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The human brain is engineered to ignore most of what it sees and hears, according to the neuroscientists I interviewed for the audio original Viral Voices. If thats the case, how are you supposed to make a memorable impression? The empowering news is that if you understand how the brain works, what it discards, and what it pays attention to, youll be far more persuasive than youve ever imagined. Persuasive people have influence in their personal and professional lives. BRAIN RULES FOR THE WORKPLACE The brain doesnt pay attention to boring things, says John Medina, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington and author of the bestseller Brain Rules. If the brain is bored with something, itll move on to something else. It has a lot of stuff to do, Medina told me. According to Medina, our brains lock onto stimuli that evoke an emotion. Medina says this stimuli acts like a mental Post-it note, telling your listeners brain to pay attention to you and your ideas. Imagine being able to identify the exact emotional triggers that will hold your listeners attention. Well, thanks to scientific experiments in the lab, we now know what grabbed peoples attention when they lived in caves. It turns out the secret to effective communication isnt new. Its an ancient formula that can be traced back some 2,300 years to a really smart guy named Aristotle, the father of persuasion. ARTISTOTLES FORMULA FOR PERSUASION Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, said that a persuasive speech has three elements: ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos is credibility. These are the things that often precede you before you walk into the room to give a presentation. They are your résumé builders, your credentials, and your experience. Logos is logic. These are the facts and figures you provide to support your argument. Pathos. These are the emotional hooks that make people care. Pathos is the tricky element, especially in todays workplace. How do you connect emotionally with your audience through PowerPoint, Zoom, or an online video? Once again, the ancients revealed the secret that makes people stars on the TED stage and TikTok. STORYTELLING IS YOUR SUPERPOWER Storytelling is not something we do. Storytellers are who we are. Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and author of Sapiens, one of the bestselling nonfiction books in the world. When I interviewed Harari about communication skills, he shared a theory that completely changed the way I teach public speaking. It all startsand endswith story. According to Harari, Sapiensour speciesdominated the world because they could use language to tell stories. We are wired for stories because narratives were the key to convincing large groups of people to cooperate. Great stories follow structures. The three-act structure is the most popular. Youll see it in nearly every Hollywood movie. Act 1. Set-up: We meet the hero and experience the world they live in. Act 2. Conflict: This is the middle hour of a film where the hero embarks on an adventure and encounters villains, hurdles, challenges, and near-death experiences. Act 3. Resolution: During the final 30 minutes of most films, the hero resolves the conflict, slays the dragon, and returns with the treasure. The three-act structure doesnt just work for movies. Its the foundation for great business presentations, too. Steve Jobs followed the formula to launch the iPhone in 2007. In the first few minutes, he talked about Apples experience in designing great products. He then introduced the problem, or what he called the usual suspects. Jobs explained how existing smartphones were complicated and hard to use. The better path would be to get rid of the fixed keyboard and replace it with a giant screen customers would navigatenot with a stylusbut with their fingers. The pattern is simple, and you can follow it for nearly any pitch or presentation: status quo, problem, solution. Describe the way the world works today for your customer. Explain the problem your customer might be facing in the current world. Reveal the solution to the customers problem. Many content creators who find success on social media follow the structure, whether they know it or not. Sahil Bloom, a former finance professional who now shares business advice to nearly 1 million Instagram followers, recommends following the three-act structure when pitching ideas. Its very simple, really. First, paint a very clear, vivid picture of what the world looks like today. Then describe why the current world is bad, dark, and stormy. Finally, paint a very clear, vivid picture of what the world would look like in the future that you envision. Beautiful, sunny, clear skies. If you can take an investor on that journey, youll get all the money you need to raise. Did you spot the pattern? Its no different from the three acts of a Hollywood movie. Its just condensed from two hours into a 20-minute presentation or a 20-second Instagram reel. Persuasion, by definition, means combining words and ideas to move people to action. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you cannot convince other people to take action on that idea, you wont be nearly as successful as you could be. Your ideas deserve to be heard. Sharpen your communication skills, avoid boring content, and keep your audience engaged, and youll transform both their world and your career.
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E-Commerce
At first glance, it could be the trailer for a new Hollywood blockbuster starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. This was a 2 line prompt in seedance 2, Irish filmmaker Ruairí Robinson clarifies in a caption on X of the 15-second clip, which shows two of the industrys biggest stars locked in a fistfight on a crumbling rooftop, complete with sweeping camera angles and crisp sound effects. This was a 2 line prompt in seedance 2. If the hollywood is cooked guys are right maybe the hollywood is cooked guys are cooked too idk. pic.twitter.com/dNTyLUIwAV— Ruairi Robinson (@RuairiRobinson) February 11, 2026 The viral AI-generated clip has garnered more than 1.8 million views since it was posted on X last week, triggering panic and backlash from Hollywood. Deadpool screenwriter Rhett Reese reposted the video with the message, “I hate to say it. Its likely over for us.” I hate to say it. Its likely over for us. https://t.co/248PmWnEgr— Rhett Reese (@RhettReese) February 11, 2026 Much has been made of the threat AI poses to a range of industries, including Hollywood. From screenwriters to special effects teams, the dawning realization that the latest tools can now produce highly realistic likenesses alongside high-octane production has only deepened the anxiety among already beleaguered industry insiders. Reese expanded on his stance in a follow-up X post: My glass-half-empty view is that Hollywood is about to be revolutionized/decimated. If you truly think the Pitt v Cruise video is unimpressive slop, youve got nothing to worry about. But Im shook. The clip was created using Seedance 2.0, a new AI service from ByteDance, the Chinese company that also owns TikTok, which launched last Friday. Upon its release, X was quickly flooded with clips from others trying their hand at generating their own major motion pictures. An alternate ending to Game of Thrones went viral (it has since been taken down), as did riffs on Spider-Man, Shrek, and more. New Spiderman trailer? Nope, just another scene created seamlessly with Seedance 2.0Incredible stuff pic.twitter.com/v5eJ4pZAo3— 0xMarioNawfal (@RoundtableSpace) February 9, 2026 ByteDance has since promised to tighten the rules governing its new AI tool following intense backlash from Hollywood over copyright concerns. We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users, the company told Deadline. (ByteDance did not immediately respond to Fast Companys request for comment.) Meanwhile, the studio backlash has been swift and severe. Charles Rivkin, the chairman and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association, which represents the major U.S. studiosNetflix, Paramount Pictures, Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Discoverycalled on ByteDance to immediately cease its infringing activity. By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs, he wrote in a statement last week. The actors union SAG-AFTRA has also accused Seedance of blatant infringement, while the Human Artistry Campaign added that, Authorities should use every legal tool at their disposal to stop this wholesale theft. SAG-AFTRA Statement on Seedance 2.0. https://t.co/lbqj1m0AYt pic.twitter.com/Etl8bsj5tA— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) February 13, 2026 Disney, which agreed in a $1 billion deal last year to bring its characters to Sora, the AI companys short-form video platform, also sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, according to Axios. The letter accused the Chinese company of supplying Seedance with a pirated library of Disneys characters. “We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Disney attorney David Singer wrote, “which is shocking considering Seedance has only been available for a few days.”
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E-Commerce
You may be loyal to United, but the airline really wants you to show your loyalty by carrying around a United MileagePlus credit card or debit card. Chicago-based United Airlines announced a major overhaul to its frequent flyer program on Thursday, with better benefits arriving soon for its cardholders. While the airline cheerily billed the changes as giving travelers new reasons to have one of its credit or debit cards, the changes mean that non-cardholders will soon accrue fewer rewards than they currently do. The biggest change is that starting on April 2, United MileagePlus cardholders can earn up to four times more miles on travel booked with the airline than non-cardholdersand even if the flight wasnt booked with that card. That provision ensures that cardholders, which United deems its most loyal members, still reap more rewards for travel, even if they have to book with a different credit card. As the airline lays out in detail, the changes mean that different tiers of membership status or different cardholders will accrue different rewards for travel. But other changes are also designed to benefit cardholders, including a discount of 10% or 15% on airfare and access to a benefit once reserved to the highest-status members: Saver Award seats for less miles in United Polaris business class. MileagePlus is designed to reward loyalty to United, and our best customers deserve the best benefits in the industry,” Andrew Nocella, United’s chief commercial officer said in a statement. “MileagePlus members can now earn more miles faster with a United cardand every one of those miles will go further with our always-on award ticket discounts and expanded access to Saver Award fares.” STRAIGHT UP INSULT United claims the forthcoming changes to its frequent flyer program will offer cardholders some of the richest rewards among airline or travel credit card programs. But United frequent flyers who dont have a card will likely view the changes as a considerable downgrade because theyll soon earn less on a ticket than they do today. A standard MileagePlus member without status or a credit card currently earns 5 miles per dollar on travel, which will be cut to 3 miles per dollar starting April 2. Cardholders, meanwhile, will earn 6 miles per dollar. Another significant blow to non-cardholders who dont have elite status is that theyll no longer earn miles by booking the airlines basic economy fares. Not only is the scaling back of benefits frustrating to some United flyers, but also how much the airline is pushing its line of credit cards co-branded with JPMorgan Chase. Several Redditors on the r/unitedairlines subreddit lamented that the changes will hurt United frequent flyers who arent U.S. citizens and cantor dont want toget a credit card, with one calling it a straight up insult. Several people also noted that the changes seem to indicate that United cares more about its banking relationship with Chase than flying, with one person saying the airline has essentially become a subsidiary of the bank. Finally, one Redditor who said theyve achieved both gold and “platinum” status levels with the airline purely based on butt-in-seat miles and flights, declared: There goes the last of my United loyalty. CHANGES TO AIRLINE PROGRAMS The travel reward space has become big business in recent years, as credit card companies and airlines individually and collectively try to up the ante to lure customers. But these companies must balance the perks they offer in pursuit of the biggest spenders versus those they dole out to the hoi polloi. Since airlines started teaming up with banks to offer co-branded credit cards, theyve reserved their best rewards for cardholders. Uniteds latest move goes beyond the changes that other airlines have made to their frequent flyer programs in recent monthsand could test the limits on loyalty. United follows competitors Delta Air Lines and American Airlines in stripping the reward benefits for basic economy travel, after those airlines announced the same change in December. Delta also announced increased rewards for people who have one of its credit cards that are co-branded with American Express. Last year, United raised the spending requirements to achieve its premier frequent flyer status. The latest changes to the MileagePlus program have been in the works for about 18 months and are in response to a changing landscape for travel credit cards, as Nocella told CNBC. The company didnt immediately respond to an interview request from Fast Company. In the credit card space in general, a lots changed over the last five to 10 years in terms of the number of travel credit cards that are out there, Nocella said. What Im thinking about as we make these changes for United is to make sure that if you hold the credit card, you put it top of wallet, and then if you dont hold the credit card, theres a reason to get the credit card that seems incredibly compelling if youd like to fly United Airlines and if youd like to have that … trip to Tahiti or to Rome or wherever we may be able to take you. WILL TRAVELERS BE ONBOARD FOR CHANGES? The rewards space has been a bonanza for savvy customers in recent decades, but those freebies come with more and more strings attached. While many companies have opted for the subscription model, leading to subscription fatigue, United may find that theres some pushback in so aggressively tying its sense of loyalty to what credit cards flyers carry in their wallets Its also happening at a time when Americans are increasingly stretched thin financially. Americans had $1.28 trillion outstanding in credit card balances in the fourth quarter, up 5.5% from the same period in 2024, according to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Meanwhile, 29% of Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings and less than half (47%) of Americans have sufficient liquidity to cover a $1,000 emergency expense, according to an annual survey conducted by Bankrate. And the changes to the MileagePlus Program werent embraced by investors in the stock market. As of late Thursday, United shares fell nearly 6%.
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E-Commerce
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