After more than a decade of planning, an overlooked side of the ski haven of Aspen, Colorado, will soon be revamped into a new base village.
Named Chalet Alpina and covering two-and-a-half city blocks, the development will build a new modern ski lift that is closer to the city’s downtown and flank it with a luxury hotel and residences, a restaurant and ski museum inside relocated historic chalet buildings, and a broad new public plaza.
The project, which broke ground last fall, is situated at the loading point of the 1937 tow line that was the city’s first mechanized route up the mountain. Remnants of the steel lift that replaced it a decade later will be preserved as part of the project. With cost estimates totaling nearly $350 million and an expected completion in 2029, the 200,000-square-foot project will “fundamentally change” Aspen Mountain, according to a local official.
[Image: courtesy of Chalet Alpina]
Jason Grosfeld, CEO of Irongate Group, the project’s lead developer, says the change is much needed and will provide skiers a more accessible alternative to Aspen’s existing ski base village, known as the Little Nell site. “That’s been built out for years. It’s wonderful, it’s great. People love it,” he says. The side of the mountain where he’s developing Chalet Alpina, however, “has been a little bit forgotten,” he notes.
The Lift One site in the 1960s. [Photo: Aspen Historical Society]
As the site of the city’s first ski lift, this area certainly had a heyday, but Grosfeld says a decision in the 1970s to build a replacement lift that required skiers to walk a bit higher up the mountain to get on board pushed more activity to the Little Nell side. “That was sort of the beginning of the end of this area. In fact, in the ’50s and ’60s and even a little later than that, this area was actually pretty vibrant,” Grosfeld says.
He sees the Chalet Alpina project as a chance to breathe life into this side of the mountain. “I’ve been skiing in in Aspen since I was about seven or eight years old,” he says. “I am incredibly nostalgic about what skiing did for my childhood and my kids’ childhood, and what it still does for me. And so I really did want to bring that back.”
[Image: courtesy of Chalet Alpina]
A close vote and a decade of development
Set in one of the most prestigious and expensive ski resort towns in the U.S., the project has endured a lengthy approval process and no shortage of opposition from developer-weary locals. Plans first started taking shape in the early 2010s, and Grosfeld says the project was shaped by extensive community outreach. A 2019 public vote on the project passed by 0.8%, a margin of just 26 votes.
The slow motion is partly due to the project’s unique makeup. It’s technically a complex combination of land parcels owned by Irongate Group and local developer HayMax Capital, the Aspen Skiing Company, the City of Aspen, and the luxury hotel company Aman Group, all of which had to collaborate to lay out a plan for the project, while also appeasing locals. Permits for the project began to solidify in 2023 and the project was cleared for construction in 2025.
“It’s been over a decade since we started this and it’s been really, really time consuming, and really difficult, but also really, really meaningful,” Grosfeld says. “Many developers don’t get that opportunity in a lifetime. So we’re super lucky and we’re treating the opportunity with the care and attention that it deserves.”
[Image: courtesy of Chalet Alpina]
Callbacks to the past, designed for the present
Working from the beginning of the project with New York-based Guerin Glass Architects, Grosfeld says the project was deeply shaped by the historic nature of the site, including the 1940s-era steel chair lift structure that will be preserved, as well as the two mid-century chalet buildings that are being relocated and retrofitted. (One will be turned into a restaurant; the other into a ski museum, in partnership with the Aspen Historical Society.)
[Image: courtesy of Chalet Alpina]
Scott Glass, cofounder of Guerin Glass Architects, says elements of these historic structures helped shape the new project, both in the forms of the buildings and in their details. “First and foremost, we wanted to be really intentional about the way the building sits on the site and how it cascades down the hill,” he says. “It doesn’t get too big in any single place, and it really feels like it’s part of the slope.”
[Image: courtesy of Chalet Alpina]
The design team pulled on other elements of the surroundings, right down to some board formed retaining walls put in place back in the 1940s, which they then used to inform the look of various walls, planters, and even the ski hut at the base of the extended ski lift.
It’s all in service of blending the project into the city and the mountain. After all, a ski run splices right through the project’s site, making it a gateway to a new Aspen base village. “For us, one of the real treats and important elements of the project is the public nature of everything,” Glass says. “It’s a resort hospitality project, but it’s also a ski museum and a portal to one of the more important elements of the town.”
[Image: courtesy of Chalet Alpina]
Some of these details have had more than a decade to coalesce. Grosfeld says that drawn out timeline, grueling as it may have felt at times, ultimately made the entire project better. “The nice thing about a long process is we get to stare at this thing for like 10 years before we’ve even built it,” he says. “We’ve been staring at these renderings for a long, long time and nobody’s sick of them yet. I can’t say that for every rendering that I’ve stared at for a long time.”
For Americans with conventional work schedules, Monday holidays are often a blessing. However, despite the extra weekend day, these observances can also sneak up on you and be confusing.
Today (Monday, February 16) is Presidents’ Day, which is officially known as Washington’s Birthday. In this story, we’ll break down what exactly is open and closed on the day that we celebrate all the commanders in chief. Before we get into all that, lets look at the history of the day and how it came to be.
What does George Washington have to do with it?
George Washington, the first president of the United States, has everything to do with Presidents’ Day. The holiday evolved out of a remembrance of the man who helped defeat the British and usher the country into a new era as an independent nation.
Washington served as head of state from 1789 to 1797 and died in 1799. The following year many began celebrating his legacy on his birthday, February 22.
It wasnt until 1879 that his birthday became a federal holiday, when President Rutherford B. Hayes signed it into law. At first this new edict only included Washington, D.C., but in 1885 the whole country got in on the act.
What about Abraham Lincoln?
The 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, is also associated with Presidents’ Day because of his February 12 birthday. Some states such as Illinois recognized it as day of observance even though it was never an official federal holiday.
Lincoln’s leadership through the Civil War cemented his legacy as a major political figure.
What is the Uniform Monday Holiday Act?
The Uniform Monday Holiday Act was signed into law on June 28, 1968, by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It did not take effect until January 1, 1971. This new law essentially created the modern three-day weekend.
Before it was the law of the land, Representative Robert McClory of Illinois tried to attach a provision to the act that would have combined both Washington’s and Lincolns birthdays into one observance. The Virginians in Congress disagreed, and the provision was dropped.
Officially, on the federal level, the holiday celebrated on the third Monday of February is George Washingtons birthday. But over time, advertisers and many on the state level began calling the holiday Presidents Day.
Now that you know who and why we celebrate, lets get into what this means on the day itself.
Are stock markets open on Presidents Day?
No. Because it is a federal holiday, most markets are closed. This includes the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq exchange. This also applies to most U.S. bond markets. The only exception is cryptocurrency markets.
Will mail be delivered on Presidents Day?
Post offices will be closed and no mail will be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) on Presidents Day. UPS will conduct business as usual. FedEx will also operate but some early on-call or drop box pickups may be modified or unavailable.
Are banks open on Presidents Day?
No. Banks will be closed on Presidents Day. This includes major chain banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. The good news is online banking and ATMs outside of branch locations are available.
Are schools open on Presidents Day?
No. Most public schools will be closed. Some may even take Lincolns birthday off in addition.
Are restaurants and fast-food chains open on Presidents Day?
Yes. Most restaurants and fast-food joints want your business and hope you dine out. Your local McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Popeyes, or Wendy’s should be open for business.
Are grocery stores open on Presidents Day?
Yes. Most grocery stores are open on Presidents Day. Some may have modified hours so it is always a good idea to check ahead. Aldi and Costco are typically open, but hours vary by location.
Are stores open on Presidents Day?
Yes. Most stores are open on Presidents Day. Many will also have sales to attract business on the three-day weekend. This includes big-box retailers such as Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and others. Presidents’ Day is typically a big day for mattress and furniture sellers like Mattress Firm and Raymour & Flanigan.
Are pharmacies open on Presidents Day?
Yes. Most pharmacies are open on Presidents Day, including chain pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens, but it is always good practice to double-check with your preferred location to prevent a wasted trip.
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
With apologies to T.S. Eliot, some CEOs are finding that February, not April, may be the cruelest month. In recent weeks, Workday, PayPal, and The Washington Post parted ways with their chief executives, suggesting that high CEO turnover, which reached record levels in recent years, may continue in 2026.
CEO turnover remains high
Russell Reynolds Associates, the global leadership advisory firm, found that 234 CEOs of globally listed companies departed their roles last year, up 16% from 2024 and 21% above the eight-year average. Last year marked the second consecutive record-breaking year for CEO exits, according to the firms Global CEO Turnover Index Report.
The Russell Reynolds report attributes the high turnover in part to pressure from activist investors who want faster results. (Its research shows that 32 CEOs resigned within one year of an activist campaign in 2025, compared to 27 in 2024.) The data also suggests that boards are willing to pull the trigger earlier when performance stalls.
Its too early to predict whether 2026 will set another record for CEO turnover, but the underlying macro pressuresincluding activist influence, market volatility, and ongoing transformationremain in place, says Laura Mantoura, managing director in Russell Reynoldss U.S. Board & CEO Advisory practice. As a result, sustained high levels of CEO turnover should be expected.”
However, not everyone is convinced this is the new normal. Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer at global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, sees turnover leveling off after three years of brisk executive change, which followed a reluctance to change leaders during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and 2021.
I think our initial expectation right now is that the demand for change at the top is cooling a bit despite some big recent examples, he says.
Challenger notes that theres one scenario that could trigger another record wave of CEO exits: a recession.
Experience wins
Investor demands appear to be pushing boards to favor experienced CEOs at public companies. Of the CEOs who took the reins at S&P 500 companies in 2025, 79% were first-time CEOs, down from 83% in 2024, and lower than the eight-year average of 85%, according to Russell Reynolds.
That trend is playing out in 2026 succession scenarios: Alex Chriss, who had been an executive vice president at Intuit before becoming CEO of PayPal, is being replaced by Enrique Lores, who spent six years as president and CEO of HP. Workday cofounder Aneel Bhusri, who has served as the software companys CEO or co-CEO at various points during the last 15 years, takes over from Carl Eschenbach, who had been a partner at Sequoia Capital and president and chief operating officer at VMware before joining Workday.
Whether the recent spike in CEO turnover represents a temporary surge or permanent shift, executive recruiters and advisers say boards need to prioritize succession planning, and they need to think about the companys needs in the coming years.
As leadership expert Bill George has said: Figure out what [the company] is going to need for the next 10 years, and find people with the mental agility and courage to look at it differently than you looked at it.
Your leadership outlook
Do you see CEO turnover continuing at a rapid pace? Or are you, like Challenger, expecting it to level off? Let me know your thoughts. My email address is stephaniemehta@mansueto.com.
Read more: CEO turnover
The surprising power of interim CEOs
How two CEOs hold themselves to a high productivity standard
AI is rewriting the CEO job description. Are you ready?
Picture a memory from childhood, one that feels real and nostalgic, but somehow just out of grasp: perhaps a family trip to the beach, or a moment mid-swing on the playset, or an afternoon spent hunting for four-leaf clovers. Now, imagine that you could bottle that golden moment into a fragrance.
One scientist at MIT, Cyrus Clarke, is working to do just that. Alongside a team of fellow researchers, Clarke has developed a physical machine called the Anemoia Device, which uses a generative AI model to analyze an archival photograph, describe it in a short sentence, and, following the users own inputs, convert that description into a unique fragrance.
The word anemoia was coined by author John Koenig and included in his 2021 book, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It refers to a specific feeling of nostalgia for a time or place that one never actually experienced themselvesand its exactly what Clarkes team hopes to capture with the Anemoia Device.
According to a paper published by the team, the device explores the concept of extended memory, or the idea that, in the digital age, memory is increasingly stored and accessed through external media, like digital archives.
Studies have already shown that memory can be formed vicariouslylike when a second-hand account, perhaps from a parent, shapes ones own memoriesbut the Anemoia Device is a delightfully physical, interactive experiment into how AI might allow users to experience a memory of a past they never actually lived.
[Photo: Cyrus Clarke/courtesy MIT Media Lab]
The Anemoia Device
The Anemoia Device looks like something that one might find in the medical bay of a retro sci-fi spaceship. Its a slim, metal-and-plastic contraption accented with a singular neon green screen and a simple array of three physical dials. At the bottom, a glass beaker waits to catch the final fragrance.
[Photo: Cyrus Clarke/courtesy MIT Media Lab]
To start, a user inserts a photograph into the device. A built-in vision-language model (VLM) analyzes the image and generates an initial caption based on what it finds. For a picture of tourists in China, an example used in the paper, the device might write, A tourist in black shorts and a child pose in the doorway along the Great Wall of China, with the iconic stone steps and mountainous landscape stretching up toward the sky.
[Photo: Cyrus Clarke/courtesy MIT Media Lab]
Users can then adjust the parameters of the caption with the three dials: one to decide which person or object in the image should be the subject; a second to describe the age of the subject; and a third to describe the mood of the scene.
[Photo: Cyrus Clarke/courtesy MIT Media Lab]
“Im personally very interested in inventing new physical interfaces for generative AI,” Clarke says. “Generative AI usually starts with a blank prompt. The dials replace that with a physical, easy to understand grammar. Youre not trying to say the right thing to an algorithm, its more akin to tuning an instrument.”
A language-learning model (LLM), built from ChatGPT-4o, aggregates the original caption and the user’s inputs into a short, poetic narrative. If one were to select the Great Wall of China itself as the subject of the aforementioned prompt, the result would be something like, For centuries, from the Warring States to the Ming, Ive joyfully observed times march and countless travelers along my path of stone, brick, and wood.
Next comes the LLMs most impressive task: converting this written poe into a tangible scent.
[Photo: Cyrus Clarke/courtesy MIT Media Lab]
Smell as a memory portal
The scent-development process relies not just on identifying the appropriate olfactory notes, but also on evoking the right emotions.
Clarkes team trained the model to select from a scent library of 39 different fragrances (since expanded to a broader portfolio of 50 scents), ranging from old books to leather and dirt. Each fragrance was coded with a set of descriptors, labeling them with details like their primary notes, associated concepts, and strongest emotions. The LLM uses its training to select the right fragrances and determine how much of each should be used in the final concoction.
All of that information is funneled to a custom olfactory display, which uses four pumps to draw the necessary liquid out of their vials and into the waiting beaker (the final formula for the Great Wall of China fragrance includes campfire, dirt, cedar, and bamboo). The Anemoia Device is capable of capturing an essentially infinite range of fragrances, from the smell of a sandy beach on a hot summer day in the 80s to the aroma of a couple enjoying a pear in a scenic garden.
Ultimately, the study concludes, the device is a provocation that asks “what it means to remember when memory itself can be generated, what it means to feel when that feeling is co-authored with a machine, and what it means to be human when we can craft beautiful, fragrant fictions of pasts we have never lived.”
Integrity, understood as a disposition to behave in prosocial, ethical, and principled ways rather than corrupt or self-serving ones, is among the strongest and most consistent predictors of job performance and leadership effectiveness. The reason is far from mysterious. Leadership, whatever its context, is a collective enterprise. No meaningful goal, from building empires to running companies, has ever been achieved alone.
Across history, not just in humans but also other animals, cooperation has depended less on raw power than on trust. Ancient trading societies flourished precisely because reputation constrained behavior: merchants in Phoenician city-states, medieval guilds, and Silk Road networks relied on repeated interactions and informal enforcement mechanisms to ensure that partners honored their commitments. Those who cheated were excluded, not merely judged. Trust, in effect, functioned as an early mechanism for coordination and enforcement.
The same logic applies in modern organizations. Teams perform better when members believe that leaders will act fairly, keep promises, and avoid exploiting asymmetries of information or power, or are so focused on their personal gain that they have little concern in harming the group. In line, research shows that leaders perceived as lacking integrity struggle to attract talent, elicit discretionary effort, or sustain collaboration over time. Conversely, leaders known for ethical consistency benefit from faster coordination, lower monitoring costs, and greater willingness among others to take risks on their behalf.
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The cost of distrust
Given a choice, people prefer to collaborate with those they trust not because they are nave, but because distrust is expensive. Working with unreliable or unethical partners increases the likelihood of failure, conflict, and reputational damage. In business, this may mean backing leaders who misrepresent performance or shift blame. In politics, it can mean empowering those who erode institutions for personal gain. In both cases, the costs are borne not only by the followers but by the system as a whole.
This is why chronic corruption is one of the most reliable markers of institutional breakdown. As documented year after year by Transparency International in its Corruption Perceptions Index, countries that score lowest on integrity and trust tend to share familiar pathologies: weak rule of law, politicized institutions, capital flight, and persistent underinvestment, generally caused by parasitic governments and destructive leadership. By contrast, countries that consistently rank at the top of integrity and trust measures benefit from stronger institutions, more predictable governance, and higher levels of social and economic cooperation. To be sure, these societies are not free of self-interest or ambition; rather, they have succeeded in aligning incentives so that ethical behavior is rewarded and corruption is costly, censoring selfish short-term individual gains in favor of collective long-term benefits.
Measuring integrity
So, how can we tell whether a person has integrity, or gauge someones moral reliability?
The question is especially consequential when applied to leaders, whose decisions shape the success, welfare, and future prospects of others. Fortunately, behavioral science offers several useful insights, even if it stops short of perfect certainty.
First, integrity is not directly observable. Unlike physical attributes such as height or hair color, it cannot be seen or measured at a glance. Instead, it is inferred or deducted from patterns of behavior, consistency over time, and alignment between words and deeds. Integrity is therefore an attribution rather than a trait we can observe directly, which makes assessment inherently probabilistic rather than definitive.
Second, short-term interactions are often misleading. Because appearing ethical brings clear benefits (trust, influence, reduced scrutiny, and access to resources) people are incentivized to signal integrity even when they lack it. This helps explain why superficially ethical environments can sometimes attract parasitic actors who exploit the goodwill and assumptions of others. In contrast, in persistently corrupt settings, distrust becomes the default, and even well-intentioned individuals are treated with suspicion. Context shapes both behavior and perception.
A parallel and increasingly robust line of evidence comes from research on the so-called dark traits, narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Although conceptually distinct, these traits share a common core of low empathy, emotional coldness, and a tendency to instrumentalize others. From an integrity standpoint, this combination is toxic. Individuals high on these traits are less constrained by guilt or concern for others, more willing to bend or ignore rules, and more likely to justify unethical behavior as necessary, deserved, or clever rather than wrong.
Psychopathy is most directly linked to callousness and fearlessness, reducing sensitivity to punishment and moral emotion. Machiavellianism predicts strategic deception, cynicism about human motives, and a belief that ends justify means. Narcissism, especially in its more grandiose forms, adds entitlement and moral exceptionalism, the belief that normal rules apply to others but not to oneself. Together, these traits reliably predict counterproductive work behaviors, ethical transgressions, and integrity failures, particularly in roles that confer power, discretion, and weak oversight. Crucially, this is not because such individuals lack intelligence or self-control, but because their motivational architecture is misaligned with prosocial norms. Where integrity depends on empathy, respect for authority, and an internalized concern for collective outcomes, dark traits tilt decison making toward self-interest, dominance, and short term gain, making them among the strongest dispositional red flags for integrity risk in organizational life.
Third, while integrity cannot be measured perfectly, it can be assessed meaningfully. Research shows that peer ratings are among the most reliable indicators, precisely because integrity is reputational: it reveals itself in how people behave when others depend on them. Longitudinal data, such as 360-degree feedback, is especially informative. Personality traits like conscientiousness, altruism, and self-control (including the capacity to self-edit) also predict ethical conduct, as does past behavior. Self-reports are often dismissed, but well-designed measures still differentiate reliably between individuals with higher and lower integrity. Track records matter, even if they do not render anyone immune to temptation. As Warren Buffett famously observed, reputation takes a lifetime to build and a moment to destroy.
Finally, the environment matters. Ethical failures are not only the result of bad apples, but also of rotten barrels. Weak governance, misaligned incentives, and tolerance for small transgressions can erode integrity even among otherwise decent individuals, while well-designed systems can reinforce ethical behavior by making misconduct costly and transparency unavoidable.
Sapping growth
Taken together, these points suggest that integrity is neither inscrutable nor guaranteed. Whether in governments, firms, or teams, integrity functions as an enabling condition for coordination and progress. When trust erodes, actors devote more effort to monitoring, hedging, and self-protection, leaving less energy for innovation or growth. In this sense, integrity is not merely a moral ideal, but a form of social infrastructure: largely invisible when it works, and painfully obvious when it does not.
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AI inspired many employers to take a wait-and-see approach to hiring in 2025, but new data suggest theyll be returning to the market in search of certain skills in 2026.
According to Upworks In-Demand Skills 2026 report, demand for AI-specific proficiencies have more than doubled on the freelancer platform over the last year. But at the same time, nearly half of employers also say theyre also putting a premium on human skills, like creativity, emotional intelligence, resilience and innovation.
When we look at the fastest growing skills in terms of demand, AI is all over it. Thats not surprising, says Dr. Gabby Burlacu, licensed organizational psychologist and Upworks senior research manager. However: What is interesting is that this is not growing demand for AI generalists, or even necessarily people who can build AI tools, but rather its growing demand for AI applied within a context.
In 2026, more employers want to inject AI into more business operations, and are seeking candidates that are not only able to utilize the technology, but also maximize its impact by leveraging their human skills and unique experience.
Integrating, Not Building
According to the Upwork study, demand for skills tied to AI is up 109% year-over-year. Skills related to AI video and content creation saw the biggest jump with a 329% increase, followed by AI integration (which helps inject the technology into existing business practices) at 178%. AI data annotation, which specializes in preparing and training content for the purpose of AI model training, ranked third with 154% demand growth.
At the same time, the study found that employers are looking for what are traditionally labelled as soft skills or human skills, which are increasingly viewed as vital enablers of new tech tools.
We are seeing enormous demand and recognition from business leaders of just how important nontechnical and uniquely human skill sets are, says Dr. Burlacu. They want human judgment, they want creativity, they want innovation, and when we asked business leaders what skills are becoming critical in an AI world, the ability to build or even engage with AI tools wasn’t at the top of that list; it was learning agility and adaptability.
The study, and others like it, suggest AI isnt replacing human workers on a wide scale as initially feared. Instead, its changing the kinds of skills employers are looking for, putting a higher premium on traits that cant be automated.
A Labor Market Bounce-back in 2026?
Dr. Burlacu explains that each time a new disruptive AI tool or category of tools hits the market, employers tend to pull back on hiring in that domain as they figure out what exactly the technology is capable of, and where it falls short.
This [research] suggests that the impact of AI is taking shape, and that it is much more about augmenting how existing domains and roles are done, versus completely replacing the need for human skills, says Dr. Burlacu. There’s a tremendous opportunity to use AI to do the work that you do and that you specialize in [today] differently. That is what business leaders are seeking.
Dr. Burlacu adds that as employers gain a deeper understanding of how AI will impact their business, theyre gradually moving off the sidelines and pursuing the skills they need to best utilize the new technology.
Towards an AI-Enabled Human Workforce
The Upwork study is consistent with a recent McKinsey report titled Agents, robots, and us: Skill partnerships in the age of AI, which suggests the future of work will be defined by harnessing the best of both technology and humans.
In that study, researchers examined 7,000 commonly sought-after skills from real job postings across industries and organized them based on those that could be fully automated today, those that will likely never be automated, and those that fell somewhere in between. They ultimately found roughly 70% of skills can be enhanced by technology, but still rely on human expertise. Another 12% remain entirely within the domain of humans while just 18% can be fully handed over to technology.
The implication is that it’s going to be a world in which we upgrade that skill by using it in conjunction with AI, says the studys co-author and McKinsey Global Institute Partner Anu Madgavkar. If we can use AI as an assistant or a collaborator or a co-worker, then our own ability to use that skill and deploy it will be enhanced.
Madgavkar explains that in our AI-enabled future, workers wont need the deep technical expertise required to build their own AI tools. Instead, they will be challenged to utilize the technology to enhance their own capabilities.
People’s roles are going to change quite a lot and very fast, and you can imagine theres a degree of anxiety or uncertainty about that, says Madgavkar. It’s not just about adoption; it is indeed about reimagining how work gets done, not just at the level of an individual’s job or set of tasks, but really as a whole workflow.
The Transition is Already Underway
Whether it was the ability to use word processors, social media or cloud computing, candidates have long been encouraged to list proficiency with the hottest technology of the day on their resumes.
What’s new is the pace and the level of acceleration, explains Aashna Kircher, the group general manager of CHRO products at Workday. The evolution of some of these tools is happening at a pace weve never seen, where every day there are new skills, new learnings, new understandings of what is and isnt possible.
Fortunately, AI is itself making that education more attainable. According to a Workdays Elevating Human Potential: The AI Skills Revolution report, 83% of employees globally say AI has enhanced their ability to learn new skills.
As the ability to leverage AI to work more efficiently becomes table stakes, Kircher says workers and candidates are quickly becoming valued for the things they can offer that the technology cant.
You need to apply context, values, nuanced to AI outputs and systems, as well as ethical decision making, emotional intelligence, relationship building and connection conflict resolution, leadership skills, she says.
It’s not that technical skills aren’t important. They certainly are, but some of these other skills are actually becoming outsized in importance relative to some of the technology skills.
Below, Brad Stulberg shares five key insights from his new book, The Way of Excellence: A Guide to True Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World.
Brad is on faculty at the University of Michigan. He is a performance coach and regularly contributes pieces about sustainable excellence to the New York Times. His work has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic, among many other outlets. He serves as co-host of the podcast excellence, actually.
Whats the big idea?
What if excellence isnt about winning, talent, or perfect conditions? Lasting performance and real fulfillment live in our curiosity, resilience, and love of the process.
Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Brad himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App.
1. The power of curiosity to fuel greatness.
Before Kobe Bryants tragic death, he was asked, Do you love to win or do you hate to lose? He responded, Im neither. I play to figure things out. I play to learn something.
When you fixate on winning or losing or some other external outcome, it takes you out of the present. It makes it impossible to enter a flow state. It makes you fragile. But when you adopt a mindset of curiosity and growth, it relieves pressure and helps you stay anchored in the moment.
Kobe Bryant was known for his killer instinctThe Mamba Mentalityand yet, even he recognized the difference between the finite game and the infinite game. The finite game is time-bound; there are winners and losers. The infinite game knows no end; the only goal is to keep playing, keep learning, and keep discovering.
All the greats have had to learn that the infinite game is every bit as important as the finite one. Whether you play basketball or cello, repair cars, build tables, write books, or coach young people, your craft can be a vessel for self-discovery. We have a biological imperative to flourish, evolve, and grow. Theres no greater source of fulfillment and satisfaction than pushing yourself, pursuing a challenge, and developing along the way.
The real cycle youre working in is a cycle called yourself, wrote Robert Pirsig, about his experience with motorcycle maintenance. The machine that appears to be out there and the person that appears to be in here are not two separate things. They grow toward Quality or fall away from Quality together. Excellence requires a hunger for growtha deep curiosity to figure out what youre capable of, a curiosity to better know your craft, and a curiosity to better know yourself.
2. The power of performing well, even when you dont feel your best.
A surgeon that I have coached for a long time was called into an emergency case at two in the morning, and his goal was simple: save as much of someones leg as possible. My client was tired, and his mind was noisy. He felt off, and yet he took all that with him into the operating room and nailed the case anyway.
Something that we see over and over in the current culture is that people think they need to fix something before they can act. Now, you shouldnt suppress or ignore your emotions. If you can do something to feel better, do it, but the truth is you can feel like crap and still perform well.
Its easy to do great work when everything is clicking, but excellence means being able to deliver even when its not.
Often, its the act of getting started that shifts how you feel. Its easy to do great work when everything is clicking, but excellence means being able to deliver even when its not. Its saying, Okay, this might be harder than usual, but I can manage, and then you manage. The greats arent great because they always have perfect conditions to do meaningful work. The greats are great because they show up and give their best shot even when they dont.
You could be a surgeon who didnt get enough sleep, a student with a headache before a big exam, or an athlete who couldnt get their usual pre-event meal. Those conditions arent ideal, but catastrophizing is worse. Too often, we spiral because we feel off, but the problem isnt always the feeling. The problem is freaking out about the feeling. You can feel tired, stressed, unsure, and still deliver. You can put the not-so-great feelings or conditions in the passenger seat, take them along for the ride, and show up anyway.
The ability to remain calm amid challenges is a core element of what psychologists call self-efficacy, meaning an evidence-based belief that you are capable of showing up, working through challenges, and excelling in uncertain or highly-charged circumstances. Decades of research show that individuals who score high in self-efficacy are better able to work through moments when they feel lost or stuck, be that in operating rooms, on playing fields, in the classroom, or in a boardroom.
One of the best things you can do for your confidence is to feel off and yet still perform well. It frees you from needing to have perfect conditions to give it a go. You give yourself the evidence that you are resilient, durable, robust, and can get the job done.
3. True discipline versus fake discipline.
True discipline bridges the gap between motivation and action, making the former less necessary for the latter. When you have discipline, you dont need to feel a certain way to show up and get started. You just do.
Fake discipline is a chest-thumping, performative act of toughness. Thats not the real thing. The real thing is showing up for what matters and doing what you need to do. The irony is that when you do hard things that you dont feel like doing in the short run, you usually end up feeling better in the long run.
The real thing is showing up for what matters and doing what you need to do.
Fake discipline is loud, performative, and wants everyone to pay attention to it. Real discipline is quiet because its too busy getting what you need to get things done, rather than parading around.
4. The 48-hour rule.
Whether you succeed or fail, give yourself 48 hours to celebrate the victory or grieve the defeat. Then, get back to doing the work. Results are an emotional roller coaster, but the work doesnt change. Neurons that fire together wire together. Its easy to get addicted to the high of external validation or become consumed by the low of failure. You want to avoid this trap at all costs. Its kryptonite for sustaining high performance. Doing the work has a special way of putting both success and failure into their respective places.
The work itself doesnt change nearly as fast as our emotionswin or lose. Great day or terrible day, the blank page is still the blank page. A lap in the pool is still 25 meters. The classroom still needs to be taught. The pregame speech still needs to be given. Returning to the work keeps our focus rooted in the process, not the outcome. It reminds us of why we committed to our crafts in the first place.
The work is the win. Its the best medicine. 48 hours is an arbitrary amount that you can stretch or shrink to suit you,but the concept still stands. It ensures that we dont become overly attached to success or failure, each of which comes with its own trappings.
5. Fulfillment and joy versus external achievement.
Matthew Perry was one of four actors to ever have a number one movie and TV series. During that time, he dated Julia Roberts, bought the oceanfront house of his dreams, and made $1 million per episode of Friends. But as he repeatedly wrote in his memoir, none of it was enough.
You can have it all, but there is no greater trap than thinking external achievement will fulfill you. The neurochemicals associated with wanting dopamine are much stronger than the ones associated with liking serotonin. The human brain is wired to want more. Its how we evolved. We are suckers for the chase. We struggle to be content.
The only Zen youre going to find on top of the mountain is the Zen that you bring up there along the way.
We all have holes were trying to fill, but no achievement, income, fancy watch, or substance is going to fill those holes in any meaningful way. Researchers call this the arrival fallacy, and recognizing it is liberating because you can stop expecting the next accomplishment to make you feel like a finished product. You can turn your attention to the process, finding joy, energy, and fulfillment in the work, rather than in the illusion of what might happen if or when you arrive.
In his 2022 memoir, Perry wrote, Im certain that I got famous so I would not waste my entire life trying to get famous. You have to get famous to know that its not the answer. And nobody who is not famous will ever truly believe that. The trap of fame status doesnt just affect actors. It affects artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, writers, bakers, athletes, knowledge workers, teachers, coachesmany of whom have made it to the proverbial mountaintop. It affects all of us.
If you cant find joy and fulfillment in the climb, none of it is going to matter. The only Zen youre going to find on top of the mountain is the Zen that you bring up there along the way. The only place youre going to find the love you are looking for is by losing yourself in meaningful pursuits, expressing your innate gifts and creativity, and walking the path with good people. Thats what excellence is all about.
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This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
A viral X post from late last year pitted images depicting two hustle-culture lifestyles side by side: tech bro hoodie and Notes app icon on one side, a business suit and a copy of Cal Newports Deep Work on the other side.
Left guy will most likely beat the right guy, it concluded. Guy on the left makes more money but guy on the right is happier, one user commented.
Whether its grind mode, routine maxxing or some other high-octane sleep when youre dead approach to work, the right specific approach within that umbrella is unclear. Its the question plaguing young founders and Silicon Valley types.
Maybe some aim to lock in, grind away from 9 to 9 six days per week, fueled by White Monster, a laptop and a dream.
Or perhaps the more effective rise-and-grind technique is to stick to some version of Patrick Batemans morning routine from American Psycho. Alarm at 3:55 a.m. Ice bath. Affirmations. Lift some weights. Supplements. Ready to stare at a three-monitor setup for the next eight hours straight, interrupted only by a wearable tracker reminding you to hit your ten thousand steps.
One founder suggested the best combination is actually both.
There’s gonna be weeks where you have specific deadlines that you just have to grind it out, and you’re not getting good sleep, and you’re not really taking maybe the best health approach to your work routine, explains Gannon Breslin, CEO of snowballapp.ai, in a recent TikTok post.
He calls this pure grind mode. Its a case of simply getting done what needs to get done, however you can get it done.
This grind mentality is increasingly common among a new generation of Silicon Valley upstarts. In fact, many job listings for AI startups leave no confusion about their expectations from potential applicants.
“Please don’t join if you’re not excited about working ~70 hrs/week in person with some of the most ambitious people in NYC,” read the description for a role at Rilla, a New York-based tech business.
Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week, Elon Musk once said.
The key, according to Breslin, is to balance this out when your business is in homeostasis. This is prime time to optimize. That’s when you’re really caring about your sleep pattern, making sure you have everything dialed in, he says in the clip.
This is when workers might reestablish a sense of routine wake up early, focus on their nutrition thats been neglected while living and breathing the 996 lifestyle, and reduce any inefficiencies (or health problems) that emerged while in grind mode.
And so it’s kind of this, like oscillating pattern between what state your company and business is in, Breslin concludes.
If this all seems unsustainable, thats because it is.
Burnout amongst workers is already at an all-time high. A 2025 report from online marketplace Care.com found, while companies believed 45% of their workers were at risk of burnout, in fact 69% of employees said they were actually at moderate to high risk.
Luckily, theres also a secret third thing. Its called having a life.
If youve been dreaming of adding a mid-sized SUV to your cart alongside a bulk pack of granola bars and a new air fryerwell, were not quite there yet. But that day is getting closer: Amazon has officially rolled out its car-buying program.
But before you prepare your driveway to make room for a two-ton Prime delivery, you should know that buying a car on Amazon isnt exactly like buying a Kindle. Heres the lowdown on how it works, who its for, and why you definitely cant return a Hyundai to Whole Foods.
Whats for sale
Right now, your options are limited. The main partner for new vehicles is Hyundai. If youre in the market for a Santa Fe, a Tucson, or an Ioniq, youre in luck. But if youre looking for a brand new Toyota or Ford, youre still gonna have to do things the old-fashioned way for now.
For used cars, the selections a bit wider. Amazons opened the doors to certified pre-owned inventory from other brands and even some fleet vehicles.
How it actually works
Amazons essentially built a very slick, very familiar skin over the traditional dealership inventory system.
Heres the process:
Search: You go to the Amazon Autos section and filter by model, trim, color, and your zip code.
Inventory: Youre looking at real cars sitting on real local dealer lots.
Purchasing: This is the cool part. You can see the actual price, run a credit check, apply for financing, and put down a deposit directly through Amazon. No sitting in a glass office for three hours while a salesperson repeatedly “checks with the manager.”
Handover: Once the digital paperworks done, you schedule a pickup or delivery.
Returns: If your dealership participates in Hyundais Shopper Assurance program, youll have three days or up to 300 miles to decide if you want to keep the car or not. You can check if your dealership participates here.
The catch(es)
This isnt “Prime” Delivery. Dont expect a navy-blue van to drop off your Elantra.
Youre actually buying this car from a local dealership, not Amazon. Amazons just the matchmaker. Youll either drive to the dealership to pick it up or, if youre lucky, the dealer will drive it to you. The closest one to me only offers pickup and the car wouldnt be ready for a few days.
And the paperwork isnt 100% digital yet. Depending on your states laws, you might still have to sign a “wet” signature (real ink, real paper) when you take possession of the car. Were living in the future, but the DMVs still living in the 20th century.
You might not have a ton of dealerships participating in your area, either. Where I live, near Boston, the closest dealership is 17 miles away which, given the absolutely atrocious traffic around here during normal business hours, might as well be on the other side of the planet.
The bottom line
Is this the revolution we were promised? Yes and no.
If you hate negotiating and want to see transparent pricing without leaving your couch, buying a car through Amazon is a massive upgrade. It forces dealers to display real prices and cuts out the haggling.
However, if you were hoping to bypass the dealership model entirely, were not there yet. Youre still buying from a dealer; youre just using Amazon as a buffer to keep the sales pressure at bay.
For now, its a pretty good way to buy a Hyundai without spending your entire Saturday at the dealership.
This Presidents’ Day, Ive been thinking about George Washingtonnot at his finest hour, but possibly at his worst.
In 1754, a 22-year-old Washington marched into the wilderness surrounding Pittsburgh with more ambition than sense. He volunteered to travel to the Ohio Valley on a mission to deliver a letter from Robert Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, to the commander of French troops in the Ohio territory. This military mission sparked an international war, cost him his first command and taught him lessons that would shape the American Revolution.
As a professor of early American history who has written two books on the American Revolution, Ive learned that Washingtons time spent in the Fort Duquesne area taught him valuable lessons about frontier warfare, international diplomacy and personal resilience.
A young George Washington was thrust into the dense, contested wilderness of the Ohio River Valley as a land surveyor for real estate development companies in Virginia. [Image: Henry Hintermeister/Wiki Commons]
The mission to expel the French
In 1753, Dinwiddie decided to expel French fur trappers and military forces from the strategic confluence of three mighty waterways that crisscrossed the interior of the continent: the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers. This confluence is where downtown Pittsburgh now stands, but at the time it was wilderness.
King George II authorized Dinwiddie to use force, if necessary, to secure lands that Virginia was claiming as its own.
As a major in the Virginia provincial militia, Washington wanted the assignment to deliver Dinwiddies demand that the French retreat. He believed the assignment would secure him a British army commission.
Washington received his marching orders on Oct. 31, 1753. He traveled to Fort Le Boeuf in northwestern Pennsylvania and returned a month later with a polite but firm no from the French.
Dinwiddie promoted Washington from major to lieutenant colonel and ordered him to return to the Ohio River Valley in April 1754 with 160 men. Washington quickly learned that French forces of about 500 men had already constructed the formidable Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio. It was at this point that he faced his first major test as a military leader. Instead of falling back to gather more substantial reinforcements, he pushed forward. This decision reflected an aggressive, perhaps naive, brand of leadership characterized by a desire for action over caution.
Washingtons initial confidence was high. He famously wrote to his brother that there was something charming in the sound of whistling bullets.
The Jumonville affair and an international crisis
Perhaps the most controversial moment of Washingtons early leadership occurred on May 28, 1754, about 40 miles south of Fort Duquesne. Guided by the Seneca leader Tanacharisonknown as the Half Kingand 12 Seneca warriors, Washington and his detachment of 40 militiamen ambushed a party of 35 French Canadian militiamen led by Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville. The Jumonville affair lasted only 15 minutes, but its repercussions were global.
Ten of the French, including Jumonville, were killed. Washingtons inability to control his Native American alliesthe Seneca warriors executed Jumonvilleexposed a critical gap in his early leadership. He lacked the ability to manage the volatile intercultural alliances necessary for frontier warfare.
Washington also allowed one enemy soldier to escape to warn Fort Duquesne. This skirmish effectively ignited the French and Indian War, and Washington found himself at the center of a burgeoning international crisis.
Defeat at Fort Necessity
Washington then made the fateful decision to dig in and call for reinforcements instead of retreating in the face of inevitable French retaliation. Reinforcements arrived: 200 Virginia militiamen and 100 British regulars. They brought news from Dinwiddie: congratulations on Washingtons victory and his promotion to colonel.
His inexperience showed in his design of Fort Necessity. He positioned the small, circular palisade in a meadow depression, where surrounding wooded high ground allowed enemy marksmen to fire down with impunity. Worse still, Tanacharison, disillusioned with Washingtons leadership and the British failure to follow through with promised support, had already departed with his warriors weeks earlier. When the French and their Native American allies finally attacked on July 3, heavy rains flooded the shallow trenches, soaking gunpowder and leaving Washingtons men vulnerable inside their poorly designed fortification.
Illustration showing George Washington signing the articles of capitulation at Fort Necessity during the French and Indian Wars, on July 3, 1754. [Photo: Interim Archives/Getty Images]
The battle of Fort Necessity was a grueling, daylong engagement in the mud and rain. Approximately 700 French and Native American allies surrounded the combined force of 460 Virginian militiamen and British regulars. Despite being outnumbered and outmaneuvered, Washington maintained order among his demoralized troops. When French commander Louis Coulon de VilliersJumonvilles brotheroffered a truce, Washington faced the most humbling moment of his young life: the necessity of surrender. His decision to capitulate was a pragmatic act of leadership that prioritized the survival of his men over personal honor.
The surrender also included a stinging lesson in the nuances of diplomacy. Because Washington could not read French, he signed a document that used the word l’assassinat, which translates to assassination, to describe Jumonvilles death. This inadvertent admission that he had ordered the assassination of a French diplomat became propaganda for the French, teaching Washington the vital importance of optics in international relations.
Lessons that forged a leader
The 1754 campaign ended in a full retreat to Virginia, and Washington resigned his commission shortly thereafter. Yet, this period was essential in transforming Washington from a man seeking personal glory into one who understood the weight of responsibility.
He learned that leadership required more than courageit demanded understanding of terrain, cultural awareness of allies and enemies, and political acumen. The strategic importance of the Ohio River Valley, a gateway to the continental interior and vast fur-trading networks, made these lessons all the more significant.
Ultimately, the hard lessons Washington learned at the threshold of Fort Duquesne in 1754 provided the foundational experience for his later role as commander in chief of the Continental Army. The decisions he made in Pennsylvania and the Ohio wilderness, including the impulsive attack, the poor choice of defensive ground and the diplomatic oversight, were the very errors he would spend the rest of his military career correcting.
Though he did not capture Fort Duquesne in 1754, the young George Washington left the woods of Pennsylvania with a far more valuable prize: the tempered, resilient spirit of a leader who had learned from his mistakes.
Christopher Magra is a professor of American history at the University of Tennessee.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
