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I can’t think of anything better than assembling Lego blocks. Except assembling gigantic Lego that I can actually walk, jump, and nap on. Which is precisely what Lego and Nike did at Baoshan No. 2 Central Primary School in Shanghai. The school has 1,400 students who previously had insufficient sport and play facilities. Nike, which is building 100 playgrounds in schools all around China, decided to partner with Lego to fix that (the two are already partners in a series of cross-branding Lego sets and sports gear). According to the companies, the design was deeply collaborative and student-drivenand it shows: Instead of the previous sad concrete playground there’s now a bright orange-and-yellow shock-absorbent bouncy surface. On it, drawn in white, a 2-by-3 brick outline marks play areas, serving as a blueprint for students to arrange giant blue or white Lego pieces of different shapes in obstacle courses and any other structure they can imagine. The concept originated from students at Baoshan No. 2 who participated in a Lego China Build the Change workshop, where they used Lego bricks to design their ideal playground. Several student insights directly shaped the final architectural design, according to the company. “Children are our role models and creativity is their superpower,” a Lego spokesperson told me. “They have an endless imagination and can think outside the box.” OLA Shanghai then translated the children’s miniature prototypes into a playground layout and full-scale modular structures, which are giant interlocking Lego pieces that could be easily assembled, reconfigured, and stored. Legos golden 2-by-3 rule The architects decided to build the playgrounds layout around the geometry of a standard 2-by-3 Lego brick, a plastic block with two lines of three studs, much like the Danish companys own Lego House. The 2-by-3 shape is painted on the ground, which serves as a blueprint for students to organize the Lego blocks that they can assemble for their own training and play circuits with bricks big enough to climb on. There are infinite configurations for the playground; the bricks can be stored when theyre not being used so the space can serve other purposes. In practice, the whole thing works like a life-size Lego set that allows children to become the architects of their own space. The playground features more than 10 dynamic zonesfrom athletic activities to imaginative spacesdesigned specifically for China’s “10-minute breaks, the government-mandated rest periods between classes designed to promote athletic and social interaction. Nike says that within these breaks kids are invited to move freely, play boldly, and unleash their creativity. The zones include adaptable climbing structures, balancing and exploratory elements, interchangeable routes and obstacle zones, and seating. Recycled sneakers The playground is made from recycled sneakers; Nike used approximately 4 tons of Nike Grind to build it. This is a material made from manufacturing waste and consumers’ old shoes, all processed into rubber granules at a facility developed and managed by Nike’s technology partner Tongji University. The entire buffer coating layer, which is the safety surface kids land on when they fall, was paved exclusively with Nike Grind. This playground is number 50 in Nike’s Sport Access for All initiative, which is committed to building 100 sustainable courts in Greater China by 2030 as part of the company’s Move to Zero sustainability program. Nike has been partnering with athletes, artists, and designers across China to create these spaces. Previous collaborations included the “Bufferfly Court” in Yunan province with fashion designer Susan Fang, the “CR7 Court” in Gansu province with footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (where limited-edition football boots were auctioned to fund construction), and the “FIBA Pigalle Basketball Court” in Beijing with Parisian designer Stéphane Ashpool. Nike told me the company partnered with Lego “because both brands share a deep belief in the power of creative play and movement to unlock kids’ potential.” The court at Baoshan No. 2 Central Primary School, Nike tells me, marks a “significant milestone” in combining youth sport, creative play, and sustainability in a single collaborative model. Lego says the company was “glad to join hands with Nike to support their Move to Zero initiative and help create an active play themed playground and bring the Lego play experience to more children,” which is marketdroid speak for We made a playground where kids can finally build something bigger than themselves. The playground is something they can actually use. And it’s something that doesn’t require batteries, screens, or a subscription service. Just imagination, rubber granules from old shoes, and blocks big enough to prove that sometimes the big ideas come from the people small enough to dream them up.
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E-Commerce
A single stream of income is simply not cutting it for todays young professionals. Instead, income stacking is the new way young people are weathering an unstable job market and rising cost-of-living. The annual Next Gen of Work survey from freelancer services company Fiverr polled over 12,000 respondents from both Gen Z and Gen Alpha across the U.S., the U.K., France, and Germany. It found that for almost half of Gen Z (46%), their biggest career fear is not making enough money to live comfortably. Cue income stacking. Gen Z is watching the single-paycheck model wobble, and instead of waiting for it to steady, theyre building safety nets of their own design, Michelle Baltrusitis, Fiverrs associate director of community and social impact, told Fast Company. Income stacking is their response to a volatile economya way to diversify risk and create stability on their own terms. While its not unusual for young people to work multiple jobs through college and early in their career, Gen Zers are stacking jobs on top of jobs as a way to DIY their own careers. (One Gen Zer, Carissa Ferguson, says shes earned more than $144,0000 selling voiceovers, content creation, and copywriting on Fiverrs platform.) Of those surveyed, 67% said that multiple streams of income were essential for a sense of financial security. Many are already striking out on their own, with 38% already freelancing or planning to startthe average age to start being just 19. The rising cost of living is just one part of the picture. Gen Z also isnt buying into what they see as a broken social contract, where a linear path up the career ladder is seen as the most reliable route to success and financial stability. Its also a generation in which freelance employment has been modeled in the form of influencers, content creators and podcasters online. As career paths grow less predictable, 56% of GenZ predict traditional employment will be rendered obsolete in the future. By forging their own paths, younger workers are no longer at the mercy of big companies that can lay them off at the drop of hat. In fact, the desire to work for a household name corporation ranked as one of the lowest career ambitions for Gen Z, at just 14%. Early-career workers are not trusting anybody else to take care of their future. For the first time, Gen Alpha was also included in Fiverrs survey, despite the oldest being just 14 years old. Rather than lemonade stands, social media has made it easier than ever for the next generation of workers to start their own side hustles. Of the more than 4,500 13- to 15-year-olds polled, 31% said they wanted to freelance, with 30% crediting social media for introducing them to different career paths. Their screentime is already paying off. A recent survey by social commerce platform Whop found Gen Alpha are pulling in an average of $13.92 per hour from their online side hustlesnearly double the U.S. federal minimum wage of $7.25. Based on those hourly earnings, that equates to a $28,000 full-time annual salary, all before turning 16. Hows that for pocket money?
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E-Commerce
Below, Marc Brackett shares five key insights from his new book, Dealing with Feeling: Use Your Emotions to Create the Life You Want. Marc is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor at Yales Child Study Center. He is the author of the bestselling book Permission to Feel and over 200 scholarly articles, with his research featured in the New York Times, Good Morning America, and Today. Together with Pinterest cofounder Ben Silbermann, Marc launched the award-winning How We Feel app. He is also the producer of the documentary America Unfiltered: Portraits and Voices of a Nation and host of the podcast Dealing with Feeling. Whats the big idea? Emotion regulation is one of the most important skills for both personal and professional success. With the right training, we can all replace poor habits (yelling, isolation, blame) with better strategies (breath, positive self-talk, reframing) that strengthen connection and well-being. 1. We need to give ourselves permission to feel. Most of us grew up hearing things like: Stop crying. Dont be so sensitive. Shake it off. And so, we learnedexplicitly or implicitlythat emotions are problems to avoid, not signals to explore. But ignoring or suppressing emotions can lead to anxiety, chronic stress, headaches, digestive issues, sleep disturbances, and even long-term impacts on physical and mental health. It also makes it harder to connect with others and regulate emotions effectively. Giving yourself permission to feel means embracing all emotions with curiosity, not judgment. It means saying to yourself: This is how I feel right now, and its okay to feel this way. Let me understand it. That moment of acknowledgment is the gateway to healing, growth, and making wiser decisions. Emotions are not weaknesses. They are data. When we approach emotions with empathyfor ourselves and otherswe create the conditions for insight and resilience. The challenge is that only a third of people report having permission to feel when they were young. What will make us all feel that we have permission to feel? 2. Emotion regulation is 100 percent learned. Where did you learn how to manage emotions? Was it through watching your parents? Was it from teachers? Friends? Maybe no one ever taught you directly, but you still learned. We all did. Ask yourself, on a scale from one to five, how much emotional education you received growing up. And how much of that education helped you develop effective regulation strategies? My research shows that only about 10% of people feel as if they had a solid education in emotion regulation. Common default strategies (especially in moments of stress) include avoidance, yelling, eating, scrolling, numbing, blaming others, or blaming yourself. These are not character flaws. They are just what you learned. But the good news is that because emotion regulation is learned, it can also be relearned. My research shows that only about 10% of people feel as if they had a solid education in emotion regulation. You can upgrade your emotional regulation strategies to include techniques such as deep breathing, accurately labeling emotions, practicing positive self-talk, reframing situations, or seeking support. These are teachable, learnable, and they work. But they require intention, practice, and sometimes unlearning what no longer serves you. 3. Breathing is necessary but not sufficient. Breathing is a powerful tool, and I teach it to everyone, from kindergartners to CEOs. Conscious breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, helping us move from the fight-or-flight response to the rest-and-digest state. It deactivates our stress response and creates space for wiser choices. Thats why I call it the master strategy. But breathing is only the beginning. The real transformation happens after breath. Once youve calmed your body, what do you do with your mind? What story do you tell yourself? What action do you take? Breathing helps you press pause, but it doesnt solve the problem. That takes reflection, strategy, and sometimes courage. The other day, I visited a middle school classroom and asked a student what hed do if someone were mean or hurtful to him. He said, Take a deep breath. I replied, Thats great, but whats next? He couldnt answer. Breath is only the bridge that takes you to the side where real emotion regulation work can begin. 4. You are what you think. When you make a mistake, whats the first thing you say to yourself? Do you call yourself an idiot, or do you say, Hey, everyone messes up. Its okay. Ill apologize, learn from it, and move on. That inner voice shapes everything from your emotional state to your behavior to your sense of self-worth. And that voice can be trained. Two of the most powerful strategies are positive self-talk and reappraisal. Positive self-talk isnt about pretending everything is fine. Its about being kind and encouraging to yourself, especially in tough moments. Its even more effective when spoken in the second or third person: Marc, take a breath. Youve got this. That subtle shiftcalled psychological distancinghelps us regulate better by stepping back from the heat of the moment. Reappraisal, or reframing, means choosing a new lens through which to view a situation. Its the difference between This is a disaster and This is a challenge I can learn from. I like to say: reframe instead of blame. That inner voice shapes everything from your emotional state to your behavior to your sense of self-worth. For instance, I tend to repeat myself a lot during keynote presentations. There are days when I say to myself, Really, Marc, this is what you are going to do for the rest of your life? But I know better than to go on stage with that mindset. So, I reappraise. Recently, I gave a big talk at a tech company, and I switched my internal dialogue to, Marc, you are going to present your lifes work to over 1,000 engineers, managers, and leaders. Think about the impact you can have on their personal and professional lives. With that mindset, I gave one of my best talks! 5. Focus on other people. When were anxious, angry, or overwhelmed, the instinct is often to withdraw, ruminate, isolate, or spiral inward. But research tells us that reaching out to support others who are suffering is a helpful strategy for healing not only them, but us too. This is a form of co-regulation. When we help others manage their difficult emotions, we simultaneously help regulate our own. Parents do this with their children all the time, but its just as relevant in friendships, workplaces, and partnerships. When you show up for someone else with empathy, patience, and presence, then you also create connection. You model emotional intelligence, and your kindness has the potential for ripple effects. Even witnessing someone else being emotionally supportive can inspire others to do the same. Next time youre feeling low, ask: Who else might be struggling? And how can I helpeven in a small way? You might find that helping someone elseis the most effective way to help yourself. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Category:
E-Commerce
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