Youd be forgiven for forgetting that there was a time when Microsoft Edge was basically the web browser that opened when you accidentally clicked a link that didnt default to opening in Chrome or Firefox.
But something shifted in 2020 when Microsoft switched Edges digital drivetrain to Chromium, the technology that powers the Google Chrome browser and others like it.
Edge suddenly shed its awkward skin and emerged as a genuinely competentnay, pleasantbrowsing experience.
And if you use Edge during your workday, there are some wonderfully useful time-savers built right into its core. Here are the ones I find most excellent.
Split Screen: 2 for the price of one
Want to browse to your hearts content while keeping an eye on your email? Try a neat little Edge feature called “Split Screen.”
Click on the three little dots in the upper-right corner and select this menu option, and the browser will split into two panes and you can open different sites. It even handles multiple tabs for each pane as well.
It’s perfect for always-on email, social media, or anything you need to keep a constant watch over without disrupting your main workflow. It’s like having a mini-browser within your browser and is especially helpful if youre working off a laptop without multiple monitors to plug into.
Collections: Your digital idea board
If you often find yourself researching something, opening a few dozen tabs, and then realizing youll need to revisit all of them later . . . then you and I are kindred, unorganized spirits.
Yes, bookmarks exist, but they’re meant to be reasonably permanent and theyre a bit clunky for quick idea gathering. “Collections,” on the other hand, act like digital project managers for you to reference later.
Click the three-dot menu and choose Collections to get started. You can drag and drop links, images, even snippets of text into a themed collection.
Planning a trip? Researching a new gadget? Building a shopping list? Collections keep it all tidy and easily accessible. Imagine: actual organization!
Performance Settings: Nobody likes a laggy browser
Even the best browser can bog down the beefiest system when you have a gazillion tabs open and a dozen extensions running, and you’re streaming 4K resolution video.
Edge’s “Performance” settings section is a quiet hero. It aims to save CPU, RAM, and battery by saving system resources, including a handy feature that puts inactive tabs to sleep. It doesn’t close them, but rather simply pauses them, freeing up resources for stuff youre actively working on.
You can enable and tweak various efficiency features in Settings > System and Performance. Your CPU fan will thank you.
Web Capture: Screenshots made simple
If ever youre feeling down about the state of the world, just know that its never been a better, easier era to grab screenshots. So theres that.
What once involved a delicate dance of Print Screen, pasting into Paint, cropping, and then realizing you missed a pixel is now as easy as right-clicking in the open space of a web page, selecting “Screenshot,” and grabbing what you need.
You can grab a specific area, the full page, or exactly what you see in the browser. You can annotate directly on the capture, too.
Shopping Features: Save some bucks, save some time
I’m not usually one for built-in shopping assistants, but Edge’s are surprisingly unobtrusive and genuinely helpful.
If youre on a site that sells stuff, look for a blue price tag icon to appear on the right-hand side of the address bar.
Click it, and the feature can automatically find coupons, compare prices, show you historical price trends, and let you track the item and get alerted if it goes on sale. It’s like having a miniature, nonjudgmental personal shopper living in your browser.
Like all awkward workplace conversations, a compassionate and direct approach is best. Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Companys work-life advice column hosted by deputy editor Kathleen Davis.
This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
Perplexity has become my primary tool for search. I rely on it for concise summaries of complex topics. I like the way it synthesizes information and provides reliable citations for me to explore further.
I prefer Perplexitys well-organized responses to Googles laundry list of links, though I still use Google to find specific sites & addresses and for other micro-searches.
Perplexitys not perfect. Ive rarely seen it hallucinate, but it can pick dubious sources or misinterpret your question. As with any tool that uses AI, the wording of your query impacts your result. Write detailed queries and specify preferred sources when you can. Double-check critical data or facts.
Googles new AI Mode is a strong new competitor, and ChatGPT, Claude and others now offer AI-powered search, but I still rely on Perplexity for reasons detailed below. This post updates my previous post with new features, examples, and tips.
My favorite new features
Labs. Create slides, reports, dashboards, and Web apps by writing a detailed query and specifying the format of the results you want. Check out the Project Gallery for 20 examples.
Voice Mode. I ask historical questions about books, curiosities about nature and science, and things I should already know about movies & music. The transcript shows up afterwards.
Templates for Spaces. A large new collection of templates makes it easier to get started with custom instructions for various kinds of research, for sales/marketing, education, finance, or other subjects.
Transcription. Upload & transcribe files up to 25mb. Ask for insights & ideas.
Topical landing pages for finance, travel, shopping, and academics provide useful examples and new practical ways to use Perplexity.
When to use Perplexity
Get up to speed on a topic: Need to research North Korea-China relations? Ask Perplexity for a summary and sources. See the result.
Research hyper-specific information: Ask for a list of organizations that crowdsource info about natural disasters. See the result.
Explore personal curiosities: I was curious about Mozarts development as a violinist, so I asked for key dates and details. See the result.
The best things about Perplexity
Sources. Perplexity provides links to its sources, so you can follow-up on anything you want to learn more about. Tip: specify sources to prioritize.
Summaries. Instead of long articles or lists of links, get straight-to-the-point answers that save time. Tip: specify when you want a summary table.
Follow-ups. Ask follow-up questions to dive deeper into a topic, just like a conversation. For visual topics, Perplexity can surface relevant images and videos. Tip: customize your own follow-up query if defaults arent relevant.
Deep Research. Get fuller results for queries where you need more info. Tip: Use Claude or ChatGPT to help you draft clearer, more thorough search prompts.
Spaces. Group related searches into collections so theyre easy to return to later. I created one for Atlanta before a trip. You can keep a collection private, invite others to edit it, or share a public link. Tip: create a team space.
Pages. Share search results by creating public pages you can customize. Watch a 1-minute video demo. Examples: Beginners Guide to Drumming, a Barcelona itinerary, and forest hotels in Sweden.
Labs. This brand new feature is meant for generating interactives, data tables, and visuals. Results vary widely in my testing.
Use Perplexity More Effectively
You can use Perplexity on the Web, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.
Start with Perplexitys own introductory guide, check the how it works FAQ, then use the Get Started template to use Perplexity itself to learn more.
Write detailed queries Include two or more sentences specifying what youre looking for and why. Your result will be better than if you just use keywords.
Refine your settings Specify one or more preferred source types: Web, academic sources, social (i.e. Reddit), or financial (SEC filings).
Pick your model. Advanced users can specify the AI flavor Perplexity uses. Id recommend maintaining Perplexitys default or the o3 option for research that requires complex reasoning. You can also use Grok, Gemini or Claude.
Specify domains to search. Mention specific domains or kinds of sites youre nterested in for more targeted results. Use a domain limiter to narrow your search to a particular site or domain type, e.g. domain:.gov to focus only on government sites. Or just use natural language to limit Perplexity to certain kinds of sites, as in this example scouring CUNY sites for AI policies.
Personalize your account. Add a brief summary of your interests, focus areas, and information preferences in your profile to customize the way Perplexity provides you with answers.
Quick searches are fine when youre just looking for a simple fact, like when was CUNY founded. Pro searches are best for more intricate, multi-part queries. On the free plan you get 3 pro searches a day.
Examples: Perplexity in action
Check public opinion: Is there a Pew survey about discovering news through social media platforms? See the result.
Explore historical archives: List literacy and education programs in high-growth African countries in the last decade. See the result.
Discover patterns: Compare residential rent to residential real estate trends in California. See the results.
Pricing
Free for unlimited quick searches, 3 pro searches and 3 file uploads per day.
$20/month for unlimited file and image uploads for analysis; access to Labs; and 10x as many citations. See the 2025 feature comparison.
Privacy
To protect your privacy when using Perplexity, capitalize on the following:
Turn data retention off in your settings. (Screenshot).
Turn on the Incognito setting if youre signed in to anonymize a search.
Search in an incognito browser tab without logging into Perplexity.
Bonus features
The free Chrome Extension lets you summon a Perplexity search from any page. The summarize button hasnt always worked for me.
The Perplexity Encyclopedia has a collection of tool comparisons
An experimental beta Tasks feature lets you schedule customized searches
Listen to an AI audio chat about Perplexity I generated w/ NotebookLM.
Caveats
Accuracy and confabulation: While Perplexity uses retrieval augmented generation to reduce errors, it’s not flawless. Check the sources it references.
Document analysis limitations: The file size limit for uploads is 25MB. Covert larger files to text or use Adobes free compressor or SmallPDF.
Deep Research, though fast, is not nearly as thorough as what is provided by ChatGPTs Deep Research or Geminis.
Alternatives to Perplexity
Google AI Mode: Google’s much-improved new AI search option provides summary responses like Perplexity. Heres an example of a comparison table it created for me and its take on 10 Perplexity features. Try it in labs. Free.
Consensus: Superb for academic queries. Search 200 million peer-reviewed research papers and get a summary and links to publications. Useful for scientific or other research questions, e.g. active vs. passive learning or how cash transfers impact poverty. Pricing: Free for unlimited searches and limited premium use; $9/month billed annually for full AI capabilities.
ChatGPT Web Search. Turn on the Search the Web option under the tools menu when using ChatGPT to enable Web searching. Search chats include inline links with sources. For example, heres a ChatGPT Web search query about Perplexity vs. other AI search tools. It includes a helpful ChatGPT-generated chart. As differentiators I like Perplexitys summaries, suggested follow-up queries, Labs, and the handy Voice Mode for quick questions.
This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.
Heading into the year, Zillow economists forecasted that U.S. home prices were likely to rise 2.6% in 2025.
However, this year, the housing marketin particular in the Sun Beltwas softer than expected and Zillow has made several downgrades to its forecast for national home prices.
This week, newly released data from Zillow shows that U.S. home prices have decelerated to a year-over-year increase of just 0.4%. Zillow economists now expect U.S. home prices to decline by 0.7% between May 2025 and May 2026.
With inventory up nearly 20% over the previous year, buyers had more options in May than at any time since July 2020. Despite higher sales, sellers still outnumber buyers, wrote Zillow economists. This gives buyers more time to decide and more power in negotiations. Zillows market heat index shows a balanced market nationwide, one thats a lot more buyer-friendly than in recent years. Competition among buyers declined to the lowest level seen in May in Zillow records, reaching back through 2018.
Not only do Zillow economists predict soft national home price growth this year, but theyre also predicting that the housing market will only see 4.1 million U.S. existing home sales in 2025. That would mark the third-straight year of suppressed existing home sales. For comparison, in pre-pandemic 2019, there were 5.3 million existing home sales in the U.S.
Zillow economists added: Home values have fallen in 22 of the 50 largest metro areas over the past year, and sellers cut prices on almost 26% of listings nationwideanother May high in Zillow records. Homes that sell typically do so in 17 days, about four more than last year and only two days fewer than pre-pandemic averages.
!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}();
Among the 300 largest U.S. housing markets, Zillow expects the strongest home price appreciation between May 2025 and May 2026 to occur in these 10 areas:
Atlantic City, New Jersey 3.4%
Kingston, New York 2.7%
Knoxville, Tennessee 2.6%
Pottsville, Pennsylvania 2.5%
Torrington, Connecticut 2.4%
Rochester, New York 2.2%
Syracuse, New York 2.1%
Fayetteville, Arkansas 2.1%
Rockford, Illinois 2.1%
Yuma, Arizona 2.0%
Among the 300 largest U.S. housing markets, Zillow expects the weakest home price appreciation between May 2025 and May 2026 to occur in these 10 areas:
Houma, Louisiana -9.4%
Lake Charles, Louisiana -8.9%
New Orleans -7.2%
Alexandria, Louisiana -6.7%
Lafayette, Louisiana -6.6%
Shreveport, Louisiana -6.4%
Beaumont, Texas -6.2%
San Francisco -5.5%
Midland, Texas -5.3%
Odessa, Texas -5.3%
While Zillow expects home prices across most of Florida to be flat over the coming year, ResiClub remains skeptical. After all, Florida has experienced a significant increase in active inventory and months of supply over the past year, which could signal potential pricing weakness. Indeed, prices of single-family homes and condos are currently declining in most Florida housing markets.
Getting the hiring process right is one of the most critical and challenging aspects of building a startup. Early hires shape your companys culture, operational efficiency, and future growth, yet many founders face this task without prior hiring experience or a clear sense of what their evolving business truly needs. Without being thoughtful about hiringfrom crafting compelling job descriptions to setting consistent compensation and onboarding practicesstartups risk bringing in team members who are misaligned with the companys needs or culture, creating friction and slowing momentum. Over the course of my three decades as a startup operator, executive coach and educator of entrepreneurs, Ive observed that investing the time upfront to build strong hiring practices not only helps attract the right talent but also lays a foundation for a healthy, scalable organization.
While you cant prevent occasional mis-hires, you can try to minimize the possibility by including a project phase in your hiring process or even considering a project as a paid consulting engagement (try before you buy) for both you and the candidate. This allows the candidate to demonstrate what they are capable of and what it might be like to work with themand them with youonce they are on board full time. Projects can give you a higher degree of confidence that this is the one, which can be super hard in the early stages of your startup when you are not sure what the one even is. If this is not a try-before-you-buy situation, I recommend that projects are performed just before you are ready to do reference checks and make an offer. This can be an especially helpful step if you are down to two finalists you really like so you can compare how each one approaches a project.
Unless you plan to do a trial engagement with them, try not to choose a project that takes more than one to two hours to do unless you pay them for the work. A startup Ive worked with offers to pay for the time taken to do a project, and if the candidate declines payment, the startup makes a donation to a charity of the candidates choice as compensation for their time.
Below are some projects that can be effective at startups. Keep in mind that these projects test the candidates approach more than whether they do the work perfectly. Build alignment with your team on what good looks like for each project and plan to debrief once the assignment is complete and/or presented. Here are a few examples of what good might look like.
The First 90 Days
This is a good general test for any new hire, especially an executive, but also for a people manager or technical leader. Have the candidate explain what their first ninety days on the job will look like. Either leave it wide open or offer a few prompts like, Who will you spend time with? or How will you get to know the business? or What accomplishments do you hope to make by the end of the first ninety days?
Engineering and Design Projects
While there are some nifty tools out there that can test coding skills for engineers, I am a strong advocate for testing the softer skills. Those who design and/or build your product should be able to demonstrate their work beyond coding or portfolio samples. The best type of project here is a brief scenario about building a new feature or capability for your product that will allow the candidate to demonstrate not just depth of syntax knowledge or design best practices, but also how they will work on a problem with your team. These projects can be done as homework, although its nice if it can be done in person or as part of a video interview. Present a scenario and ask the candidate how they will approach it. You could give them some alone time to think about it and then ask them to talk through it. Ask them to cite how they thought about it and to explain the direction they took and why. Prepare to have another approach or idea for the scenario when they walk through their work. This can help gauge how the candidate handles feedback and if they are willing to collaborate on ideas.
Scenarios for Non-Engineering Teams (Marketing, Sales, Product)
I prefer scenario tests over presentations of a non-engineering candidates past work because such tests will show you how they use their experience to approach something new. Scenarios you may ask them to work through can be actual challenges you are facing, or they can be hypothetical. Here are some quick examples of scenario tests for a few functional areas:
Product: Our CTO just came back from a listening tour with some of our customers and wants to explore a new set of features to expand our product offerings. These offerings are not on the product roadmap. What steps would you take to understand these new features and how would you approach the prioritization process?
Marketing: Were about to launch a new product for our customers. What steps would you take to plan for this product launch and how will you measure its success?
Sales: We are building a product to attract new customers in a new segment. What information do you need to prepare your team to sell this new product and how will you set sales goals for the team?
You could imagine similar scenarios for finance, customer sup- port, or other functional roles. Remember, these candidates dont know how your business functions day-to-day, so this isnt about whether they have a perfect plan but more about how they approach the problem.
With all the interviews and projects, you still may not get it right every time. Again, hiring is hard. Thats why the try-before-you-buy approach is often the best way to go for both the candidate and your startup. One way to ease that process, if a trial candidate can work full time before converting to a permanent employee, is to offer them equity in your startup that will be granted when they convert, but with a backdated vesting schedule to when they started their trial.
If youre hiring for a role for the first time and no one on your team has experience with that roleso no one knows what good looks likeask an experienced advisor, investor, or friend with experience to be part of the interview process. They should be able to interview the candidate and help you formulate the projects you may assign.
Excerpted with permission from After the Idea: What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup. Copyright 2025 by Julia Austin. Available from Basic Venture, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Whats the quickest way to get attention on LinkedIn? Some users think theyve cracked the code by flaunting elite schools and prestigious firms at the very top of their profile where job titles typically go. Alums from the likes of consulting giant McKinsey, Harvard Business School, and investment bank Goldman Sachs are now shouting about their networks from the digital rooftops.
But does name-dropping on your LinkedIn profile work? What about if you did a short stint at a company? Some people, like my husband, swear by this strategy, others think its pretentious. Ultimately, it depends on who is looking.
The benefits
Leslie Danford, founder of Vitaminis, a vitamin juice shot brand sold nationally, says adding Bain, the consulting firm, and HBS to her LinkedIn headline has opened doors, especially since she had to fundraise for her company. Bain and HBS are standardized experiencesits almost shorthand, says Danford.
Danford says that cluttering the top of her LinkedIn with something more detailed risks people skipping over her profile, whereas elite brand names can make a profile stand out. (LinkedIn caps headlines at 220 characters.) Its almost like a marketing headline, she says. Its quick and delivers a message.
Unsurprisingly, the people who could benefit the most from this strategy are the ones who are not part of these elite networks to begin with, says Eric Lin, an associate professor at Oberlin College and Conservatory and chair of the business program. Lin has studied whether more detailed LinkedIn profiles boost pay. He found that people with more detailed LinkedIn profiles had higher pay and access to better opportunities, but this did not hold true for individuals with elite educational or work backgrounds. They have less to gain because they already have these networks, he says. For those outside these circles, showcasing prestigious brands on a public platform like LinkedIn could help them reach people and opportunities they otherwise wouldnt.
The Drawbacks
However, there can be downsides to name-dropping. For one, insiders may notice when someone is inflating their résumé such as listing a short course at HBS instead of a full MBA or an administrative role rather than client-facing work. If some people dont understand the differences, then the signal kind of works, for others it doesnt hold as much weight and maybe it backfires, says Lin.
In addition, Lin, who has researched scandal firms and halo firms, says perceptions can change at any moment. At one point, working for Enron, the energy giant, or Arthur Anderson, a top-tier accounting firm, was considered prestigious. In his research, Lin found that even when former employees mentioned those firms but had nothing to do with the period or position that caused the reputational fallout, they were more likely to take a hit on future pay just by association.
Yet, its not always clear how someone will feel about a company. Despite McKinseys enormous brand value, some feel less warmly about the consulting firm due to its role in the opioid crisis. As things do or dont fall into favor, theres a loose association of stigma, Lin says. (Lin has experience with both McKinsey and Harvard Business School, but does not name-drop them on this LinkedIn headline.)
Many of those firms signal access to top-flight networks, not present-day experience, adds Megan Van Buiten, cofounder of People Conduit, a coaching firm. While its likely the candidate had to endure a rigorous selection process to get into these elite companies, these brands dont tell recruiters much about an individuals skill set. Its kind of a networking magnet, but it can definitely raise red flags, she adds. Some hiring managers may be suspicious about workers relying too heavily on gaining credibility from the elite institution versus showcasing skills like leadership or adaptability.
Van Buiten recommends creating a LinkedIn headline that speaks to your current role and what impact youve had at your prior companies rather than tossing out names. Those interested in learning more about your experience can scroll your profile to find additional detail, she adds. It should not be used as a crutch, she says. You want to convey more how you are as a person rather than a brand. For instance, instead of saying ex-McKinsey, you might mention that youre a global strategy and transformation leader or have built high performing teams, she explains.
John Peters, founder of shoe company Amberjack, recalls changing his LinkedIn headline roughly six years ago from listing his job as a management consultant to listing his elite affiliations. He needed to do cold reach outs on LinkedIn for his new company, which did not yet have a name, and he wanted to increase his chances of a reply. His LinkedIn now says: Founder | Ex-McKinsey | Cornell, which he feels is a testament to his credibility as an entrepreneur. Still, he admits to being on the fence about adding an Ivy League school and a top consulting firm to the headline. I really dont like that it feels braggadocio, but I felt inclined to do it, says Peters. Im trying to increase any chance of a reply.
Peters says he will never have empirical evidence of whether this is working, but since his current company does not have the name recognition, hes willing to risk it. Even when someone looks up his name outside of LinkedIn, they can see the elite education and work background without clicking on his profile. Every inch counts, he says.
Whats the big idea?
In the book Apocalypse, the term itself is understood as a rapid, collective loss that fundamentally changes a societys way of life and sense of identity. Viewed as an ending of existence as we know it, rather than an end of all existence period, helps reframe such terrifying times of upheaval as our greatest opportunities for growth and improvement. Human history shows that our species has approached and retreated from the brink of annihilation time and again, offering inspiring wisdom and tales of resilience that should empower the modern reader to seize our turbulent moment by the horns.
Below, Lizzie Wade shares five key insights from her new book, Apocalypse: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures. Listen to the audio versionread by Lizzie herselfin the Next Big Idea App.
1. Weve been here before
Life in the 2020s started out scary, and its only getting more terrifying. The decade began with the worst pandemic in a century, upending our lives, health, and politics in ways were only beginning to understand. Climate disasters that may have seemed like distant possibilities are now upon us, no matter who we are or where we live. Political and economic systems that once seemed durable, even natural, are proving to be frighteningly fragile, cracking under the weight of an increasingly apocalyptic world.
As the world we knew comes to an end, its easy to feel alone. But by spending time with archaeologists, I learned that cataclysms like climate change, societal collapse, global pandemics, total war, and even human extinction are not uniquely modern problems. Our ancestors experienced all those apocalypses. More importantly, they survived them all. We are the heirs of a long history of resilience, adaptation, and creativity that has already seen countless human beings through the worst of times. Our ancestors have so much to teach us about our future, if we can cast off our assumptions and learn how to listen to their stories.
2. Community and collaboration are keys to survival
Around 47,000 years ago, humans in northern Europe found themselves facing a jumpy and unstable climate. Conditions swung between cold and warm and back again relatively quickly. Those who ventured out to new lands during warm periods could find themselves cut off from food, resources, and other communities when the cold suddenly returned. The animals they hunted started dying or migrating, and humans struggled to continually adapt to an environment they could no longer trust or predict. These humans were Neanderthals, and they would soon find themselves confronting another challenge: the arrival of Others who looked and lived just enough like them to rely on the same resources.
Homo sapiens and Neanderthals were not competitors and enemies, nor victors and victimsor at least, not only those things.
Early paleoanthropologists believed that what happened next was the apocalypse that set it all in motion. They believed those Others, Homo sapiens, eliminated Neanderthals through violence, competition, and domination, in a process that looked suspiciously like 19th-century colonial genocides. But 21st-century research has revealed that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals were not competitors and enemies, nor victors and victimsor at least, not only those things. By sequencing the Neanderthal genome, paleogeneticists were able to find pieces of it in almost every person alive today. That proved that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had children together, in many places and at many times, and that those children would go on to have their own children, so successfully that our shared ancestry spread around the world. Neanderthals became us, and we also became them. We survived, together.
3. Apocalypses destroy old worlds, but they also create new ones
I define apocalypse as a rapid, collective loss that fundamentally changes a societys way of life and sense of identity. An isolated drought might make for a few bad harvests and some tough years, but it wont force society to give up on farming entirely. A drought that lasts for decades, however, might do that. It could also lead to the overthrow or disintegration of the government that failed to prevent such a crisis. In this manner, environmental apocalypse spurs a political one in a feedback loop of destruction.
Thats what happened in ancient Egypt 4,200 years ago, when catastrophically low Nile floods hit during and just after the reign of a weak and ineffective king. The construction of grand monuments like the pyramids abruptly stopped, provinces broke away from royal rule, and scribes wrote of an upside-down world so full of suffering that people began committing suicide by crocodile. Old Kingdom Egypt had been unified for 800 years until this apocalypse tore it apart.
But in destroying the Egyptian state, this apocalypse also destroyed the strict social and economic hierarchy that had governed and constrained Egyptian lives for centuries. Wealth that had been concentrated in the capital flowed to newly independent provinces, and new leaders arose who boasted of taking care of their followers during the hardest of times, rather than extracting labor and resources from them as the pharaoh had done. Archaeological excavations reveal that commoners not only survived but also thrived during Egypts drought and state collapse. It was the elites of the old order who suffered most in the new, more equal world created by the apocalypse. And it is their perspective that written history is preserved and propagated, to the detriment of all our imaginations.
4. We already live in a post-apocalyptic world
Most of us have been taught to see human history as a march of inevitable technological, political, and cultural progress. Weve been told that the world we live in today is the pinnacle of that progress, and any disruption to it is a terrifying tragedy. As we face our own apocalypses, its easy to feel that we have everything to lose and nothing to gain.
These apocalypses connected the entire planet for the first time, sparking new identities, hierarchies, and ideas.
But archaeology can help us see that the modern world is already postapocalyptic. It was built from the rubble of the twin apocalypses of colonialism and slavery. These apocalypses connected the entire planet for the first time, sparking new identities, hierarchies, and ideas, including capitalism and consumerism. They also resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of people, the enslavement of millions more, and the attempted destruction of ancient communities and cultures. Unlike the apocalypse that destoyed, but also remade, Old Kingdom Egypt, colonialism and slavery precluded the conditions necessary for recovery. Through centuries of unchecked resource extraction, they created a world thats dangerous for all of us who inhabit itand they continue to ensure our present and future apocalypses will transform into the worst versions of themselves.
5. Apocalypses are the best chance societies have for change
The next apocalypse is no longer a specter on the horizon. It is here, no matter how much we wish we could delay or deny it. But that doesnt mean were doomed to the worst-case scenario. It means that this is our moment. This is our chance to harness the transformative energy of apocalypse to build a new, different, and better world. Weve misunderstood apocalypses as interruptions in the human story, unfortunate deviations from the path of progress and growth were supposed to be on. But in my research, Ive learned that apocalypses are the human story. Each and every one was a vital turning point that led to everything that came after, for better and for worse. Our apocalypse will be, too.
Like it not, our world is changing. If we can move beyond denial and fear and look straight at the apocalypse, we have the chance to participate in, and even guide, our own transformations. In ancient Greek, the word apocalypse means the unveiling. Apocalypses are moments when we can see the truth of what our society is and what it could become. The world we thought we lived in is over. What world do we want to build next?
Lizzie Wade is an award-winning science journalist and correspondent for the prestigious journal Science. She covers anthropology, archeology, and Latin America. Her work has appeared in Wired, The Atlantic, Slate, The New York Times, Aeon, Smithsonian, and Archaeology.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
At the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, top agencies and brands vie for awards and hustle to close deals. As this years event wraps up, Autodesk CMO Dara Treseder shares the insider buzzfrom the continued rise of creator-led content to how brands navigate getting the right kind of attention in a polarized market.
This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by Robert Safian, former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.
What are you hearing people talk about here at the festival?
A lot is going on. There’s a recurring theme. I think . . . everyone is trying to figure out, How can I cut through without being cut out? How can I cut through without alienating a core part of my audience? Because we’re living in such a polarized time, where there are very few things people can align on. And so there is really that, but we are also in an attention recession, where it’s so difficult to get attention, and getting attention is not enough, because you have to convert that attention into intention, right? To get people to actually go into discovery, consideration, and ultimately purchase.
So, it’s not just getting the attention, but the attention in the way that’s right for your brand.
Exactly. Getting attention in a way that’s right for your brand and drives action, drives engagement. And now, there’s just so much that grabs people’s attention, so grabbing attention isn’t enough. It’s actually converting the attention into intention, into buyer intent.
Are there any rules about it, or is it that each brand has to do it in its own way?
I think that there are some themes that we’re seeing about how brands in general are doing this, across all industries, B2B, B2C, healthcare, technology, beauty, retail. We’re seeing some recurring themes. And I think one of the big themes is leaning into creators and community, because people show up for people. They might not necessarily show up for brands in the same way as we’ve seen in the past. So a lot of brands are leaning into [that]. I mean, creators are all over the place. Creators and athletes. Because creators and athletes come with a more dedicated and a more engaged and a more, I’m going to use the word rabid, a little bit, fan base.
Yes, real fans.
Real fans, rather than just celebrities that you see.
I mean, we’ve been talking for a few years about influencers and how that has sort of changed the marketplace. It sounds a little bit like we’ve broken through to a new layer with that?
We’ve certainly broken through to a new layer. And in fact, they don’t want to be called influencers. They want to be called creators. Because they’re saying, “Hey, I’m not here to just influence. I’m here to co-create with you to drive a certain outcome.” So we’re seeing that happen more now.
And does that change the relationship that a brand like yours has with a traditional advertising firm? Are you going to creators in a different way?
It definitely changes, because creators have, I think, a lot more say and a lot more power, and they’re taking a bigger space at the table. So, gone are the days, I think, where it’s just you find a creator, you tell them exactly what you want to do. If you’re actually trying to drive real results and you want their fans to show up, they’re taking an audience-first approach. So first of all, you’ve got to find that creator that aligns with your values.
So you have to know they agree with you or they’re simpatico in that way before they start.
There’s got to be trust. . . . And the trust goes both ways. You have got to trust that they are aligned to your brand values, they are aligned to your customer base, because remember, you want to cut through, you want to break through, but you are not trying to cut out a big portion of your customer base. So you need to make sure that you have that trust that yes, they are aligned to your brand values, they’re aligned to your purpose, they’re aligned to the outcomes, but then you also have to trust them to give them the space to do what they do. Because it can’t come across as an ad. It has to come across as something more organic, something that they would truly want to do on their own, because that’s when their audience shows up, and that’s what determines the result.
Are you, in your conversations with your peers, with other CMOs, are you hearing them privately acknowledge like, Oh, we didn’t do that quite right? We alienated a group we didn’t want to.
One hundred percent, especially in today’s world. . . . As we’re having these private CMO roundtables, we’re all sharing, here’s what went wrong, here’s what went right, here’s what I learned. And a lot of it is just, the margin for error is a lot slimmer than it ever was. There is a very thin line between cutting through and cutting out. It’s like walking on high heels on a teeny-tiny thread. There is no margin for error. And so . . . a lot of CMOs are thinking about, How do I do this and how do I do this well? . . . And I think one of the things that’s really important is making sure that you have a broad pull at the table as these decisions are being made, and that you are also able to pivot and adjust very quickly.
I mean, you talked to me previously about this idea of opine with a spine, right?
Yes.
The idea that to break through, you have to say something sharp, but you’re also saying that the risk is higher than ever, but you have to take that risk. There’s no way out of this bind.
There’s no way out. Let me tell you. Weve got to give CMOs and marketers, all marketers at all levels, weve got to give [them] a break. It is a tough world out there. And so, yes, you have to opine with a spine, but you got to be careful what you opine on. So you need to pick the thing that truly makes sense for your brand and business. You cannot opine on everything. If you speak about everything, you’re speakingabout nothing. And if you end up speaking about things that you have not earned the right to speak about, you don’t have the credibility to speak about, you could end up in some real hot water that you don’t want to be on. Not the good kind of bath, the scalding kind of bath. So there really is that thoughtfulness that has to go into it.
On Sunday, J.J. Spaun sank a 64-foot putt to win the U.S. Open, one of the PGA Tours four major tournaments. Over the final seven holes, he made more than 136 feet of putts, including that curling 64-footer on 18. He was the only player to finish the U.S. Open under par, and it was his first career major win. It was also the first major win for L.A.B. Golf, the boutique manufacturer that outfitted Spaun with his DF3 custom putter.
L.A.B. Golf is the new company shaking up the putter circuit, and its innovation is simple. Traditional putters have shafts that attach in front of the clubface or at the heel, creating twisting forces during the stroke. L.A.B. putters position the shaft directly through the putter’s center of gravity, behind the face, the shaft stabbing the putter head like a toothpick spearing a square of cheese. This creates a nontraditional forward shaft lean that eliminates torque and helps the face naturally stay square throughout the putting motion.
J.J. Spaun reacts to making the winning putt on the 18th green during the final round of 125th U.S. Open Championship at Oakmont Country Club on June 15, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. [Photo: Ben Jared/PGA TOUR/Getty Images]
“Every other putter you’ve used, you’re trying to keep it square, Sam Hahn, L.A.B. Golf cofounder and CEO, says. With L.A.B., you’re trying to let it stay square. So it becomes more like so many other stroke sports out therethrowing darts, shooting a free throw, throwing a ballwhere you’re not thinking about managing the instrument, youre thinking about the target.
The company has been built on one simple philosophy: Putting doesnt have to suck.
[Photo: L.A.B. Golf]
An accidental garage innovation
In 2014, a Reno-based club builder named Bill Presse made an accidental discovery in his garage. While testing new designs, he stripped the grip from a putter, and when he grabbed the slick, ungripped shaft, his hand slipped and the putter face flopped open, almost instinctively. The putter head wanted to twist and turn on its own.
This sparked Presse’s curiosity. Using a makeshift device crafted from a crutch and fishing wire, he tested every putter in his collection to see if any would remain square when properly suspended. None did. So he drilled holes in dozens of putter heads to find the precise shaft placement that would eliminate the unwanted rotation.
This led him to design (and patent) the first lie angle balance putter, the Directed Force. He sold his L.A.B. putter directly out of his garage and at golf events and showcases.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by L.A.B. Golf (@labgolfputters)
A key early adopter
In 2017, Hahn acquired one of Presse’s putters from a golf instructor and experienced dramatic improvement on the greens. (For you golf nerds, he went from a 1 handicap to plus 3.5 in six weeks.) Then, the club’s head fell off. When Hahn called customer service and sent in his broken L.A.B. putter, Presse personally called to apologize.
Sam Hahn [Photo: L.A.B. Golf]
“We hit it off instantly,” Hahn says. “We talked for hours on the phone and learned that were kindred golf spirits.”
A few months later, Bill’s club-making company was struggling and was about to close its doors. Hahn, a music venue owner in Eugene, Oregon, and a closet golf addict, saw an opportunity and partnered with Bill in 2018 to form L.A.B. Golf.
“The lie angle balancing concept was there, but nothing else really was, Hahn says. The marketing wasn’t there, the manufacturing wasn’t there, the infrastructure, the branding, the general vibethere simply wasn’t a company there. But there was a concept.”
The L.A.B. Rats
With no marketing budget, L.A.B.’s growth had to happen organically. Hahn spent time jumping between golf forums and online groups, explaining the physics behind lie angle balance and taking a humble approach when skeptical golfers said their putters looked like branding irons.
“We knew we had to be a little self-deprecating and a little humble at first when we were out there making some pretty bold claims,” Hahn says.
[Photo: L.A.B. Golf]
Then, in 2021, Hahn discovered something unexpected: Two L.A.B. customers had created a Facebook group for L.A.B. fans. The group exploded into a thriving community where golfers share putting tips and success stories, many singing L.A.B.s praises. Hahn and his team began engaging with members, answering questions, and gathering feedback to inform their product design. Its a real-time focus group that Hahn and his team have leveraged to not only contiue to iterate and innovate, but to build putters that golfers actually want to use.
“I log on to Facebook at night and see what’s going on,” Hahn says. “So when we sit in a product meeting and try to figure out what we should do next, it’s easy, because the customers are telling us every day what they want next.”
Today, the group has been rebranded as the “Lab Rats.” It has more than 32,000 members and has been a critical component of the companys organic growth in popularity among amateur golfers.
Adam Scott holds a custom L.A.B. Mezz.1-style putter at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club on January 14, 2025 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. [Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images]
L.A.B. cracks the PGA tour
Pro golfers are notoriously traditional and skeptical toward innovation. Yes, there are outliers, like Bryson DeChambeau, a famous tinkerer who has even used 3D-printed irons.
Then theres Adam Scott: 2013 Masters champion, former World No. 1, and son of a club manufacturer.
Scott first saw L.A.B. design in action during the 2019 Pebble Beach Pro-Am, when surfing legend Kelly Slater used the Directed Force to dominate putting competitions.
“Kelly rolled it better than anyone in our groupthe two pros, the other amateur,” Scott recalls. “You couldn’t help but take notice.”
Scott began using the putter on the Tour in 2019, pivoting to the L.A.B. Golf Mezz.1 putter in 2022. The following year, Scotts curiosity evolved into collaboration when he and Hahn met at the L.A. Country Club for a couple of beers, talking putters and sketching designs on cocktail napkins.
The result: the L.A.B. OZ.1.
“The initial inspiration for the OZ.1 started far away from putters and was more about classic, timeless designs that I like, like a Porsche 911 or a Rolex Datejust watch,” Scott explains. “That was the starting point, and then the nice thing was that we got to include some of the real L.A.B. look in this more conventional design.”
Scott became L.A.B.s first official brand ambassador, and its easy to see why. Since switching to L.A.B. putters full-time in 2022, Scott has achieved remarkable consistency, ranking 19th and 27th on tour in strokes gained putting the last two years, a significant improvement from his previous putting struggles that once saw him rank as low as 188th.
And when one golfer tries something new and has success, others take note.
[Photo: L.A.B. Golf]
The Putter that won the U.S. Open
Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, and Lucas Glover are among roughly a dozen PGA Tour pros who have used L.A.B. putters. With them, of course, is Spaun, who wielded L.A.B.’s DF3 model on Sunday, a refined version of the company’s original Direct Force design.
Spans specific setup includes a 34-inch length, 70-degree lie angle, TPT graphite shaft, and two-degree shaft lean customized with a blacked-out Scotty Cameron grip. The putter paid dividends throughout the tournament, where he gained over 10 strokes on the field with his puttingthe second-best performance in the tournament. His final-round heroics included not just the tournament-clinching bomb, but also crucial birdies from 40 and 22 feet on the back nine.
Its been really good for me lately, Spaun said in a press conference earlier this year after The Players Championship, where he lost to Rory McIlroy in a playoff. Hopefully it keeps doing what its supposed to be doing.
[Photo: L.A.B. Golf]
Spaun’s win puts L.A.B. on the map
L.A.B. placed two players in Sunday’s final groups with Spaun and Scott each starting the final round in the top four, demonstrating the technology’s growing acceptance among golf’s elite performers, despite resistance from both players and manufacturers.
“The whole environment is wildly competitive, cutthroat even,” Hahn says. “The other reps actively work to keep their product in people’s hands, and they don’t like it when nobody from nowhere starts taking market share.”
Still, performance trumps politics. In addition to the dozen players on the Tour who have used L.A.B. putters, the companys European tour repreports 16 putters in play on the DP World Tour, signaling the putters slow but steady adoption.
Spauns U.S. Open win is yet another windfall for the young company looking to earn a larger share of golf’s massive equipment market, valued at $11.7 billion globally in 2025. The company itself has grown anywhere from 150 to 300% every year since inception, according to Hahn, quadrupling its employee headcount to 225 over the last two and a half years. Sales tripled in both 2023 and 2024, and the company is currently on pace to double sales in 2025, though Spauns win could accelerate that trajectory.
And theyve done it all while maintaining complete financial independence, and by defying conventional industry wisdom about marketing and endorsementswhich Hahn says theyll continue doing, as long as it keeps working.
“We don’t create product in the name of growth, Hahn says. We create product in the name of making a better product. The growth just kind of takes care of itself if you honor the consumer.
Winning the 2024 election came with lots of benefits for Donald Trump: more Cabinet secretaries to fire via tweet, more grimacing sit-downs with foreign heads of state, and more time beyond the reach of the criminal legal system, thanks to a generous assist from the conservative justices on the Supreme Court.
It also bought him (and his family) four additional years to fulfill the primary goal of the presidential campaign he launched a decade ago this month: extract as much money as possible from his adoring followers, for as long as they are willing to part with it.
Trump and his eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, wasted little time getting back to work, unveiling a dizzying array of cryptocurrency ventures that have netted hundreds of millions of dollars and counting, according to The Washington Post. (Another benefit of being the president: the power to set the regulatory agenda for the speculative assets in which you happen to be investing heavily.)
But they are also working hard on what might be an even more ambitious project: creating an alternative Trump-themed economy full of shoddy, overpriced consumer goods, betting that his acolytes will happily pay a premium for anything with his name slapped across the packaging.
The latest offering is Trump Mobile, a wireless plan priced at $47.45 per month. (Do you get it? 47 and 45? You get it.) The Trump Organization says Trump Mobiles unlimited talk-and-text planthe 47 Plan, in case the price was too subtle a referencewill come bundled with roadside assistance and device protection, as well as virtual medical care and prescription medication benefits at no additional cost.
Sure enough, a graphic posted on the Trump Mobile website promised subscribers 27/7 [sic] access to doctors from the comfort of their own homw” [sic]. The copy has since been corrected, but still, there is no better encapsulation of the modern Republican Party ethos than its leader promoting scammy-looking, typo-ridden healthcare via smartphone app while GOP lawmakers strip Medicaid for parts.
The Trump Organization is not actually operating a wireless networklike most Trump-branded products, Trump Mobile is a licensing deal with a business partnerbut Don Jr. and Eric both featured prominently during the rollout. For prospective users uninterested in using the 47 Plan with their regular smartphones, Trump Mobile is also offering (of course) a gold Trump-branded smartphone, the T1, for $499.
The website says the T1 is Proudly Made in America, but after enough annoyed supply chain experts noted its similarities to an existing Chinese-made smartphoneand explained in detail why domestic production of a smartphone at that price point is more or less impossibleEric Trump backed off this promise a bit: The phones, now available for preorder, can be built in the U.S. eventually, he said.
[Screenshot: Trump Mobile]
As detailed in Trumps financial disclosures released earlier this week, Trump Mobiles products are only the beginning of what you can purchase if, in your estimation, the markets usual offerings are simply too woke. You can buy Trump-branded watches, some of which allegedly feature a baseball card-style snippet of the suit Trump wore for his mugshot in 2023, for as little as $499 or as much as $100,000 (not a typo).
You can buy Trump fragrances, which the website advertises as Your Rallying Cry In A Bottle. There are Trump-branded guitars, Bibles, and sneakers. There is an entire publishing house, Winning Team, which is most famous for printing a Marjorie Taylor Greene book in Canada. These deals are nowhere near as valuable as Trumps crypto holdings, but still, in 2024, they earned him around $10 million in royaltiesa pretty nice annuity, in the event that the market for his meme coin collapses overnight.
These ventures have been successful enough that others are eager to get in on the action. Instant Pot reportedly has a collection of Trump-branded kitchen appliances in the works; Lenox has pitched a line of Trump dinnerware, flatware, drinking glasses, snow globes, and Christmas ornaments; and a pair of home goods companies have proposed to sell Mar-a-Lago and White House sheet sets. (A spokesperson told Semafor that proceeds from sales of these products would go to Trump’s presidential library, a maneuver often employed by people who want to give presidents money but would prefer to avoid doing so directly.)
[Screenshot: Trump Fragrance]
A February trademark filing by the LLC that manages Trumps licensing agreements illustrates the potential breadth of his burgeoning consumer goods empire. Among many other things, the application mentions virtual training services in the field of hotel and real estate management; virtual personal coaching services in the field of public speaking and fundraising; and virtual reality-based virtual worlds in which users can exchange digital goods and crypto currencies using only those images, texts, videos, and sound files authorized by the 45th and 47th President of the United States. (Authenticated by NFTs, naturally.)
Trademark applications are often drafted broadly, so the filing is not necessarily evidence that a MAGA-branded metaverse is about to launch. But it does suggest that there is basically no type of deal Trump wont make to squeeze more money from his followers. If people like Mike Lindell can cash in on grievance politics by linking it to a bedding brand, Trump and his sons figure they might as well take over the market while the market is hot.
Trump has spent most of his life as a freewheeling branding guy, as aficionados of Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, and Trump Ice Natural Spring Water can attest. But the market for stuff with his name on it is considerably more robust today than it was back when he was a tabloid-fodder reality TV host. These newer ventures are also not luxury-golf-resort tee times or penthouse hotel suites or condominiums in midtown residential towers; they are low-risk, low-effort deals seeking to capitalize not just on his celebrity, but also on the political movement he represents.
A discounted USA-themed phone plan is the exact sort of thing that might appeal to his supporters, and especially to the lower-income people and seniors among them. What better way to celebrate the triumphs of a candidate you voted for three times than paying for the privilege of seeing his logo every time you take your phone out of your pocket?
[Screenshot: Trump Watches]
Perhaps the grimmest throughline of the emerging Trump economys offerings is just how much contempt they evince for prospective buyers. As The Verge points out, Trump Mobile is a straightforwardly bad product relative to the major carriers prepaid brands, and even worse when compared with smaller alternatives. A Wired analysis found that Trump Mobiles baffling privacy policywhich claims that the just-announced company has somehow already collected consumers mail, email, or text message contentsappears to have been lifted from the Trump Organizations privacy policy.
At 404 Media, Joseph Cox called attempting to preorder a T1 the worst experience Ive ever faced buying a consumer electronic product. A Washington Post columnist who tried to sign up for Trump Mobile discovered that the plans $47.45 monthly cost tag does not include a $17.25 plan telecom tax, which sort of defeats the purpose of setting a novelty price point in the first place.
Even if Trump Mobile is not about to make the sitting president into the worlds next telecom mogul, his willingness to enter the market is part of a quantity-over-quality strategy designed to turn political supporters into loyal customers.
And, as his approval ratings slide, the sooner the better: If he spends the next three-plus years tanking the economy, waging a wildly unpopular war in the Middle East, and/or deploying the military on U.S. soil, even his target audience might decide that, come to think of it, their current phone plan isnt so bad after all.
