The Best of Fast Company
20+ most popular Fast Company articles, as voted by our community.
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Good leaders are good listeners. Here’s how to be one of them
These three skills are critical to become an effective leader.
5 key skills new managers will need this year
Skills that managers need to encourage thriving teams in hybrid work.
How to tell your boss “no” when they ask you to take on more work
Saying “no” to your boss is never easy.
5 barriers to break in order to build trust between coworkers
High-trust organizations refuse to leave people second-guessing.
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These 5-to-9 habits could be hurting your 9-to-5 productivity
The things you do outside your working hours directly affect how much you get done during the work day.
What you can learn about sleep from truckers
If you’re waking up tired every day, you might need to take a lesson from truck drivers who maximize their sleep schedules.
Generative AI tools are already changing the creativity landscape—and some artists aren’t happy about it
OpenAI, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion are roiling every creative industry. Are generative AI tools a creator’s best friend or an existential threat?
No one taught me the importance of managing up—here’s why you may need to be your boss’…
In one of my very first jobs, not managing up cost me my job.
Fast Company on Architecture
This ingenious wall could harness enough wind power to cover your electric bill
It could be used near buildings, in cities, or on the side of a highway.
These architects popularized the open office. Now they say ‘the open office is dead’
Clive Wilkinson Architects championed open offices for big companies such as Google and Microsoft. Now, as the pandemic has led to a massive overhaul of work life, they envision something completely…
Fast Company on Bill Gates
Bill and Melinda Gates have poured nearly $5 billion into education. Here’s what they spent it on
Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Laurene Powell Jobs are also donating huge amounts.
Bill Gates thinks Steve Jobs was a wizard
Gates says Jobs cast “spells” to keep Apple alive.
Fast Company on Career
Personal branding for people who hate personal branding
Self-promotion might not come naturally for some, but less outgoing people can use their natural strengths to create an authentic online presence.
Want a promotion? These 4 habits are more powerful than talent
Talent can only take you so far. The reason some people are high performers is because they’ve formed good habits.
«Success is often drawn from something you learned along the way. It may not have impact in the moment, but it may contribute to success later.»
Fast Company on Design
I helped pioneer UX design. What I see today horrifies me
Where did we go wrong?
«UX processes in many organizations these days amount to little more than UX theater»
10 new rules of design
The design industry has been caught up in Eurocentric ideas for too long. We talked to leading experts from MIT, Twitter, and more, who want to help break the spell.
Fast Company on Diversity
Remote work is the next diversity frontier
Organizations that don’t actively support remote work are limiting their capacity to engage with top talent.
See Big Tech’s terrible diversity record, visualized using its logos
Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook remain overwhelmingly white and male. Here’s a look at their diversity numbers, visualized through their logos.
Fast Company on Gadgets
The future is ear: Why “hearables” are finally tech’s next big thing
The explosive growth of their AI voice assistants has Google, Apple, and Amazon racing to put your entire smartphone in an earpiece.
The 10 most important product innovations of 2019
Video games. Augmented reality. Plastic shoes. And headphones made of microorganisms.
Fast Company on Housing
Exclusive: Airbnb will start designing houses in 2019
Airbnb wants to get into the housing business in a big way.
This startup wants to put a free tiny house in your backyard
Rent the Backyard will get a tiny house into your backyard in a matter of weeks—and hopes it can add some cheaper apartments in cities to help alleviate the housing crisis.
Fast Company on Productivity
How to transform your to-do list into a productivity power tool
It will likely require shifting your mindset in a few key ways.
«Once you know your priorities, everything on your to-do list should serve them.»
The 26 best new productivity apps for 2021
These great apps will help you organize your digital life, avoid unwanted distractions, and more.
«As an answer to all the cruft that Google’s email service has built up over the past 17 years, Simplify Gmail is a revelation.»
Fast Company on Tim Cook
Forget the new iPhones: Apple’s best product is now privacy
Under Tim Cook’s leadership, Apple saw just how critical an issue user privacy would become. Now it’s at least as important a feature as shiny industrial design or a nice camera.
Why Apple Is The World’s Most Innovative Company
In this exclusive interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, he explains the culture and approach that led to iPhone X, Air Pods, Apple Watch 3, and HomePod.
Fast Company on Vegan
This company has made a plant-based filet mignon
Juicy Marbles is rolling out one of the first high-end plant-based steaks. What does it taste like? And why is cofounder Vladimir Mićković willing to sing for reporters? We’ve got the answers to your…
You’ll be able to buy Impossible Burger in grocery stores starting in September
The faux meat has cleared a regulatory hurdle and now will be available to cook in your kitchen.
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5 habits of people who are especially productive working from home
Effective remote work involves these five habits, which prevent feelings of burnout and isolation.
«Instead, have a reductive mindset, where it becomes second nature to get rid of unnecessary things. “Developing a reductive mindset means you adopt a habit—a reflex, tendency, effortless first inclination—to . . . eliminate, or cut the unnecessary,” says Funt. “We must dismantle the additive instincts most companies and professionals have developed.”»
All the things COVID-19 will change forever, according to 30 top experts
The COVID-19 pandemic abruptly changed how the world does business. Work shifted, where possible, into people’s homes and online in accordance with social distancing guidelines. As a result, businesses’ longstanding resistance to remote employees dissolved, and the lines between work and family life, long blurred, blended overnight. Even when life returns to some form of normal, some of these changes will stick, according to tech journalist Mark Sullivan's interviews with CEOs and business leaders from a cross-section of industries.
Want to keep top talent? Create clear paths to advancement
Before climbing the ladder to CEO, this ad exec had 19 different jobs at the same company.
The World’s Most Innovative Companies 2021
Fast Company’s 2021 World’s Most Innovative Companies.
Your inability to ‘quiet your mind’ isn’t due to lack of effort. It’s the wrong goal
These thoughts may increase our negative self-talk and lower our energy, leading our stories to hinder our growth when they could be propelling it.
«Now, when they arise, I hear Dr. Taylor saying,“We have the power to choose who and how we want to be in any moment,” and befriend my inner voice instead.»
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