Ford has used some version of its famous script logo for more than a century, but despite its widespread usage, people are scratching their heads over a detail they just noticed.
In a viral TikTok, user Monica Turner asked viewers to pick the correct version of the automaker’s logo, one with a funny-looking flourish on the logo’s F and one without. Viewers were split on which version they thought was correct, and to some commenters’ surprise, it’s the one with the curlicue.
@monicasopenhouse Mandela Effect- The Ford Logo! I think they BOTH Look wrong, ! #MonicasOpenHouse #FYP #mandelaeffect #FordLogo #strangebuttrue #TimeShift #Cern #WeirdStuff #Over30 #Over40 #Over50 #GenX #ConspiracyTheory #tinfoilhat original sound – Monica Turner
Side by side and to the untrained eye, the real Ford logo looks fake next to its dupe. In the age of corporate blanding, the curlicue flourish reads as fake, but it’s been there as far back as the 1910s, according to a vintage advertising sign in the Henry Ford Museum. Some commentersincluding a former Ford mechanic and another who worked at a Ford dealershipgot it right, but the rest of us should know better too. Ford’s F-150 truck has been the long-running best-selling vehicle in the U.S., and over multiple rebrands, Ford has kept the script styling of its logo intact.
From top: The 1907 version of Fords logo by C. Harold Wills, and a contemporary version [Images: Ford]
The origin of Ford’s logo
The logo, designed by Ford engineer and former letterpress printer C. Harold Wills, is inspired by its founder’s signature, but it’s not an exact replica. (Ford’s signature, notably, didn’t include the curlicue.) Like the script logo for Coca-Cola, founded several decades before Ford, the automaker’s logo was created in an era of ornate script branding that’s survived through multiple iterations and a trend toward sans-serif type all the way to the 21st century. When legendary designer Paul Rand created a handsome, modern, non-script logo concept for Ford in 1966, Henry Ford II decided against it because he thought it would have been too radical.
[Photo: Ford]
Imagine Ford’s logo, and you’re likely to recall the script font and blue oval, but perhaps other details are a bit hazy. That’s normal. Studies have shown that humans are terrible at remembering logos because our brains don’t bother storing unnecessary information unless we choose to memorize it; that way we can free up space to remember more important things. That leads to our inability to remember whether the bite mark and tilt of the leaf on the Apple logo is on the left or right (it’s the right) or whether or not the Fruit of the Loom logo has a cornucopia in it (it doesn’t).
Since the minutia of Ford’s logo isn’t a pressing concern for most of us, our brain stores only the basics. See an oval badge with script type, and you know it̻s Ford. Look a little closer, though, and the details may surprise you.
In a rural pocket of western Pennsylvania, along the leafy banks of Sewickley Creek, a small, jagged pipe juts just above the waterline, its cement casing carpeted in moss.
The pipe releases treated wastewater into the creeka popular spot for kayaking and fishingfrom a landfill that handles some of the states most toxic industrial waste, including from oil and gas drilling.
Two new signs on the opposite shore correct the impression of a forgotten relic. Warning! Hazardous Waste Discharge Point, they read. Arsenic, lead, cyanide, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and more are permitted substances for discharge at this site.
Colleen ONeil of the Mountain Watershed Association fixes a crooked sign posted near a landfills discharge pipe that flows into Sewickley Creek in Yukon, Pennsylvania. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News]
The Max Environmental Technologies landfill has been out of compliance with requirements set under the Clean Water Act for most of the past three years and with the federal hazardous waste law, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, known as RCRA for short, since July 2023.
Pollution has taken a toll on the creek: Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University tested Max Environmentals outfall and found radioactivity in the sediment downstream of the discharge point was 1.4 times higher than upstream. The researchers connected this radioactivity to the landfills intake of oil and gas waste, which spiked earlier in Pennsylvanias fracking boom.
A close-up of a discharge pipe from the Yukon landfill: A sign warns that arsenic, lead, cyanide, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium are permitted substances for discharge here. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News]
I wouldnt eat the fish. I wouldnt swim in the water, said John Stolz, a professor of environmental microbiology at Duquesne, who coauthored the study and has researched oil and gas waste in Pennsylvania for 15 years. Water quality data for Sewickley Creek from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows that much of it is classified as impaired.
For decades, residents have raised the alarm about the 160-acre landfills impact on the town, blaming its operations for serious harms to their health, their children, their animals, their waterways, and their land.
They say exposure to pollution from the landfill has led to more cancers, miscarriages, respiratory distress, and neurological diseases. Over three generations, since the landfills opening in 1964, theyve endured odors, dust, noise, and spills. Theyve watched their neighbors fall ill, die, or move out, and they live in fear for their own health.
The EPA ranks Yukon higher for key health problems like cancer and heart disease than state and national averages.
Just as Sewickley Creek is a single branch of a larger watershed, the landfills outfall is one node in a vast network of waste disposal that stretches across Pennsylvania and the United States. In addition to taking industrial waste like plastic battery pieces, lead paint debris, and fly ash, Max Environmentals Yukon site is one of more than 25 landfills in Pennsylvania that accept the solid waste that comes from oil and gas drilling.
Yukon is a small town of a few hundred people, but the problems at Max Environmental are indicative of a national crisis. Oil and gas companies and the government agencies responsible for regulating them have never fully reckoned with it, in part because the industry successfully lobbied for federal regulations that exempt most of its waste from stricter rules that govern hazardous waste.
As Pennsylvanias natural gas production soared during the 21st-century fracking rush, so too has the industrys solid waste and wastewater. The state first required companies to report volumes of solid oil and gas waste in 2010. In 2023, the most recent figures, there were 929,216 tons of solid waste generated, and 96% of that was sent to landfills or waste treatment facilities.
The town of Yukon, Pennsylvania [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News]
Wastewater production, meanwhile, skyrocketed from around 168 million gallons per year before the boom in 2003 to more than 3.3 billion in 2023.
This waste poses enormous regulatory challenges for state and federal authorities because it’s highly toxic and often radioactive. Options for disposing of it have ranged from injecting it underground, a practice linked to earthquakes in other states, to repackaging the often extremely salty water as a dust suppressant for public roads, where it can contaminate soil and waterand of course, sending it to landfills. Each of them is deeply flawed as a long-term solution.
Activists and scientists say the government has failed to contend with the massive amount of this waste being created every day. Even basic details like where fracking waste ends up are often difficult to confirm.
In 2023, a study of landfills by Duquesne University and University of Pittsburgh researchers concluded that state records tracking oil and gas waste in Pennsylvania were conflicting and inadequate. They found significant discrepancies between the amount that companies reported delivering to landfills and what the landfills said they accepted. These discrepancies make it much harder to assess the environmental impacts.
Part of the problem is that nobody can really get a handle on how much waste is actually there, said Stolz, a coauthor of the study.
[Image: Paul Horn/Inside Climate News]
Meanwhile, the problem keeps growing: Natural gas production in Pennsylvania alone topped 7.5 million cubic feet in 2023, the most recent figure, a 47-fold increase over two decades.
That production reached record highs during the Biden years, and the Trump administrations energy policies may push that ceiling higher. In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order, Unleashing American Energy, aimed at increasing oil and gas development in the U.S.
There’s also evidence that new wells drilled in Pennsylvania tend to become less productive faster than older wells, said Ted Auch, the Midwest director at the Pennsylvania-based FracTracker, an organization that studies the impacts of oil and gas development.
The life span of a given well is shorter for newer wells than it was at the outset of the fracking boom, Auch said. What that means is that the industry is using more and more water, generating more and more waste, using more and more stuff to wring that unit of gas out of the shale rock.
Significant Noncompliance
In 2017, Connecticut-based private equity firm Altus Capital Partners purchased Max Environmental and its two landfill facilities in Yukon and Bulger, Pennsylvania. Max Environmentals new chief operating officer, Bill Follett, said the change in management and access to more funding would position the company for future success while ensuring environmental compliance.
Instead, violations continued. Max Environmental is now under two consent orders from the EPA to improve its operations. The agency temporarily required the landfill to stop disposing of hazardous waste on-site, a process that has since restarted.
We identified significant noncompliance at Max, said Jeanna Henry, chief of the air, RCRA and toxics branch in the enforcement and compliance assurance division of the EPAs Mid-Atlantic region, in a November interview. One key issue is Max Environmentals treatment process for hazardous waste.
With the sampling that theyre doing, some of the batches are passing and some of those are failing, she said. Im not sure I could say at this point if weve seen improvement, but they are doing the work that theyre required to perform under the order.
In a statement to Inside Climate News in December, Carl Spadaro, the environmental general manager at Max Environmental, said initial testing of its treated waste showed compliance about 90% of the time, which is consistent with historical results.
Max Environmental Documents
Obtained through a Right to Know request to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), public documents provide more detail about the governments inspections, monitoring, and correspondence with Max Environmental about the Yukon facility. (View them here.)
Any treated waste that does not pass initial testing has always and continues to be retreated until it meets required standards. This kind of practice is common in the hazardous waste management industry, Spadaro said.
In December, Spadaro said the company is in compliance with our permits.
But in a January 16 email, the EPA responded to questions about Max Environmentals permits with this sentence in boldface: Max is not currently in compliance with either RCRA or NPDES permits related to the Yukon site. NPDES is the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, under which permits are issued to facilities that discharge pollutants into waterways.
The Mountain Watershed Association posted signs next to Sewickley Creek warning about hazardous waste from the Max Environmental landfill. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News]
There was no public indication of the wastewater pipes contents until March 2024, when a local environmental group, the Mountain Watershed Assciation, installed the warning signs. People who use the water downstream for recreation are often unaware of the outfalls existence. The creek flows to meet the Youghiogheny River, known as the Yough, which empties into the Monongahela River, one of Pittsburghs three iconic waterways.
The Mountain Watershed Association purchased land along the creek to allow access for testing and monitoring. The orange plastic marks a designated area of land. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News]
I tell people that Sewickley Creek is likely the most polluted waterway in the entire Yough watershed, and its because of many things, but more than anything, Max is there, said Eric Harder, the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper at the Mountain Watershed Association (MWA), which has conducted independent testing at the outfall and advocated for residents interests with the state government.
Testing in October suggested the company exceeded its permit limits for heavy metals like zinc and lead, and total suspended solids, an indicator of poor water quality. These echo similar findings by the EPA, which in 2023 said Max Environmental exceeded its permit limits for cadmium, zinc, nitrogen, and other pollutants.
Its basically a time bomb thats built over empty coal mines, Harder said. And in a rural setting where people have been impoverished and underserved for many years.
For Stacey Magda, managing community organizer at the MWA, the state of the outfall is emblematic. Its not maintained properly. Its in really bad shape, and thats really the norm for the whole facility, she said, standing on the opposite bank, dry leaves crackling underfoot as she stared at the outfall. The pipe looks like it belongs to an earlier time, like the abandoned mining buildings in the woods nearby.
She watched the pipe dripping, the leaves drifting in the current. Prolonged drought in Pennsylvania in 2024 exposed twisty roots and thick stripes of sediment on the eroding creek banks. When the creek is high, the pipe is not visible at all.
Stacey Magda, managing community organizer at the Mountain Watershed Association, walks next to Max Environmentals Yukon landfill. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News]
The Max Environmental sites long history as an industrial landfill, its location atop two former coal mines, and its close proximity to homes and farms make it a particularly demanding site to monitor and contain.
The regulators really didnt either have the capacity, the resources, or the understanding to take those concerns and complaints seriously, Magda said. They are now, and its significant that they are now, but theres a strong sense that its still too late.
Regulatory actions by the EPA and the Pennsylvania DEP in the past two years have slowed operations at the landfill, but its not hard to see why the people of Yukon arent optimistic about the future, given the sites past.
There have been so many violations over the years, said Debbie Franzetta, who has lived in Yukon since 1988. And what they do is they pay the fines, and they continue to operate.
Radioactivity Is Forever
In 2012, Max Environmentals CEO at the time, Bill Spencer, gave an interview about the opportunity that fracking presented for the company. He said Max Environmental was finding what the needs of the oil and gas industry are and fulfilling [them].
The companys environmental general manager, Spadaro, who serves in the same position today, called Max Environmental an ideal partner to drilling companies.
DEP records show the Yukon landfill accepted about 106,000 tons of oil and gas waste between 2015 and 2019. In 2015, this waste accounted for nearly 97% of the nonhazardous waste the landfill took in, though its been a far smaller percentage in recent years. From 2011 to 2021, the Yukon site accepted the second-largest amount of liquid oil and gas waste among landfills in Pennsylvania.
Oil and gas waste can become radioactive during the extraction process. As workers drill deep into the earth, they encounter naturally occurring materials like radium, radon, uranium, potassium, and thorium. Fracking requires the use of massive quantities of water, and much of this water comes back to the surface contaminated by the elements underground as well as proprietary drilling chemicals added by the companies. Solid waste, like drill cuttings, sludges, and filters, can also become contaminated.
Spadaro said Max Environmental does not accept radioactive waste and checks each arriving truckload for radiation just like all other waste management facilities in Pennsylvania.
The entrance to the Max Environmental landfill in Yukon, Pennsylvania [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News]
But between 2021 and 2023, state records show that Max Environmental detected radioactive materials in waste 34 times at Yukon and accepted it anyway. Thats because the company makes an exception for naturally occurring radioactive material and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials, known as NORM and TENORM, said Lauren Camarda, a DEP spokesperson and the communications manager for the agencys southwest office.
The oil and gas industry is one of the major sources of TENORM. The most common isotope detected at Max Environmental in those years was radium 226, the same one that scientists found increased levels of in the sediment downstream of Max Environmentals outfall at Sewickley Creek.
Every time Max Environmental detects radioactivity in incoming waste, the company must seek approval from DEP to dispose of it onsite, Camarda said.
Camarda said in an email that the type, characteristics, and amounts of waste approved for disposal have not significantly changed at Max Environmental since fracking began in Pennsylvania. This is mainly because the facility has always accepted industrial waste materials that are now considered hazardous by modern standards, and the sites testing levels and parameters already reflected that reality. The one change to Max Environmentals residual waste permit related to fracking came in 2012, when DEP approved an amendment to allow the site to solidify oil and gas waste.
Stolz said this type of processing was one of the revelations from his research on landfills that most shocked him. The processing allows companies to accept highly toxic fracking wastewater as long as they claim they immobilize it.
How are they immobilizing it? Well, theyre putting it into kitty litter, theyre putting it into sawdust, and then theyre putting it into the landfill, and then, of course, everything percolates down, and the waste accumulates and it winds up in the leachate, he said, describing industry practices in general.
Max Environmentals Spadaro said the site hasnt accepted fracking wastewater for several years, but when it did, the company used lime-based materials that ensure adequate solidification.
Although the volume of oil and gas waste sent to Max Environmental has decreased since its peak, the company accepted hundreds of tons of this waste in 2023, the most recent figures. And the legacy of the boom years remains, literally, in the ground.
People have to understand that radioactivity is forever, Stolz said. And we know that the Marcellus in particular is incredibly radioactive. The Marcellus formation is the oblong-shaped shale gas deposit that lies beneath Pennsylvania, a diagonal slash from the northeast corner of the state to the southwest.
A view of Sewickley Creek in Yukon, Pennsylvania [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News]
Nathaniel Warner, an associate professor of environmental engineering at Penn State, has found increased radioactivity in the sediment of waterways even 18 miles downstream of facilities that had accepted fracking wastewater in the past.
Trying to find out if this contamination has entered the food chain in Pennsylvania, Warner tested the tissue and shells of freshwater mussels living downstream of wastewater discharge points. What he found was alarming.
What we know is that even when youve removed the source [of pollution], that radioactivity sticks around in the environment, he said. Warners studies found elevated levels of radioactivity in the mussels bodies and shells.
Scientists worry that radioactivity could be magnified as it travels up the food chain from freshwater mussels to the muskrats who eat them to apex predators like the bald eagle. If [animals are] consistently in contact with something thats decaying radioactively, you can accumulate genetic damage, said Daniel Bain, a scientist at the University of Pittsburgh who was involved with the 2023 study on oil and gas waste and landfills.
Warner said its difficult to quantify the true public health costs of the radioactivity released into the environment by the oil and gas industry, in part because its such a complex question and in part because its understudied. But that does not mean there is no impact. Radium, radon, and uranium are all known to cause cancer.
For years weve spread oil and gas wastewater on roads. We used to put it into pits right next to the well, put it in the groundwater and discharge it to streams, Warner said. From that historical practice, theres elevated radioactivity, theres elevated salinity, theres decreased diversity of critters. Whats harder to know are the long-term effects on people.
Pennsylvania has spent years cleaning up contamination from coal mining and historical oil development that the companies left behind. Bain said that fracking waste is the latest iteration of that troubling pattern.
Thats part of what were going to have to deal with as a region, Bain said. We have to be really vigilant about where that waste is going and what kind of impact its causing.
When the landfill started to accept more waste related to fracking in the 2010s, many residents noticed that the tangible impacts of the landfill on their everyday lives worsened. That period of time was a really tough time for people with any kind of asthma, MWAs Harder said. Residents repeatedly called DEP to complain about noise, odors, mud, and truck traffic, according to agency records.
In 2015, when Max Environmental accepted 92,039 tons of oil and gas waste, the people of Yukon called dozens of times to report smelling chemical odors that caused headaches and burned their noses and throats. They rated the smell a 9 out of 10, compared it to eggs and rotting flesh, said it made them gag and clogged their ears. When the wind blew, they watched dust settle in their yards and coat their dogs paws. To avoid the odor, they kept their windows shut on nice summer evenings and left their flower gardens untended.
DEP notes about the calls show that they also registered their frustration: been over a year and the problem still exists; something has to be donenobody should have to put up with this; appeals for it to stop on a Sunday before he goes to church; seems like they call forever and no one ever does anything; how long are they going to get away with this?
In January 2015, a DEP staff member took down this call: 05:00 PM JUST GOT HOME AND HIS PROPERTY SMELLS LIKE A CHEICAL PLANT – JUST GIVE A REASON TO KEEP CALLING – LET THERE BE A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.
Violations noted appears over and over again at the bottom of the complaints.
In 2017, two Yukon residents filed a class-action lawsuit against Max Environmental over air pollution, alleging that the company had caused property damage through its release of noxious odors and air particulates. The complaint said the company has a well-documented history of failing to control the emissions generated by its operation, pointing to 41 instances when DEP inspectors noted off-site odors between 2013 and 2015 and three odor citations issued by DEP in 2013 and 2014.
The lawsuit settled in 2024 for a total of $425,000. As part of the settlement, the company admitted to no wrongdoing. We have adjusted our operations to reduce the potential for odors and dust migration. There have been no off-site indications of water impacts, Max Environmentals Spadaro said.
Only $275,000 of the settlement was earmarked for residents, a sum that many of those affected saw as inadequate. Just under 270 households filed claims in the suit, making the average payout per family about $1,000.
Its nothing for how much we lost, Joan Kodrin, a Yukon resident, said to a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter last year.
Craig Zafaras, who has lived in Yukon for decades, said Max Environmental didnt bother me until they started taking the fracking waste, adding, I have no issue with fracking. I have issue with people that dont do their job.
Craig Zafaras lives directly next to the Max Environmental landfill. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News]
With this new waste stream came more dust and a strange ammonia-like odor at his home across the street from the landfill. They tried to cover the smell with a chemical, which was worse than the actual smell itself, he said.
On some days it was so bad, he would drive out of town to escape it.
During an EPA-led community session about the landfill in October, Zafaras talked about the chemical smell he had noticed on his property and the headaches and sore throats it seemed to cause. He outlined his many unsuccessful attempts to convince the DEP and EPA to conduct testing where he lives, and not only at the landfill.
I fear this is toxic to my health and others, he said. No one seems to care.
Read Part II of this story here: What inspectors discovered at the landfill, and how generations of Yukon residents fought for accountability.
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for its newsletter here.
Last year was terrible for Tesla. Bad financials. Multiple recalls. Abysmal safety record. Lawsuits. The Cybertruck disaster and cratering sales. All of it tied to design problems and lack of innovation. Add to that the dip in brand loyalty thanks to CEO Elon Musks toxic political activity, of course.
And now two of Tesla’s top designers have left the company, according to a report from Electrek. Its no coincidence that one of Teslas biggest market supporters is now warning that the company may implode in 2025. The stars are aligning for a reckoning.
The departed are David Imai and Bernard Lee, two veteran designers instrumental in shaping Teslas vehicles, including the Model 3. Imai announced his exit to a boat design studio two weeks ago. This ends a nearly 14-year career at the car company, the last five years as director of design.
Perhaps even more troubling is Lees departure, because of his history at Tesla, including being a founding member of its design studio. The ex-Mazda designer came to Tesla in 2008, participating in every vehicle as lead or supporting designer since the Tesla Roadster (but apparently not the Cybertruck).
While two top designers leaving a company might not be a nail in the coffin, its impossible to separate the news from its context: namely that Tesla has been getting deeper and deeper into a design, sales, safety, and quality assurance crisis. (Tesla did not respond to requests for comment on this story.)
The cherry on a cake of pain
In recent years, Tesla has faced increasing scrutiny because of poor quality, poor design choices, and the poor personal choices of its founder. Until very recently, the Texas-based automaker has been able to ride out those storms by being the only game in town. But as the legacy manufacturers upped their electric vehicle game and stepped into the market, Teslas many faults have became more obvious.
Teslas sales growth has slowed in recent quarters, and the company is facing increasing competition from established automakers like Ford, GM, and Hyundai, all in the midst of rapidly expanding their EV offerings.
Perhaps even more significant is the increasing dominance of China, especially BYD, in the EV market. Chinese auto manufacturers have been putting out futuristic designs that consumers seem to love. As a result they are dominating Asia and aggressively moving into Europe and the rest of the world. BYD is now the biggest electric carmaker on the planet, beating Tesla.
Another concerning trend for Tesla is the radical erosion of brand loyalty among its customers, which was already suffering in 2023 and early 2024 because of the companys quality problems.
The loss of two experienced designers with a deep knowledge of the company and its situation could further hinder Tesla’s ability to act in a time of crisis. It could be an opportunity for Tesla to radically change its tired design strategy, but doing so now, when the company is in dire need of a cheap, competitive model, seems suicidal. Tesla canceled plans for a cheaper car as it poured more time, money, and energy into the Cybertruck. After the latters disaster, now Musk is promising a cheap Tesla again.
The picture is bleak, and its hard to imagine how the company can get itself out of this perfect hurricane. It seems to me its only way forward is President Donald Trumps Sharpie.
Hey ChatGPT, you talk too much. You too, Gemini. Like many LLMs, you are insufferable. You make Fidel Castros 6-hour speeches feel like haikus. I ask, why do you LLMs talk so damn much? and in response, you churn out a 671-word answer that resembles a third-grade essay75% of it devoid of any real meaning or fact. You ramble about how much you ramble. You are incapable of giving me one straight answer, even if I carefully craft a two-paragraph prompt trying to coerce you into it. When I finally get you to respond with one monosyllable, you ruin it by adding a long apologetic promise that it will never ever happen again.
Apparently Im not alone in my ire. Ive been talking with both friends and strangers for months about your verbal incontinence, and they, too, hate your verbosity. I have one friend who wants to smash her computer against the wall at least twice a day. Another has visions of himself getting into your server room and smashing each and every one of your CPUs and GPUs with a baseball bat. I always imagine a flamethrower. We only keep using you because, for all these problems, I’ll admit that you can save me time on research.
But there’s a relatively simple fix for your idle chatter. It’s one that begins with your creators admitting that you are a lot dumber than what they think you are. Your excess is rooted in ignorance. Answers are padded with needless explanations, obvious caveats, and inane argumental detours.
It’s not an intentional choice, says Quinten Farmer, the co-founder of engineering studio Portola, who makes Tolan, a cute artificial intelligence alien designed to talk to you like a human. I think the reason that these models behave this way is that it’s essentially the behavior of your typical Reddit commenter, right? Farmer tells me, laughing. What do they do? They say too much to sort of cover up the fact that they don’t actually know what they’re talking about. And of course that’s where all the data came from, right?
In one study, researchers call this verbosity compensation, a newly discovered behavior where LLMs respond with excessive words, including repeating questions, introducing ambiguity, or providing excessive enumeration. This behavior is similar to human hesitation during uncertainty. The researchers found that verbose responses often exhibit higher uncertainty across datasets, suggesting a strong connection between verbosity and model uncertainty. Many LLMs produce longer responses when they are less confident about the answer.
Theres also a lack of knowledge retention. LLMs forget previously supplied information in a conversation, resulting in repetitive questions and unnecessarily verbose interactions. And researchers found that there is a clear verbosity bias in LLM training where models prefer longer, more verbose answers even if there is no difference in quality.
Verbosity can be fixed
No matter how much LLMs sound like a human, the truth is that they really dont really understand language, despite being quite good at stringing words together. This proficiency in language can create the illusion of broader intelligence, leading to more elaborate responses. So basically, research shows what we suspected: LLMs are great at bullshitting you into thinking they know the answer. Many people buy this illusion because they either simply want to believe or because they just dont use critical thinkingsomething that Microsofts researchers discovered in a new study looking at AI’s impact on cognitive functioning.
There are gradients to this phenomenon, of course. Farmer believes that Perplexity and Anthropic’s Claude and are better at giving more concise answers without all the pointless filler. And DeepSeek, the new kid on the block coming from China, keeps its answers much shorter and to the point. According to DeepSeek, the model’s answers are designed to be more direct and concise because its training prioritizes clarity and efficiency, influenced by data and reinforcement that favorites brevity. American models emphasize conversational warmth or elaboration, it claims, reflecting cultural and design differences.
In my testing, I also found that Claude’s answers skewed shorter (though they can still be annoying). Claude, at least, recognized this when I was questioning him about this problem: Looking at my previous responseyes, I probably did talk too much there! It also surprised me with this gem when I said it seemed to be an honest LLM: I try to be direct about what I know and don’t know, and to acknowledge my limitations clearly. While it might be tempting to make up citations or sound more authoritative than I am, I think it’s better to be straightforward. Another illusion of cognitive activity, yes, but 100% on point.
Developers could solve for this issue with better training and guidance. In fact, Farmer tells me that when creating Tolan, the development team discussed how long or short the answers should be. The writer who created the characters backstories leaned longer, because it would develop the connection with the digital entity. Others wanted shorter, more to-the-point answers. Its a debate that they still have internally, but they believe they struck the right balance.
You, ChatGPT, however, you are not a cute alien. You are a tool. Theres no need for balance. I dont need to bond with you. Just answer the damn question. And, if you dont know the answerlike when I asked which soccer players had won the most UEFA Champions Leaguesjust admit it, and shut up instead of giving me 500 characters of wrong.
Brevity is the soul of wit. And clearly, neither you nor I are Polonius (but at least I have the excuse of being an old angry man screaming at clouds).
As organizations grapple with rapid developments in technology and policy while also balancing shifting market conditions and financial realities, having a deep bench of leadership talent is crucial. However, a recent survey from TalentLMS, found that 45% of managers say their companies arent doing enough to develop future leaders.
One of the key issues is that companies are using a narrow scope in offering leadership development opportunities, says Nikhil Arora, CEO of learning technology company Epignosis, the parent company of TalentLMS. A lot of companies kind of limit the leadership development to the top 1%, leaving behind the remaining 99%, he says.
Arora says the survey found a number of areas where respondents said their companies are lacking key efforts to develop leaders. Just 8% found their companies’ leadership initiatives effective. Fortunately experts say there are ways to strengthen theses areas of weakness and help companies get better at leadership development.
Develop leaders at all levels
The TalentLMS survey found that the top two areas where leaders found companies lacking were in offering leadership training programs (43%) and developing new talent from within (42%). These stats dont surprise workplace consultant Melissa Swift, author of Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace.
She says that one key issue is that companies often focus leadership training on employees who are already in on a leadership track or who are near the top of the organization, overlooking promising talent at other levels. She says that leadership development efforts, including leadership training programs, should be integrated throughout the company and supported.
One issue that I’ve heard repeatedly across organizations is, You did this wonderful leadership development program with us, but then you don’t have interesting on the job development opportunities for us to follow that up, she says. Companies don’t have to necessarily spend more money on [leadership development], but how do we get people the right experiences through their day-to-day work?
Focus on the leaders you need
Forty-one percent of respondents said their companies often fail at identifying leadership skills gaps and in being transparent about selecting and promoting leaders. Leadership consultant Lori Mazan, author of Leadership Revolution: The Future of Developing Dynamic Leaders, says that companies need to focus on a few things to get their leadership development programs right.
Mazan advises looking at your overall goals for leaders within your organization and be sure youre developing a range of leaders with the skills your company needs. Arora agrees. Your No. 1 [key performance indicator] and what you’re going to be measured by as a manager is going to be: How are you developing your talent? he says.
Transparency is also important, Mazan says. She also advises developing leaders in alignment with your company culture. She recalls a former client whose culture was very amiable and people focused. When the company hired new employees who had been at a competitor where the culture was very hard-driving, the styles often cause friction. After a month, they’d be hiring me to coach them, because that style of hard driving leadership didn’t fit in the other company that was more let me help you, she recalls.
Mentorship matters
Four in 10 survey respondents said that their companies are lacking mentorship programs. Thats an area that should not only be developed, but expanded, Arora says. Mentoring isnt just senior managers advising more junior workers anymore, although that still remains important. He encourages others to follow his lead and have younger mentors, as well, who can help them keep a finger on the pulse of where change is happening and what people from their cohort are thinking. You need somebody younger and you need somebody older, he says.
Identifying leadership skills gaps and, in response, developing leaders across the organization with programs, transparency, and mentorship can help fill in the missing pieces that hinder leadership development.
Twelve years ago, rice breeders with Lundberg Family Farms crossed two rice plant parents in hopes of cultivating a better black pearl rice plant. After growing generations and generations of offspringearly yields produce all sorts of different traits in one harvest, and subsequent growing seasons help refine that into a consistent cropthe result is just now ready for consumers.
The new black pearl rice can thrive under regenerative organic practices (a way of farming that focuses on soil health and less environmental impact) and has a higher crop yield than previous Lundberg iterations, with 25% more rice produced per acre. With that higher yield, the farm can use fewer resources like water; this is especially important when it comes to growing rice, as fields are flooded to drown out weeds.
[Photo: Lundberg Family Farms]
Its the latest cultivation to come out of the Lundberg Family Farms rice breeding nursery, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Its also a sign that the farms investment in rice breeding, and in finding varieties that are compatible with regenerative organic farming, is paying off. Varieties that it began cultivating over a decade ago are now starting to be ready for consumers; along with the black pearl rice, the brand will soon have new red jasmine and arborio varieties.
What we’ve done over 50 years now is really gaining momentum, says Bryce Lundberg, vice president of agriculture at Lundberg Family Farms. And our commitment to accelerating this work reflects the urgency we feel around this [mission] . . . to grow the highest-quality rice using organic and regenerative farming practices, because we believe the health of our bodies and our planet depend on that.
[Photo: Lundberg Family Farms]
The importance of regenerative organic farming
Lundberg Family Farms was founded in 1937 in Californias Sacramento Valley. Before moving out West, Bryces grandparents were farmers in Nebraska and experienced the Dust Bowl, an ecological disaster in which poor practices caused the soil to erode, so that it just blew away, he says. They saw how negative farming practices cause such problems to soil. They responded by changing up their farming methods, like keeping the straw in the fields after harvest instead of burning it.
The common practice of burning is a way to get rid of all the old agricultural material in a field and get it ready for a new harvest, but it has serious environmental impacts, worsening air quality and degrading soil. (Just this year, a California bill went into effect banning nearly all agricultural burning as a way to limit air pollution.) Instead, the Lundbergs let the soil reabsorb that organic matter. A lot of people said it couldn’t be done, that the soil wouldn’t take this straw in, Bryce says. And I would say, if you have healthy soil, its going to take it in. If you have soil thats alive, its going to take it in.
[Photo: Lundberg Family Farms]
That became the crux of Lundberg farming: to leave the land better than they found it. Soil health is a crucial aspect of both organic and regenerative farming; regenerative organic farming includes practices like cover crop rotation, low or no tilling, and avoiding chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
Though Lundberg Family Farms had that ethos since its founding, it officially began farming organically in the 1960s, and launched its first Regenerative Organic Certified products in 2023though the Lundbergs didnt have to change their practices to become certified. (That certification program was created by the Rodale Institute, which recently received funding from Patagonias nonprofit Holdfast Collective). Lundberg Family Farms focuses on rice (though it also sells quinoa, and products like rice cakes and syrup), setting a goal of having its organic rice certified as regenerative organic by 2027. Already more than 99% meets that goal.
[Photo: Lundberg Family Farms]
Rice without herbicides
Still, the farm continues to innovate with its nursery to cultivate rice that can withstand the changing climate and contribute less environmental harm. Instead of using herbicides, the farm floods its fields with water to drown weeds, then dries them for 30 days to kill aquatic weeds. It’s this twofold approach that is unique, because most conventional rice farms continuously flood their fields. But this method also poses some challenges: It necessitates using rice varieties that can grow fast in water to outcompete the weeds, but that can also withstand the dry, hot phase, plus have a high enough yield to meet consumer demand.
[Photo: Lundberg Family Farms]
This twofold approach has multiple benefits. Flooded fields become a habitat for waterbirds and fish, while the dry period conserves water and produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a continuous flood. Suzanne Sengelmann, Lundbergs chief growth officer, says its farms are home to more than 200 species. We flood the fields in the winter for the Pacific Flyway, and billions of birds come [there to] rest. It’s a symbiotic relationship, too, she adds, because the birds help fertilize the ground. If you let nature do what it’s supposed to do, you wind up with healthier soil.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, studied the Lundberg Family Farms practices and found that its method of weed control reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 49%, compared to continuously flooding rice fields. Regenerative organic advocates say implementing these practicesand transitioning away from the harms of conventional farmingis crucial for the health of our planet.
[Photo: Lundberg Family Farms]
Cultivating better rice
Regenerative organic farming has another benefit too: Food grown with these soil-friendly practices is also healthier for humans, research says. And nutrient density is something the farms nursery pursues as well. Black rice in particular is full of antioxidants, and the companys new variety has some of the darkest bran weve seen, Bryce Lundberg says, meaning it’s especially high in antioxidants.
If customers arent enticed by the environmental benefits of this rice, the company hopes the nutritional benefit will be worth paying a slight premium for. (The regenerative organic black pearl rice is $5.99 a pound). Were constantly upgrading . . . because at the end of the day, from a consumer standpoint, we all care about the planet, but its personal what youre putting in your body, Sengelmann says. In terms of the nutrient density and the lack of herbicides, that tends to be the thing that really makes consumers want to pay the extra dollar or two.
Even with this new release, and more rice varieties forthcoming, Lundberg still plans to innovate to breed better rice; it invests half a million dollars into its nursery every year. In 2024, it was awarded a $3 million matching grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build out its regenerative organic products.
Though those grants are now on holdand the fate of government grants at large is unclear under the Trump administration (especially ones that mention climate terms)Sengelmann says the farm is still moving forward to invest its own $3 million into that goal. Were going to keep doing it, she says, because its what weve always done.”
The trope of the starving, broke artist has long maintained a place in the public imagination, even as it has morphed into idealized notions of hustle or grindset. Its cool to romanticize [that lifestyle] for a little bit and use it as part of your motivation, says L.A.-based rising musician Gidi, but at a certain point we gotta be able to see the fruits of our labor.
For many artists and songwriters, the fruits are there in the form of royaltiestheyre just exceedingly difficult to harvest. In the labyrinthine world of the music industry, royalty collection is particularly complex. There are hundreds of music streaming platforms operating in hundreds of countries, each with their own copyright laws. The simple act of uploading a song onto Spotify can quickly turn into an administrative nightmare, especially if an artist only owns the rights to a percentage of a given song. As a result, unclaimed dollarswhich estimates suggest be as much at $1 billion annuallyare effectively locked up in the global system of music publishing.
Independent music publisher Kobalt wants to change that with its new product Kosign, aimed at empowering emerging songwriters by helping them collect the money theyre owed. Kobalt disrupted the music publishing space 25 years ago when it introduced the worlds first online portal for artists to look at their royalty earnings at any timea far cry from the snail mail system that preceded it. Today, Kobalt is the worlds biggest music publisher not owned by a major label, with clients who include Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, Childish Gambino, and Phoebe Bridgers.
[Images: Courtesy of Kobalt]
With Kosign, Kobalt is targeting a group executives describe as a growing middle class of artists and songwriters who, thanks to a changing music landscape, are increasingly able to operate independently, but may not be ideal for a publishing contract. The platform is designed to leverage Kobalts infrastructural and technological capabilities for a new demographic.
We’ve already built, for the last 20 years, a platform to unlock [royalties], says Jacob Paul, Kobalts creative strategy director. The problem were trying to solve is How can we take this thing we already built and make it even more streamlined and flexible so that the next generation of artists coming up can get paid their money that otherwise is hidden from them?
Kosign users apply, pay the platforms $100 signup fee, activate their membership, submit songs, and then get paid. We will register them across the globe, across every territory, every platform, Paul says. There’s no income stream left untouched. Artists can watch royalties hit their account in real time, as well as other useful metrics, such breaking down earnings by streaming platform or territory. That data is available for an artists entire catalog and individual songs alike.
[Image: Courtesy of Kobalt]
Though Kosign is focused on making its tools accessible to emerging talent, the company assesses projected earnings for prospective members to ensure theyre a fit for the platform. A single songwriting credit, no matter how lucrative, might not be reason enough for them to snap up a lucrative publishing dealespecially for someone who doesnt have an extensive back catalog. At the same time, Kosign doesnt want to become bloated with a huge, unwieldy user base that will dilute the level of service. What we want to do is to make sure that for those who earn a certain threshold of money, [they] have the ability to collect as effectively as possible, says Kobalt CEO Laurent Hubert. So, we want it to be selective from that perspective.
For that growing population of songrwiters, Kosign is a way to secure their royalties without committing to the sort of long-term contract better suited to a more established artist (Kosign takes 20% of a members royalties). It’s a flexible deal, says Paul. Artists keep control of their copyrights, and they can leave the platform anytime if they want to evolve somewhere else. KOSIGN also affords emerging artists a level of self-sufficiency; no ironclad deals means no figuring out if you need a lawyer, a manager, or broader team to sort through the red tape.
Its an appealing prospect for an up-and-coming artist. They get access to the same technological capabilities as Max Martin or Paul McCartney, minus a lengthy contract. Alongside its cut of royalties, Kobalt also gets a pipeline of potential future signed songwriters out of Kosign. When those artists are ready to make the jump to a major publishing deal, Kobalt will have already built a relationship with them via Kosign.
Gidi, an early adopter of the platform, calls using it a no-brainer. A musician and producer specializing in electronic R&B and pop, Gidi was part of the studio crew on last years massive Tommy Richman hit Million Dollar Baby, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Gidis involvement earned him a small percentage of the song. While it might not sound like big money, music publishers know that royalties for even part of a track can be the difference between needing a day job and being able to pursue music full time.
For Gidi, working with Kosign means he can collect the money that hes owed while expanding his own artistic output. Ultimately, he says, it comes down to understanding my worth, and understanding that there’s a lot more coming from me.
The added financial security is also a weight off of Gidis mind. It great that Im able to collect my publishing royalties without having to pursue a full-scale publishing deal, he says, adding that the royalties offer him additional income he can use to cover the mixing and production costs for upcoming projects on his own.
Gidi isnt a proxy for every Kosign artist, but he is representative of the sort of artist Kobalt wants it to reach. If you can unlock the publishing system for a new generation of up and coming artists and producers and songwriters, you are changing each of those people’s lives, Paul says. You are making it possible for each of those people to actually make a living off of their music.
Drew Barrymore just got her own Pantone colorand as you might expect for a woman who famously once responded to a rainstorm by dancing in the downpour and encouraging others to do the same, its a shade of yellow, the cheeriest primary color.To mark the talk-show hosts 50th birthday, Pantone surprised her last week with the unveiling of Drew Barrymore Yellow, a soft, buttery shade Pantone says was chosen to embody her infectious optimism, creative spirit, and uplifting presencea hue as warm and vibrant as the woman herself.[Image: Pantone]Pantone has released colors in partnership with other celebrities before, like Team Coco Orange for comedian Conan OBrien in 2019, Ultra Black to promote rapper Nass 2020 single of the same name, and Brady Blue for former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Bradys apparel line in 2021. Pantones color for Prince, Love Symbol #2, was chosen as an homage to the color of the purple custom-made Yamaha piano he was supposed to bring on tour before his death in 2016.Getting your own Pantone color is more rare than getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and for celebrities, its done out of a need to communicate something about their brand. Color is a language, and every color conveys its own unique message and meaning, Pantone Color Institute vice president Laurie Pressman told Fast Company in an email. When we work with clients its all about defining a color for their brand visual identity that expresses who they are and/or their brand vision.That takes on different forms depending on the goal of the brand, Pressman said, whether its in music, fashion, or production design, its a color meant to be emblematic of a whole creative umbrella of brands. For Barrymore, the challenge was coming up with a color without her help or knowledge.[Image: The Drew Barrymore Show]With Drew Barrymore Yellow, this was an unconventional task, as it was a total and complete surprise to her for her 50th birthday, Pressman said. Normally, an artist would be an integral part of the process, so in this case we wanted to do this more as a symbol of her work and contribution as a creative in film, art, television, and design. We combed through and considered all these contributions as well as her personality to choose a color that reflects who she is as an artist.Already, yellow is used throughout The Drew Barrymore Shows set and promotional assets. In the profile picture for the shows Instagram account, Barrymore smiles while wearing a yellow top and yellow earrings in front of a yellow backdrop. Clearly, shes a fan of the color. Pantone hopes the creamy shade invites thoughts of pleasant relaxation.How its incorporated into the show remains to be seen. Since it was planned in secret and unveiled as a surprise, were still in the early planning stages, Pressman said, but that they expect to work closely with her team to explore ways to integrate this unique color across her show and future brand initiatives.
Even if you’re a regular Alexa user, there’s a good chance you haven’t discovered some of its most efficient features.
Actually, strike that: Theres a good chance youre only using your Alexa device to set timers and play music.
But Alexa does so much more! Here are five commands to add to your vernacular that could save you tons of time with regular use.
“Alexa, check traffic”
Once you link your home and work addresses in the Alexa app, simply asking to check traffic will give the time between your home and office by defaultalways handy when youre heading out the door.
You also can ask for traffic conditions to a certain destination. Alexa just told me that traffic from my house to the nearest Whole Foods is sluggishitd take me a whole six minutes to get there. Good thing I saved so much time asking for traffic conditions, eh?
Alexa, add jelly to my shopping list
Writing a shopping list by hand? A fools errand. Opening an app and typing a list by hand? A suckers gambit.
As you notice ingredients running low, just say “Alexa, add [blank] to my shopping list.”
The items will appear in your Alexa app’s shopping list, ready for your next grocery run. You can even check what’s on your list by asking, “Alexa, what’s on my shopping list?” before running to the store.
“Alexa, announce that its time for lunch”
Its 2025enough shouting up and down the stairs. Instead, say, “Alexa, announce that its time for lunch.”
Your message will immediately be broadcast to all Alexa devices in your home at the same time, just like a fancy-schmancy intercom system.
“Alexa, find my phone”
My wife never reads these articles, so Im safe telling you that while she was frantically searching for her phone the other day, it turned out that it was in her hand.
Not all lost phones are so easy to find! For the tougher tests, Alexa can call your wayward device and you can follow the ringtone.
There are a couple slight catches: Youll need to do a one-time setup so Alexa knows which number to call, and you only get three free calls each month. If youre asked whether you want to sign up for a free trial of the premium phone-finding service, just say no and Alexa will place the call.
Alexa, remind me . . .
Just as a glorified note-to-self, Alexa is a lifesaver. There are a few ways you can ask it to remember things for you.
First, just ask Alexa to remember something. Itll store it in the notes section of the Alexa app on your phone.
Second, ask it to remind you of something at a certain time. Itll . . . well, you get the idea.
And the best one is asking Alexa to remind you of something when youre at a certain place. If youve enabled location in the phone app, it can remind you to get Band-Aids the next time youre at Walgreens. Its almost too easy.
The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
Most ordinary people know little about the calculus, statistics, linear algebra, logic, and programming languages required to design projects and products to leverage artificial intelligence.
However, we are not exempt from using products and services that rely on AI. If we do not learn how to maximize these tools, our organizationsbusinesses, schools, and governmentswill have less ability to generate income and a lower quality of life compared to those who do.
What is most unsettling is the general lack of knowledge about logic, mathematics, and grammatical syntax that may affect AIs creation and usage.
Set theory
Consider set theory in mathematics, introduced indirectly in elementary school. Basic concepts like classification, grouping, and counting objects, form its foundation.
During middle school, students learn set definitions, notation, and representations (listing elements, Venn diagrams), set operations (union, intersection, difference, and complements), and relationships between sets (subsets, empty sets, disjointed sets, universal sets).
By high school, students face set theory with greater complexity. Applications are presented in discrete mathematics, relationships between sets and probabilities, numerical sets and related algebraic operations, and advanced concepts to introduce mathematical logic.
You might be wondering where this is going.
Logical reasoning
Set theory feeds into logic: the science and art of reasoning correctly. Logic studies the principles of valid thought, structuring rules and methods that help evaluate the consistency and validity of arguments, deductions, and propositions.
Modern mathematics is built on set theory, itself a logical system. Logic provides the structure and principles underpinning mathematical reasoning. Concepts such as implication, equivalence, negation, and quantification are fundamental logical tools used in mathematics.
Logical reasoning uses symbols and formulas to represent propositions and inferences. It is essential for solving mathematical problems. In mathematics, logic explores topics like set theory and computability theory.
Were circling back to the topic again.
Logic helps children (and adults) break problems into smaller, more manageable parts and tackle them systematically. When solving a puzzle, logical reasoning helps them identify patterns, rules, or constraints. Chess, Sudoku, mazes, and building blocks simultaneously develop logical thinking and problem-solving skills. In math and science, solving problems logically is intrinsic to solving equations, understanding patterns, and conducting experiments.
Grammar
And what about grammar? Although the proposition might seem counterintuitive, grammatical syntax has a direct relationship with mathematics, particularly set theory and logic.
In traditional grammar, syntax refers to the set of rules dictating how words and phrases are organized to form sentences. Grammatical classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives) combine according to rules, and sentences have hierarchical structures (clauses, phrases). Syntax rules determine whether a sentence is grammatically correct, and in linguistic analysis (parsing), understanding sentences involves breaking them into parts.
Noam Chomsky’s generative grammar theory describes the implicit rules and principles underlying natural language structure. It demonstrates how sentences are generated from a finite set of rules to create infinite possible expressions in a language.
Programming languages also have syntaxrules determining the correct structure of commands and expressions. Code elements (variables, functions, loops) combine using the specific rules of the language to form programs, which also have hierarchical structures (functions, blocks, modules). Like linguistic analysis, compilers and interpreters analyze code by breaking it into tokens (parts) and examining its structure.
Algorithms and AI
You might think this article was supposed to be about using artificial intelligence, not creating computational models. And you’re right.
One important concept for using AI’s capabilities is the notion of intervals. Defining intervals enable users to separate, structure, search, and manipulate information in databases or directly within documents.
This concept, widely used in set theory, is fundamental to logic, and connects logic to computer science, artificial intelligence, and dynamic systems. It also plays a critical role in syntax, particularly in structural analysis, grammatical hierarchy, and even natural language processing.
Ultimately, mathematics, logic, and grammatical syntax are fundamental to structuring algorithms.
It’s worth emphasizing the classical definition of an algorithm, originating in the 9th century: a finite set of well-defined, step-by-step instructions for completing a task or solving a problem.
Develop natural algorithms
The brain has specialized areas for numerical and logical processing (parietal lobe) and specific regions dedicated to grammar and syntax (Brocas and Wernickes areas).
These regions integrate their functions to create dynamic problem-solving strategies that mimic algorithmic thinking, unconsciously generating “natural algorithms” to tackle everyday challenges, such as planning a route or making decisions based on available data, evaluating options, and predicting outcomes.
The correlation between mathematics, grammar, and the brains ability to create natural algorithms for solving daily problems reveals a shared reliance on structured logical thinking and generative creativity.
This interconnectedness highlights the brains remarkable ability to abstract rules, recognize patterns, and develop natural algorithms to navigate the complexities of daily life.
A logical proposition is that our young people must be well-versed in fundamental mathematics and written language proficiency for a single purpose: to train their cognitive engines to develop natural algorithms, and then artificial ones, which increasingly mimic the human brain.
This way they can keep up with the times, which are being radically reshaped by humanitys computational capabilities.
For parents, a logical takeaway is the idea of increasing their childrens instructional time in this cognitive set.
What skills are most important?
Calibrating the educational curriculum and workload has been a persistent challenge for educators. The current technological revolution makes this challenge even more pronounced. What is the correct workload for each subject to keep young people in step with evolution? Will mathematics, logic, and grammar gain more importance than subjects like history, geography, or chemistry?
A realistic perspective considers these skills as foundational as others, which are also taught in knowledge blockslessons, sections, chapters, umbered exercises, and, ultimately, structured intervals. Indeed, this structure is what students use globally, with tools like Google and now ChatGPT to support their studies (in best-case scenario).
Value creation
We are not looking for passive users if we aim for a better world. Technologies based on set theory, grammar, and logic were the foundation for social media and other revolutionary applications in recent years. Billions around the world improved their cultural awareness and their daily life, but we cant exactly say that these applications created value for all of them.
The common usability of AI, such as addressing everyday inquiries, solving household essentials, drafting texts, creating videos, or using preset tools in the workplace, will certainly deliver significant benefits to the general population, much like its predecessor technologies did. However, this time, technology should go further by driving value creation that is more equally distributed, enhancing economic output for people around the world.
Rodrigo Magnago is the director of rere.eco.
