Theres an old myth that Inuit cultures have as many as a hundred words for snow. I remember learning about it in school, and there was just something wonderful about the idea that peoples perceptions can be so deeply rich and different. I guess thats why, although it has been debunked many times, the story keeps getting repeated.
There is also a lot of truth to the underlying concept. As anybody who has ever learned another language or lived in a different culture knows, peoples perceptions vary widely. In The WEIRDest People In The World, Harvards Joseph Henrich documents how important and interesting these differences can be.
So if the Inuit snow myth highlights an important concept, many would argue that theres no real harm in repeating it, in much the same way we continue to tell the apocryphal story of George Washington cutting down his fathers cherry tree. Yet truth matters. Once we start degrading it, we lose our ability to understand what is often a messy and nuanced world.
What do you call a square?
What makes the Inuit snow myth compelling is that it so viscerally illustrates how language can reveal deeper truths. For example, in German the word for square is Platz and in neighboring Poland, it is Plac, a word that is pronounced very similarly. In Russian, the word is Ploshchad, so again, you can see the family resemblance.
In Ukraine, however, which is geographically and linguistically in the middle of all those countries, the word for square is completely different. It is Maidan and comes from Turkish, which gives you hints about Ukraines history with the Crimean Khanate, its historical ties to Byzantium, and lots of other interesting things.
Slavic languages are filled with these fascinating historical remnants. The word slav comes from the same root as word (slov). So Slavs considered themselves people of the word. The word for German in slavic languages is Niemiec, which roughly translates to doesnt speak, and shows how the Slavs considered the Germanic tribes Barbarians.
Languages, of course, continue to evolve. Since the early 1990s, the Independence Square in the center of Kyiv, the Maidan Nezalezhnosti, has been the place where people go to protest, especially during the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. So today, when Ukrainians say that its time to go to the Maidan, they mean its time to revolt.
The Inuit snow myth alerts us to the possibility of examining languages in this way and many would argue that we shouldn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. Still, once we abandon truth, we start down a troubled path.
The myths of Blockbuster, Kodak, and Xerox PARC
We tell stories because specific narratives can often point to more general principles. For example, when pundits want to show the dangers of complacent corporate giants getting caught sleeping, they often point to Blockbuster, Kodak, and Xerox. Yet, much like the Inuit snow myth, these stories arent really true. Lets look at each one in turn.
Blockbuster is supposedly a cautionary tale because it ignored Netflix until it was too late. Yet as Gina Keating, who covered the story for years at Reuters, explains in her book Netflixed, the video giant moved relatively quickly and came up with a successful strategy. The real problem was that those changes tanked the stock price and the strategy was reversed when CEO John Antioco left after a compensation dispute with investor Carl Icahn.
In a similar vein, were often told that, after inventing digital photography, Kodak ignored the market. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, its EasyShare line of cameras were top sellers. It also made big investments in quality printing for digital photos. The problem was that it made most of its money on developing film, a business that completely disappeared.
Another popular fable is that Xerox failed to commercialize the technology developed at its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), when in fact the laser printer developed there saved the company. What also conveniently gets left out is that Steve Jobs was able to get access to the companys technology to build the Macintosh because Xerox had invested in Apple and then profited handsomely from that investment.
I recently got the chance to discuss each of these with Paul Nunes, who for years headed up thought leadership at Accenture, on Aidan McCullins Innovation Show and what we noticed was that, in each case, the pundit version would lead you exactly the wrong way. Blockbusters problem wasnt that they ignored external threats, but failed to account for internal resistance. Digital photography would never have replaced Kodaks film developing business and Xerox PARC is actually a success story that other firms would do well to emulate.
Feynmans Law
History is full of brave souls who defied the status quo. In the 1840s, Ignaz Semmelweis pioneered handwashing in hospitals, only to be rebuked by the medical establishment. In the early 20th century, William Coley pioneered cancer immunotherapy, only to be ignored. Barry Marshall was pilloried for his work that showed peptic ulcers were caused not by stress, but by the bacterium H. pylori.
Yet being contrarian doesnt make you right. During Soviet times, Trofim Lysenko’s pseudoscientific agricultural theories led to crop failures and contributed to famines that killed millions. More recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s vaccine skepticism has coincided with a resurgence of measles.
So how do we engage in healthy skepticism of the zeitgeist without descending into quackery?
The physicist Richard Feynman, one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, offers helpful guidance. He said that science begins with a guess. Thats not only allowable, but necessary. To discover something new, you need to let your mind roam free. Impossible, even ridiculous ideas, are how we break new ground.
Yet the second step is crucial: you have to test your ideas. Or, as Feynman put it, If it disagrees with experiment, its wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesnt make any difference how beautiful your guess is, it doesnt matter how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is If it disagrees with experiment, its wrong. Thats all there is to it.
The Narrative Fallacy
The neuroscientist Antonio Damasio believes we encode experiences in our bodies as somatic markers and that our emotions often alert us to things that our brains arent aware of. Another researcher, Joseph Ledoux, reached similar conclusions. He pointed out that our body reacts much faster than our mind, such as when we jump out of the way of an oncoming object and only seconds later realize what happened.
Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman suggests that we have two modes of thinking. The first is emotive, intuitive, and fast. The second is rational, deliberative, and slow. Our bodies evolved to make decisions quickly in life-or-death situations. Our rational minds came much later and dont automatically engage. It takes conscious effort to activate the second system.
The problem is that when something feels right, humans have a tendency to build stories around them. False fables like those about Blockbuster, Kodak, and Xerox, purport to teach us important lessons, but the truth is that they rob us of the opportunity to unlock deeper insights.
Thats why Ive learned to be suspicious of good stories, especially those that I want to be true because they just feel right. We need to constantly interrogate our feelings, especially in areas for which we do not have specific training or relevant expertise. We need to understand what exactly our emotions are alerting us to, and that requires us to engage our rational mind.
Thats why, sometimes, you need to let the truth get in the way of a good story.
A growing number of Amazon employees have signed onto an open letter issuing some dire warnings about the companys sprint toward AI.
The letter, signed by more than 1,000 workers and published this week, calls out Amazon for pushing its AI investments at the expense of the climate and its human workforce. The letters supporters come from a wide array of roles at the company, including many software engineers, and even employees focused on building AI systems.
We believe that the all-costs-justified, warp-speed approach to AI development will do staggering damage to democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth, the letters authors wrote. Were the workers who develop, train, and use AI, so we have a responsibility to intervene.
In the letter obtained by The Guardian, the Amazon employees argue that their employer is throwing out its climate promises in the scramble to win the AI race. Amazon has pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, pointing to efficiencies from electric delivery vehicles and reduced plastic packaging in its climate commitment.
In spite of its stated promise to reduce its carbon footprint, Amazons carbon emissions rose last year, a trend tied to pollution from its ubiquitous fleet of delivery vehicles and its major push into data center construction.Resource intensive data centers like the ones Amazon is pouring billions into building out are a hot topic in 2025. The buildings, built to power tech giants AI ambitions, pump in loads of electricity to keep servers humming and suck up water to cool off all of that energy use.
Data centers, usually placed well beyond urban hubs, promise rural communities a boom of steady local jobs for many of the worlds most valuable companies, but the reality is often less inspiring. In spite of their massive footprint and a short term burst of work during construction, very few people are actually necessary to keep things up and running. In light of the downsides, rural communities around the country are beginning to reject big techs big AI buildout.
AI at all costs
Climate isnt the only concern among the Amazon workers who signed onto the open letter. The group of anonymous employees accuses the company of forcing AI on its workforce while openly plotting to get rid of human workers as soon as technologically possible. In the meantime, the letters authors say that timelines are getting shorter and output demands are on the rise as the company tries to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of its employees.
Last month, Amazon announced that it would lay off 14,000 employees, a massive round of cuts focused on its corporate workforce. In a memo to employees, Amazons Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology Beth Galetti said that the cuts were aimed at reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure were investing in our biggest bets namely the companys enormous spending on AI.
The world is changing quickly, Galetti wrote. This generation of AI is the most transformative technology weve seen since the Internet, and its enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones). Amazons AI spending this year has topped $125 billion and the company plans to invest that much and more into artificial intelligence in 2026.
A call for guardrails
The letter also points to Amazons major lobbying push against AI regulation and its role in spreading surveillance and military technology as major areas of concern. To address the worries it raises, the letter calls on Amazon to abandon dirty energy in order to recommit to its climate goals, loop non-manager employee voices into AI decision making and reject surveillance and deportation applications of its technology.
The letter only represents a tiny sliver of Amazons more than 1.55 million employees, but that hasnt deterred a thousand people at the company from voicing their concerns, and potentially risking their jobs. Beyond Amazons own workforce, around 2,400 people including students and workers at other major tech companies issued their own letter of support.
All of this is daunting, but none of it is inevitable, the Amazon letters authors wrote. A better future is still very much within reach, but it requires us to get real about the costs of AI and the guardrails we need.
In the latest sign that the Trump administration isnt so concerned about asbestos, the Food and Drug Administration this week withdrew a proposed rule that would have required testing for the toxic asbestos in talc-based cosmetics.
The rule, which was proposed by the Biden administration less than a year ago, would have required manufacturers to test cosmetics for asbestos and keep records demonstrating compliance. Exposure to asbestos has been linked to lung cancer, mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, and laryngeal cancer, which is why various health agencies have determined theres no safe level of exposure to this natural mineral.
Johnson & Johnson has been the subject of numerous lawsuits related to reports that the company knew about the risk of asbestos in the talc found in its baby powder. Talc is found in many cosmetics because it can be used to absorb moisture, prevent caking, and create a silky feel for these products, according to information on the FDA website.
But the current administration seems to have yielded partly to the highly scientific and technical issues addressed in the 49 comments received during the mandatory public comment period, according to a legal notice posted to the federal registry and signed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Good cause exists to withdraw the proposed rule at this time, the order stated. We are withdrawing the proposed rule to reconsider best means of addressing the issues covered by the proposed rule and broader principles to reduce exposure to asbestos, and to ensure that any standardized testing method requirements for detecting asbestos in talc-containing cosmetic products help protect users of talc-containing cosmetic products from harmful exposure to asbestos.
The FDA didnt immediately respond to a request for comment from Fast Company.
WITHDRAWING FROM BIDENS BANS
Withdrawing from this proposed rule doesnt necessarily mean that manufacturers will suddenly start adding asbestos to cosmetics, but rather a guardrail for ensuring the deadly toxin isnt present in these products is now being reconsidered. The FDA plans to issue a proposed rule related to the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022.
A spokesperson for the agency confirmed as much to The New York Times, saying that the FDA will submit a new proposed rule that offers a more comprehensive approach to reducing exposure to asbestos and reducing asbestos related illness, including identifying safer additives as alternatives, especially when they are less costly.
But both Trump administrations have demonstrated some willingness to walk back protections from this deadly carcinogen, allowing asbestos to make a comeback. By contrast, the Biden administration finalized a ban on ongoing uses of chrysotile asbestos in 2024 and also proposed the aforementioned rule for detecting and identifying asbestos in cosmetics.
The current Trump administration has now taken a swipe at both of these efforts to ban asbestos. In June, the Environmental Protection Agency in June planned to withdraw a proposed ban on chrysotile asbestos, before reversing course less than one month later.
OUTRAGE AT ROLLBACK
The U.S. continues to be out-of-step with much of the rest of the world, where asbestos is completely outlawed in more than 50 countries. Notably, asbestos is not outlawed in China, where many cosmetics are manufactured.
This latest move by the FDA is both baffling and troubling to some consumer advocates.
Nothing could make America less healthy than having a cancer causing product in cosmetics, Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs with the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit thats lobbied for stricter regulations around talc, told The Guardian. Its hard to understand why we would revoke a rule that simply requires companies to test for asbestos.
And it marks another horrific rollback that should outrage consumers, Linda Reinstein, president and chief executive of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, told The New York Times.
It puts the onus on Americans to have to try to identify consumer products that might be contaminated, and the average person cant do that because you cant know without testing, she said.
No one can deny that the internet, especially social media, can pose significant dangers. Now, a new survey has found that about one in five parents and carers knowand have supporteda child who has experienced online blackmail.
The survey, from the U.K.s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), also showed that one in ten of these individuals own children have experienced blackmail online.
According to the NSPCC, bad actors often start communicating with young people on public platforms before actively moving the conversation to end-to-end encrypted messaging servicesmaking it more challenging for them to be tracked.
Only 43% of parents and carers found tech companies or platforms effective in preventing online blackmail, and just 37% thought the same of the government. These findings show the scale of online blackmail that is taking place across the country, yet tech companies continue to fall short in their duty to protect children, NSPCC policy manager Randi Govender said in response to the report.
Some participants blamed online platforms for failing to care about childrens welfare. As one said, They have no interest whatsoever. As long as they get their money from marketing, thats good enough for them. Another individual pointed to AIs role: I personally dont feel like they do enough to remove the damaging content fast enough and rely too heavily on AI rather than humans.
The NSPCC also pointed to the role of AI in online blackmail, with bad actors sometimes using generative AI to create compromising deepfakes of children using regular photos of them on social media.
Online blackmailing of young people is a global problem
While the survey was of 2,558 U.K. parents and carers, online blackmailing of children is also running rampant in the U.S. In 2024, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reported 29.2 million separate child sexual exploitation incidents sent to its CyberTipline.
The FBI also reports an increase in financial sextortion cases, in which a blackmaileroften posting as a young personconvinces a child to send sexually explicit images and then demands the child send compensation or they will release the images. Oftentimes, they publish it whether theyve received a payment or not.
Instances of online blackmail can lead to young people attempting suicide.
The role of parents in preventing online blackmailing
The NSPCC survey highlights a shortfall in discussions between parents and children about online blackmail. About two in five parents and carers said theyve rarely or never talked about the subject with their children. They want and need more resources about online blackmailing, but also point to schools as another place children should learn about its dangers.
As we near the final weeks of the year, platforms of all stripes will soon begin rolling out their annual recap features, which let users see the content they have interacted with most.
While numerous tech giants release these recaps, music streamer Spotify is usually the most anticipated.
Known as Spotify Wrapped, this look-back lets you see which songs you interacted with most over the past 12 months.
So when will Spotify Wrapped 2025 be available? Heres what you need to know.
What is Spotify Wrapped 2025?
Spotify Wrapped is the music streamers annual year-in-review compilation that allows Spotify users to see which songs, albums, and artists they interacted with most throughout the year. The company also reveals the most-streamed songs, artists, and albums worldwide among all its users.
While the feature is ostensibly a year-end gift to users, Wrapped doubles as a massive free marketing campaign for the company. Millions of Spotify users frequently share their Wrapped results publicly on social media and privately in group chats and DMs.
This kind of online virality benefits Spotify since, by sharing their Wrapped results, users are essentially advertising the companys streaming service to their friends and followers.
Spotify Wrapped: Release Date History
Spotify has historically released its annual Wrapped compilation at the end of each year, but the exact date varies.
Spotify Wrapped has existed since 2016 (or 2015 if you count its first Year in Music recap), and Fast Company has covered the annual launch nearly every year since. In years past, these are the dates Spotify Wrapped launched:
2024: December 4
2023: November 29
2022: November 30
2021: December 1
2020: December 1
2019: December 5
2018: December 6
2017: December 13
2016: December 14
2015: December 6 (called Spotifys 2015 Year in Music)
Spotify Wrapped 2025 Release Date
As you can see from the dates above, the annual Spotify Wrapped compilation has been released as early as late November and as late as mid-December.
Fast Company has reached out to Spotify seeking more information about this year’s Wrapped launch date.
The streamer has not publicly hinted at a date yet, but it does currently have a placeholder page on its website teasing Spotify Wrapped 2025.
Based on historical dates, its unlikely that Spotify will announce Wrapped 2025 over the weekend. That means the most likely dates for the launch of Spotify Wrapped 2025 would be sometime next week.
Either way, Spotify likely wants to achieve maximum press and social media attention for the feature.
How do I access Spotify Wrapped 2025?
When Wrapped 2025 is released, youll be able to access it as you have in years past: through the Spotify app on iOS and Android.
On Spotifys Wrapped 2025 placeholder page, the company provides a QR code that users can scan to download the Spotify app. The page also includes a message telling users to Get the updated app to experience 2025 Wrapped at its best.
Hello once again, and welcome back to Fast Companys Plugged In.
I didnt buy a new phone this year. Or a new laptop, tablet, or smartwatch. That hasnt been a hardship. Ive just been perfectly content with the gear I already ownboth a satisfying feeling and a boon to my pocketbook.
Instead of being splashy budget busters, the new products that made me happiest in 2025 have been relatively inexpensive items that bring clever twists to seemingly mundane categories. This week, Im going to tell you about three Ive found especially rewarding. (Im citing their list prices, butthis being Black Friday weekall are widely available at steep discounts as I write this.)
The mother of all power banks. Most of the innumerable external batteries Ive owned have been thoroughly unmemorable. Not Ankers $119 Laptop Power Bank, a recent gift from my wife, who bought it off TikTok.
As its name indicates, the Laptop Power Banks massive 25,000mAh capacity is enough to charge a computer. It can also handle a tablet, such as my iPad Pro. Or a smartphone. Or other gadgets such as a digital camera. Or how about all of them at the same time?
Even if you do charge four devices at once, you wont need to lug four USB cables. Along with two portsone USB-C, one full-size USB-Athe Anker has a built-in cable that retracts into its case, and another that doubles as a wrist strap. Most power banks use LEDs to give you, at best, a vague sense of how much juice is left; this one has a fancy color display with a gauge that indicates precisely how much power remains, a battery health indicator, and other useful stats.
Now the Laptop Power Bank is decidedly chonkymore of a briefcase or backpack accessory than something youd slip in a pocket. If all youre looking to do is occasionally top off your phone, its way more battery than you need. But by providing enough power to last through the busiest of workdays, its liberated me from hunting for wall outlets at conferences and running my fingers along the undersides of airplane seats in hopes of finding a power jack there. I get a little thrill every time I use it.
The best smartphone wallet Ive owned. I used to carry a wallet so hopelessly overstuffed that George Costanza himself might have pointed and laughed. That was until I managed to downsize to one of those magnetic wallets that stick to the back of a phone. I carry my drivers license, one credit card, an ATM card, the badge that gets me into my office building, and maybe a $20 bill or two, and thats about it. Its the one place in my life where I feel like a preternaturally organized person.
But I havent been wild about most of the phone wallets Ive used. Some were too tight: Only two to three cards fit in, and they were almost impossible to extract. Others were too loose, so cards went flying whenever I dropped my phone. And they were all made of leather that tended to end up looking battered and disreputable.
Peak Designs $50 Mobile Wallet is unlike any other phone wallet Ive triedand much, much better. Made of sturdy cloth, it handles as many cards as I ever carry, and protects them from accidental exits with a magnetic flap. Most ingeniously, tugging on the flap causes the cards to travel slightly out of the wallet, where its easy to pluck the one I want. Its like having it delivered by a butler.
The Mobile Wallet pairs with Peaks Everyday Case, which also sells for about $50 and is equally worth it. Wrapped in a similar fabric-y material, its easy to get on and off my iPhone and remains in mint condition after months of use. The case features Peaks SlimLink, a mounting technology that secures the case to a variety of accessoriesincluding a mount I installed on my e-bike to let my iPhone double as a GoPro-style action camera.
A book light I actually use. Early this year, I pledged to read more dead-tree booksespecially the ones piled in a Jenga-like stack on my nightstand. Im still behind, in part because I like to read in bed after my wife has dozed off. Ink and paper do not mix well with utter darkness.
This problem was theoretically solved decades ago by tiny clip-on book lights. But theyve always struck me as plasticky, fragile, and inelegant. The fact that they use AAA batteries doesnt make them any more appealing.
Not long ago, however, a new generation of snakelike, USB-C-rechargable book lights came to my attention. Instead of clipping one onto a tome, you drape it around your neck, then bend it to direct beams of light from both ends at the pages youre reading. The one I bought, Kikkerlands Hands-Free Book Light, lists for $35. Other options exist, including ones from a company called Glocusent.
If theres a downside to wearing a book light twisted around your neck, its that it looks pretty goofy, as my wife has helpfully pointed out several times. But shes the only person whos seen me using mine. Did I mention that shes usually asleep when I have it on?
Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on fastcompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.
[A note on last weeks newsletter, which discussed my experiences with Googles Gemini 3 Pro LLM: A couple of the issues I cited involved the earlie Gemini 2.5 Flash model, which still powers the Gemini chatbots Fast mode. Ive updated the version of the newsletter on FastCompany.com to clarify this.]
More top tech stories from Fast Company
Inside the Trump administrations dicey play to block states from regulating AIThe controversial state-level preemption could be Trumps payment to the tech industry for helping bring him back to power in 2024. Read More
Its not your job. Your social media feed is ruining your workdayNew research suggests your feed may be shaping your mood, productivity, and interactions at work far more than you realize. Read More
Jeffrey Epsteins emails, now in a searchable, Gmail-style interfaceYou are logged in as Jeffrey Epstein, jeevacation@gmail.com. Read More
This project is using AI and satellite data to create the first definitive map of the entire continent of AfricaMost African countries lack accurate local base maps, stalling all sorts of government and business decisions. A new project aims to create this vital resource. Read More
With new Opus 4.5 model, Anthropics Claude could remain the best AI coding toolClaude Code is already widely used by developersand with a new brain, it may fend off Googles new Antigravity tool. Read More
How to introduce AI to a skeptical workplaceFor AI to provide the benefits that it can bring, you need your whole teams buy-in. Read More
Ive worked for myself for nearly a decade, and in all but one of those years Ive earned more than the U.K. average salary. Some years its been a little more. Im naturally frugal, and even during the rockiest stretches, theres always been enough to cover the basicsplus a safety net if I ever truly needed it.
Yet I worry about money constantly, gnawed by the sense that Im only one missed invoice from financial collapse. Although Im generally wary of self-diagnosis, the term money dysmorphiaa disconnect between how we feel about our finances and the realityfits me like a glove.
From the rise of HENRYs (high earners, not rich yet) to the boom in income stacking, todays workplace trends illustrate just how messed up our relationship with finances has become. While money dysmorphia isnt a clinical term, its a shorthand that many workers now recognize.
Credit Karma reports that 29% of Americans experience it, especially millennials and Gen Z, so Im in good company. But could the nature of solopreneurshipthe feast-or-famine cycles, the autonomy, the pressure to slay in your own lanemake us even more prone?
Its absolutely heightened for solopreneurs, freelancers, and anyone with an unstable income, says Alex King, founder of financial education platform Generation Money. Without a fixed monthly salary, they normalize volatility and uncertainty, which can create a sense of inadequacy or inflated confidence in their finances.
The numbers paint an intriguing picture. Advice site Freelancing Support reported that 41% of freelancers struggled with poor financial well-being in 2024, and a 2025 study found that three in four U.S. solopreneurs have less than six months worth of savingsor no safety net at all. Plenty of people have good reasons to be anxious.
But a surprising portion are on solid ground: The number of six-figure solopreneurs has almost doubled since 2020, and research from the Minneapolis Fed shows that self-employed workers earn significantly more over their careers than those in traditional jobs.
Everyones always thriving, innovating, scaling
Kim Berndt, cofounder of the fashion tech collaboration lab We.art studio in Cologne, Germany, has been a solopreneur since 2017. After three years of not paying herself a salary, her numbers finally look stable. Emotionally, though, she feels anything but. Social media plays a significant role in warping her sense of financial reality.
Its the biggest scam, because it creates the illusion that everyone is always thriving, innovating, scaling, she says. The two industries I straddletech and fashionglorify speed and visibility, yet theyre the Wild West when it comes to pay.
Berndt has accepted that she may never feel stable, especially in an emerging field that many still dont understand and that offers little clarity around value. I chose self-employment, so I have to find ways to cope, she says.
I identify with Berndts me-against-the-world mentality, so I was curious to hear what financial therapist Elana Feinsmith had to say about this predicament. I told her about the ripple effects of my own money dysmorphia: oscillating between avoiding my bank balance and obsessively checking it, hesitating to charge fairly, and feeling guilt and shame over basic spending.
Finances are like an iceberg, she says. The numbers sit above the waterline, but below is where the dark, murky feelings live. She encourages me to examine not just the volatility of my work but also the money scripts I learned earlier in life. It doesnt take her long to extract that being the eldest daughter (surprise!) has something to do with it.
Figure out the amount that would calm your nervous system, then project a few years down the line to see the real picture, she tells me. A panic alarm sounds in my headif only it were that simple. Feinsmith says that reaction is typical of money dysmorphia. It makes long-term planning seem impossible, and she sees clients grapple with it at every income level.
Addressing the iceberg
There are now 72.9 million independent workers in the U.S., and almost everyone wants to leave corporate jobs to start their own businesses, amid the fifth year of persistent inflation. King warns that these conditions are likely to breed more widespread money dysmorphia. But it doesnt have to define the solopreneur experience. Small structural changes can help close the gap between perception and reality.
Have separate accounts for personal and business finances, King advises. Combining them distorts whether you feel rich one month and poor the next. Avoid months of paying yourself nothing, and dont overpay yourself when things go well. Ideally, work toward a baseline salary or a fixed minimum to cover costs.
As the end of the year approaches, Im particularly beguiled by other freelancers 2025 roundups, where they highlight their wins, earnings, and learnings. Im all for championing the wins, but after ingesting a few, I fall into catastrophizing my own balance sheet. King points out that many of these updates confuse revenue with profit.
Theyre not saying I made X amount, but then had to deduct what I spent on outreach, subscriptions, and training, because thats not sexy, he says.
This year, Ill be approaching the freelance wrap-up posts with caution. And after consulting the experts, Im more convinced that theres no quick fix for financial dysmorphia. Yet just the idea of taking a pickax to my financial iceberg makes me feel calmer.
Perhaps thats the best economic stability a solopreneur can ask for: not perfect peace of mind, but the confidence to keep moving anyway.
If you loved the Lego Game Boy but couldnt get yourself to buy it because it was only a display piece that couldnt play actual Game Boy games, I’ve got great news for you: It’s no longer merely a clever block of bricks.
Substance Labs, a merry band of Lego and gaming lovers based in Switzerland, have created a kit that retrofits the official brick-perfect Lego set into an unofficial pixel-perfect playable Game Boy. The name of this wündertronics is BrickBoy. Yes, its a Kickstarter project, so the usual may not deliver caveats apply.
Substance Labs calls itself a team of creators and engineers who grew up building with Lego and gaming on the classics [who have] spent the last years working across hardware, software, and product design, from open-source projects to custom electronics. I need to believe they will deliver on their promise because I need to believe that dreams do come true sometimes. And apparently, given the more than $500,000 that they have collected so far from project supporters, many other people feel the same way.
Substance Labs says the prototypes are built and tested. We have shipped a naked kit to early testers, creators, and magazines, the company says. Now we are ready to move into the next phase together with you.
The technical implementation of the BrickBoy kit is modular, allowing users to install the electronic core into the Lego chassis in under 10 minutes without soldering or coding. The hardware fits directly inside the assembled model, activating a functional display and speaker system that runs freeware, home-brew titles, and legally obtained ROMs. While the base unit relies on digital files, an optional third-party cartridge reader add-on allows the system to interface with physical Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges.
The nonfunctional Lego kit [Photo: Lego]
Kits start at $115 for the essential edition, which will make your Lego model play original Game Boy games. A $196 collectors kit model plays every Game Boy title, including Classic, Color, and Advance, without any limitations. The Substance Labs designers say it has accelerable gameplay for faster sessions (so you can pace through long Pokémon games), a customizable backlight, Bluetooth audio, wireless game loading, and system updates. They have other versions, like the Gamer and Collector editions, which have additional features like Bluetooth audio and an “Exposition Mode” that keeps the unit powered and lit for display purposes.
A 3D rendering of the Substance Labs Gamer Kit [Image: Substance Labs]
I dont care much about the display purposes myself. My home might be the closest thing to the Lego Housecomplete with a Lego brick minefield all over the floor, thanks to my sonso I welcome the idea of turning all these Lego nostalgia sets into functional gear. The Danish company has been milking the 80s and 90s with sets like Lego Atari and Lego Pac-Man, which are cool and all, but do nothing but sit on a shelf gathering dust.
The BrickBoy is a perfect example of how Lego could perhaps think of a way to make its sets actually usable objects. Not all of them would be possible to turn into a real thing, but models like the Game Boy, with its spot-on dimensions and proportions, are ideal.
I get it, though. Theres probably not enough business to justify the engineering effort to mass-produce something like this. So Lego will leave it to the obsessives. Now Substance Labs better Miyamoto the hell out of this thing and hurry up with the deliveries, because I really need to get it for my son this holiday season. Hes already a Mario junkie, and he will become a Tetris addict too, just like his dad.
As the midterm election primaries inch closer, some candidates are focusing their campaigns on how theyll regulate artificial intelligence. On the right, populist Republicans are warning that the AI industry stands to undermine the Make America Great Again movement. On the left, theres worry about the sectors growing political and social power. Across the spectrum, theres near-universal concern about what the technology might be doing to children.
The donor class is now getting involved: A super PAC called Leading the Future backed by OpenAI executive Greg Brockman and Andreessen Horowitz plans to spend as much as $100 million in the midterms to support its preferred candidates. Another bipartisan super PAC, focused on pushing for a national framework on regulating AI, formed earlier this week. These fights come as the Trump administration pushes to limit the ability of states to regulate the technology.
Alex Bores, who authored legislation on AI in New York state and is running to represent its 12th district, has become an early target for Leading the Futures political spending during the midterms. It’s a badge of honor, he says, comparing the effort to an F rating from the National Rifle Association.
This is not tech versus everyone else, he tells Fast Company. This is one small subset of the tech ecosystem that, instead of engaging in collaborative discussions on bills and how we can work for all, has decided they want to drown out the voices of anyone who isn’t them by spending hundreds of millions.
Fast Company chatted with Bores about AI in politics, his time working at Palantir, and what it might take to modernize the government. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
One of the things the draft executive order talks about is creating a federal approach to regulating AI by the Trump administration. How seriously do you take that?
It’s a cliché in D.C. that when you want something to not get done, make a commission to study it. And so making a proposal to study a thingto maybe put a policy forwardis silly. I want to be clear, the correct answer to these questions is a federal standard. The only reason the states have been acting is because the federal government hasn’t. If they want to actually work on a federal standard, they will find partners across the aisle. What they are prioritizing is stopping any state from taking action, not actually solving problems.
We’re in a moment when there’s a lot of criticism and debate about what the future of the Democratic Party should look like. In New York, a liberal stronghold, Im curious about where conversations about how we should handle emerging technologies and AI might sit in the remaking of the Democratic Partyand the push to focus on issues that speak to younger voters and disaffected voters who havent been so into what the Democrats have been offering.
We should always be human first and human focused. The specific ways that plays out in AI policy are ones that speak to younger people. The biggest impact of AI on the job market right now is on entry-level jobs, and you’re seeing a rise in unemployment of people in that cohort looking for their first job.
One of the most popular things we did in New York this year was phone-free schools and making it so that we could actually change how tech is used in the classroom and make sure that it’s been used for education and not for screening or scrolling on social media. [Earlier this year, the state instituted new rules on electronic devices during school hours.]
We shouldnt shoot for one big grand bargain on AI, as if it’s a static issue. It is something that infuses everything we do, and we need to continually be updating our protections as the technology grows.
Can you talk a little bit more about what you did at Palantir and your decision to leave?
I was at Palantir for four and a half years. I spent the vast majority of that time on the federal civilian team, and so it was working with the government to better serve the American people. I worked with the Department of Justice to go after the opioid epidemic. . . . I worked with the Department of Veterans Affairs on better staffing their hospitals and better serving veterans. I worked with the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] on understanding epidemics.
I’m really proud of the work that I did there, because it was all about actually making government work better. Separate from tech, I think that’s the thing that the Democratic party and the country as a whole needs to see more of, is people who are willing to push through the obstacles and make sure that government is actually a force for good and serving people, and not just the political mudslinging that is most of what they see on TV.
I left in 2019 when Palantir renewedor soon afterPalantir renewed their contract with ICE. Palantir had a contract with Homeland Security Investigations to help with fighting cross-border drug trafficking and human trafficking. During the first Trump administration, they started using that software for Enforcement and Removal Operationsfor what most people think of as deportation. That’s a different department within ICE. . . . That wasn’t something that was foreseen when the contract was signed in the Obama administration. And when Palantir renewed that contract, without cutting off that work or putting in protections that would step up in the future, that motivated me to leave.
What do you make of the conversation surrounding Palantir right now? The company has insisted that its worked through multiple administrations, but the work with ICE, as well as with Israel, has sparked major criticisms of the company.
I haven’t been there for six years, so I don’t have more detail on how they currently operate than anyone reading the news, but I’m proud of the work that I did there and very public with the reasons why I left.
How hard is it to buy technology in government to make things faster, more efficient? Government modernizationupdating government software and providing better customer servicecontinues to be a big challenge.
No one asks about government acquisition. This is amazing. It’s horribly inefficient, and that hurts the American people. It takes the government far too long to be able to sign a contract, so the costtherefore what the American people end up payingrises.
It then benefits sort of the insiders who know how to do contracting more than the people who can deliver useful services, so then the American people don’t get the benefits from startups and others that might have cheaper, faster ways of solving problems.
It is a problem at every level of government. One of the first bills I passed in New York, as an Assembly member, was making it easier for the government to actually use cloud computing instead of buying servers and always running on hardware, which slowed down getting services to New Yorkers. . . . A program called FedRAMP was supposed to make it easier to get tech to the government: You would do one security screening, be certified, and then be able to sell to each [federal] department, so they didn’t have to do their own [screening]. But it has become an incredibly onerous process that just makes it much more difficult to actualy work with the federal government.
Should politicians be using generative AI in advertisements?
I haven’t done it. But I have written the laws in New York that regulate it, and what we came to was it has to be disclosed. And if you use it to make deepfakes of a candidate, the candidate has the right to sue for injunctive relief with expedited review to pull that ad down if it’s going to deceive the public into something that actually happened.
The problem of deepfakes is one that has a technical solution, and policymakers just haven’t kept up. Historically, we’re told it’s . . . just going to be a cat and mouse game where you have better detectors of deepfakes and then better AI generators [or that] we’ll never win that battle. But the industry has created a free, open-source metadata standards of data called C2PA that can be attached to any standard audio, video, or image file type that cryptographically proves whether that piece of content was taken from an actual device, was generated by AI, and/or how it’s been edited throughout the process.
If you got to a place where 90%, 95% of people were using that standard, we’ve solved the problem of deepfakes, because anytime you don’t see that credential, you would immediately be suspicious of what’s being shown.
After Thanksgiving, brands will bombard you with Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. It can be overwhelming to know what to buy. After all, some deals aren’t actually all that good. And besides, you don’t want to make impulse buys that you’ll regret later and that will end up in a landfill in the near future.
To help cut through the noise, we’ve picked out the best deals from design-forward brands. They create beautiful products that are thoughtfully designed to last for years. We’ve even picked out some of our favorite classic products that you will enjoy using for a long time. All the prices below are before discounts.
[Photos: MoMA Design Store]
MoMA Design Store
20% off site-wide
Might we suggest these quirky espresso mugs ($50) or these toasty Jeffrey Gibson-designed slippers ($85) or this gorgeous color-saturated Japanese toolbox ($145)?
[Photo: Boll & Branch]
Boll & Branch
25% off site-wide, with up to 50% off select styles
Boll & Branch has some of the most beautiful bedding on the market. But more impressively, each product is fully traceableso you know that neither workers nor the planet were harmed in creating them. Their soft blankets are worth the investment. We recommend the signature hand-stitched quilt (from $498) and the new woven icon ($699).
[Photo: Brightland]
Brightland
25% off site-wide
It’s not just olive oil; it’s olive oil in an elegant bottle adorned with art. The Artist Series ($170) features labels featuring exclusive art from independent artists that Brightland commissioned. There’s also a Classic Minis gift set ($89) that serves as a sampler. The boxes are packaged so beautifully that you don’t need wrapping paper.
[Photo: Terra Kaffe]
Terra Kaffe
Between $250 and $400 off
If you’re in the market for a new coffee maker, this beautifully designed, high-tech automatic espresso machine by Terra Kaffe could be your answer. It doesn’t require any pods (just beans), which saves plastic. The Wi-Fi-enabled, fully loaded machine goes for $1,995 (now $400 off), and the compact Demi goes for $795 (now $250 off).
[Photo: Everlane]
Everlane
Up to 50% off everything
Skip the impulse buys and shop for classic, minimalist pieces, which are Everlane’s specialty. You can’t go wrong with a wool rollneck sweater ($228) or a pair of classic leather booties ($298) or the brand’s new fully recyclable jacket, the Everpuff ($348now at half price).
[Photo: Baggu]
Baggu
25% off site-wide
It’s time to stock up on some of the best-designed reusable bags on the market. The Duck Bag ($42) is an icon. Don’t sleep on the limited-edition three-packs of standard Baggus ($42), which now come in Miffy and Western designs.
[Photos: The Citizenry]
The Citizenry
25% off site-wide
We recommend the brand’s architectural vases that are handcrafted by artisans in India and Mexico, like the Vati ($79) or the Terranova ($429). The home decor company is also famous for its Mercado baskets, which start at $105.
[Photos: Larroudé]
Larroudé
50% off site-wide (exclusions apply)
Larroudé is known for making comfortable shoes designed by the former fashion director at Barneys. They are high quality and manufactured in the brand’s own factories in Brazil. Now is the time to pick classics you will wear for years to come, like the block-heel Ricky Boot ($550), the party-ready Ari Pump ($395), or the Verona Ballet Flat ($315). The brand’s new sneaker, the Stella ($250), has been a bestseller this year.
[Photos: Clare V.]
Clare V.
Special deals across the site
The brand’s iconic designs include the Moyen Messenger ($485), the Simple Tote ($575), and the Remi Backpack ($485).
[Photos: Alessi]
Alessi
Up to 50% off everything, plus an additional 10% for Black Friday
The Italian housewares brand Alessi is very popular among design nerds for good reason. Over the years, it has collaborated with industrial designers and architects to make thougtful products for everyday lifefrom a flyswatter designed by Philippe Starck ($30 now 25% off) to iconic kettles in the shape of a cone, originally designed by Aldo Rossi ($435 now 25% off).
