Predicting the future can be fun, but you get the sense Judge Amit Mehta wasn’t having much of it in his ruling that declared the long-awaited remedies in the Google antitrust case. Although the case centered around how Google achieved its dominance in search over the past 20 years, Mehta also considered what’s to come, specifically the emergence of AI chatbots like Gemini as go-to information portals for large numbers of people.
That’s important, especially to people in the media, many of whom were disappointed that the remedies weren’t harsher. While Mehta discarded industry-altering solutions like forcing Google to sell Chrome or Android, the ruling does recognize AI assistants as core distribution infrastructure in the media ecosystem. They may be a different animal from search engines, but Mehta writes that there’s enough overlap that the courts should regard them similarly: “…the use cases for GSEs [General Search Engines] and GenAI chatbots ‘are not identical but they do overlap in a number of places’ like ‘a Venn diagram’.”
That recognition is a significant step toward building a future AI ecosystem that works for everyone. There are of course myriad lawsuits and licensing deals between media companies and AI companies, and the ruling is a signal that the courts will treat AI assistants as critical distribution channels on par with browsers and search defaults.
{"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/mediacopilot-logo-ss.png","headline":"Media CoPilot","description":"Want more about how AI is changing media? Never miss an update from Pete Pachal by signing up for Media CoPilot. To learn more visit mediacopilot.substack.com","substackDomain":"https:\/\/mediacopilot.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
Exactly what form that takes is far from clear, but something else is: publishers need to build for that future now. AI isn’t an add-on or a feature. Flawed as they may still be, AI portals are the new battleground for where the best information providers will duke it out, just like SEO used to be. There are different rules for AI answer engines (governed by GEO, or generative engine optimization), but the fundamental gamebeing the source that gets citedis the same.
The shift from clicks to citations
As AI engines grow in popularity, there’s been a parallel trend of declining search traffic. This was entirely expected, but reports from both Pew Research and Similarweb have put numbers on that uncomfortable and rapidly accelerating reality. In addition, TollBit’s most recent State of the Bots report showed the meteoric rise in AI scraping as well as the abysmal click-through rates from AI summaries.
All of this has sent the media world in a panic since a great deal of the industry’s business model depends on that click-through traffic on search engines to fuel ad impressions. The understandable focus on revenue, however, overlooks the less tangible benefits of ranking in search: brand visibility and authority benefit from prominent placement in search resultsboth for publications and individuals.
That same logic carries over into AI answers. Although click-through is borderline negligible, users do often see the source that’s being cited, even if it’s just a publication name in a footnote. It’s like being quoted on the evening newseven if you weren’t able to directly monetize the mention, it reinforces your credibility. In other words, the impression (meant both literally and figuratively) still matters.
If your publication is cited in AI answers repeatedly, that can drive demand indirectly. Seeing the same name repeatedly in authoritative answers can influence whether that user decides to subscribe, recommend a source, or follow a journalist or outlet. Its a softer conversion path than direct clicks but not meaninglessakin to share-of-voice in traditional media measurement.
The hidden value of AI summaries
This isn’t to say such intangibles make up for lost revenue from referral traffic. But they do help publishers answer the question, “Why would you want to?” when considering whether they should compete for placement in AI summaries. And it’s not like monetization is out of the question: larger publications continue to sign licensing deals with AI companies, Perplexity is architecting a revenue-sharing system, and pay-per-crawl programs from the likes of Cloudflare continue to grow.
In fact, seeking placement in AI answers and measuring success will be key data for any publication when the time comes to negotiate with AI companies on licensing. And there’s every chance that court rulings could force the issue in the future, especially now that Judge Mehta has established the importance of AI information portals.
And let’s be real: If you choose to opt out or ignore AI summaries, someone else is going to be cited. As users often don’t just read answers, but copy them and even use them in their own documents and web pages (Perplexity even provides a button for this), that could have a compounding effect as at least some of that material ends up in data for AI training and web crawling. Since AI answers rely on citations more than links, it could be difficult to unseat a competitor once they secure a popular summary.
The other shift the ruling underscores is that, in an AI-mediated world, discovery isn’t a single-platform game. The decision requires Google to share data with its rivals. And with ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Copilot all pushing aggressively into AI answers, publishers will need to think beyond optimizing for Google. That means monitoring how content surfaces across various AI gateways, each with different rules for visibility. Just as SEO once became a core newsroom discipline, the coming challenge will be multi-engine optimizationtreating AI portals as the front doors for audiences they are rather than optional experiments.
The AI-first discovery era begins
Many were hoping the Google ruling would rebalance the power between Google and publishes. While that mostly didn’t happen, it did create a clear signal that AI engines will be the next frontier where content will compete for attention. The rewards for publishers are less tangible, at least for the time being, but there are rewards. And they beat the penalty: disappearing from discovery altogether.
{"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/mediacopilot-logo-ss.png","headline":"Media CoPilot","description":"Want more about how AI is changing media? Never miss an update from Pete Pachal by signing up for Media CoPilot. To learn more visit mediacopilot.substack.com","substackDomain":"https:\/\/mediacopilot.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
Some people are simply better at transforming casual human connections into social capital. Their network is their influence. My first career break was a simple introduction to a social entrepreneur. It led to who I am today. Networking isnt just social leverage. Its the art of making people remember you when they shouldnt have to. Its creating pull so strong, opportunities orbit you, not the other way around. You make yourself impossible to ignore. Turning networking into career gold is about playing the long game: human connection, done with intent.
Start with a constellation
Think of every person you meet not as a contact, but as a star. A single star is just a point of light. But connect a few and have a constellation. Connect enough, and you have a galaxy that can change your life. Your career is not a ladder; its a night sky. Your job is to populate it with bright, interesting stars. That means talk to everyone. The person next to you on the plane. You might as well make the most of it if you are going to spend hours with them. Introduce yourself to the quiet ones in the corner. Youre not pitching. Youre connecting. Youre finding out what makes them light up. Thats how you connect the dots. You never know who will say, Hey, I know a guy . . . Thats the constellation at work. Serendipity is just what happens when your network is wide enough for luck to find you.
Give. Then give again. Expect nothing
The fastest way to kill the magic is to keep score. How can I help you? is my mantra. If you find a book that reminds you of someone who might find it useful? Send it to them. Hear about a project that aligns with a contacts skills? Connect them. Your value isnt what you can get; its what you can give. It builds a currency of trust. People remember generosity. They are hardwired to reciprocate. But you cant do it by waiting for the return favor. You have to give like its your job. But dont expect them to return the favor. The ROI is trust. And trust is the only currency that never inflates.
Be a person, not a profile
Nobody connects with a LinkedIn headline. They connect with a human. Talk about your failed startup. Your weird hobby. The time you made a mistake. And of course, how you bounced back. Vulnerability is a superpower. Its the secret that bypasses the professional face and goes straight to the person on the inside. Your specific, unapologetic self is your greatest asset. Authenticity is magnetic. It draws the right people and repels the wrong ones. Its a filter. Use it.
Get the follow-up right
You met someone great. What now? If you send a generic LinkedIn request, youve already lost. The gold is in the specificity. Your follow-up should reference something unique to the conversation. Great talking about the future of work yesterday. Heres that book or post I mentioned. No need to reply. Just thought youd enjoy it. That simple follow-up makes you a person. A thoughtful one. Not just a networker. Youve added value immediately with zero ask. Youve deposited into the trust bank. Now youre not a forgettable face.
The goal is to be a connector
You gain more social capital by connecting other people than by connecting people to yourself. If you see a developer who needs a designer. Connect them. You hear a problem and know the right person who can solve it. You make the intro. You become a value creator. Youre the person everyone wants to know because knowing you means access to a whole world of other interesting, capable people.
Thats when youve truly made it.
Dont just be interesting, be interested. Be a giver, not a taker. Be a person, not a profile. Build your circle of influence, one genuine connection at a time. The gold was never the asset you acquire or invest in. It was in the people you meet along the way.
Most of us will work for a really bad boss at some point in our lives, perhaps more than one. Research by the Harris Poll bears this out, showing that more than 70 percent of workers have had at least one such noxious manager in their career. These difficult managers can range from inexperienced and incompetent bosses to truly mean-spirited individuals who have little regard for human suffering. Researchers have found that when we experience incivility in the workplace, about half of people intentionally decreased their work effort, more than three-quarters said it decreased their commitment to the organization involved, and more than one in ten said they had left a job because of poor treatment/behavior.
Whats interesting is that many people think Its all their [the bosses] fault when, in fact, we often play a role in the difficult relationship. When we have a less-than-ideal boss, its also helpful to look in the mirror, for there may be some things we are doing that contribute to the situation. In addition, its easy to mistake incompetence for ill intent toward us. Keeping this in mind may give us a bit more empathy for a previous bad boss because we learn our own leadership skills by leading others, just as that previous bad boss had to learn to lead by leading us.
Really bad bosses can be soul-crushing and draining to work with. It helps us realize that when a boss, or any other person, treats us badly, their behavior may have very little to do with us and more to do with what is going on in their own world. But although we cannot control how others think or behave, we do have control over ourselves and our behavior.
When you have an insecure boss, there are some things you can do to make the situation more palatable. First, let them know, and feel, that they are in charge. Dont challenge them, particularly in front of others. Keep track of your own contributions and successes so they will be top of mind when they tell you that you have not made any contributions. And learn as much as you can from them while youre there and network widely to expand your learning, contacts, and opportunities. Sometimes the biggest learning from these situations is that you never want to make anyone feel the way this boss makes you feel. Thats still a valuable lesson.
If you work with a difficult person, keep in mind that you cannot change them and their behaviors. Only they can make these changes. Their own self-understanding and ability to self-manage is not up to you or even about you, but it can have a strong impact on you. When you have a really horrible, no-good boss, one that is demeaning or abusive, it may be helpful to remember that their behavior says more about them than it does about you. Although its never pleasant to have an abusive manager, remembering this may help you to not take their behavior personally. It doesnt excuse their behavior, but it may help you put it in perspective. You own your behavior; they own theirs.
This advice may be helpful in not exacerbating an already difficult problem or avoiding having your behavior become what gets singled out for punishment. But if you continue to work with an abusive manager who diminishes you, it can negatively affect your motivation, confidence, mental health, and career. In these situations, you may want to take the learning and move on.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
The answer to this question is, like so many others, It depends. It depends on what your goals are for your career, for learning, for experience; your appetite for comfort versus adventure; how you think about remuneration and learning; and how uncomfortable your current situation is. There is no promise that the situation you are in will get better, and theres no guarantee that a new job will have a better manager. Many of us have stayed with bad or even very bad bosses longer than we should have, and we have left other difficult managers whom we might have stayed with longer and learned from.
Just as our boss can fire us, we can fire our boss by leaving them or the organization. Some helpful should I stay or should I go questions to help you assess whether its time to begin looking for another position and manager include these:
What have I learned from this person, and in this position, so far?
Is there still an opportunity for me to continue to learn and grow in this position, working for this manager? If so, what is it that I want to learn, and how might I go about obtaining this knowledge and growth?
To what extent are the skills Ill continue to learn be transferrable to other jobs or careers I may want in the future?
Do my reasons for considering leaving this man- ager have to do with ethical lapses in the manager or organization?
Is working for this person negatively affecting my mental health?
Are there people higher up in the organization whom I admire or aspire to be like?
Even when your answers to the above questions point to I should go, there may be times when leaving a bad boss may not be a viable short-term solution. In these situations, it can be helpful to focus on what you can learn while you remain there, which may include taking on new projects or challenges, networking widely within the company, or practicing dealing with a difficult, demanding person. However, working with a bad boss comes with an emotional and sometimes physical toll, and the longer you continue to work with them, the larger the overall toll it will take.
When leaving a bad boss or situation, as hard as it may be, plan to make a graceful exit. Rage quitting, including creating an ugly scene on your way out or leaving a mess for your manager, others on the team, and the person who comes in behind you, may feel satisfying in the moment or even justified based on the way youve been treated, but its rarely a good option for your long-term reputation. Making a graceful exit means making a transition plan to help the person who comes in behind you understand the relevant processes and know where to find key information, thanking your manager for what youve learned from them, tying up as many loose ends as possible, being constructive in explaining why youre leaving, and offering to answer some questions in the weeks following your departure.
Excerpted from Manage Yourself to Lead Others: Why Great Leadership Begins with Self-Understanding. Copyright 2025 by Margaret C. Andrews. Available from Basic Venture, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Technologies from AI to advanced robotics have been celebrated for their ability to lighten peoples workload. But despite their promises, these technologies arent being used to improve workers lives or keep them safe. In 2023, 385 workers died every day due to hazardous working conditions, with over 3 million more work-related injuries and illnesses reported that year in the United States.
Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet spent a collective $155 billion on AI development in the first six months of 2025close to what the entire U.S. government has spent on education, training, employment, and social services since the start of its fiscal year nine months ago. Yet, very little of this investment has gone to make workers lives safer. What does this say about us as a society?
In health care, a common cause of workplace injury is strain from lifting and physically assisting patients. Assistive technology could go a long way to preventing these common injuriestechnologies like robotic exoskeletons, which can be applied in healthcare settings for this purpose, already exist. But we do not see companies racing to build the best robotic assists for care workers. Instead, thousands of companies are creating chatbots that replace their customer support staff or automate away entry-level roles.
In fact, robots actually seem to be making warehouse workers jobs worse. Speeding up processes with robotics requires workers to speed up as wellleading to increased injuries. Several investigations have found increased rates of injury in warehouses that use robotics; between 2016 and 2019, Amazon warehouses with robots had a 50% higher injury rate than those without. And even in 2020, when Amazon temporarily relaxed many of its requirements to work at a certain pace, warehouses with robotics had a 14% higher injury rate than those without.
While warehouse robots now come with more safety protections, updating older equipment with new safety features does not seem to be a priority. In fact, safety doesn’t seem to be a priority.
During a visit to a large warehouse facility a few years ago, I watched workers packing boxes at lightning speed, surrounded by screens and robots. I also saw aggressive signage throughout the facility, warning workers that heavy machines could begin moving at any moment. The message was clear: If you were injured it was your fault for not being careful enough.
Neglect of worker safety is not newthroughout U.S. history, production speed and profits have outweighed the value of human lives. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows a pretty consistent year-over-year drop in overall workplace injuries and fatalities, the change is minuscule: Injuries have dropped from 2.8 per 100 workers in 2019, to 2.4 in 2023. Meanwhile, death rates are increasing for workers of color: In 2023 Black workers faced their highest fatality rates in 20 years, and Latino worker deaths have risen steadily since 2020.
Powerful health and safety technologies exist but are vastly underutilized. A new sensor could help farm workers, one of our most poorly paid but important workforces, prevent dangerous heat-related illness. Wearable smart devices can monitor air pollution and alert workersfrom miners to cleanersof dangerous air quality. Other smart tech can help correct bad posture that could lead to injury or ensure machinery shuts down automatically if a worker gets too close. These technologies could prevent harm for many workers but we need to invest in them andcruciallygive workers input and decision-making power to ensure the technologies we invest in will effectively address their needs.
There are companies leading the way on consulting workers when implementing new technologies, like Microsoft, which is working in partnership with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to get worker input on AI development. However, many lower-wage professions are unlikely to get the investment needed to implement advanced worker safety tech. Updated workplace safety regulations, which account for the possibilities unlocked by new technologies, are needed to ensure workers are getting access to lifesaving equipment.
When I envision an economy employing advanced technologies, I do not think of one where workers get their limbs amputated in factories, suffer lung damage from cleaning chemicals, or get stress injuries from being asked to work faster and faster for meager pay.
We need bold actionregulations that require the use of safety tech, incentives for companies that invest in it, and worker voices at the table. Policy makers and business leaders can help us course correct; we need worker protections for a new age of technology and investment in tech that centers the needsand safetyof workers.
This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
Bland AI outputs grow stale quickly. Instead of just speeding up routine tasks, what if we used AI to slow down, challenge our thinking, and build new tools, dashboards, and experiments? Read on for creative approaches that are changing how I think about AI.
1. Create your own devil’s advocate assistant
Get thoughtful pushback on decisions. Challenge ideas.
The tactic: Use AI as an intellectual sparring partner to stress-test your thinking, explore alternative perspectives, and identify potential blind spots before making important decisions.
Try this: Present a plan, idea, or decision to an AI assistant with instructions to challenge your thinking constructively. Identify risks you haven’t considered, consider secondary impacts, and add nuance to your analysis.
Get your AI assistant to stop kissing up to you and start challenging your ideas. [Generated Photo: Jeremy Caplan/Ideogram]
Prompt template
“I’m planning to [decision/plan] because [reasoning] and with a goal of [objective]. Play devil’s advocate, give me multiple perspectives on this, be bold, surprising, creative, and thoughtful in your reply, and address these questions:
What are the strongest arguments against this approach?
What alternatives should I consider?
What risks might I be overlooking?
What questions should I be asking myself?
What challenges should I expect to face?
What could I do to gain more insight?
What could I do to increase the chances of success?
Pro tip: Try asking your AI assistant to role-play. It can respond as a financial advisor, family member, or competitor, for varied viewpoints. Or ask it to act like a person you admire, living or dead, real or fictional.
Limitation: Your AI devils assistant will be generic if you dont provide detailed context. And you may get a predictable response if you dont instruct it to be bold.
Suggested model: I have found ChatGPT 5 to be excellent for this. Gemini and Claude also work well. If youre considering anything sensitive, you may want to use a free offline private AI tool like AnythingLLM or Jan. Ill write more soon about private AI tools like these. If you have input on those, add a comment below.
Example: I described a new planned morning schedule to GPT 5. The subsequent exchange got me thinking about several new issues.
The conversation helped me clarify my own thinking. It pushed me to organize and deepen my own analysis. As a bonus, GPT 5 produced a tangible artifact for mea PDF with tables.
2. Learn something new
Map out a personalized curriculum.
[Generated Photo: Jeremy Caplan]
AI tools let me try out skills I thought I was too late to develop, like coding simple applications, designing graphics, analyzing large data sets, and exploring complex docs in other languages.
You can also lean on AI assistants to help you develop offline skills, like learning about photography, improving your Greek, understanding crypto, sharpening project management skills, making bread by hand, or prepping for any new coverage area for a project or team. AI assistants excel at creating structured learning and practice plans tailored to your schedule, style, and goals.
Try this: Give an AI assistant context about what you want to learn, why, and how.
Detail your rationale and motivation, which may impact your approach.
Note your current knowledge or skill level, ideally with examples.
Summarize your learning preferences
Note whether you prefer to read, listen to, or watch learning materials.
Mention if you like quizzes, drills, or exercises you can do while commuting or during a break at work.
If you appreciate learning games, task your AI assistant with generating one for you, using its coding capabilities detailed below.
Ask for specific book, textbook, article, or learning path recommendations using the Web search or Deep Research capabilities of Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude. They can also summarize research literature about effective learning tactics.
If you need a human learning partner, ask for guidance on finding one or language you can use in reaching out.
Add specificity
Mention any relevant deadlines. Note budget, time, or other constraints.
Share info about your existing schedule so the assistant can help map out optimal learning time slots. Making the plan concrete increases the likelihood youll follow through. ChatGPT recently generated a calendar file with a list of appointments I could easily import into my Google calendar.
Pro Tip: Ask for help setting up a schedule, setting learning targets, measuring progress, choosing resources, motivating yourself, and implementing backup plans when you fall off track. Ask for a learning plan you can print out, charts you can fill in, interactive apps to track progress, resource lists you can look up, experts you can follow, and strategies for avoiding common pitfalls.
3. Stretch your creative design muscles
Try this: Use AI image generation tools to experiment with visual ideas. Start with simple concepts and iterate to add nuance or complexity. Practice describing visual concepts in text, then see them realized instantly and iterate on your prompts.
Try MyLens or Napkin for creating mind maps, flow charts, timelines or various other infographics out of detailed prompts or source docs.
Use Ideogramdetailed in this postor ChatGPTs new image generatordetailed in this postto describe any style of illustration, infographic or other visual.
For creative video generation, try Hypernatural, which lets you turn text into moving images.
Use this to: Add creative images to presentations, experiment with social media graphics, or generate infographics for teaching, publishing, or project work.
Limitation: AI image generators are improving rapidly but still struggle with precise text placement, detailed charts, and maintaining brand consistency across multiple images. Most dont let you select specific image dimensions, though Ideogram does.
Examples: I generated the images in this post with ChatGPT and Ideogram, and Ive used Hypernatural to make video versions of past posts, like this 2-min video about Raindrop, which I wrote about last week.
4. Create a personalized dashboard
Build custom tracking tools and mini-applications
Without knowing anything about code, you can generate simple web applications for tracking anything important to you. Prompt your AI assistant to help you keep tabs on reading or eating goals, fitness metrics, project progress at school or work, or stats for Wordle or your game of choice.
Try this: Ask AI to create a dashboard or tracking tool tailored to your specific needs. Experiment with Claude 4 Artifacts, Gemini’s code canvas. Also try vibe coding tools like Lovable or Bolt that specialize in creating apps and sites based on prompts. For advanced projects, consider Windsurf Cascade.
Pro tip: Plan to iterate. It almost always takes multiple attempts to get something workable, because you realize your needs when you see the first prototype. Start with simple tracking before requesting complex features. Ask for additional functionality with follow-up prompts. Herea a Prompt Example.
Limitation: The simplest versions of these mini applications work in your browser only. To use an application on multiple devices, youll need to save the code and host it with a service that allows you to create a database. For that, try Lovable, Bolt, or Windsurf.
Example: Im working on a content planning and workflow app to organize and track my newsletter work.
This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
People often say that a single spark can light a fire.
In careers, that spark is often a person. It might be someone early in life who cracks open a door, offers encouragement, or quietly shows what success can look like. Whats less obvious is how profoundly that very first connection can shape everything that comes afterward.
Consider 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion Serena Williams. Williams has often spoken about the crucial role played by her first coachher father, Richard Williams. His belief in her abilities and his willingness to expose her to competitive tennis from an early age ensured she gained experience long before most of her peers. In this, shes not alone: In sports, a first coach can recognize potential before anyone else does.
Or consider Misty Copeland, the American Ballet Theatres first Black female principal dancer. When Copeland was 13, a Boys & Girls Club teacher, Cynthia Bradley, recognized her potential and brought her into formal ballet training; within four years Copeland earned a spot in ABTs Studio Company. In 2015, she became ABTs first Black female principal, a milestone built on that early mentorship. Those first advocates opened doors to elite training, scholarships, and professional networks that sustained a long, barrier-breaking career.
Anecdotes like these are powerful, but they also raise questions. Do early connections cause long-term success, or do they simply come more easily to people already positioned to succeed? After all, a young athlete with supportive and affluent parents might have access to better training and competition regardless of who their first coach is. This chicken-and-egg problem is hard to untangle, unless you look at a setting where chance plays a role. Thats where my research comes in.
Real estate as a natural laboratory
Im a professor of real estate finance, and I noticed that the residential real estate brokerage industry can mimic a random experimental setting. Since only a small number of people are active in housing markets at any given time, agents cant choose exactly who they work with. That means a new agents first counterparty brokerthat is, the agent on the other side of the deal depends on who happens to be representing clients at the same time and place. In many cases, that first connection is essentially a matter of luck.
So my colleagues and I analyzed more than 20 years of home sales data from Charlotte, North Carolina, covering more than 40,000 unique real estate agents and 417,000 home sales from 2001 to 2023. We found that new agents who land their first deal with a well-connected power broker are about 25% more likely to still be in the business a year later. Since many agents struggle to close a second deal within a year of their first, this significantly boosts their chances of building a lasting career.
The first handshake and lasting spark
What makes these first encounters so powerful is not only the transfer of skills but also the shaping of confidence and identity. A young musician invited to join an orchestra by a respected conductor begins to see himself as part of that world. A student encouraged by a scientist to enter a national competition begins to imagine a place for herself in research. An athlete who trains with an Olympic medalist begins to visualize competing at the highest levels. In each case, the first connection changes the sense of what is possible.
Our study also found that new real estate agents at the greatest risk of leaving the field (those with fewer early sales) benefit the most from starting out with a well-connected partner. The same dynamic appears in sports, where struggling athletes often flourish under coaches with deep relationships and credibility, and in education, where students on the verge of disengaging can be reenergized by respected teachers who open doors to programs, competitions, and networks. These mentors do more than teach. They change trajectories.
The lesson for those just beginning their careers: Seek out people who are respected and generous with their experience. Observing how they work, think, and solve problems can shape your own professional identity.
For those who are more established, the takeaway is equally important: Offering a hand to someone new, making an introduction, or simply offering encouragement can set in motion a sequence of events that shape a life.
Soon Hyeok Choi is an assistant professor of real estate finance at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Our built environment contributes to a mental health crisis.
Were not living in a natural outcome of human needs and behavior. The built environment as we know itbuildings and the spaces betweendoes direct damage to our minds. Land use planning has had devastating impacts on Americans: economically, socially, and culturally. But Im not a doomer and I know these things are fixable. Not overnight reversible, but certainly fixable.
Copycat plans
Typical land use rules are written, updated, and enforced at the local government level. But as you might expect, agencies copied each other over the years because why wouldnt they. Years ago, when I learned some photography techniques that were new to me, I made cheat sheets for other photographers. Much of what Ive learned as an adult (podcasting, publishing, public speaking, etc.) has been taught by generous people who themselves had learned tips and tricks. So of course public agencies copied each other with their rule-making. That worked for a similar river city? Lets try it here.
{"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}}
Planning departments at city and county levels werent setting out to guide development in a way that would purposefully harm people. Quite the opposite.
If a new Sears distribution center was coming to town, theyd want to map out a plan to accommodate all the new employees and subsequent traffic. In the middle of the 20th century, planners were still very much concerned about separating dirty and/or dangerous land uses from residential areas. The result was that all across the country, local development rules required or incentivized development patterns that spread everyone and everything across the landscape.
A work zone, school zone, shopping zone, entertainment zone, and a sleep zone were established. And then each major category started getting more prescriptive subcategories. Residential morphed into single-family, multi-family (apartments), and condos. But wait, theres more! Residential land uses started to be regulated by local governments according to lot size: garden apartments, planned unit developments, and subdivisions were each given rules. Residential was also regulated by the type of people living in a place: public housing, group dwellings, age-restricted dwelling, renters, and owners.
Local regulations created (and continue to create) sprawl in cities, not just the suburbs.
The traffic factor
Land use planning requires traffic engineering analysis, a process prioritizing speedy car movement above all else. Wider roads and intersections are not just suggested but required with the express goal to move vehicular traffic from zone to zone as quickly as possible. This has been going on for nearly 100 years without taking a foot off the brake.
The obvious outcome of modern land use planning is that Americans drive everywhere all the time. Not just work commutes, but all the errands before, during, and after work. Half of our car trips are less than a few miles long. A quarter are less than one mile. Less than a mile in a car by ourselves.
The mental health connection
Life in a single-occupant vehicle has its perks, like singing along to music or listening to podcasts uninterrupted. It also has its pains, like separation from other humans and mental deterioration.
Loneliness is a significant variable affecting depression. Its a predisposing factor. Cigna conducted a study of 20,000 Americans, and reported a jaw-dropping finding: nearly half of adults sometimes or always feel alone. 40% said their relationships arent meaningful and they feel isolated.
Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University. She says the health risks of missing out on social connection is like smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Worse yet, theres a causal relationship between social isolation and suicide. Conversely, having a crew (social support in doctor jargon) has a protective effect against suicide. For every suicidal death, another 20 people attempted suicide.
The takeaway
So what do you do with all this heavy information?
First, remember that the built environment is deliberately planned for us to drive in cars from zone to zone. Planners arent trying to destroy our minds, but the built environment increases anxiety, depression, isolation, loneliness, and suicide.
Second, understand the land use catastrophes are reversible. Compact development won’t be legalized overnight, but reform can come as quickly as local leaders are willing. Walk-friendly, bike-friendly, transit-friendly places are good medicine, and theyre made possible at the local level.
Third, and most important of all, know that things can get better in the end. Americas built environment does not fit who we are as humans, but we can turn this around with something as boring as reforming land use planning. Start by legalizing healthy infrastructurea variety of land uses within walking distance of homes and streets designed for safe walking and cycling.
{"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he exploresideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}}
Niccol Machiavelli, the infamous author of The Prince, wrote in the 1500s that the ideal leader makes and breaks solemn agreements. He creates alliances with weak allies to defeat a powerful enemy and then eliminates them one by one. He blames his next-in-charge for his own mistakes, and he executes opponents in public.
St. Francis of Assisi was the antithesis of a Machiavellian leader. Born in 1181, the future saint renounced his fathers wealth, then spent the remainder of his life wandering around northern Italy as a beggar and preacher. Francis gained a reputation for extreme humilitybut certainly he was not weak. He dealt with popes, nobles and even an Egyptian sultan. He founded a religious order, the Franciscans, that survives today.
In modern times, Machiavellian leaders abound in the corporate world. Perhaps more surprisingly, many other business leaders resemble Francis: humble and self-effacing, but by no means weak. In our research, we argue that two types of motivation help to explain these vast and enduring differences in leadership.
Two faces of power
Psychologists have long been fascinated by peoples nonconscious motivesand how to measure them. One influential assessment, developed in the 1930s, is the Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT. People write short stories about ambiguous pictures, and researchers then analyze the stories to see which themes emerge: what the writer cares or worries about, and how they see the world.
In 1970, psychologist David McClelland coined the phrase the two faces of power to describe two different types of power that motivate people, based on his TAT analyses: personal power and socialized power. Personal power is the motivation to dominate others. McClelland noted that people with a desire for personal power tend to use imagery that evokes the law of the jungle in which the strongest survive by destroying their adversaries. Socialized power, on the other hand, aims to benefit others.
McClelland noted that personal power was associated with behavior like heavy drinking, gambling, aggressive impulses and collecting prestige supplies, like convertibles. People concerned with the more socialized aspect of power, meanwhile, join more organizations and are more apt to become officers in them, including sports teams.
A few years later, McClelland and consultant David Burnham published an article titled Power is the Great Motivator, elaborating on this basic link between power motivation and leader effectiveness. Through a series of biographical vignettes and an analysis of a large company, they showed that managers exhibiting a high degree of socialized power were more effective than managers motivated by personal power.
Measuring motivation
It seemed to us that personal power, the law of the jungle, motivates the kinds of behavior approvingly described by Machiavelli. Likewise, socialized power seemed to underlie the forceful but altruistic behavior of St. Francis and modern so-called humble leaders.
But we faced a problem: how to measure motivation. Powerful people such as world-class CEOs have little inclination to take TATs or answer questionnaires for admittedly humble scholars.
In the 1990s, psychologist David Winter showed that speeches, interviews and diplomatic texts reveal nonconscious motivation in the same way as the Thematic Apperception Testdemonstrating a way to study leaders views of power. For example, someone driven by a desire for personal power often tries to control or regulate people around them; attempts to persuade and convince; and is concerned with fame, status and reputation.
However, Winters procedures for analyzing texts are manual and complex; it is difficult to process a large number of documents. Also, he focused on personal power; socialized power was not included in his coding procedures.
Words and action
In order to overcome these limitations, we used computer-aided text analysis to analyze the language of CEOs in interviews and conference calls.
In a series of 2019 studies, which were peer-reviewed and summarized in the Academy of Management Proceedings, our team identified 40 Machiavellian and 40 humble CEOs. First, we took a close look at the types of words and phrases that distinguished the two groups, shedding light on the kind of power that motivates each one.
Using these patterns, we created two dictionaries of words and phrases that expressed personal power and socialized power. Language about strong, forceful actions, control, managing impressions, punishment and fear of failure, to name a few themes, constituted the personal power dictionary. Defeat, overrun and strafe, for example, appeared among the words on the personal power list. Themes such as rewards, mentoring and positive relationships characterized the socialized power dictionary.
Then, we used a computer program to scan hundreds of interviews and quarterly conference calls. The computer program calculated personal and socialized power scores for each of the CEOs.
Our team also developed indexes of Machiavellian and humble leader behaviorsuch as smearing competitors and backing out of agreements, or making significant donations to charity, respectivelyand measured all 80 CEOs.
We found very high correlations between power motivation and CEO behavior. CEOs with high personal power scores, based on our analysis of their interviews and conference calls, also tended to show Machiavellian behavior. CEO humble behavior was positively related to socialized power.
People and profits
Do these abstract statistical results really mean anything? Evidently.
Numerous CEOs from our list of humble executives have founded or managed exceptionally successful and people-oriented companies, including Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway, Danny Wegman of Wegmans, and James Goodnight of the SAS Institute. Several of the humble CEOs have appeared multipletimes on Fortunes annual Best Companies to Work For list.
The Machiavellian CEO list included Kenneth Lay of Enron fame and John Rigas, one of the founders of Adelphia Communications Corporation, who was convicted of fraud. Mark Hurd, one-time CEO of Hewlett Packard, appeared on Complexs list of the worst chief executive officers in tech history. In general, criticisms of profits over people, poor treatment of employees, scandals, lavish spending, lawsuits and accusations or convictions of fraud characterize many of our Machiavellian CEOs.
McClelland and Burnham were right. Power really is the great motivator, but its the type of power that makes the difference.
William D. Spangler is an associate professor emeritus of management at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
Aleksey Tikhomirov is a lecturer of public administration and policy at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Cass Sunstein is a Harvard Law School professor and one of the most cited legal scholars in the world. He founded the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School, served in the White House during the Obama Administration, received the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway, and has written dozens of books on topics ranging from behavioral science to constitutional law.
Whats the big idea?
Hidden forces shape our decisions all the timewhether that comes in the form of peer pressure, marketing strategy, or cultural norms. Manipulation is silent, pervasive, and dangerous. We need to find ways to protect ourselves from influences that guide our actions without giving us a fair shot at making deliberate choices.
Below, Cass shares five key insights from his new book, Manipulation: What It Is, Why Its Bad, and What to Do About It. Listen to the audio versionread by Cass himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App.
1. Manipulation undermines your freedom to choose.
Manipulation isnt just persuasionits trickery that prevents people from exercising their capacity for deliberation. It might stir emotions, hide crucial information, or bury key terms in fine print so you cant make a truly informed choice. The danger lies in how it quietly strips away your agency, making you act without genuine reflection.
2. Sludge is manipulation by a thousand cuts.
Sludge refers to needless barriersendless forms, hold times, or bureaucratic hoopsthat make it hard to get what you want or to escape a bad deal. Companies often make signing up effortless, but impose exhausting obstacles when you try to cancel or change terms. This easy in, hard out design is manipulation on steroids.
3. We need a right to not be manipulated.
Societies already protect people from fraud and deception, but theres no legal safeguard against manipulation itself. Thats a problem because manipulation can waste your time, drain your money, and damage your well-being without breaking existing laws. Its time to create a clear, enforceable right that shields people from such exploitation.
4. The Barbie Problem: buying what we wish didnt exist.
Some goods are bought not out of love, but because social norms make them feel unavoidable. Think of Barbies, cigarettes, certain social media platforms, or any items that most people purchase yet many privately wish would disappear altogether. Companies exploit social pressures to manipulate us into consumer choices that dont reflect our true preferences. Getting people to buy products they deplore or regret purchasing is a serious problem that we need to find a way to reduce.
5. Social norms can trap us.
Once a product exists, refusing it can send an unwanted signal: in some communities, turning down a drink implies youre no fun; skipping a trendy app makes you seem out of the loop. To avoid that social penalty, we complyeven if wed be happier without the product entirely. This is manipulation by peer pressure, and is extremely hard to resist because of how certain choices signal specific social perceptions of you.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
As is the case for many founders, my journey began as a one-person show. I started Digital Voices, an influencer marketing agency that helps brands grow by pairing them with creators across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. With just a shoestring budget of $300 and a background in digital strategy, I launched the company with more ambition than certainty. Afterlong hours coupled with hustle and self-doubtit has now evolved into a multimillion-80-person operation spanning the globe.
Here are five lessons about leadership I learned along the way.
1. Get comfortable with constant change
Leadership today is defined by constant fluctuation. On a Monday, youre making long-term strategic decisions aimed at future-proofing the business. The next day, youre brainstorming creative ideas for a client campaign. All of this comes as you attempt to balance the businesss progress against your own personal journey. And thats before you even get to the impact that your actions or a throwaway comment have on your wider team.
In order to grow, your business should be constantly changing. For example, weve built new technology that has completely changed peoples day-to-day work, changed roles, titles, teams, opened offices in the United States, and built a team in Costa Rica. One of my favorite business adages is, If your company doesnt feel like an entirely new business every 18 months, youre not scaling. Youre stagnating.
This puts immense pressure on every leader. That relentless tension means that for real progress, you always have to feel out of your comfort zone.
You need to spin multiple plateschecking that the aspects of the business you used to run are going smoothly, while feeling like a beginner at whatever obstacle youre throwing yourself at next.
2. Vulnerability is key
Ive never met a leader whos gone their entire career without making mistakes. Neither have you. The perfect leader doesnt exist.
It doesnt matter how many books youve read, coaches youve had, how much time or money youve invested in self-development, making mistakes is part of this game. The proximity to failure keeps most entrepreneurs motivated.
The polished, superhero, all about the grind, idealized image of entrepreneurship is dead. People want to see the honest version of your struggles and humanity. Sharing your mistakes publicly isnt a sign of weakness; its an avenue towards building trust with your customers and employees.
Try to resist the urge to receive every piece of negative feedback on your backfoot. Very rarely is it a personal attack or a character assassination. Think about it this way: Giving negative feedback and offering solutions is hard. It means your employees care enough to think about how your business can be better. Also, no one likes conflict or enjoys having hard conversations. They are risking discomfortand at times even their jobto give you insights.
3. Hire for fit
The culture versus credentials debate: Weve all heard it, some of us have lived it.
The truth is that the perfect on paper candidate will always turn your head. According to their resume, theyve got all the relevant experience, the certifications and qualifications, the recommendations… For all intents and purposes, theyre a shoo-in.
And yet we should all recognize by now that credentials are only part of the puzzlea vital ingredient certainly, but not the whole pie. You need people who thrive in the uncertainty of a scale-up environment and who believe in what youre striving for and genuinely want to help drive your business forward. Not everyone will be capable of that level of engagement, or even want it. So dont let a resume with big brand names mask the fact that someone isnt the right fit from a culture perspective. Spend the time and hire slow. And then keep the trust of your team by firing fast if they arent the right fit.
4. Stay true to your values
Be clear on what your cultural non-negotiables are in the business. Write yours down. Inform your team as they need to know what lens they should view decisions through.
There will be times when protecting your bottom line will clash with your business’s purpose. Principles will cost you money. Ive been offered multiple seven-figure sums to market gambling or weight-loss brands. And while the business could have used that money, we turned it down.
Why? Because were accountable to the businessand not just commercially, but culturally, too. Which means you need to be confident that the experience, grit, skills and team that got you this far, will continue to propel you forward.
Im not saying dont edit your approach. Im saying be careful with the tweaks that cost you your principles and culture. Those decisions are nearly impossible to roll back.
5. Empower your employees
Too many founders lean toward helicopter leadership. Its like the business version of helicopter parenting, a term used to describe the sort of parents who constantly hover round their kids, micromanaging every experience. While the business might have once been your baby, you cannot spin all the plates across all teams. For one, its not sustainable. For two, your employees will despise you for it.
You need to create an environment where people are not afraid to put their hands up if something is going wrong. They need to trust that youll jump in and help them solve the problem, rather than play the blame game. Hard on the problem, easy on the person.
This isnt about maintaining total control, its about achieving clarity and trust. The most impactful founders move beyond acting as a boss, and start acting as conductorsbringing out the best in their team for the collective benefit of everyone.
