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I just got back from a week on the beach. The water was crystal clear, the sky blue, and my butt was in a lounge chair all day. I certainly enjoyed myself and caught up on a ton of sleep. But did I return to work today bursting with ideas and fresh energy? If Im honest, not really. It feels more like I left my brain sunning itself on the seaside. Meanwhile, I need to dig myself out from under a mountain of work and complete my massive back-to-school to-do list. Where did I go wrong in my vacation planning? If I was looking to maximize floating time and the amount of tasty fish I ate, nowhere. But according to psychology, as much as I enjoyed my break, I also fell prey to one of the most common vacation myths. Like many people, I assumed that sloth is the most effective way to unwind and refresh. I would have been better off if I had swapped my swimsuit for a skillcation instead. Whats a skillcation? First, whats a skillcation? Exactly what it sounds likea vacation dedicated to either learning a new skill or improving an existing one. This could range from a low-key guided birdwatching getaway or a sweaty boot camp to a week of cooking classes in a bucolic setting. Consulting agency Future Partners has found that 39% of travelers are drawn to such trips, Thrillist reports. HuffPost claims skillcations are a trend thats gaining popularity. Ben Martin, of hospitality strategy firm HKS, told HuffPost that learning-focused travel satisfies a desire for personal growth and cultural engagement. And indeed one way to look at the skillcation trend is as yet another way the productivity and personal growth-focused ethos of work life is seeping into our off-hours. But theres another, more positive way to look at the rising interest in holidays that promise to teach you to learn to knit or sail or identify songbirds. Science suggests this type of travel actually satisfies a deep psychological need. This ultimately leaves us more refreshed than bobbing in the sea for a week. The psychological benefits of skillcations With the world and the economy feeling precarious these days, just about all of us are stressed. Recently, best-selling author Adam Grant had fellow psychologist Sabine Sonnentag of the University of Mannheim in Germany on his podcast Worklife to discuss the best way to reset and truly refresh our brains. When we feel like were low on energy and inspiration, its natural enough to think you need rest, Sonnentag explained. Relaxation is what many people think when they think of recovery, unwinding, maybe doing nothing. Just relaxing. And so in terms of more physiological processes, it means a low sympathetic activation. So, lower blood pressure, lower heart rate, she said. There is certainly nothing wrong with a little rest. Some is, of course, essential for health and happiness. But that is not the only avenue to becoming recovered, Sonnentag stresses. What often works better than rest to leave us feeling psychologically refreshed? Something called mastery experiences. These are activities that are challenging. So for instance, learning a new language or having a hobby that really asks to step outside ones comfort zone, Sonnentag says. Things exactly like what you experience on a skillcation, in other words. Why mastery experiences are so refreshing Signing up for a skillcation might help you improve your pickleball game or Italian cooking skills. But it will also get you physically moving and push your boundaries. Together that is likely to promote a deeper sense of refreshment for a number of reasons that Grant and Sonnentag explore together. Getting physically tired and then sleeping soundly after is often more physically restful than fitfully snoozing between reapplications of sunscreen. Its also likely to more thoroughly distract you from whatever is stressing you out in your life. You cant fret about work while youre learning to rock climb. But you can as you go through the pages of a trashy beach read. (My personal experience affirms this is true.) But perhaps more important, mastery experiences remind us just how resilient and capable we are. You take a suntan back from your average beach vacation. You return from a skillcation armed with a sense of achievement and competence. Which is more likely to give you greater energy and clarity when you get back home? Learn your way to real relaxation As time use expert and author Laura Vanderkam wrote in her book What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend: Other kinds of workbe it exercise, a creative hobby, hands-on parenting, or volunteeringwill do more to preserve your zest for Mondays challenges than complete vegetation. Whats true of weekends, its true of vacations, too. Far be it for me to say you shouldnt visit a tropical paradise for your next vacation if thats what you want to do. Ill always want some beach time in my life, personally. But if supposedly restful vacations somehow havent been leaving you feeling rested, maybe its time to try something different. A skillcation might be just what your brain needs to feel focused and fired up again. Jessica Stillman This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
The workplace AI narrative has been dominated by fears of human replacement. But forward-thinking leaders are discovering AI’s real power: helping employees become more human, not less. Shifting from workplaces of human doings to a collective of activated human beings. And while AI can absolutely help eliminate busywork, opening employees time for more impactful work and meaningful progress, its impact can go far beyond productivity. In fact, having studied power shifts in modern workplaces for many years, I think the companies that will thrive moving forward will focus more on using these tools to improve employee well-being. Smart leaders should approach AI implementation through what I call “human-first integration”using technology to restore conditions where people can do their best thinking, creating, and collaborating. Here are a few use cases you might not have thought of for AI that can help your employees feel more supported in work and life. 1. Make it easier to understand benefits AI can create “invisible support systems” that proactively connect employees with resources without navigating complex HR systems or overcoming the stigma of asking for help. Most employees leave thousands of dollars in wellness stipends, EAP services, and professional development funds unused simply because they don’t understand what qualifies or how to access them. AI is great at analyzing individual situations (e.g., project stress, family circumstances mentioned in calendar entries, or expressed career goals) and suggesting relevant solutions with eligibility and application guidance. A custom GPT can be built, either in-house or via an AI consultant, by uploading a companys benefits guides, policies, and FAQs into an organizations private OpenAI workspace, where access can be limited to employees only. By giving the GPT simple instructions like Answer employee questions about benefits in plain language, the tool becomes an easy, secure way for staff to get clear and consistent answers about their benefits. 2. Create safe reporting for workplace harm Traditional HR reporting makes employees navigate complex hierarchies and risk retaliation. AI-powered anonymous reporting systems can collect detailed incident information, identify patterns across reports, and route concerns to appropriate parties while protecting reporter identity. For example, AllVoices is an AI-fueled employee relations platform that offers an employee relations copilot, a whistleblower hotline and an anonymous reporting tool to build trust and safety while also encouraging a culture of speaking up when something is wrong. The beauty is the AI is customized to the organizations systems, processes, and needs then it gathers anonymous incident information, can guide employees through the submission process and offer supportive resources, but doesnt make decisions that stays within human control. 3. Establish low-risk feedback loops Implement micro-feedback through check-ins triggered by specific events like meetings, high-stress phases, or team restructuring. This enables real-time pattern recognition and intervention before problems escalate. In my work coaching teams, I’ve seen how powerful this intentional ongoing approach can be as it shifts behavior from dreading the heavy annual review grading system to small lift, routine experiences of being heard and valued. I gather insights from individual coaching sessions and share aggregated themes with leadership, protecting individual privacy while surfacing patterns to help address systemic challenges before they become widespread problems. While AI wont be able to reach the same level of depth and nuance as live coaching with a human would, the ability to automate checkpoints that are incorporated in larger team strategy will build trust and reduce fear of experience sharing. Try leveraging engagement platforms like CultureAmp that use AI to facilitate a continuous feedback loop by automating the delivery of pulse surveys (short, focused check-ins that can be triggered by specific events), providing real-time sentiment and theme analysis of the results, and recommending next steps. 4. Act on early warning signs for interpersonal conflict AI can analyze communication patterns and misunderstandings before tension becomes destructive. It can suggest resolution approaches, connect people with mediation resources, and track effectiveness. Most importantly, AIs ability to identify and interrupt microaggressions can help recipients validate perceptions and educate those causing unintentional harm. Opre is an AI-driven platform that uses meeting notes and other ongoing communications to provide professional development recommendations and recognize friction points. WorkHuman offers an Inclusive Advisor feature that identifies and mitigates unconscious bias in real-time. 5. Support self-discovery and team understanding I often guide clients through what I call mesearch, a process of identifying a personalized leadership profile through assessments and reflection that equips them with language to describe their authentic leadership style. Now, imagine an AI platform extending this process across an entire team, enabling people not only to articulate their strengths but also to understand and align with those of their colleagues, while intelligently matching roles in complex situations so energy and efforts are optimized to meet challenges successfully. For instance, if your team has taken assessments like the Clifton Strengths, DISC, Myers-Briggs, Predictive Index or HBDI, you can prompt your AI platform to take the assessment findings of each team member and identify where your team is likely to collectively shine. Think: Who will work best together in various scenarios, where strengths overlap and potential gaps may be, and where their diverse perspectives will benefit an initiative. This is great for staffing projects, assigning mentors, and for intentional hiring decisions to build a robust, resilient team. Machines Supporting Humans Organizations thriving in the coming decade won’t use AI most extensively, but most intentionally. This requires leaders who understand technology is only as powerful as the human systems it supports. As a mixed-race, millennial woman who has navigated predominantly white, male-dominated industries, I’ve seen how traditional power structures prioritize performance over people. AI gives us a chance to build workplaces that amplify human potential rather tha exploit it. According to McKinsey & Co, over the next three years, 92% of companies plan to increase their AI investments. Gen AI is already here, its up to leaders to embrace this paradigm shifting opportunity effectively. The future isn’t humans versus machinesit’s humans plus machines, creating conditions where people can think, create, and connect in ways that drive both individual fulfillment and organizational success.
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E-Commerce
For decades now, Google has been the unquestioned champion of searchour digital oracle, the first and last stop for every question, from “What’s the best pizza place near me?” to “How many protons are in a carbon atom?” But heres the key difference now: while Google has started to incorporate AI with features like AI Overviews and the new AI Mode, a traditional keyword search is great for finding facts, but not so great at understanding context. It’s like asking a librarian for a book on “dogs” and expecting them to know you really want to know how to train a puppy. You might get a whole library, but you still have to find the right book yourself. That’s where dedicated AI-powered search, whether a self-contained tool like Perplexity or Google’s own conversational AI interface, truly shines. It doesn’t just look for keywords; it understands your intent. It can be a genuine time-saver, and in some cases, it’s just plain better than scrolling through a list of blue links. Here are five times when using an AI to search will give you a better answer than Google. Answers to subjective questions A traditional search engine is fantastic for finding facts, but it falls short when you’re looking for an answer that isn’t black and white. For example, if you Google “best workout routine for a beginner,” you’ll get a list of articles, but you’ll have to read through them to find the one that fits your specific needs. It’s a lot of scrolling and sorting through different opinions. With an AI, you can ask a much more nuanced question, such as: “What’s the best workout routine for a beginner who wants to build strength but has joint pain and a limited amount of time?” The AI can then synthesize information from multiple sources and provide a tailored response that takes all your constraints into account, giving you a comprehensive plan rather than a list of articles to sift through. Explaining complex topics We’ve all been there: you need to explain a complex topic, but the standard online explanations are full of jargon you don’t understand. Or maybe you’re trying to explain a technical concept to a colleague who isn’t as familiar with the subject. Ask an AI to “explain [the concept] in plain English for someone with no background in [the field].” It can take dense, confusing information and distill it into something simple and digestible. You can even ask it to “use a relatable analogy” to make the concept stick. It’s like having a personal tutor who’s always on call. Preparing for meetings and interviews You have an important call with a potential client or a new partner, and you want to go in prepared but digging through their company’s website, recent press releases, and social media feeds for relevant background info is a serious time sink. A simple Google search will give you a bunch of links, but you’ll have to do all the reading yourself. Prompt an AI with something like: “Help me prepare for a call with [Customer Name]. Summarize the top three news stories from the past six months and highlight anything relevant to their business goals.” This gives you a quick, digestible cheat sheet so you can sound informed and confident without spending hours on a deep dive. Kick-starting creative projects Starting from scratch is one of the hardest parts of any creative endeavor. You have to write an outline for a presentation, a script for a video, or even just the agenda for a team meeting, and the blank page feels intimidating. A Google search might give you “presentation outline templates,” but you’ll still have to fill in all the details yourself. Instead, ask an AI to give you a head start. Use a prompt like: “Create a 10-slide outline for a presentation about [topic] for a [target audience], and include a proposed title for each slide.” The AI can give you a solid scaffolding structure to build on, saving you the initial struggle and giving you a foundation to refine and customize. Learning new skills quickly Let’s say you’ve got a new software tool you need to learn for a project, or you’re trying to figure out how to do something you’ve never done before, such as setting up a home server. A traditional search will give you a mix of official documentation, video tutorials, and forum postsall of which you have to piece together yourself. An AI can act kind of like a personal coach. You can ask: “Give me a step-by-step tutorial for setting up a home server, assuming I have no prior experience with networking.” The AI can lay out the process in a clear, linear fashion, and if you get stuck, you can ask follow-up questions for clarification, like “What does ‘port forwarding’ mean in simple terms?” Its a truly interactive and personalized learning experience.
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E-Commerce
You need to think more strategically; you need to be more strategic! Its one of the most common, but least helpful, pieces of feedback professionals receive. It sounds smart, it sounds wise, it also sounds important. But ask people what it actually means, including those who are proffering this advice, and youll likely get many different answers. Ive spent more than two decades working with leaders, entrepreneurs, and teams around the world to help them become more strategic in how they think, act and make decisions. Along the way, Ive seen the same frustration crop up over and over again: people know strategy matters but dont know how to do it. The good news? Strategyand being strategicisnt a mysterious skill reserved for those sitting around the boardroom or graduating from business school. Its a learnable set of practices that anyone can develop and apply to have more impact, both in their work and in their lives more broadly. Strategy isnt a documentits a mindset Many picture strategy as a dense presentation or abstract five-year plan. At its core, though, strategy is about making meaningful choices. It requires zooming out to see different perspectives, managing complexity and uncertainty, deciding what matters most, and aligning actions accordingly. Strategy is both a skill and a mindseta lens and a habit. Its a way of scanning your environment with curiosity, noticing what you seeand dont seeand choosing where to focus limited time, energy, and resources. Three myths of strategy Myth 1: Strategy is for senior leaders only Many scaling the career ladder will put off learning about strategy until theyre at the top. By then, its often too late. You will get passed up on that promotion or job offer, or you will quickly come unstuck when tasked with “developing the strategy for market X and service Y.” The earlier you develop your strategic muscles, the more choices youll have, the better the decisions youll make and greater impact youll have. Myth 2: Strategy requires a genius IQ Many of the most strategically effective people Ive worked with arent the most qualified, or necessarily the most academically accomplished. Instead, theyre curious, they listen deeply, and they are genuinely collaborative. They spot opportunities and connect dots others dont see. Rather than IQ points, strategy is about awareness, asking questions to foster more informed responses, connecting intentions to outcomes, making meaningful choicesand practice. Myth 3: Strategy is about predicting the future Its tempting to think that great strategy is about making accurate predictions and perfect forecasts. In reality, its about navigating uncertainty. Its learning how to make robust decisions and committing to action even when the path ahead is foggyor worse. So what does being strategic actually look like? Heres what Ive learned from thousands of conversations across my career: being strategic is about three intertwined disciplines and their related habits: awareness, curiosity, and intentionality. Awareness: Understand your context. Who are the stakeholders? Whats changing, and how quickly? Where are the hidden pressures and opportunities? Curiosity: Dont just accept the first answer or the obvious explanation. Probe. Challenge. Listen carefully. Invite feedback. Connect ideas across boundaries. Intentionality: Make clear, meaningful choices. Set priorities. Decide not only what to do but also what not to doand commit. These habits dont just apply to leadership roles. They apply to your own career decisions, your relationships, and even your personal goals. Why being strategic matters for your well-being Theres another reason to master strategy: it reduces overwhelm. In a world of endless notifications, shifting priorities, and constant change, its easy to stay in a near constant reactive mode. Being strategic gives you back a sense of agency. When you think strategically, you stop confusing activity with impact. You say no more often. Youre comfortable with ambiguity, and youre OK not having all the answers. This isnt just good for business, its good for your health and well-being. How to start being more strategic today Here are three simple things you can do this week to build your strategic muscle: Zoom out before you zoom in. Before your next meeting or decision, take five minutes to sketch the bigger picture: Whats really at stake? Who wins and who loses? What are the potential consequences? Whats the longer-term impact? Ask better questions. Instead of What should we do? try reframing the situation: What problem are we really trying to solve? What would success look like in 12 monthsand how would we measure it? What assumptions are we making, and what if theyre wrong? What if we do nothing? Block thinking time. Schedule a recurring appointment with yourself, even just 2030 minutes, to reflect, scan for patterns, and where necessary, reprioritize. Treat it like an immovable meeting with your future self. These small shifts compound. Over time, youll notice youre less reactive, clearer and more confident, and better able to influence outcomes. People will start to seek your perspective not just on the task at hand but on the more strategic, longer-term issues and opportunities. Strategy decodedfor everyone Strategy, decoded, is simply this: the skill of making better choices under uncertaintychoices that align with your goals, your values (and those of your team and organization), and the impact you want to have. Its a set of skills and mindsets anyone can learn and develop, at any stage of their career. And once you start practicing it, youll see the benefits everywhereat work, at home, and in your own sense of clarity, control, and confidence. My invitation to you is simple: treat “being strategic” as a daily practice, not a distant aspiration or a skill reserved for other people. Start with self-awareness, curiosity, and intentionality. Because strategy isnt a secret. Its a way of showing up in the worldand its available to you today.
Category:
E-Commerce
David Temkin was driving south from San Francisco, down Highway 101, as billboard after billboard pitched AI in variations of dense word salad. One ad marketed automated testing compliance done without command shift. Another promised safer schools with instant visitors screening. All of them marketed tech companies, but to whom and for what was obscureeven for tech insiders like Temkin. It is absolutely absurd, Temkin tells Fast Company. “Some of these are absolutely impenetrable. Like, what are they even talking about? It makes me wonder what the intention is. The Silicon Valley veteran has lived through plenty of change, watching firsthand as the tech world evolved from a niche for nerds into a cultural force with global influence both online and offline. Since arriving in the 1990s as a young software engineer, hes founded several startups and worked within established tech players like Apple, Google, and AOL. Temkin is refreshingly self-aware about the industry hes helped build. Hes also the cofounder of In Formation, a satirical print magazine about Silicon Valleys self-importance, which published its first two issues in 1998 and 2000. Now, a quarter-century later, its back with a familiar tone but an updated set of ideas about everything from data privacy and artificial intelligence to biotech. “We were looking at this and realized it just absolutely needed to be mocked, scrutinized, and kind of looked at in a sideways manner, he says. My own thinking was this is both actually hilarious and kind of slightly ominous at the same time.” The third issue, published in August, has 150 pages of articles, essays, comics, jokes, and even fake ads. The magazine recently expanded distribution via a new deal with Barnes & Noble, selling for around $20 in more than 500 stores across the country. In Formations tagline still reads like an evergreen epigram on the dark side of innovation: Every day, computers are making people easier to use. In the late 90s, it was a clever twist on Silicon Valleys UX obsession. Now, it feels eerily prescient, anticipating two decades of how digital design has shaped attention, beliefs, and behaviorfrom social media to todays era of AI. Full circle The new nationwide bookstore rollout also represents something of a full-circle moment. In 1999, In Formations first issue was pulled from CompUSA’s shelves for reportedly failing to fit with the now-defunct retailers corporate image,” according to a Wired magazine article from the dot-com era.Tech has changed a lot since the 1990s. Back then, the industry was still a niche space for a “bunch of geeks making a bunch of products they hoped would succeed. At the time, tech reporting was still relatively scant. The first two issues of In Formation turned out to be alarmingly accurateincluding articles about internet cookies and tracking cellphones and browsers, and a 2000 piece joking about future cashless societies. Now, the question is, how true will this third issue ring in another 25 years. “We’re in a moment where tech is promising to change the deepest aspects of both what it means to be human and what is real,” Temkin says. The magazine itself is split into four themed sections. The Panopticon covers various aspects of data privacy, content moderation, and tech regulations. Peak Valley provides cultural commentarysuch as a piece about the evolution of tech bro fashion, Silicon Valley culture like crypto and biohacking, AI copyright debates, and even a lengthy short story comic. “Apocalypse Now-ish” delves into the existential angst of AI, such as hallucinations, consciousness, and AI-enabled healthcare. And “Receding Reality” explores the blurring reality between the digital and physical worldincluding the impact of the iPhone, AI rom-coms, and social media addiction. (Not) drinking the Kool-Aid Instead of selling ad space, In Formation filled its pages with parodies. An early page resembles the ubiquitous cookie-consent banner. One ad is for a smart speaker called The Problematic, which looks like an Amazon Echo and corrects problematic language.” Another ad for Voyeur Vehicle Analytic Service appears adjacent to an article by a privacy expert detailing what he learned about all the data Toyota reportedly collects from his car. Another fake ad is for a CVS-branded Self-Censorship Test Kit. The only real ad is for Espoln, a tequila brand, which appears on the back cover. The ads were designed by Brian Maggi, a user-interface designer who worked on 90s-era Apple products like the original iMac and Newton during the Steve Jobs era. Maggi said humor helps people see whats wrong with parts of tech in a fresh way. It might be good to know, too, that there are some of us on the inside that aren’t drinking the Kool-Aid, says Maggi, who has co-founded several startups, adding that the magazine is also full of Easter eggs for insiders. The print magazines design was influenced by digital UX pattern principles, patterns, and methods usually applied to organizing content in mobile appssuch as flow, discovery, and dwell time. Josh Kleiner, who led design for the issue, says the team wanted readers to get lost in the print magazine and be able to flip through it easily. They also added other quirks of digital design, like tracking sections based on the numbers of pages and words per page. The joke was that we were doing such clean grids, you could code on them. And then we just messed with them, Kleiner says. We kept things weird, doing things you wouldn’t traditionally do in print, like overlapping text and images in a certain way. Despite the projects tech-savvy staff, Temkin and others say the project, which started in 2023, didnt use generative AI as much as one might expectother than for some help editing or tweaking some of the images. One of the few instances of AI-generated text includes blurbs about the magazine from ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, after Temkin uploaded the magazine and instructed each chatbot to “create a smackdown in the form of a tweet.” A frictionless world Over the past 25 years, Temkin argues Silicon Valley’s mission has been overachieved to the point where technology has become so frictionless that it’s now addictive. While he notes that there are plenty of ways tech is helping people, he said today’s landscape presents a different kind of inflection point. He also notes that writing about tech’s harms is far too often either done in an “unsophisticated or reflexive way” or focused on AI’s “corporate horse race.” One of the new writers for the issue is Jon Callas, a renowned cryptographer and privacy advocate who has led security efforts at Apple, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and elsewhere. Callas, who wrote a piece about data privacy 25 years after the last issue, doesnt think the future of tech will be as good as people claim, but also not as bad as some think. “It’s difficult to have a real conversation about whether or not something is good or bad based upon either extreme,” he says. “It really is like the old saying about averageswhere if you have one foot in a bucket of boiling water and one foot in a bucket of ice water, on average you’re comfortable.
Category:
E-Commerce
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