Fast Company

Anyone looking to catch today’s WNBA Finals Game 6 may have to take a long lunch. Instead of an after-work start, the Golden State Valkyries and Atlanta Dream will tip off at 12:30 p.m. ET.  This is a critical game for the WNBA, even if it’s not being treated as such. The Valkyries lead 3-2 in the Finals, meaning today’s face-off could be the last for the season. Why is the game showing at lunchtime? The official reason for such bizarre timing is that Atlanta’s State Farm Arena has a

High performance requires a specific mindset: pushing through discomfort, maintaining focus under pressure, and executing despite obstacles. These traits often distinguish good from great in business. However, the qualities that lead to professional success do not always support physical health. Determination helps people overcome challenges and stay focused on their goals, but recognizing when to slow down, recover, and adjust expectations is just as important for long-term well-being. I

Shares of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), could suffer a historic post-earnings loss today. As of the time of this writing, the stock price is down more than 10% after the company reported what can only be described as disappointing results for its most recent quarter yesterday. Here’s what you need to know. Google’s Q3 results Yesterday, Alphabet announced its third-quarter 2026 results, which cover the three-month period that ended on September 30. On the surfa

In a world of self-optimization, people are increasingly turning to technology like sleep trackers, smartwatches, and over-the-counter continuous glucose monitors to understand their health. No matter the health measures they intend to track, these wearable technologies share information while also telling you what you can do with it. With some consumers now paying direct attention to health feedback, wearables may take what felt like abstract and distant health consequences and root them in

AI and quantum computing get grouped together constantly. They appear on the same conference agendas, in the same conversations about the future, and often in the same sentence. I understand why. Both technologies are advancing quickly, and both will change how we work. After spending most of my career in quantum physics, though, I think we’re missing one of the more interesting parts of the story. I’ve spent years working on problems that conventional computers weren’t well suited to solv

Every executive team I talk to asks me some version of the same two questions: How fast can we deploy AI? Which AI tools should my team have? But they are asking the wrong questions. A person or organization can purchase a license to an AI solution in moments, but how fast can people adapt? The answer to this question will decide who succeeds in the AI era. TECHNOLOGY IS MOVING QUICKLY AI tools are changing weekly. A workflow can change overnight. A new model can suddenly perform a task

DoorDash has agreed to acquire grocery rival Instacart for $17 billion, a deal that will bolster the delivery company’s move into grocery and boost business at the largest third-party delivery platform in America.  Instacart, which launched in 2012, works with some 2,200 stores covering nearly 100,000 locations. DoorDash’s acquisition of the grocery delivery giant is a huge step toward its ultimate goal of revamping local business while owning all kinds of local delivery.  DoorDash is stil

With days until the election, Patagonia employees and grantees gathered virtually for a “Know Your Voting Rights” training with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The nearly 100 attendees walked away with information on how to arrive at the polls without impediment, cast their ballot free from intimidation, and trust their vote will be counted as cast and not discarded. They also received instructions on how to ensure others can do the same. In an election season that has been rife wi

You can finally get Cheerios in a resealable bag. General Mills announced Tuesday it partnered with SC Johnson’s Ziploc brand for Cheerios with Ziploc PantrySeal, its trademarked name for a new bag design. It features a blue Ziploc seal that goes partially across the top of the bag and doubles as a handy pour spout. The specialty box is available only for Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios and exclusively at Walmart’s website, where a 14.4 oz box retails for about $5. It’s a wonder it took so

Hybrid work succeeds when flexibility comes with clear expectations. Here, experts in the field share practical insights on how meetings, focus time, communication, and accountability can genuinely improve productivity and morale. These 11 rules help teams work better together without adding unnecessary complexity. Trust Individual Attendance Choices One rule that always works: Let employees decide for themselves which days they come to the office. Otherwise there’s no point in hybrid at a

Meta’s Muse is the first of its kind—a personalized AI agent that lives on users’ devices, handling tasks like sending email, ordering groceries, and negotiating lower bill payments. In fact, it’s so good at acting on humans’ behalf that it’s quite difficult for websites to identify it as a bot, rather than a human user. Meta says that Muse navigates browsers just like human users, meaning it doesn’t look like an artificial intelligence agent, and there’s currently no regulation requiring AI

Every leadership team is wrestling with the same questions right now. How will AI impact our organization, and what type of workforce will we need in the future? These aren’t easy questions to answer. Only 19% of companies are effective at planning for their future workforce, according to a July 2026 survey by Gartner. These organizations understand how work will change, anticipate the impact of artificial intelligence, and act to realign the workforce with strategy. Without this type of p

Walk around any city today and try to tell the cars apart. Go ahead, just try. They’re all smooth, rounded, anonymous blobs, shaped by the same wind tunnels and the same cost spreadsheets. But something is happening in Europe. The legacy automakers Renault and Citroën are rolling out more designs modeled after their most iconic silhouettes. At this month’s Paris Motor Show, Citroën unveiled an electric 2 CV Concept and a little delivery van to go with it, while Renault showed a reborn R8 Gor

“Like riding a broomstick in a hurricane.” This is reportedly how one SpaceX engineer described the intense atmospheric reentry of the first Falcon 9 rocket to go to space and then successfully land back here. That moment, on December 21, 2015, marked the beginning of a dizzying decade-long spell for the space sector, as engineers no longer had to worry about getting their technology into space. Now, the industry’s main challenges were building enough satellites, raising enough capital, finding

It’s Friday afternoon—and your favorite team member’s last day before they move on to a new organization. You wanted to work through their final handoffs, but they’re in HR’s office. And in that meeting, for the first time in three years, someone asks them: “What made you decide to leave, and what could we have done differently?” They answer, in full detail. They joined because the company’s careers page promised “development opportunities,” but they got turned down for every leadership progr

Data centers require enormous investments: land, buildings, computer equipment, and power infrastructure. Yet, once they’re up and running, they tend to employ no more than a few dozen people in occupations such as IT technicians, engineers, and security guards. With billions of dollars flowing into new data centers across the United States, communities are asking what they will get in return. Skepticism about the local benefits of data centers is contributing to growing opposition to their c

Your teenager gets into a fight with her best friend. She’s hurt, upset, and doesn’t know what to do. Maybe in the past she would have spent the day replaying the argument, venting to another friend about the drama, practicing an apology in the bathroom mirror, or laboring over what to text. These days, she can skip all that and ask AI what to say. It probably sounds better than anything she would’ve written herself. And that is the problem.  Parents have spent years worrying about what t

The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that it is combing the current Social Security Number (SSN) database, calling it the most comprehensive record “cleanup” in the agency’s 91-year history. “Accurate SSN records prevent fraud across federal programs and support the proper administration of benefits,” Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano said in a statement. The SSA said it is working with agencies across the federal government and in states “to validate identities and prevent improp

Airfares for the cheapest U.S. airline jumped in price this year, but that hasn’t stopped fliers from booking. In its third-quarter earnings report published on Wednesday, Frontier Airlines revealed that its ticket prices have surged. The airline’s fare revenue per passenger jumped from $39.74 to $67.82 in Q3—a 71% increase. That metric looks at ticket prices alone and doesn’t factor in the add-on costs passengers might pay for things like upgrades and checked luggage.  Frontier’s total re

There was a moment when it seemed like men—at least some of them—had started openly talking about the value of parental leave.  Several years ago, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian wrote for Fast Company about taking four months of paternity leave. He argued it was crucial that men not only have access to paternity leave, but are empowered to take it.  “I wanted to set an example for all of our hundreds of employees—not just the men, but especially them,” Ohanian wrote of his decision to go