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Ive been using ChatGPT and other AI tools recently for quite a few things. A few examples: Working on strategy and operations for my latest business venture, Life Story Magic. Planning how to get the most value out of the Epic ski pass I bought for the year, while balancing everything else. Putting together a stretching and DIY physical therapy plan to get my shoulders feeling better during gym workouts. Along the way, Ive done what I think a lot of AI power users eventually wind up doing: Ive gone into the personalization and settings and told the chatbot to be neutral, direct, and just-the-facts. I dont want a chatbot that tells me That is a brilliant idea! every time I explore a tweak to my business strategy. Theyre not all brilliant, I assure you. And I dont want a lecture about how if I truly have shoulder issues I should see a real physical therapist. Im an adult. Im not outsourcing my judgment to a robot. Stop. I didnt ask you that The result of all this is that Ive developed an alpha relationship with AI. I tell it what to do. If it goes on too long, if it assumes I agree with its suggestions, or starts padding its answers with unnecessary niceties, I shut it down. Stop. I didnt ask you that. No. Wrong. Listen to what Im saying before replying. All I need from you are the following three things. Nothing else. As ChatGPT itself repeatedly reminds me, it has no feelings. HereI even asked it to confirm while writing this article: I dont have feelings, and I cant be offended. You can be blunt, curt, or even rude to a chatbot and nothing is harmed.The awkwardness youre describing is entirely on the human side of the interaction. All good, right? Until I caught myself dealing with customer service. $800 worth of Warby Parker Recently, I was returning most of a large Warby Parker orderprobably close to $600 out of $800 that Id spent on glasses, spread across multiple orders placed on different days last month. I always try to remember that customer service workers are real people, often working on the opposite schedule so they can be available during American waking hours, dealing with one unhappy customer after another all day long. I keep that image in mind, so I remember that whatever small problem Im having probably isnt a big deal. I guess Im trying to be a decent human. I also avoid the remote possibility of becoming the star of some viral customer-service-gone-wrong video. 11 minutes of learning But this call dragged on: 11 minutes in all. Writing that now, it doesnt seem super long, but at the time it felt like an eternity for something that should have been simple. There was a noticeable delay on the line, and not the best connection, and the customer service rep interrupted me several times, assuming that he understood what I was asking and launching into long, off-topic explanations before I could finish. Reflexively, I started talking to him the same way I talk to ChatGPT: Stop. I didnt ask you that. No. Listen to what Im saying before replying. All I need from you are the following three things. Entire life stories To be fair, I caught myself pretty quickly. Also, I probably overcompensated for the rest of the call. In real life, its almost a cliché among people who know me that I talk with everyone and often walk away knowing their entire life story, simply because I find almost everyone interesting. My wife, sitting next to me, as I read this part aloud to her: Mmmm-hmmm. But in that moment, I had slipped into the mode I use with machines: efficient, blunt, and completely unconcerned with the other sides experience. Machines are not human; humans are Ive stripped empathy out of my interactions with AI on purpose. I think that makes sense. I want speed and clarity, not emotional intelligence. Also, Im uneasy with the idea of blurring the lines between humans and machines. But without thinking, I carried that same way of communicating into a conversation with a real, live, fellow human being. When you train yourself to communicate efficiently with something artificialsomething that never needs patience, kindness, or to be treated with dignity, its easy to forget that most of the world still does. And frankly, so do you. Bill Murphy Jr. This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister site, Inc.com. 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
Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issueseverything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor. Heres a roundup of answers to three questions from readers. 1. A new employee missed the fourth day of work, saying something came up I had a new employee start on a Tuesday. That Friday, I woke up to a text from my new hire from the night before, saying that she would not be in on Friday, that something had come up and she would see me on Monday. This is an in-person job in a corporate environment. I fully respect a persons right to take a sick day and I feel nobody is obligated to share personal details, but I also dont feel like something came up quite cuts it, especially on what would be your fourth day on the job. Im looking for some guidance on where to set my expectations (regardless of this person working out or not). Am I out of line to feel something came up is inadequate when calling out as a brand-new hire? Green responds: Youre not wrong! Something came up is strangely cavalier. Im sick or I have a family emergency (without giving details beyond that) would both be fine, but something came up sounds like it could be my sister called and I feel like talking to her or someone invited me to play tetherball. It also sounds like she doesnt think calling out on her fourth day of work is a big deal, when thats normally something people would really try to avoid unless they truly couldnt. Something came up might be fine from a longer-time employee who had a track record of reliability (although it would still be kind of weird), but its pretty alarming from someone in their first week. 2. Scheduling a Zoom call to reject a job candidate My friend has been applying for jobs and made it to the final round for one position. She didnt hear back on the timeline they had mentioned on the last interview, so she assumed they passed on her and moved on. But she got an email from them recently asking to schedule a Zoom the next day. Feels promising, right? Wrong. She hops on the Zoom (with video) and they immediately tell her, You are great, but we went with another candidate and they accepted. End of meeting. Is it appropriate to schedule a Zoom call just to reject someone? I feel like thats really overkill and sort of the equivalent of asking someone to come into the office just to reject them. At the most, I felt like this could have been a quick phone call instead of going through the rigamarole of being on video. I also felt like scheduling the Zoom gave her the impression they would be making a formal offer, so it was doubly painful to get rejected in this manner because she got her hopes up. Green responds: Yes, this is not good! Im sure they didnt intend it to be awful for her, but this takes all the problems with phone call rejections (the person gets their hopes up, and then has to respond graciously on the spot to what might be crushing disappointment) and adds a horrible video twist (the person probably took time beforehand to ensure they looked professional, maybe put on makeup, all to get a rejection that could have been delivered over email). When companies do this, they think theyre being courteous and respectful. She invested the time, the thinking goes, and we owe her the courtesy of a real conversation. Some candidates really do prefer rejections that way but so many people find it upsetting that its really better to stick to email. You can send a very gracious, personalized email rejection. You can even add a note that youd be happy to talk on the phone if the person would like feedback, if thats something youre willing to offer. But making someone get rejected face-to-face on video is not kind, no matter what the intentions. 3. How to tell my network about a job opening My company is trying to overcome some issues weve had in the past with hiring gaps too many people promoted from within into roles that needed more experience. Ive been asked to reach out to people Ive worked with previously whom I would recommend in this role. Its a public posting and Im happy to do that since so many people are un- or underemployed. But Im hung up on the awkwardness of it. Hi! We havent talked in literally five years, but I wondered if youd be interested in this job thats far below your skill set since its better than where you are now? Look at this posting, let me know if you or these other guys Im not in touch with but you are might be interested? Could you please suggest a better script for cold-calling a request to apply? Green responds: The easiest way to do it is to just say, Im trying to circulate the job posting to people who might be interested themselves or might know people who would be. (This is also the best way to do it when youre hoping the recipient themselves will apply, but you want plausible deniability with their manager that you didnt try to recruit them away, if there otherwise would be potentially awkward relationship ramifications.) And as for not having talked in five years: It doesnt really matter! Professional relationships dont have the same rules as social relationships. In a professional context, its perfectly fine to contact someone you havent talked to in years because you need a reference, think they might be interested in a job, or so forth. Its not considered rude just because you havent stayed in touch in the interim. Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org. Alison Green This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister site, Inc.com. 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 highlight reel of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics was defined by extreme trickscorkscrews, twists, and flips performed by snowboarders and freestyle skiers. These aerial feats are complex, but in many cases, they can be traced back to a simple tool: hours spent spinning and flopping into oversize plastic bags. Over the last 20 years, a handful of manufacturerssuch as Bagjump, Progression Airbags, and BigAirBaghave perfected the art of making massive plastic landing pads, ideal for aspiring extreme sports athletes to push the boundaries of their skills and test out new tricks year-round. Beginning with the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, athletes like Shaun White, Kevin Pearce, Danny Davis, and Sage Kotsenburg began making extensive use of this kind of training, similar to the way gymnasts would use foam pits. [Photo: Bagjump] The extreme levels the sports are being performed at are much safer due to Bagjump training, says Martin Rasinger, a former pro snowboarder and the inventor of the device. Sites that have these systems, relatively few and far between, have become destinations for advanced training. WyEast Mountain Academy, an extreme sports-focused secondary school in Sandy, Oregon, installed a $4 million bag on its slopes last year thats open year-round. The 80-by-200-foot airbag, contoured to the curve of the mountain and installed using snowcat vehicles, is the largest in North America, and something that is relatively rare in the U.S. Smaller versions can be found at the U.S. Ski & Snowboard headquarters in Park City, Utah, and temporarily on Californias Mammoth Mountain. Mt. Hood, Oregon. [Photo: Bagjump] Troy Podmilsak, a U.S. freestyle ski jump competitor who landed a “Triple 18” in Milan during competitionthree off-axis flips combined with five full rotationstrained on the WyEast bag before the Games. Bagjump says there are around 20 locations around the world decked out with their landing pads, including their own Banger Park facility in Scharnitz, Austria. As soon as those bags come out, youre working on doing doubles, says Elijah Teter, athletic director at WyEast and a former Olympic coach and professional snowboarder. Now youre seeing triples and even quads. Mt. Hood, Oregon. [Photo: Bagjump] Designing a stronger airbag The history of these bags is a Venn diagram of entrepreneurship, extreme sports and, in some cases, stunt crews. Before they became a key part of training, learning advanced tricks either meant experimenting during the relatively rare days with extensive fresh powderwhich acted as a natural shock absorber for adventurous athletesor putting up with the pain of repeated hard landings. And after a few jumps into the powder, the impressions left by skiers and snowboarders meant that trainees needed to find a new spot. Rasinger tells Fast Company he got the idea for an oversize training bag after watching the airbag stunt fall during the ending of the 1997 movie The Game, starring Michael Douglas, too many times. He was so inspired, in fact, that he flew to Los Angeles, tracked down the stunt crew, and performed some 30-foot drop tests with a snowboard. He realized that to work for extreme athletes, such a bag would need to be larger, softer, and much stronger to hold up to metal snowboard edges. Rasinger went home to Austria and built a test bag in Innsbruck in 2007; a clip of an early jump was posted to YouTube. Eventually, his company, Bagjump, would settle on a formula: a fiberglass structure with a specific PVC coating to withstand the force and cuts from boards and boarders. The company has since sold a few thousand such bags, mostly to trampoline parks or gymnastics facilities. [Photo: Bagjump] Users can get the bags in a variety of sizes, for sports including BMX biking and even climbing. Olympic training bags, specially designed for different snowboarding disciplines such as halfpipe and slopestyle, range from 50-by-50 feet to 120-by-230 feet. The stiffness of the bags can be adjusted to provide more give when learning a trick, and also to feel more like snow to mimic a real landing. It’s softer and therefore also safer,because it is impact-absorbing and it does not bounce you away like netting or car tires or foam, Rasinger told ESPN in 2012. You still get a bounce from it. It’s better than hitting a concrete wallthat’s for sure. [Photo: Bagjump] These bags and ramp systems also have whats called a dry slope in-run, which simulates the feelingand gripof snow, giving those attempting a trick a much more realistic feeling during a practice session. That ability to train safely and consistently has made them a fixture of elite training, and one of many things pushing performances forward at events such as the Olympics. Bagjump has had a significant impact on not just the safety aspect, but also the way the sports have progressed over the years, Rasinger says.
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E-Commerce
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