concerns, The Telegraph reported. Various officials charged with implementing AI-driven initiatives balked, fearing that doing so would conflict with Britain’s climate commitments. A similar dynamic is playing out at the municipal level in the U.S. Some city IT staff and policymakers in places like California have begun scrutinizing AI projects through a sustainability lens. Many media professionals are concerned too. A couple of weeks ago, I saw at least three journalists bring up the concern—at separate events—while I was attending the Online News Association conference in New Orleans. And in a recent training I did with a large corporate comms team, I polled the audience: What is your chief concern about using AI, giving them five choices: hallucinations, bias, sycophancy, privacy, or energy use? A full 37% picked energy use. All the evidence points to AI’s energy use developing into a massive PR problem—not just for the industry, but for any business. It’s hard to be “AI forward” if your workers think using it is a huge step backward for climate change. To be clear, this isn’t to say the environmental concerns aren’t valid—it’s just that they’re simply not my area of expertise. But AI and managing teams are, and it’s clear this issue will be a growing challenge for AI leaders across industries, but especially media, since journalists are on the front lines of reporting AI’s environmental impact. Dos and don’ts for managing employee concerns So what can company leaders do to address this problem before it gets out of control? That will depend on a number of things: your AI policy, the tools you’re using, and the demographics of your workers. But here is some guidance, divided between dos and don’ts: Do listen carefully to their concerns. Are they objecting because of broad climate implications, or are their concerns more specific? Does it have to do with a specific tool? A local impact? The more detail you have on the issue, the more you will know what you can do about it. Don’t dismiss their concerns, or try to deflect them by pointing to other industries. Yes, cars spew carbon, and there are microplastics in the ocean. But there are also diesel engines and recycling programs. It’s fair to ask what the equivalent is for AI. Do research the problem. In August this year, Google became the first major lab to produce a detailed technical report on the energy, carbon, and water footprint of its AI services, which was an opportunity for the company to brag about its progress, reducing the energy consumed per prompt by 33 times from May 2024 to May 2025. This could be useful information for your team. Don’t encourage mitigating individual use. This might be controversial, but the worst thing an AI-forward worker can do is neglect to use AI to help solve a problem that it can really help with. And that goes for thinking, deep research, and GPT-5 Pro, too. Rather than mitigating individual use of tools, instead . . . Do transition workflows into dedicated tools. If a particular tool or workflow proves useful enough, you should develop it such that it uses the most efficient model possible, which will save on compute costs and the environment. Paying for your own compute is the ultimate incentivizer to throttling unnecessary use. Finally, don’t stop talking about the problem. When you give updates to your team, talk about what you’re doing, as an organization, to address the issue. Ambitious companies might even create an internally visible energy counter—something that would measure not just how much energy you’re using, but also how much compute you’re getting from it, showing how you’re improving efficiency over time. The risk when workers lose faith As AI advances, governed by mammoth trillion-dollar companies and world governments, it’s understandable that individuals may feel they have no agency in how it impacts society, and that includes the planet. It’s important for leaders to recognize that feeling of impotence and flip it into a quest for efficiency and open communication. Organizations that don’t might find that the workers using AI in unauthorized ways aren’t nearly as bad as the ones who refuse to use it at all. View the full article

Table of contents What is content summarization? Manual or human-driven content summarization AI-driven content summarization What are some of the core benefits of content summarization? Why summarization matters in the modern content landscape? Information overload People scan and skim, so clarity wins Trust and clarity for readers and systems Faster decision-making Prominent use cases of content summarization Business reports Educational content Marketing strategies and reporting Everyday consumption: news digests, newsletters, podcast notes Content Summarization & SEO: Does it Benefit in Boosting Organic Visibility? Boosting click-through rates Improving indexing and relevance Winning featured snippets Extending multi-channel visibility Supporting AI and LLMs How to write SEO-friendly content summaries with Yoast? What is AI text summarization? How does AI text summarization work? Benefits of AI text summarization Practical use cases of AI summarization In summary, don’t skip the summary! Content summarization isn’t a new idea. It goes back to the 1950s when Hans Peter Luhn at IBM introduced one of the first algorithms to summarize text. Back then, the goal was straightforward: identify the most important words in a piece of writing and create a shorter version. What began as a technical experiment has now evolved into a fundamental aspect of how we read, learn, and share information. Summarization allows us to cut through overwhelming amounts of text and focus on what really matters, shaping everything from research and education to marketing and SEO. In this article, we’ll explore why summarizing is essential for modern content and how both humans and AI-driven tools are making information more accessible, trustworthy, and impactful. What is content summarization? Content summarization is the process of condensing a large piece of high-quality content into a shorter version while keeping the essential points intact. The aim is straightforward: to produce a clear and concise summary that accurately represents the meaning of the original text without overwhelming the reader. Summarization makes information easier to process. Imagine reading a lengthy report or book but only needing the key takeaways for a meeting. It also helps individuals and businesses grasp the core message quickly, saving time and effort. There are two main approaches to summarize moder content: Manual or human-driven content summarization Think back to the last time you turned a long article into a short brief for a colleague; that’s a perfect example and explanation of manual content summarization. In this approach, a human reads, weighs what matters, and rewrites the core points for easy digestion of information. Manual content summarization requires critical thinking to spot what matters and language skills to explain important information clearly and concisely. Clear advantages of human-driven content summarization are: The ability to notice nuance and implied meaning Flexibility to shape tone and level of detail for a specific audience The creativity to link ideas or highlight unexpected relevance Judgment to keep or discard details based on purpose This human-led method complements content summarization AI, giving summaries a thoughtful, audience-aware edge. AI-driven content summarization The other approach is powered by technology. AI-driven content summarization utilizes natural language processing and machine learning to rapidly scan through text and generate summaries in seconds. It typically works in two ways: Extractive summarization, where the AI selects the most important sentences directly from the content Abstractive summarization, where the AI generates new sentences that capture the main ideas in a more natural way The benefits are clear: speed, consistency, and scalability. AI can summarize website content, reports, or articles far faster than a human team. However, it has limits. Context can be missed, and nuances like sarcasm or cultural references may be overlooked. The quality also depends on the AI model and the original text. Both manual and AI-driven summarization play a crucial role today. Humans bring nuance and creativity, while AI delivers efficiency and scale. Together, they make summarization an essential tool for modern communication. What are some of the core benefits of content summarization? Turning lengthy information into clear takeaways is more than convenient. It makes content meaningful, easier to use, and far more effective in learning and communication. Whether done manually or supported by AI tools, summarization offers key benefits: Enhances learning and study preparation Summarizing strengthens comprehension and critical thinking by distilling main ideas and separating them from supporting details. Students and professionals can also rely on concise notes that save time when revising or preparing presentations. Improves focus and communication Condensing text sharpens concentration on what matters most. It also trains you to express ideas in a precise and structured way, which enhances both writing and verbal skills. Saves time and scales with AI tools Summaries allow readers to absorb essential points without having to read hours of content. With AI tools, this process scales further, reducing large volumes of text into clear insights within minutes. Boosts accessibility and approachability Summarization makes complex or lengthy content approachable and accessible for diverse audiences. Multilingual AI tools extend this further, breaking down language barriers and ensuring knowledge reaches a global audience. Why summarization matters in the modern content landscape? We live in an age of too much information and too little time. Every day, there is more content than anyone can read, which means people make split-second choices about what to open, skim, or ignore. This makes it more important that your content presents clear takeaways upfront before readers move on. Content summarization is how you win that first, critical moment of attention. Information overload Digital work and life produce an enormous flood of text, messages, reports, and notifications. This makes it challenging for readers to find the right signal in the noise. Therefore, text summaries act as a filter, surfacing the most relevant facts so readers and teams can act faster and with less cognitive friction. People scan and skim, so clarity wins Web reading behavior has been stable for years: most users scan pages rather than read every word. Good summaries present the core idea in a scannable form, increasing the chance your content is understood and used. That scannability also improves the odds of search engines and AI LLM comprehension surfacing your content as a quick response to user queries. Trust and clarity for readers and systems A clear and crisp text summary signals that the author understands their topic and values the reader’s time. That builds trust. On the search side, concise and well-structured summaries are what engines and AI systems prefer when generating featured snippets or AI overviews. Being chosen for a snippet or overview can boost visibility and credibility in search results. Faster decision-making When stakeholders, readers, or customers need to act quickly, summaries provide the necessary context to make informed decisions. Whether it is an executive skimming a report or a user checking if an article answers their question, summaries reduce the time to relevance and accelerate outcomes. This is also why structured summaries can increase the chance of being surfaced by search features that prioritize immediate answers. Prominent use cases of content summarization Content summarization is not a nice-to-have. It is one of the main reasons modern content continues to work for busy humans and businesses. Below are the most practical and high-impact ways in which the summarization of modern content is currently being used. Business reports Executives and teams rely on concise summaries to make informed decisions quickly and effectively. Executive summaries and one-page briefs transform dense reports into actionable insights, enabling stakeholders to determine what requires attention and what can be deferred. Effective summaries reduce meeting time, expedite approvals, and enhance alignment across teams. Educational content Students and educators use summaries to focus on core concepts and to prepare study notes. AI-driven summarization tools can generate revision guides, extract exam-relevant points, and turn long lectures or papers into study-friendly formats. These tools can support personalized learning and speed up content creation for instructors. Marketing strategies and reporting Marketers rely on summaries to present campaign performance, highlight key KPIs, and share learnings without overwhelming stakeholders. Condensed campaign briefs and executive summaries enable teams to iterate faster, align on priorities, and uncover insights for strategic changes. Summaries also make it easier to compare campaigns and track trends over time. Everyday consumption: news digests, newsletters, podcast notes Readers and listeners increasingly prefer bite-sized overviews. Newsrooms use short summaries and AI-powered digests to connect busy audiences with high-quality reporting. Podcasts and newsletters pair episode or article summaries with timestamps and highlights to improve discoverability and retention. Summaries help users decide what to read, listen to, or save for later. Content Summarization & SEO: Does it Benefit in Boosting Organic Visibility? Did you know that content summarization can help your SEO strategy? Search engines prioritize clarity, relevance, and user engagement, and concise summaries play a role in meeting those criteria. They not only shape a smoother user experience but also help search engines quickly grasp the core themes of your content. Boosting click-through rates Summaries also support higher CTRs in search results. A clear and compelling meta description written as a summary can serve as a strong preview of the page. For example, a blog on “10 Healthy Recipes” with a summary that highlights “quick breakfasts, vegetarian lunches, and easy weeknight dinners” is more likely to attract clicks than a generic description. Improving indexing and relevance From a technical standpoint, summarization helps search engines with indexing and relevance. Algorithms rely on context and keywords, and well-written summaries bring focus to the essence of your content. This is especially important for long-form blogs, case studies, or reports where the main ideas may otherwise get buried. Winning featured snippets Another growing benefit is visibility in featured snippets and People Also Ask sections. Summaries that clearly answer a query or highlight structured takeaways increase the chances of being pulled into these high-visibility SERP features, directly boosting organic reach. Extending multi-channel visibility Content summarization also creates multi-channel opportunities. The same summaries can be repurposed as social media captions, newsletter highlights, or even adapted for voice search, where users want concise and direct answers. Supporting AI and LLMs Lastly, in the age of AI, summaries provide context for LLMs (large language models). Clean, structured summaries make it easier for AI to process and reference your content, which extends your reach beyond search engines into how content is surfaced across AI-powered tools. How to write SEO-friendly content summaries with Yoast? The basics of an effective summary are simple: keep it clear, concise, and focused on the main points while signalling relevance to both readers and search engines. This is exactly where Yoast can make your life easier. With AI Summarize, you can generate instant, editable bullet-point takeaways that boost scannability for readers and improve how search engines interpret your content. Want to take it further? Yoast SEO Premium unlocks extended AI features, smarter keyword optimization, and advanced SEO tools that save you time while improving your visibility in search. A smarter analysis in Yoast SEO PremiumYoast SEO Premium has a smart content analysis that helps you take your content to the next level! Get Yoast SEO Premium »Only $118.80 / year (ex VAT) What is AI text summarization? AI text summarization uses artificial intelligence to condense text, audio, or video content into shorter, more digestible content. Rather than just cutting words, it preserves key ideas and context, making information easier to absorb. Today, summarization relies on large language models (LLMs), which not only extract sentences but also interpret nuance and generate concise, natural-sounding summaries. How does AI text summarization work? AI text summarization relies on a combination of sophisticated systems that help a large-language model deeply understand the content, decipher patterns, and generate content summaries without losing any important facts. Here’s a brief overview of the process of AI-powered content summarization: Understanding context: AI models analyze entire documents, identifying relationships, sentiment, and flow rather than just looking at keywords, allowing the AI models to understand at a deeper level Generating abstractive summaries: Unlike extractive methods, which simply copy existing sentences, abstractive summarization paraphrases or rephrases content to convey the essence in fresh, coherent language Fine-tuning for accuracy: LLMs can be trained on specific domains such as news, legal, or scientific content, so the summaries reflect the right tone, terminology, and level of detail Benefits of AI text summarization The true power of AI summarization lies in the value it creates. By blending scale with accuracy, it turns information overload into actionable knowledge. Scales content summarization: Handles hundreds of pages or documents in minutes, which would otherwise require hours of manual effort Ensures consistency: Produces summaries in a uniform style and structure, making information easier to compare and use Saves time and costs: Frees up teams, researchers, and analysts to focus on insights instead of spending time reading Improves accessibility: Makes complex content digestible for wider audiences, including those unfamiliar with technical details Supports accuracy with human oversight: Editors can refine summaries quickly while still benefiting from automation Practical use cases of AI summarization AI summarization is not just theoretical. It has already become part of how businesses, teams, and individuals manage daily information flow. Here are some of the common applications of AI summarization which have become a part of our live: Meetings: Automatically captures key points, decisions, and action items in real time Onboarding: Condenses company or project documentation so new team members can understand essentials quickly Daily recaps: Summarizes Slack, Teams, or email threads into clear, concise updates Surfacing information: Extracts relevant context from long reports, technical documents, or customer feedback, ensuring that critical insights are never overlooked In fact, AI agents are already being used in professional settings to summarize key provisions in documents, with 38% of professionals relying on these tools to expedite the review process. This demonstrates that AI summarization is not just a future possibility, but an integral part of how modern teams manage complex information. In summary, don’t skip the summary! Summarization is no longer a sidekick in your content strategy; it is the main character. It fuels faster human learning, strengthens SEO by making your pages clearer to search engines, and ensures AI systems don’t misrepresent your brand. When your content is easy to scan, you reduce bounce rates, improve trust, and increase visibility across platforms where attention spans are short. This is exactly where a tool like Yoast SEO Premium becomes invaluable. With features like AI Summarize, you can instantly generate key takeaways that work for readers, search engines, and AI overviews alike. Instead of manually condensing every piece of content, you achieve clarity at scale while maintaining editorial control. Summarization is not just about making content shorter; it is about making it smarter, and Yoast helps you do it with ease. So, to summarize the summary: invest in doing this right, because the future of content depends on it. The post Why is summarizing essential for modern content? appeared first on Yoast. View the full article

Below, coauthors Ulrik Juul Christensen and Tony Wagner share five key insights from their new book, Mastery: Why Deeper Learning Is Essential in an Age of Distraction. Ulrik is founder and CEO of Area9 Lyceum. Formerly a member of the McGraw Hill executive board, he is a frequent keynote speaker and regular contributor to Forbes. He also serves on several boards including the Technical University of Denmark. Tony is senior research fellow at the Learning Policy Institute and former codirector of Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Change Leadership Group. He is the bestselling author of Creative Innovators and The Global Achievement Gap. What’s the big idea? In a world where AI can deliver information faster and more accurately than any human, what matters most are the uniquely human skills of critical thinking, communication, creativity, collaboration, and character. This is why we need to replace our outdated, time-based education model with a mastery-based approach. The future of learning depends on a ground-up redesign of our standards, metrics, and methods in the classroom. 1. The core purpose of education should be to develop the skills of mind and heart necessary for productive work, active citizenship, and personal health and well-being Our current education system is far too focused on information retention and recall—things that AI can do far better than any human being—and failing to develop our uniquely human skills. The world simply no longer cares how much students know. What matters far more is what they can do with what they know. A woman named Monique Little did everything society told her to do to succeed. She worked hard in high school, earned a bachelor’s degree from a good college, and yet, she was stuck in a series of dead-end, low-wage jobs because she lacked “marketable skills.” In fact, 45% of recent college graduates are underemployed, working in jobs that don’t even require a bachelor’s degree. Monique told us that she had come to see her degrees as no more than “certificates of attendance.” She told us that she learned far more technical and people skills in 10 weeks at a nonprofit training program called Per Scholas than in all her years of schooling, which is what enabled her to land a great new job as an internet threat analyst for a startup. 2. We must abandon the traditional, time-based model of learning Progress should be based on clear evidence of mastery, not on arbitrary measures, like Carnegie units. The Carnegie unit, which defines a course as 120 hours of seat time, was established more than a century ago. This system, along with its reliance on multiple-choice tests, is fundamentally flawed. It leaves many students behind who simply need more time to master a subject. “This system, along with its reliance on multiple-choice tests, is fundamentally flawed.” We offer an inspiring alternative: performance assessments. Schools in Allen County, Kentucky, are holding “defenses of learning” where middle schoolers publicly present and defend their work to community members. This shifts the focus from passive memorization to active demonstration of skill and understanding. This kind of authentic, public assessment not only motivates students but also gives the community a clear, face-to-face sense of what their students can truly do. 3. Tapping into students’ intrinsic interests and passions motivates them Rote learning and external rewards and punishments (like grades) are not enough and lead to increasing levels of student disengagement and anxiety in schools. We provide a fantastic example from a program called the Center for Advanced Professional Studies, or CAPS. A student named Antonio Linhart entered the program interested in game design. CAPS didn’t force him down a predefined path; instead, it helped him apply his passion to real-world projects, including a client project, a community outreach project, and a personal passion project. This process of connecting his interests to meaningful, hands-on work sparked his curiosity and led him to discover new career paths in computer science that he didn’t know existed. We also saw this idea in practice at Red Bridge School, where a group of young girls interested in fashion created clothing designs based on their curiosity about roly-poly bugs. This kind of learning is foundational to creativity and mastery of skills. 4. A personalized approach is essential in mastery-based learning Nearly everyone can achieve high levels of mastery, but not everyone learns at the same pace. We bring this idea to life with a powerful story from the world of adult learning, specifically from the Danish road-safety certification organization, VEJ-EU. This program trains a diverse group of workers, from civil engineers with advanced degrees to laborers who didn’t finish high school, all of whom must pass the same proficiency-based certification exam. “True education is not a race.” Instead of a one-size-fits-all class, they developed a personalized, computer-based learning system that allows individuals to progress at their own speed. The program proved that all learners could achieve the required mastery, even though the slowest learners might need 10 times longer than the fastest ones. True education is not a race. It’s about providing the time and support necessary for every individual to reach a defined standard of competence. 5. This new model of learning requires educators to be sources of inspiration Teachers must become performance coaches, guides, and mentors who know and support their students. In Finland, a country whose education system is often praised globally, aspiring teachers enter a master’s degree program where they spend a full year with a master teacher and a team of peers. They regularly observe each other’s classes, debrief on their practice, and collaboratively refine their lesson plans. This model, rooted in collaboration and continuous feedback, transforms teaching from an isolated profession into a community of practice dedicated to improvement. This systemic, mastery-based approach to teacher training is what has enabled Finland to consistently achieve excellent and equitable education outcomes. It’s a stark contrast to the conventional “conference, observe, conference” model that is still common in many teacher preparation programs today. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission. View the full article

You’re in a meeting when your boss suggests changing a number to make the quarterly report look stronger. Heads nod. The slides move on. You feel a knot in your stomach: Do you speak up and risk being branded difficult, or stay silent and become complicit? Most people picture defiance as dramatic outbursts. In reality, it’s often these small, tense moments where conscience collides with compliance. I first saw the power of defiance not in the workplace, but closer to home. My mother was the ultimate people-pleaser: timid, polite, eager to accommodate. Barely 4 feet, 10 inches tall, she put everyone else’s needs above her own. But one day, when I was 7, I saw a different side to her. We were walking home from the grocery store in West Yorkshire, England, when a group of teenage boys blocked our path in a narrow alleyway. They hurled racist insults and told us to “go back home.” My reaction was instantaneous: Stay quiet, avoid conflict, and get past them as quickly as possible. I grabbed my mother’s arm, urging her to move with me. But she didn’t. My quiet, deferential, never-confrontational mother did something completely different. She stopped, turned, and looked the boys directly in the eyes. Then she asked, calmly but firmly, “What do you mean?” She wasn’t loud or aggressive. And in that moment, she showed me that defiance doesn’t always roar, and it can come from the people you least expect. I’ve carried these lessons into my work as a physician-turned-organizational psychologist. For decades, I’ve studied why people comply, staying silent when they don’t want to, and how they can resist wisely. In my book Defy: The Power of No in a World That Demands Yes, I offer a framework based on behavioral science research that can help you defy in ways that are intentional, effective, and true to your values. What defiance really is When people think of defiance, they often picture teenagers slamming doors, protesters shouting in the streets, or rebels breaking rules just for the thrill of it. But that’s not the kind of defiance I study or the kind that shapes our lives most often. Defiance is not about being oppositional for its own sake. It’s about choosing to act in line with your values when there is pressure to do otherwise. That pressure can come from anywhere: a boss urging you to fudge the numbers, a friend nudging you toward something you don’t believe in, a culture telling you to stay in your place. Defiance in those moments might be as small as saying no, asking for clarification, or simply pausing instead of rushing along with the group. Other times, it means speaking up, challenging authority, or maybe walking away. Seen this way, defiance isn’t a fixed trait that some people are born with and others lack. It’s a practice: a skill you can strengthen over time. Some days you might comply, other days you might resist. What matters is that you have the awareness and the tools to make the choice consciously, rather than letting fear or habit decide for you. Why people comply If defiance is so important, why do people so often stay silent? One reason is a psychological process I’ve uncovered in my research: insinuation anxiety. It arises when people worry that not complying with another person’s wishes may be interpreted as a signal of distrust. Turning down a boss’s request to “adjust” the numbers might feel like you’re implying they’re dishonest. To avoid that discomfort, you go along, even when it violates your values. Behavioral science has long documented this pull toward compliance. In the 1960s, for example, psychologist Stanley Milgram showed that ordinary people would administer what they believed were dangerous electric shocks to strangers simply because an authority figure told them to. My own research has shown surprisingly high levels of compliance with obviously bad advice, even when given by a stranger with no consequences for disagreeing. People feel immense social pressure to go along with what others suggest. That’s because if you’ve never been trained in how to say no, it feels uncomfortable and awkward. A framework for action If compliance is the human default, how can you build the muscle of defiance? In my research, I’ve developed a simple actionable guide that I call the Defiance Compass. Like a navigation aid, it orients you in difficult situations by asking three questions: Who am I? What are the core values that matter most to me? What type of situation is this? Is it safe to resist? Will it have a positive impact? What does a person like me do in a situation like this? How can I take responsibility and act in a way that’s consistent with my identity and values? Asking these questions shifts defiance from a gut reaction to a conscious practice. And here’s what’s important: That third question (“What does a person like me do?”) circles back to the first (“Who am I?”), because how you act again and again becomes who you are. Defiance doesn’t always mean open confrontation. Sometimes it means asking a clarifying question, buying time, or quietly refusing. It can mean speaking up or walking away. The key is to start small, practice regularly, and anchor your choices in your values. Like any skill, the more you practice, the more natural it becomes. Why defiance matters now Defiance may be risky, but it’s never been more relevant. At work, employees are pressured to meet targets at any cost. In politics, citizens face waves of misinformation and polarization. In everyday life, people struggle to set healthy boundaries. Across all these contexts, the temptation to comply for the sake of comfort is strong. That’s why learning to defy strategically matters. It protects personal integrity, strengthens institutions, and helps sustain democracy. And it doesn’t require being loud or confrontational. Of course, not every act of defiance is safe or guaranteed to make a difference. Sometimes it comes at real personal cost and some people still choose to act even when the impact isn’t certain: Think of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat, or Colin Kaepernick taking a knee. In those moments, the act itself becomes the message. Both of those individuals were deeply connected to their values and the assessment is personal: What feels worth the risk to one person might not to another. Defiance does require practice: noticing when values are at stake, pausing before you nod along, and choosing actions that align with who you want to be. Each act of consent, compliance, or defiance shapes not just your story but the stories of our societies. If you practice defiance, and teach it and model it, you can imagine a different type of society. You can start to envision a world where, in that same alleyway from my childhood, one of the boys will step forward and tell his friends, “That’s not okay. Let them pass.” Sunita Sah is a professor of management and organizations at Cornell University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

The Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women in Doha, Qatar, is the first mosque built for women. Architect Liz Diller designed the 50,000-square-foot complex to combine modern elements with traditional features. In addition to a prayer space, it also houses a library, classrooms, an event space, and café. The project is a winner of Fast Company’s 2025 Innovation by Design Awards. View the full article

Sinking morale. Low productivity. Lots of gossip. Quiet quitting. Sloppy work. Cynicism. Talent leaving. These are all examples of “culture rot”: the slow, subtle unraveling of what made a good company good. “You can feel it before you can name it,” Tara Kermiet, a corporate burnout strategist, explained in a recent TikTok post. “It’s less about one big event, and more about the daily drift that no one claims responsibility for.” Instead of some big scandal or massive profit loss, culture rot is the gradual, subtle decay of a team’s culture. It’s fueled by bad, unaccountable leaders, and is characterized as a slow straying from original core company values. Your core mission may become unclear, communication breaks down, deadlines get missed. People get disengaged, processes fail and then “suddenly, everyone’s in self-protection mode,” Kermiet says. The term “culture rot” has recently been trending in other areas, such as branding, design, and creativity. Now, the term has started popping up in ways that it relates to the workplace, being discussed in places like HR publications and lifestyle publications. Alongside other issues like burnout, quiet cracking, and toxic workplaces, culture rot could well be just a handful of the factors driving all sorts of negative consequences in the workplace. According to the latest Gallup State of the Global Workplace report, the global number of engaged employees was just 21% in 2024; Gallup also estimates that low employee engagement cost the world economy $438 billion last year. In the case of culture rot, one of the main causes is a slow abandonment of the company’s stated values. It’s all well and good establishing your company’s values early on, but without regularly revisiting and reinforcing them, it becomes mere grandstanding. (Sadly, one could argue that, these days, culture rot is inevitable; research shows that only 26% of U.S. employees strongly agree their company always delivers on its promises.) Having a thriving company culture, and thus avoiding team-wrecking rot, is crucial for retention. After all, those who feel strongly connected to their workplace’s culture are 47% percent less likely to be on the lookout for other opportunities. They’re also more than five times as likely to recommend their company to others as a great place to work. Plus, company culture is closely tied to team productivity, with one Oxford University study finding that workers are 13% more productive when happy. There are ways to prevent culture rot. In her TikTok, Kermiet says leaders should be “sharing what healthy behavior looks like, and what won’t fly,” and that leaders look at their own habits: “Are you following through when you say you will?” She also recommends being visible and asking folks questions on a regular basis—culture rot happens slowly and daily, so carefully tending to your team’s culture bit by bit each day nips the rot in the bud. “Culture takes cues from the leaders,” Kermiet says in her post. “Every action you take either reinforces trust or erodes it.” If your churn rate is unusually high, and productivity levels low, your company culture has likely been rotting for some time. It’s time to cut away the infected areas and reestablish values, beliefs and behaviors from the inside out, before it’s too late. It’s worth it. After all, workers who feel strongly connected to their company’s culture are more than four times more likely to be engaged at work, according to Gallup. View the full article

Prime minister says countries experiencing ‘mass migration’ in a way not seen in previous yearsView the full article

A decade ago, I spearheaded my organization’s strategic expansion into a new Eurasian market. Almost immediately, it became evident that our conventional playbook was inadequate. Success in this complex landscape required not just an understanding of business metrics, but a profound appreciation for cultural nuances and regional dynamics. We made a pivotal decision: We set aside our polished PowerPoint presentations and embraced a more human-centric approach. Instead of relying on formalities, we engaged in candid, face-to-face negotiations—often over a steaming cup of tea. This deliberate shift in strategy was about building genuine relationships, and it worked. By prioritizing trust and open dialogue, we laid the groundwork for a partnership that has not only endured, but flourished. In my own career, shaped through roles at world‑admired organizations like American Express and Amazon, I’ve come to rely on five core leadership traits that have consistently driven results, built strong cultures and turned ambiguity into opportunity. And as a leadership advisor at one of the world’s preeminent executive leadership advisory firms, Egon Zehnder, I’ve seen those same five core qualities distinguish transformational leaders across industries. No one embodies these five traits perfectly every day. But the most effective leaders I’ve worked with—and aspired to be like—are the ones who commit to practicing and developing these traits over time. 1. Emotional Intelligence and Empathy Great leaders don’t just manage work: They read the room. Emotional intelligence (EQ) enables leaders to pick up on unspoken cues, navigate tense conversations, and build authentic relationships grounded in trust. Why it matters People don’t perform at their best when they feel overlooked or undervalued. EQ creates psychological safety, which is the foundation of innovation, collaboration and accountability. Leaders who lead with empathy foster a culture of trust, empowering their teams to innovate and thrive in an increasingly complex world. How to build it Ask deeper questions. Go beyond “How are you?” to “What’s been challenging for you this week?” Practice active listening. Resist the urge to fix. Instead, reflect back what you’re hearing. Build self-awareness. After difficult conversations, debrief with yourself or a mentor: What triggered you? How did you respond? 2. Visionary strategic thinking Leadership is about more than keeping the lights on. It’s about illuminating the path ahead. That means developing a compelling vision of the future. Why it matters In uncertain times, people crave clarity. Vision helps clarify priorities, aligns distributed teams, and keeps momentum focused on long-term impact, even when the short term gets messy. How to build it Clarify your “why.” What’s the deeper purpose behind your work? Write it down and revisit it often. Connect the dots. Help your team see how their work ladders up to something bigger. Invite co-creation. Encourage your team to challenge, refine, and evolve the vision with you. 3. Integrity and decisive accountability Integrity isn’t just a personal virtue—it’s a leadership imperative. Do what you say, say what you mean, and own what happens after. Why it matters When your words and actions align, people trust you. When you take responsibility, even when it’s uncomfortable, it encourages others to do the same. That creates an environment where issues surface early, feedback flows freely, and people feel safe taking thoughtful risks. How to build it Be transparent. Explain the rationale behind decisions, especially when they’re difficult. Own mistakes publicly. When things go sideways, share what you learned and what you’ll do differently. Set the tone. Recognize and reward integrity in others, even when it comes at a short-term cost. 4. Curiosity and adaptability Curious leaders don’t cling to old playbooks. They ask better questions, uncover hidden risks, and spot emerging opportunities. Why it matters Markets evolve. Technologies shift. Cultures vary. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. Curious leaders adapt faster because they’re more committed to learning than they are to being right. How to build it Ask “What else could be true?” when faced with a challenge. Experiment regularly. Try a new approach in a small, low-stakes area and reflect on the results. Cross-pollinate. Read outside your industry. Seek out conversations with people who think differently than you. Lead with questions. In meetings, replace “What’s the answer?” with “What haven’t we considered yet?” Why it stands out Curiosity unlocks everything else on this list. It deepens empathy. It expands strategic thinking. It keeps your integrity rooted in humility. And it allows you to empower others by showing that leadership isn’t about having all the answers, it’s about never stopping the search. 5. Empowerment through inspiration and autonomy The best leaders multiply their impact by empowering others. They inspire and trust their teams to take ownership, delegate with intention, and develop people through stretch opportunities and support. Why it matters Micromanagement stifles growth. Empowerment boosts morale and creates space for innovation. It also signals that you believe in your team’s potential, not just their current performance. How to build it Map out strengths. Understand what your team members are uniquely good at and where they want to grow. Delegate for development. Give stretch tasks that challenge and support long-term growth. Coach, don’t rescue. When someone’s stuck, guide with questions, not quick fixes. Create feedback loops. Make check-ins about learning and support, not just status updates. Don’t wait to start becoming the leader you want to be If you’re reading this, here’s my call to action for you: Start today. Pick one quality, commit to one behavior, and test its impact. Reflect, adjust, and let momentum build. Today’s volatile business world needs leaders who can navigate uncertainty with a clear sense of direction and grounded values. As a leader, you have the power to elevate not just your career, but your people. That’s what distinguishes those who lead with impact from those who merely manage. View the full article

Consider the wisdom you might share with your 16-year-old self: there are other fish and a much larger sea, that outfit is not all that, and you will actually use what you’re learning in school out in the real world. If your index cards on PEMDAS and affect vs. effect are buried in a box in your parents’ home, we have you covered with a handy cheat sheet going over all the basic math, extra credit art, and long-forgotten grammar tips and tricks you learned in school that literally might come up in your next meeting. Get the printable Math For some, no math counts as “basic,” sweat forming on our brow the second the bill comes at the offsite or we’re shared on a spreadsheet. You may not be a mathlete in time for tryouts, but the following lesson will solve at least some of your math problems. Solving problems (in the right order) Speaking of problems, what is Aunt Sally’s exactly? She’s actually quite helpful as the star of the elementary school mnemonic device (bonus lesson: that’s an acronym to help you remember something) for the steps you take to solve an equation: PEMDAS: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally Parentheses: () Start here Exponents: Xx Multiply these numbers by themselves Multiplication and Division: Then, multiply or divide Addition and Subtraction: Finally, add or subtract Remember PEMDAS when writing formulas in Excel or Sheets – especially handy if you’re trying to figure out what broke and where. Finding the average Three common ways to find an average are through mean, median, and mode–words you may recall, applications of when and why, you may not. Here’s a breakdown of each: Mean: Your most “average average,” this divides the sum of all numbers by the total number of numbers. Median: This is the middle number of a set plotted out in numerical order. Median will help you understand not just an average, but what falls above and below it when looking at all of your data. Mean and median can be used together to give you more context on distribution and how much influence outliers have on your average. Mode: This is the number that appears most in the set. You might use it to easily identify the most popular choice. Visualizing data As you prep for a Big Presentation, how you communicate the numbers in your deck is just as much data as it is design. Use pie charts to compare a group of numbers as they contribute to the whole, and go for bar graphs to compare different groups to each other. So, to show what percentage of your entire week is taken up by each task on your to-do list, use a pie chart. Compare your time spent on one task every month over the course of a year in a bar graph. When stuck, get literal; if all of your data could be represented together like differently sized slices of pizza, you know what to do. Determining probability (determining likelihood) While your Work Life Tarot deck can help you consider and reflect on the many paths before you, this handy equation will determine the likelihood of them happening: Take the number of ways something can happen Then, divide it by the total number of outcomes Calculating a 20% tip We’ve all been there – tasked with figuring out the tip, seven sets of eyes on you waiting for the grand total, Venmos ready. Next time you’re handed a bill without gratuity included, conjure elementary arithmetic. Take the total, calculate 10% by moving the decimal point one to the left. Now, double it. Ex: Bill is $460, 10% is $46. Doubled, that’s $92. To make it even easier, round up and estimate. Let’s say the bill is $237. Round up to $240. 10% is $24. $24 x 2 is $48–and you’re a good tipper! Geometry IRL: 360 vs 180 To make these geometric references grammatically-correct, consider the shape referenced. With 360 degrees in a circle, if someone does a full 180, it means they’re now facing the opposite direction, likely to describe a change in opinion or action. A 360 is the full rotation, which is why it might be what you call your performance review covering a well-rounded assessment of your work. Spelling & Grammar Ping me on Slack. Per my last email. “I’m excited to share that I’ve started a new role…” Comms has become a part of all of our jobs, making simple spelling and grammar crucial for impact and effect… or is it affect? To answer these questions and more, I went to the SME herself: Work Life’s Managing Editor, Lauren Marten Parker. Consider her top spelling and grammar tips necessary for the workplace: Top 5 grammar rules Make subjects and verbs agree. Singular subjects should have verbs ending in “s,” and plural subjects are paired with verbs with no “s.” He eats and they eat. Avoid run-ons by splitting up longer thoughts into multiple sentences using punctuation or conjunctions. Double check your homophones, AKA the words that sound alike but carry different meanings: its vs it’s, your vs you’re, there vs their vs they’re, who’s vs whose. Don’t misplace your modifiers. Keep words that describe other words together to avoid confusion. Avoid passive voice to keep the focus on the action. ”They booked the conference room” centers the team that booked, while the clunkier “The conference room was booked by them,” centers the room. Commonly misused words Literally: If you’re looking for a word that means “word for word” or “exactly,” this is it. Otherwise, skip. Affect vs effect: Words can affect (verb, the action) your message. The right ones can have a positive effect (noun, the result). Comprise vs compose: Your team is comprised of (made up of) 12 engineers. 12 engineers compose (make up) your team. Should of: You really should have put it <– like this. All the sudden: Ah, all of a sudden, it all makes sense. Essential punctuation Period (.) Place at the end of sentences to bring them to a full stop. Comma (,) Use to separate words or ideas, avoid run-ons, or pause for a breath. Colon (:) Set up words, ideas, even a quote or list. Semi-colon (;) Connect two clauses in place of a period or conjunction. Ellipsis (…) Sub in for omitted words, to trail off, or to add a little intrigue. Science The scientific method Inform your hunches and turn them into data-backed answers with this tried-and-true process that may have even more use for A/B testing, user research, or your next team retrospective than it did for your 5th grade science fair project. Start with an Observation, maybe a problem or something you can identify as not working. Ask a Question. Do Research to color that question. Form a Hypothesis based on what you’ve learned so far. Test that and other ideas until you have… …Results, which you can compare against your hypothesis. Come to a Conclusion, a good one based on the scientific method you just followed. Art The color wheel and color theory Color theory isn’t just helpful for putting together a power outfit for your next presentation. It can be your roadmap to make sure the deck you’re walking the audience through looks good, too. Take the color wheel for a spin to learn which hues complement each other–those directly across. You’ll gain a whole new respect for your brand palette and never mix in random shades again. Psychology Even the Spark Notes to an Intro to Psych class can be like an instruction manual for the people in your life. Start with the most common cognitive biases to better understand what can influence your customers’ purchasing decisions or drive your team’s decision-making: Confirmation bias: Trusting information that confirms what you already think Availability bias: Learning about something once, then seeing it everywhere Anchoring bias: Comparing all decisions to the first known option Planning fallacy: Underestimating how long tasks will take to complete Modal bias: Assuming our own idea is the best Economics Missing this quarter’s sales goals? Go back to basics to plot your products or services in the bigger economic picture of what could be affecting pricing, consumers, and their greater needs, starting with these concepts: Supply and demand: The relationship between availability and desire can help you determine pricing and even new product offerings. Microeconomics vs macroeconomics: To make audience personas as prescient as possible, identify individual behaviors of the people, businesses, or markets you serve (micro) within their regional, national, or global economic realities (macros). Inflation: A continued increase in the average price of goods that reduces currency’s value, which can affect the cost of goods and public perception of it. Download the printable Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe The post Everything you learned in school and forgot – all in one printable appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian. View the full article

Consider the wisdom you might share with your 16-year-old self: there are other fish and a much larger sea, that outfit is not all that, and you will actually use what you’re learning in school out in the real world. If your index cards on PEMDAS and affect vs. effect are buried in a box in your parents’ home, we have you covered with a handy cheat sheet going over all the basic math, extra credit art, and long-forgotten grammar tips and tricks you learned in school that literally might come up in your next meeting. Get the printable Math For some, no math counts as “basic,” sweat forming on our brow the second the bill comes at the offsite or we’re shared on a spreadsheet. You may not be a mathlete in time for tryouts, but the following lesson will solve at least some of your math problems. Solving problems (in the right order) Speaking of problems, what is Aunt Sally’s exactly? She’s actually quite helpful as the star of the elementary school mnemonic device (bonus lesson: that’s an acronym to help you remember something) for the steps you take to solve an equation: PEMDAS: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally Parentheses: () Start here Exponents: Xx Multiply these numbers by themselves Multiplication and Division: Then, multiply or divide Addition and Subtraction: Finally, add or subtract Remember PEMDAS when writing formulas in Excel or Sheets – especially handy if you’re trying to figure out what broke and where. Finding the average Three common ways to find an average are through mean, median, and mode–words you may recall, applications of when and why, you may not. Here’s a breakdown of each: Mean: Your most “average average,” this divides the sum of all numbers by the total number of numbers. Median: This is the middle number of a set plotted out in numerical order. Median will help you understand not just an average, but what falls above and below it when looking at all of your data. Mean and median can be used together to give you more context on distribution and how much influence outliers have on your average. Mode: This is the number that appears most in the set. You might use it to easily identify the most popular choice. Visualizing data As you prep for a Big Presentation, how you communicate the numbers in your deck is just as much data as it is design. Use pie charts to compare a group of numbers as they contribute to the whole, and go for bar graphs to compare different groups to each other. So, to show what percentage of your entire week is taken up by each task on your to-do list, use a pie chart. Compare your time spent on one task every month over the course of a year in a bar graph. When stuck, get literal; if all of your data could be represented together like differently sized slices of pizza, you know what to do. Determining probability (determining likelihood) While your Work Life Tarot deck can help you consider and reflect on the many paths before you, this handy equation will determine the likelihood of them happening: Take the number of ways something can happen Then, divide it by the total number of outcomes Calculating a 20% tip We’ve all been there – tasked with figuring out the tip, seven sets of eyes on you waiting for the grand total, Venmos ready. Next time you’re handed a bill without gratuity included, conjure elementary arithmetic. Take the total, calculate 10% by moving the decimal point one to the left. Now, double it. Ex: Bill is $460, 10% is $46. Doubled, that’s $92. To make it even easier, round up and estimate. Let’s say the bill is $237. Round up to $240. 10% is $24. $24 x 2 is $48–and you’re a good tipper! Geometry IRL: 360 vs 180 To make these geometric references grammatically-correct, consider the shape referenced. With 360 degrees in a circle, if someone does a full 180, it means they’re now facing the opposite direction, likely to describe a change in opinion or action. A 360 is the full rotation, which is why it might be what you call your performance review covering a well-rounded assessment of your work. Spelling & Grammar Ping me on Slack. Per my last email. “I’m excited to share that I’ve started a new role…” Comms has become a part of all of our jobs, making simple spelling and grammar crucial for impact and effect… or is it affect? To answer these questions and more, I went to the SME herself: Work Life’s Managing Editor, Lauren Marten Parker. Consider her top spelling and grammar tips necessary for the workplace: Top 5 grammar rules Make subjects and verbs agree. Singular subjects should have verbs ending in “s,” and plural subjects are paired with verbs with no “s.” He eats and they eat. Avoid run-ons by splitting up longer thoughts into multiple sentences using punctuation or conjunctions. Double check your homophones, AKA the words that sound alike but carry different meanings: its vs it’s, your vs you’re, there vs their vs they’re, who’s vs whose. Don’t misplace your modifiers. Keep words that describe other words together to avoid confusion. Avoid passive voice to keep the focus on the action. ”They booked the conference room” centers the team that booked, while the clunkier “The conference room was booked by them,” centers the room. Commonly misused words Literally: If you’re looking for a word that means “word for word” or “exactly,” this is it. Otherwise, skip. Affect vs effect: Words can affect (verb, the action) your message. The right ones can have a positive effect (noun, the result). Comprise vs compose: Your team is comprised of (made up of) 12 engineers. 12 engineers compose (make up) your team. Should of: You really should have put it <– like this. All the sudden: Ah, all of a sudden, it all makes sense. Essential punctuation Period (.) Place at the end of sentences to bring them to a full stop. Comma (,) Use to separate words or ideas, avoid run-ons, or pause for a breath. Colon (:) Set up words, ideas, even a quote or list. Semi-colon (;) Connect two clauses in place of a period or conjunction. Ellipsis (…) Sub in for omitted words, to trail off, or to add a little intrigue. Science The scientific method Inform your hunches and turn them into data-backed answers with this tried-and-true process that may have even more use for A/B testing, user research, or your next team retrospective than it did for your 5th grade science fair project. Start with an Observation, maybe a problem or something you can identify as not working. Ask a Question. Do Research to color that question. Form a Hypothesis based on what you’ve learned so far. Test that and other ideas until you have… …Results, which you can compare against your hypothesis. Come to a Conclusion, a good one based on the scientific method you just followed. Art The color wheel and color theory Color theory isn’t just helpful for putting together a power outfit for your next presentation. It can be your roadmap to make sure the deck you’re walking the audience through looks good, too. Take the color wheel for a spin to learn which hues complement each other–those directly across. You’ll gain a whole new respect for your brand palette and never mix in random shades again. Psychology Even the Spark Notes to an Intro to Psych class can be like an instruction manual for the people in your life. Start with the most common cognitive biases to better understand what can influence your customers’ purchasing decisions or drive your team’s decision-making: Confirmation bias: Trusting information that confirms what you already think Availability bias: Learning about something once, then seeing it everywhere Anchoring bias: Comparing all decisions to the first known option Planning fallacy: Underestimating how long tasks will take to complete Modal bias: Assuming our own idea is the best Economics Missing this quarter’s sales goals? Go back to basics to plot your products or services in the bigger economic picture of what could be affecting pricing, consumers, and their greater needs, starting with these concepts: Supply and demand: The relationship between availability and desire can help you determine pricing and even new product offerings. Microeconomics vs macroeconomics: To make audience personas as prescient as possible, identify individual behaviors of the people, businesses, or markets you serve (micro) within their regional, national, or global economic realities (macros). Inflation: A continued increase in the average price of goods that reduces currency’s value, which can affect the cost of goods and public perception of it. Download the printable Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe The post Everything you learned in school and forgot – all in one printable appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian. View the full article

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It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. Vaping on video calls I work for Company A. We partner closely with Company B on a few projects. There is a power dynamic where Company B provides more resources and calls more shots than we do, and I am very new on the team. I was on a Zoom call with an important person from Company B recently, and she was vaping on the call. She probably used her vape device at least 10 times on the call, and smoke was visible. She didn’t mention it, and neither did I. I don’t know what she was using, and she appeared to be in her home, though I’m not sure. I was so shocked, as it seemed wildly unprofessional, but I didn’t say anything to her about it. But assuming she wasn’t getting high and she wasn’t producing second-hand smoke for anyone else, does it matter? What do you think about vaping on camera on work calls? Most workplaces would consider it unprofessional, although it’s possible that hers doesn’t (or that they do but they put up with it because she’s considered important). Generally, if you wouldn’t do it at an in-person meeting, you shouldn’t visibly do it on-camera during a video call either … so that also covers things like drinking a beer (in most offices), applying a full face of makeup, or running on a treadmill. Partly that’s about the likelihood that you’ll look disengaged and partly it’s about the distraction to other people on the call. And really, if it was that important to your contact at Company B to vape right then, she could have simply turned her camera off. That said, she’s high level at a different company; it’s definitely not anything to act on in any way. 2. My name makes coworkers think I’m older than I am I am a young public librarian with a generally old-fashioned name (Eleanor), though outside of work I typically go by a nickname (Elle). I like my name, but have found that it often gives people the impression that I am much older than I am if they don’t know me (not helped by stereotypes about librarians). I work in a small branch of a big system in a major city, so outside of 10-15 people I’ve worked with in-person, most of my interaction with my hundreds of other coworkers is through email. I have had coworkers painstakingly give me explanations on how to use TikTok or what the difference between manga and graphic novels are. When people see me in person, they sometimes seem shocked to see someone without grandkids. Aside from the ageism, would it be worthwhile to go by my nickname at work? I generally enjoy the separation the two names give me, but as I have to slog through more emails about things that I am very aware of, it seems that going by a younger sounding name might be prudent to correctly flag others of my approximate age. This is interesting because I think of Eleanor as more of a classic name than one that’s a clear hallmark of an older person. It’s also rising in popularity again; it’s currently ranked #56 on The Bump’s most popular girl names and was the 14th most popular name for girls born in the U.S. last year! So even if it went away for a while, it’s coming back! But if you’re up for using Elle at work and seeing if that leads to a change, it would be an interesting experiment. Only you can decide it’s worth it to do that — if you feel strongly about having the Eleanor/Elle separation between work/personal life, it might not be. But if you’re irritated by the TikTok explanations and you’re already using Elle in the rest of your life anyway, it’s not the worst idea. I realize I’m not giving you clear direction here, and it’s because there really isn’t a right answer; it just depends on how you personally weigh all of these factors. (Although it would be fascinating if you switch to Elle and it keeps happening, and then it turns out that it had nothing to do with your name and is actually because you’re typing in all caps and using a lot of ellipses or otherwise signaling advanced age. Please update us immediately if it goes that way.) 3. I’m miserable in my PhD program I’m a PhD student. I’ve discovered that I love teaching at the college level, and I’m good at it (according to my students and observers). I’ve also discovered that I hate research, and that it makes me miserable. I think I can do some good as a teacher, in increasing science literacy, while research is being defunded, so I think it’s being valued less and less (and hated by the public more and more). I need to complete this PhD to be able to teach, and I need to do research and publish on said research to be able to graduate. So, I’m in a situation where I need to do a job that I hate, in order to be allowed to do a job I love. I’ve tried reframing the issue, to be about my future career, my labmates, the benefit of my research, all kinds of different ways of thinking about it. I’ve looked into options to leave my PhD, and all of them end with me not being able to pursue a career as a teacher (I am not allowed to teach K-12, as I do not have a teaching degree, which is required). I feel sick, miserable, and angry every time I go into the lab, and I’ve been finding myself trying to come up with reasons to avoid doing my work. I don’t want to do that, as I know that I need this to get done, and I don’t want to be an unpleasant coworker. I’ve been working with a therapist on this for months already. I’ve tried to make myself more directly accountable, so that I know people I work with would be let down if I didn’t do my lab work, but that’s only resulted in a spike in anxiety levels, and not actually any more work done. I understand this is my problem, and I don’t want to be dramatic, but I don’t know what to do. I want to do my work, and I want to do it well, but I don’t know how to keep feeling like this. The only thing that is making me happy right now is teaching, but in order to do any teaching, I need to keep doing lab work, which is making me miserable. Leaving my PhD will mean I lose my ability to actually help the world, and do the job I can actually do, while staying will mean I keep feeling like I’m stuck in hell for 3/4ths of the week. I’ve looked, I swear I’ve looked – any jobs that ask for a lecturer, even adjuncts, either recommend or require a PhD, and for those that recommend, they require some amount of teaching experience at the collegiate level (specifically instructor of record level, which is nearly impossible for PhD students to get, and I’ve looked for that, too). I don’t know what to do. I’ve asked my advisor, my family, my friends for advice, and none of them knew of a way out of this. I just feel lost, and alone, and pointless, and you give so much advice that says ‘leave or find a way to be okay with this’, but if I leave, or if I stay, in both scenarios I know I will not be okay. You don’t say how long you have remaining in your PhD program, but assuming it’s a significant amount of time … why not switch tracks and get a teaching degree? Or look into whether there are ways you could teach K-12 without a teaching degree? It might not be possible where you currently live, but many states allow people to teach without a teaching degree if they have a bachelor’s and complete a state-approved educator preparation program or teaching certificate, which are less investment than doing a whole new degree. Right now you’re in a program you hate for work you don’t want to do. Switch to what you actually want to do. 4. Someone I manage doesn’t answer my emails I am a director, and someone I supervise doesn’t always respond to the emails I send them. I don’t know if it’s because they are in their 20s or they just don’t think they need to respond if the answer is no. I feel like my response needs to be a bit stronger than just to ask them their preference of communication. Help! Say this: “I’ve noticed you don’t always respond to the emails I send you, and it’s really important that you do. Can you look at what systems you’re using to manage your email and see what you change to make sure messages don’t fall through the cracks? Not just mine, but everyone’s.” If that doesn’t resolve it, then you treat it like a performance issue, since it is. That means that you have a more serious conversation with hem about it — “We’ve talked about this previously, but it’s still happening and needs to get fixed. What can you change on your end to ensure emails don’t go unanswered?” You should also be explicit about exactly what the expectations are (like emails on X don’t require a response but anything with a direct question does, and normal turnaround should be X amount of time, etc.). 5. How should I handle a 90-day review when I’m thinking about leaving? I recently started a new job doing admin/clerical work for a specialized field that I’m completely new to. My previous job was seasonal without opportunity to stay on permanently after our assignment, but it was in a field I’ve grown a passion for (think county office for community services). Since I’ve started working here, the company has made some major changes that have left me uneasy (firings and lay-offs, leading to a complete 180 pivot on the technology front compared to what was explained to me when I was hired). I voiced those concerns during my 30-day review and have spoken to many of the long-term staff here, which has given me some relief. But ultimately, while I could stay and find success eventually, I don’t want to pigeonhole myself into this niche industry while the company is transitioning, and I’m struggling to move past all that has happened in the 2 months I’ve been here. A month ago, a handful of former coworkers from my old company messaged me that a permanent position was open and they wanted me to apply. So, of course, I applied as soon as I could! But the hiring process is known to be slow, so I may not hear back for a good while and my 90-day review with my current job is coming up in two weeks. How do I handle my review meeting with my manager? I don’t want to burn bridges because it’s overall a decent company and the team has been great to me, individually. I’d like to be as honest as I can but I don’t want get ahead of myself if I end up not getting the job at my old workplace. If an offer is made, I’d immediately accept because it’s work I want to continue for a substantial pay raise. Don’t mention the other job prospect to your manager at all. You have no way of knowing if you’ll be offered the job, and so there’s nothing actionable for your manager in that information. All it would do is make them nervous about you having one foot out the door, and that could harm you if you don’t get the other job (for example, if they need to make more cuts, you could be first on that list). Just handle the review exactly the way you would have if this other position had never been mentioned. If you do end up getting and taking the other job, you can just explain to your manager at that point that it fell in your lap and you couldn’t pass it up. 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