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One of the more frustrating classes I took in college in the 1980s was a computer science course on data structures and algorithms. In that class, we learned about a variety of approaches to solving key problems in programming. For example, we learned several different ways to take a list of numbers given in an arbitrary order and to sort that list from smallest to largest. These approaches differed in their efficiency. What frustrated me about the class wasnt the algorithms themselvesthey were interesting. But we were never taught how anyone ever came up with those different approaches. What in the world would have gotten someone to even think of those things? Looking back on it, my frustration arose because the class wasnt teaching us how to imagine alternatives to what we already knew. Instead, it was just providing a series of alternatives that someone else had discovered. In fact, much of school involves learning things that someone else has discovered and then doing assignments in which you answer questions that the person asking the question already knows the answer to. Yet, most of what youre going to be asked to do for the rest of your career involves answering new questions that the person asking doesnt already know how to answer (and perhaps nobody has a satisfactory answer to yet). Imagining alternatives to current reality is not something you are likely to do well unless you practice it. If you feel like you need more practice being imaginative, here are a few things you can do to improve. Consider the scenario Bear in mind that all of the things you imagine are rooted in things you know already. In classic studies, people were asked to draw imaginary creatures from another planet. These creatures all tended to have the same structure, appendages, and sense organs as existing creatures. So, if youre trying to imagine a new alternative, youre going to call an existing scenario to mind. If you arent happy with the outcome of your imagination, try thinking of another scenario to use as a basis for your imagined situation. Think first about the outcome There is a tendency to focus on situations you know about when trying to imagine the future. Instead, focus on the solution or outcome you want to achieve, because that might call other things to mind. If you are trying to imagine modes of transportation in the future, rather than thinking about cars or trains, just focus on how a person could start at one place and end up at their desired location. That might lead to a different approach to imagining the future. Add constraints Try to constrain your imagination. People often think that constraints make them less creative. Studies suggest, though, that without constraints, you often imagine world that is quite similar to the world you know. When you put a lot of constraints on your imagination, most of the initial things you think of violate those constraints, so you have to keep working at it. You may fail to find anything that fits the constraints you set, but when you do, it is probably going to be pretty creative. Devote time to practicing You should also practice trying to imagine thingseven when you dont need to. Give yourself an assignment to imagine a solution to a problem you see, to come up with a plot for a story, or to develop a business idea. This practice will make you more comfortable using your imagination in situations where the idea you generate has implications for your job success. Ultimately, remember that imagination is a skill that can be improved with practice. Because your education probably did not prepare you to be particularly imaginative, youre going to have to work on it on your own. While it would have been nice to get more practice imagining in school, it is never too late to work on those skills.
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E-Commerce
An Elon Musk superfan (or a master of satire) has released a music video filmed on the back of a Tesla Cybertruckand its just as wild as you might imagine. Alessandra Basher, a self-described stay-at-home mom with dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian, posted the video on Sunday to her 56,867 followers on X. She explained that she felt compelled to write the song in response to the nonsense hate Musk has received for his role in dismantling federal agencies under the Trump administration. We thank you, Elon Musk. pic.twitter.com/6JwIgyB8Jy— Alessandra Basher All in Tesla Humor (@alessandrajokes) March 24, 2025 Singing into a mic stand on the back of a Cybertruck, wearing a cowboy hat and a Dogefather T-shirt emblazoned with Musks face, Basher belts out the lyrics: SpaceX flies / Tesla self-drives / Starlink beams with laser dreams / hes got a master plan for our lives. Interspersed with clips of Musk speaking at Trump rallies, the song also credits the billionaire with eliminating woke pain and ensuring humanitys future by making kids to keep mankind alive. Other lines include: One more kid, one more brand, launching rockets with just one hand. Its hard to believe someone would unironically post a music video titled “We Thank You, Elon Musk” shot in and on a Cybertruckbut thats exactly the debate raging online. Launching rockets with one hand is either the most subtle, nearly undetectable satire, or an unintentional burn, one Bluesky user noted. I had a real moment of doubt at the line about more kids, more brands or whatever, but I’m still thinking its sincere, another user added. After facing backlash from Tesla haters who questioned whether this was a leaked audition video from a woman hoping to bear Elons 53rd child, Basher fired back in a follow-up post: “Im not trying to have a baby with Elon,” she wrote on X. “I’m just having fun creating and performing a song to say thanks for what he did and is doing for this country and the world.” While Musk himself has yet to respond, the reception on X was notably warmer than on Bluesky. “Alessandra, you are a star. That is fantastically good. Superbly done. On point and uplifting. Terrific!” one user gushed. Another Musk fan added, “I now listen to it every time I drive my CT. Thank you again.”
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E-Commerce
The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Imagine a world where marketing managers oversee AI copywriters, sales leaders direct AI-powered CRM systems, and engineers supervise code-generating agents. This is already starting to happen. By 2030, AI is projected to displace 92 million jobs while creating 170 million new ones, according to the World Economic Forum. Rather than replacing humans, AI is redefining their roles. In the near future, individual contributors will transition into AI managers who orchestrate workflows between human creativity and machine efficiency. Instead of coding or other technical skills, the most sought-after skill of tomorrow will be the ability to manage AI systems and teams of AI agents effectively. The key to surviving this shift? AI literacy. The AI literacy divide: Beyond hype to practical mastery A recent study from Deloitte found that only 20% of leaders feel the talent at their organizations is prepared to deploy AI successfully. Many assume AI integration requires hiring armies of machine learning engineers. This misconception is as outdated as believing every company needs a team of electrical engineers to use lightbulbs. AI is infrastructure, not magic. You dont need to understand AI transformer architectures any more than you need to grasp TCP/IP protocols to send an email. The problem for most organizations is simply that employees dont know how to leverage AI tools effectively. The challenge for leaders today, then, lies in bridging the gap between awareness and applied proficiency. The three pillars of AI literacy The good news is that anyone can learn AI literacy. Todays business leaders can start by building their teams, and their own skills in three core areas of AI literacy: understanding what AI can do, improving prompting skills, and managing AIs limitations. 1. Generative AI awareness AI evolves faster than human intuition. Six months ago, ChatGPT couldnt generate realistic images (remember the people with tiny teeth?). Today, tools like Midjourney v6 produce photorealistic outputs indistinguishable from human-created content. 2. AI prompting proficiency Effective AI use requires structured prompts. For example, I use a 5C prompting framework: clarity, contextualization, command, chaining, and continuous refinement. Clarity: Start with a clear and specific task for the AI agent. A marketer might start with, generate 10 search ads for an online learning solution. Context: Then, share relevant context. Continuing the example above, the marketer might add details about their company, define the audience for the ad, and state the goals of the ad campaign. Command: Here, I specify what the output should look like. The marketer might include, format the 10 search ads in a table, including relevant SEO keywords as an additional column. Limit each ad to 100 characters. Chaining: This is also known as chain of thought prompting. Spell out the specific tasks youd like the AI agent to complete and in what order. The marketer might say, Start by reviewing recent ads from X, Y, and Z learning companies. Continuous refinement: The final step will depend on the output from the AI agent. Its up to you, the human, to review the output and ask for revisions from your AI agent as needed. 3. Manage limitations AI hallucination rates hover around 3% for top modelsa small percentage, but one that can have huge impacts. Human oversight of AI outputs is critical. When an AI-generated legal brief cited non-existent cases a few years ago, it wasnt the tool that failed; it was the human who skipped verification. Build an AI-literate organization For hiring managers and business leaders, an easy place to start is by embedding AI literacy into job descriptions. For example: In the 1990s, just about every job that involved computers asked for Excel proficiency. Soon, AI workflow design will define many of tomorrows roles. To get your teams ready for this shift, prioritize hands-on AI training at your company. Reading about AI is like learning to swim from a book. Eventually, you need to dive in to gain mastery of the tools. This doesnt mean that soft skills no longer matterin fact its quite the opposite. Leaders should be helping their teams refine the human skills that will matter most in the near future. A few of these include strategic decision making, to ensure AI agents are carrying out the right tasks to meet business goals, and empathetic communication to lead, inspire, and collaborate effectively with other humans. AI as an amplifier of human potential History shows that rather than eliminating the need for human skills, technological revolutions amplify it. While the printing press reduced demand for scribes, it also created publishers, journalists, and educatorsand ultimately, led to increased rates of literacy across the globe. Similarly, rather than replace humans, AI will empower those who master it to achieve new levels of productivity and innovation. The most successful organizations will be those that view AI not as a threat, but as a force multiplier. By investing in AI literacy today, business leaders are doing more than future-proofing their workforce; theyre unlocking human potential to solve problems once deemed impossible. The question isnt whether AI will change peoples jobs. Its whether youll be the one wielding itor watching from the sidelines. Tigran Sloyan is cofounder and CEO of CodeSignal.
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