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Ive always been somewhat ritualistic, shaped by my Midwestern upbringing in a modest immigrant family. I remember my parents calculating the mileage of our 82 Honda Civic in a notepad after every fill-up, the same car I eventually inherited in high school. Or saving every receipt on vacation to audit our daily spending down to the dollar. In every sense, they were amazing parents, and their rituals instilled in me a desire to be intentional about how I lived my life. As human beings in a world of constant distraction, time is the most precious resource we have. As a CEO, managing that resource is one of the most important skills you can master. And its no picnic. Ive often said work-life balance in the C-suite is an illusion. Its a worthwhile concept, but just like every cause has an effect, every choice has a consequence. Work out or binge-watch a show? Travel the world or save for a house? One isnt better than the other; theyre just choices. Rituals structure your time. Put simply, the more deliberate you are with your habits and behaviors, the more intentional you can be with that time. They dont emerge from nowhere; theyre developed and refined over years of trial and error. How we create and, more importantly, maintain habits is deeply personal. What works for me almost certainly wont work for someone else. RITUALS IN SERVICE OF OTHERS GE, a company known for its highly organized, almost programmatic culture, is where I honed many of my habits. Early in my career, I worked 12- to 13-hour days, socialized until midnight, slept four or five hours, and hit repeat. At 26, I became a manager for the first time and realized that my colleagues, many of them only a year or two younger, were looking to me for guidance. Rituals were no longer just a catalyst for my own success; they became a way to deliver on my responsibility to othersa mindset that still defines my leadership at Twilio 25 years later. THE 70-20-10 RULE About 18 months ago, I met with a mentor, a seasoned leader and board chairman for some of the worlds top businesses. He shared a piece of advice that resonated with me: never spend evenings on things that aren’t mission critical. His point was simple: if its not family, it better be work. Otherwise, skip it. Apart from a select few industry events, I decline nearly all networking and work-adjacent invitations so I can spend my time on what matters: showing up for my family and the company I run. Most of my rituals orbit my calendar. I refuse to fill it with anything that drains attention or energy, both people and topics, personal or professional. Thats why I adhere to a 70-20-10 rule: 70% of my time on what matters, 20% on what must get done, and 10% on what gives me energy. That leaves exactly 0% for distractions. Speaking of those work-life consequences, Ive missed milestones and moments with friends and family I can never get back. But I made choices that were right for me at the time and have few regrets. Ive been incredibly fortunate to carve out a life my parents only dreamed about. Today, as a soon-to-be empty nester, Im much more intentional (and present) about building rituals around moments that matter mostthat 70%like family dinners: a ritual I almost never miss when Im in town. RITUALS BEHIND MY ROUTINE Rituals are, by nature, structured and repetitive, but they arent immutable. Ive adapted mine to meet different stages of life and careerkids, promotions, jobs. Ive built and shed many, but these seven are most foundational for me right now: Power of a plan: It sounds obvious, but aday without a plan is a ship without a rudder. I start each day, week, month, and year with one. It prioritizes what matters and reinforces accountability. Refill the tank: My parents were firm believers in work hard, play hard, and that mantra shapes my weekends. While I do work, I make sure Saturdays and Sundays are memorableor epic as my baseline. With one kid in college and another headed there soon, I prioritize my time with them as much as possible, with regular trips to the record store with my daughter or the driving range with my son. Delegate a lot: There are two forces at work here: I have a highly competent staff, and delegation empowers ownership (how else do we learn?). And it lightens my load. Avoid multitasking: Multitasking is a myth; research backs this, and so does my personal experience. Its unavoidable sometimes, but always at the expense of something else. I try to avoid it, at work and home. Declutter the inbox: Email overload is real. I embrace a philosophy of inbox zero to reduce clutter and track priorities. No meeting default: I only attend critical meetings and believe they are for three things: dialogue, debate, and decision-making. Everything else can be done asynchronously, and I regularly purge those that dont meet this bar. FINAL THOUGHTS The more responsibility you take on as a leader, the greater the demands on your time and energy, and the more critical it becomes to perform for those who depend on your judgment, guidance, and steady hand. Decades into my career, Im a creature of habit. Whether in the office with colleagues, on the road with customers, or at home with family, my days are anchored by rituals. So, as the energy and enthusiasm of the New Year inevitably wanes, resolutions will too. Its rituals, ones that fuel creativity, value precious time, and set you and your teams up for sustainable success, that last. Khozema Shipchandler is the CEO of Twilio.
Category:
E-Commerce
Three of the world’s biggest tech companies face a landmark trial in Los Angeles starting this week over claims that their platformsMeta’s Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok, and Google’s YouTubedeliberately addict and harm children.Jury selection starts this week in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. It’s the first time the companies will argue their case before a jury, and the outcome could have profound effects on their businesses and how they will handle children using their platforms. The selection process is expected to take at least a few days, with 75 potential jurors questioned each day through at least Thursday. A fourth company named in the lawsuit, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc., settled the case last week for an undisclosed sum.At the core of the case is a 19-year-old identified only by the initials “KGM,” whose case could determine how thousands of other, similar lawsuits against social media companies will play out. She and two other plaintiffs have been selected for bellwether trialsessentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury and what damages, if any, may be awarded, said Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow of technology policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.KGM claims that her use of social media from an early age addicted her to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. Importantly, the lawsuit claims that this was done through deliberate design choices made by companies that sought to make their platforms more addictive to children to boost profits. This argument, if successful, could sidestep the companies’ First Amendment shield and Section 230, which protects tech companies from liability for material posted on their platforms.“Borrowing heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry, Defendants deliberately embedded in their products an array of design features aimed at maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising revenue,” the lawsuit says.Executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are expected to testify at the trial, which will last six to eight weeks. Experts have drawn similarities to the Big Tobacco trials that led to a 1998 settlement requiring cigarette companies to pay billions in healthcare costs and restrict marketing targeting minors.“Plaintiffs are not merely the collateral damage of Defendants’ products,” the lawsuit says. “They are the direct victims of the intentional product design choices made by each Defendant. They are the intended targets of the harmful features that pushed them into self-destructive feedback loops.”The tech companies dispute the claims that their products deliberately harm children, citing a bevy of safeguards they have added over the years and arguing that they are not liable for content posted on their sites by third parties.“Recently, a number of lawsuits have attempted to place the blame for teen mental health struggles squarely on social media companies,” Meta said in a recent blog post. “But this oversimplifies a serious issue. Clinicians and researchers find that mental health is a deeply complex and multifaceted issue, and trends regarding teens’ well-being aren’t clear-cut or universal. Narrowing the challenges faced by teens to a single factor ignores the scientific research and the many stressors impacting young people today, like academic pressure, school safety, socio-economic challenges and substance abuse.”Meta, YouTube, and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.The case will be the first in a slew of cases beginning this year that seek to hold social media companies responsible for harming children’s mental well-being. A federal bellwether trial beginning in June in Oakland, California, will be the first to represent school districts that have sued social media platforms over harms to children.In addition, more than 40 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against Meta, claiming it is harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms. The majority of cases filed their lawsuits in federal court, but some sued in their respective states.TikTok also faces similar lawsuits in more than a dozen states. Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Americas most iconic shoe giant is starting 2026 by laying off workers. Nike has confirmed that it will lay off 775 employees in the United States. The move marks the third year in a row that Nike has cut jobs. Heres what you need to know about the latest Nike layoffs. Whats happened? On Monday, CNBC reported that shoe giant Nike would eliminate 775 jobs. The job cuts will primarily encompass positions at the companys distribution centers in Mississippi and Tennessee. Nike has warehouses in those states that act as major hubs in the companys supply chain. The distribution centers store the companys inventory before shipping the products out to customers and retail partners. Nikes most recent round of job cuts is the third in as many years. In 2024, Nike announced it would cut 2% of its total workforce, or about 1,600 roles. Those cuts were made so the company could reduce expenses in response to weakening sales. Then last year, Nike announced in August that it would cut about 1% of its corporate staff. Those cuts were part of a company realignment, Nike said at the time. In May 2025, Nike had around 77,800 employees. Todays confirmed layoffs of 775 workers mean the latest job cuts equate to around 1% of its workforce. Why is Nike cutting jobs? When reached for comment, a Nike spokesperson told Fast Company that the job cuts were part of the steps the company was taking to strengthen and streamline our operations so we can move faster, operate with greater discipline, and better serve athletes and consumers. As part of those steps, Nike said it’s sharpening our supply chain footprint, accelerating the use of advanced technologyand automation, and investing in the skills our teams need for the future. The company said its actions to consolidate its footprint will primarily impact its U.S. distribution operations. These actions are designed to reduce complexity, improve flexibility, and build a more responsive, resilient, responsible, and efficient operation and to support our path back to long-term, profitable growth, including contributing to improved EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) margins over time, the spokesperson added. Under former Nike CEO John Donahoe, the company moved away from wholesale partners in favor of direct selling, which necessitated a buildup of employees at its distribution centers. But ultimately, Nikes lackluster sales demand could not support the number of employees at the distribution centers. Nikes new CEO Elliott Hill has flipped its sales playbook, embracing wholesale partners again, and focusing on cutting costs to increase margins. How has Nikes stock price reacted? As of yesterdays closing price, Nike shares (NYSE: NKE) were trading at $64.99. In premarket trading this morning, shares are essentially flat. In other words, investors so far seem to have shrugged off the fact that the layoffs will have an immediate impact on the companys finances or operations. After reaching an all-time high of around $180 in 2021, Nikes share price has steadily declined, falling to as low as the $62 range in March of last year. Over the past 12 months, Nikes share price has declined by more than 11%, and over the past five years, the stocks price has collapsed by more than 50%. Since the new year began, NKE shares have risen about 2%.
Category:
E-Commerce
There’s a lot of noise in the crypto space. Price swings rile up the internet, new jargony terms pop up constantly, and the hype and haters can turn people off before they begin. But if you’re curious about where crypto is actually headed, here’s what’s worth paying attention to in 2026. Three key shifts are changing how everyday people interact with digital assets. None of them require you to have tech or financial expertise. And none of them require you to act right now. Think of this as a look at the horizon, so you can make informed choices when you’re ready. 1. ADOPTION IS PICKING UP, EVEN IF YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED At the beginning of 2025, our State of Crypto Holders Report found that one in five U.S. adults was using digital assets. And at the end of 2025, our Crypto Holiday Report found that nearly one in four had or were considering gifting crypto for the holidays, indicating that even more Americans had begun embracing digital assets. Crypto is increasingly going mainstream, even when that story doesnt show up in headlines. More often, it seems like small, practical changes: a coffee shop adding crypto as a payment option, a payroll service letting employees receive wages in crypto, or an artist selling work directly on a blockchain instead of through a gallery. Think about how mobile payments crept into everyday life. Nobody declared a “mobile wallet revolution.” It just became easier to tap your phone than dig for cash; eventually, we stopped noticing the change. Crypto is following a similar pattern. More people hold digital assets, more places accept them at the register, and the infrastructure to use it is simpler. Imagine your niece, fresh out of college, getting a percentage of her paycheck deposited directly into a digital wallet. Shes not obsessing over charts or trading daily; she’s just letting it sit there, just as past generations might have put money into savings bonds and forgotten about it. That’s what quiet adoption looks like. The tipping point might not feel dramatic when it arrives. It’ll feel normal. And that’s the point. 2. REAL-WORLD ASSETS ARE GOING DIGITAL Here’s where crypto starts becoming an even bigger part of our everyday lives. Tokenization is a way to digitally represent ownership of physical assets like property, art, or commodities. Instead of needingor being ableto buy an entire house as an investment, you can own a fraction of it. Say there’s a vacation home you’d love for an investment property, but its out of reach financially. With tokenization, you could buy just a slice of the place instead. You’d have a stake in the property and benefit if its value rises. But dont think of it like owning a second home. You’re not getting the keys to stay there whenever you want; you’re getting a piece of the upside. The more pieces you own, the greater that upside, and the more power you have to make decisions about property management. This gives you some key benefits of property ownership without the headaches like dealing with maintenance calls or property taxes on your own. Depending on how these opportunities are structured, different laws may apply. For example, securities laws may entitle you to receive certain legal disclosures before agreeing to anything. But for now, the point is about opportunity and access. A lot of people have been locked out of owning certain assets because the entry cost is too high. Tokenization chips away at that barrier, opening up opportunities to people who couldn’t participate before. 3. CRYPTO AND TRADITIONAL FINANCE ARE WORKING TOGETHER For years, the narrative around crypto and traditional finance was adversarial. Digital assets were positioned as a replacement for banks, cutting out the middleman entirely. But now, traditional financial institutions are starting to integrate crypto services into legacy systems, making things easier. If you want to dip your toes into digital assets but not abandon everything familiar, you don’t have to. Banks and crypto are figuring out how to work together, which means fewer either-or decisions for the rest of us. It’s like when streaming services started working with cable providers instead of trying to replace them. The transition got smoother and more people got on board. The same thing is happening with crypto and finance. Regulatory clarity is improving, trust is building, and the walls between “traditional” and “digital” are thinning. Picture your parents, who have banked at the same place for 30 years. They may not want to download a new app and figure out how it works on their own. But if their bank starts offering a simple way to hold crypto in an account they already trust, that changes things. They don’t have to learn a whole new system; they have a new option within one they already use. For people newer to all this, that’s genuinely helpful. You can start exploring without overhauling how you manage your money or learn new platforms all at once. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU? Are you on the fence or curious about crypto but unsure of where to start? This might be the year to learn more. Not because of hype and FOMO, but because the tools are better, the education more accessible, and there are more ways in. Crypto in 2026 is about quiet adoption, real-world assets going digital, and traditional finance finding common ground with digital assets. The tech isn’t going mainstream because of hype; it’s getting there through practical, unglamorous changes in how people actually use it. Stu Alderoty is president of the National Cryptocurrency Association.
Category:
E-Commerce
Before the age of technological distraction, we lived more in tune with our bodies. We spent more time outdoors where the sun regulated our circadian rhythms, which has been scientifically proven to reduce anxiety and depression. Without constant distraction, people sat in their boredom, which became drivers of artistic endeavors, creative ideas, and human connection. But how many of us can remember the last time we were truly bored?Drove without music, or sat in a coffee shop simply looking out the window? Today, our digital devices have optimized our lives to the point of exhaustion. In pursuit of a frictionless experience, technology has eradicated the natural pauses that once grounded us in our bodies and environments. Yet research shows that taking breaks throughout the day is critical for restoring energy, improving focus, and inspiring creativity. THE MYTH ABOUT OPTIMIZATION We currently subscribe to the myth that if everything is efficient and optimized, our lives will feel easy and pain-free. We can order just about anything with the press of a button, or access infinite entertainment to fill every idle moment. Machines clean our clothes, dishes, and soon, well be able to offload daily chores to household robots. At work, we can use AI to automate tedious tasks or avoid the sometimes painful stuckness of thinking. Everything around us is designed to feel effortless, yet somehow it feels anything but. For decades, businesses have equated technological progress with the most optimized path. In many ways weve arrived, yet were more unhappy than ever. Since 2005, the depression and anxiety among young people has increased by 63%, due, in part, to greater levels of social media engagement, academic stress, and economic stress. Most of us know this experience firsthand: We get lost in a social media or news feed, only to emerge an hour later, disembodied, losing the throughline of the initial query. Or we pick up a phone reflexively, even if theres nothing pressing to do or see. Research shows that overuse of smartphones can make us more in touch with our screens and less in touch with our bodies. This has only been exacerbated as platforms have shifted away from user autonomy and toward extractive profit models. As journalist and coiner of the term enshittification, Cory Doctorow wrote in a story for Wired, Technological self-determination is at odds with the natural imperatives of tech businesses. They make more money when they take away our freedomour freedom to speak, to leave, to connect. In response, a growing movement of young people has begun leaving social media platforms, even ditching their cell phones altogether. In a New York Times story featuring Luddite teens, one teen was quoted as saying, things instantly changed. I started using my brain. It made me observe myself as a person, after trading their smartphone for a flip phone. Their goal isnt for everyone to get a flip phone, but to inspire people to reflect on their relationships with technology. DESIGN THAT GIVES USERS CONTROL With AI embedded into our devices and digital platforms, the tension between user autonomy and technological progress is growing. Our tools are evolving to anticipate our habits and desires, often outside of cognitive awareness. Now is our opportunity to step back and determine what we want technology to do for us, and what we want to do for ourselves. For designers, its about questioning how we might create products and experiences that restore control to the user over their time and attention. Only when we begin designing for moments of pause, can we begin to address our fundamental human needs. In the same way handwriting can slow your thoughts, dumb phones force users to pause and contemplate their next moves and interactions. Light Phone and Mudita are examples of a design philosophy that give control back to the user. Instead of the typical smartphone that commodifies your attention, dumb phones are designed as a tool to be used, giving users the ability to customize the apps loaded onto the device. These phones are not for everyone. The experience is intentionally slow and far from seamless. The friction is a forcing mechanism for users to pause. Like handwriting, resonant breathing has been proven to improve heart rate variability, a metric that can indicate wellbeing and mood. Devices intentionally designed with minimal features, like Ohm, help users slow down and reconnect to their bodys signals through breathwork. On the creative side, publishing platforms like Substack and Inoreader allow users to choose who they read and subscribe to. These intentionally designed platforms allow users to build their own news feeds and maximize their time rather than being fed content based on algorithms. FINAL THOUGHTS We may have different aspirations for our relationships with technology, but we should all feel autonomous in choosing them. Questioning the never-ending optimization is the first step to determining what we want our collective future to look like. For designers, its about not assuming the maximum, most feature-rich experience, but about distilling a product to its essential utility and allowing people to form their own relationship to it. Designing for natural pauses allows us all to feel a little more present and in tune with our core needs, and how to address them. So perhaps the next wave of technology isnt about doing everything for us, but instead about giving us back the space to choose. Dan Harden is the founder and CEO of Whipsaw.
Category:
E-Commerce
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