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A few years ago, I met a woman at a networking event who whispered her confession over a plastic cup of chardonnay: I love my job. Im proud of what Ive built. But every time I miss a school play or forget to sign a field trip form, I feel like I failed them. She didnt say who them referred to. Perhaps her kids, society, herself. Maybe all three. That moment stuck with me because it symbolized the tension so many ambitious parents live with every day: The drive to achieve versus the guilt that comes from not always being present for our family. And lets be clear, this isnt just a working mom issue. Dads feel it. Stay-at-home parents with side hustles or passion projects feel it. Anyone who wants something outside of parenthoodwhether its a promotion, a creative dream, or even just a regular workout routineknows that familiar battle between showing up for yourself and showing up for your kids. Where does the guilt come from? Lets start with the root of this guilt. For many of us, especially women, ambition and parenting, have long been thought of as rival (if not warring) priorities. A parent who is all-in at work is assumed to be checked out at home. The culture tells us you cant be fully present in both places. And if you try, be prepared to be stretched thinner than a toddlers patience in a long checkout line. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2015\/08\/erikaaslogo.png","headline":"Girl, Listen: A Guide to What Really Matters","description":"Ericka dives into the heat of modern motherhood, challenging the notion that personal identity must be sacrificed at the altar of parenting. ","substackDomain":"https:\/\/erickasouter.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} Social media certainly doesnt help. While were eating chips over our laptops, we scroll past moms packing bento box lunches with star-shaped cucumbers and love notes. We see dads coaching every Saturday soccer game while were FaceTiming from a hotel room on yet another work trip. The comparison game is brutal. Yet, guilt doesnt only come from comparing ourselves to the parents who treat lunch prep like a Top Chef challenge. It hits because we care. Ambitious parents arent just chasing promotions, were also chasing snuggles, bedtime stories, and the sense that were nailing this whole being a present parent thing. So if we fall short, it feels like a dagger to the heart. Is it possible to be ambitious and a great parent? The short answer is yes. But not without first redefining what great really looks like. Being a good parent isnt about being there for every single moment. Its about being there for the ones that matter most. You can miss the bake sale and still raise a kid that feels cared for and secure. What children need more than perfection is a realistic role model. They need to see what it looks like to pursue a dream, have challenges, set boundaries, and show up for the people you love. When its rooted in purpose, ambition teaches kids resilience, how to manage their time and what it looks like to care deeply about something. That doesnt mean we should be so focused on the next achievement that we miss whats happening right in front of us. The key is staying in syncpursuing your goals without neglecting your childs needs . . . or your own. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2015\/08\/erikaaslogo.png","headline":"Girl, Listen: A Guide to What Really Matters","description":"Ericka dives into the heat of modern motherhood, challenging the notion that personal identity must be sacrificed at the altar of parenting. ","substackDomain":"https:\/\/erickasouter.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
Ever since AI chatbots arrived, it feels as if the media has been on the losing end of a war of attrition. Chatbots are surging in popularity, and the more people use AI to get answers instead of search results, the fewer visits to the websites that provide those answers. Even Google, whose business model depends on monetizing search, is pushing deeper into AI, and industry data shows AI bots are flourishing. However, actions have a habit of inspiring reactions. Lawsuits are mounting as more media companies take on the AI giants over copyright, which may yet prove decisiverecent rulings notwithstanding. And publishers are increasing their website defenses against AI crawlers, blocking more of them than ever. And now we may have hit a tipping point: Cloudflare, a major internet infrastructure provider, has taken a stand in the conflict. In an announcement designed for maximum impact, the company said it would begin blocking AI scrapers by default on the websites it manages. If you’re a site operator on Cloudflare’s network, you will now need to actively allow AI bots to index your content. If you don’t, they get blocked. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/mediacopilot-logo-ss.png","headline":"Media CoPilot","description":"Want more about how AI is changing media? Never miss an update from Pete Pachal by signing up for Media CoPilot. To learn more visit mediacopilot.substack.com","substackDomain":"https:\/\/mediacopilot.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} Clout in the cloud Cloudflare manages about 20% of all internet traffic, so the implications of the move are significant. And so is the business opportunity: With the announcement, Cloudflare is also launching a marketplace for bot traffic. Instead of blocking AI bots completely, site owners will be able to charge them a fee for access via the new Pay Per Crawl programessentially a micropayment system. A few startups, such as TollBit and ScalePost, operate similar systems, but considering CloudFlare’s scale, it may have instantly become their biggest competitor. Cloudflare is a content delivery network (CDN), a crucial but largely invisible part of the internet to most users. A CDN will cache content to keep it closer to end users, generally speeding up web traffic. It runs many other related services, toothings like preventing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, enabling secure connections, and hosting websitesbut mostly it’s a middleman between website visitors and website servers, optimizing delivery and ensuring security. The way AI bots interact with websites is usually managed by each site’s Robots Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt), but it’s largely an honor system that depends on bots accurately identifying themselves and then following the rules, which they tend to liberally interpret. Cloudflare’s influence isn’t regulation per se, but it may give that standard some de facto teeth. The company claims it “identifies and distinguishes AI crawlers through its sophisticated bot detection system.” If that means Cloudflare can detect, trace, and perhaps even punish bad actors who ignore or bypass the protocol, it could mean the tides are turning. However, there is the nagging reality of the other 80% of the internet. Other CDN giants, such as Akamai, would need to get on board to really have an effect, but even that would only amount to about half of web activity. And large parts of the rest of the internet aren’t motivated to act: Google, Meta, and Microsoft operate much of the infrastructure that supports their massive, scalable businesses, and they’re all in the business of building AI models so they have an interest in maximizing AI crawler activity. Still, the pushback is real. Cloudflare’s announcement was deeply planned: the press release includes quotes from dozens of media executivesfrom Time to Dotdash Meredith and even content-based tech platforms like Quora. Although some in the group are media players who are suing AI companies, you get the sense that the others are using this moment to voice their own indignation at what they see as the wide-scale theft of the lifeblood of their industry. That indignation is fueling a new consensus, which is reflected in the many content licensing deals publishers have signed with AI companies over the past two years: that AI summarization should require some form of compensation. Monetizing the internet of bots The Cloudflare news gives publishers a more solid foundation to not just mount a defense against AI bots, but to build on that consensusto turn the rising robot activity into an opportunity. A comprehensive strategy around the growing “internet of bots” should include three elements: Block or introduce a toll for AI scraping: Identifying bots is conceptually straightforward, but has practical challenges because they multiply and sometimes mask what they are. Build for bots: Publishers should build a good user experience, and that goes for bots, tooas long as they pay to get in. They should have real-time access to simply presented, accurate information to fuel the best possible summaries, with correct citations. Build branded AI experiences: For the people who do come to your site, give them a reason to stay. Going back to ChatGPT for every query isn’t idealfor anyone. The third element is important because, while publishers are threatened by unscrupulous AI bots, they can’t deny that people still want to use them. AI answers remove friction andare changing expectations around searcheven site search. Publishers shouldn’t just acknowledge that, but take advantage of it to keep audiences on its own site. All of this depends on being able to separate bot traffic from human traffic. And if Cloudflare is indeed only the first CDN to make this move, there’s a hope that publishers won’t have to wait for a favorable court ruling or new regulations to get the teeth they need. However, there is still a role that the government can play. Cloudflare’s sophisticated bot detection would have an even greater effect if it were illegal for bots to hide their true nature and try to pass for humans. Such a rule would be simple and strongly encourage a fairer information ecosystem, one where publishers can start designing the right experiences for the right audiences. If the future of websites is to serve up the best experience to a bot, they should at least have clarity on what that is. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/mediacopilot-logo-ss.png","headline":"Media CoPilot","description":"Want more about how AI is changing media? Never miss an update from Pete Pachal by signing up for Media CoPilot. To learn more visit mediacopilot.substack.com","substackDomain":"https:\/\/mediacopilot.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
Aside from the obvious, one of the best parts of the work-from-home revolution is being able to outfit your workspace as you see fit. And if you spend your days squinting at a tiny laptop screen, yelling into a tin-can microphone, and wondering if your spine is going to make it into the next decade, youre doing it wrong. So take some of that money youre saving on your commute, coffee, lunch out, and post-work happy hours and redirect it toward some items thatll let you work more efficiently and more comfortably. These must-haves are absolutely, positively worth the extra dough. Here they are in order of most to least important. The best network you can cobble together For most office-goers, the workday is a delicate balance between the three hours of actual work your job requires and the five hours you have to kill by making yourself look busy. At home, on the other hand, you can do other things with that downtime. So the idea is to create a much downtime as possible, and one way to do that is to do your job better and faster. If your video calls are constantly pixelated, your files take eons to upload, and your high-speed internet is anything but, youre stealing precious time from yourself. Don’t settle for basic internet if you’re relying on it for your livelihood. Upgrade to the fastest connection you can afford. It’s the silent, unsung hero of productivity. But fast internet speeds arent enough: you need also need to sling those bits and bytes around your home with speed and precision. Look into mesh networking equipment that leverages the Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 standards: Amazon Eero, TP-Link Deco, Google Nest, Netgear Orbi, and Netgear Nighthawk are all solid options in the $300$400 range. Monitors: go big and stay home A very, very close second to high-speed internet: get yourself some decent monitors. My favorite setup? An ultrawide monitor for files, web browsing, email, and the like, and a large-ish, high-res, standard-width monitor for project work. Look for something with good resolution (4K is nice, but QHD is often plenty), decent size (27 inches is a sweet spot), and good ergonomics (height adjustable, tilt, swivel). Ultrawides and 4K monitors can be had starting at around $200 each. Having more screen real estate means less tabbing, less window wrestling, and more actual work. Your eyes will thank you, too, as you won’t be hunched over a tiny laptop screen squinting at spreadsheets. A backside-worthy ergonomic office chair Funny thing about office life: the internet is often on the slow side, decent monitors are hard to come by, but those office chairsespecially if you work for a big companyare generally kind of awesome. Its the one thing thats hard to replicate at home without spending some coin. But your derriere spends more time in that chair than anywhere else, so pamper it. If you really want to throw down, think Herman Miller, Steelcase, or something equally overengineered (in a good way). You can also find some surprisingly good chairs in the $200 to $300 price range as well, though. A smart desk with height control This might feel like the ultimate luxury and its possible that itll eat up the bulk of your budget, but trust me: your future self will thank you. Standing desks aren’t just a fad; they’re a legitimate way to break up the monotony of sitting and theyll help keep your blood flowing. A smart standing desk, one that glides effortlessly between sitting and standing with a push of a button, is a glorious thing. FlexiSpot, Uplift Desk, and Fully are all solid contenders that allow you to seamlessly transition throughout your day. If youre not keen on spending on a motorized desk, keep an eye out for manually adjustable ones. Theyre quieter, cheaper, and only take a few seconds longer to adjust. A decent microphone Once youve gotten yourself all kitted out with the above items, its time to turn your attention to communication. While a great microphone isnt going to make or break your career, it sends the message that youre serious about work and, better yet, the good ones have features that can block out unwanted background noise like lawnmowers and barking dogs. Splurge on a dedicated USB microphone like Logitechs Blue Yeti Nano or the Rode NT-USB Mini run a very reasonable $100. Your colleagues will thank you, your clients will respect you, and you’ll finally sound like the articulate, highly competent professional you are, right? Right?!
Category:
E-Commerce
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