Fast Company Winter 2022/2023

What Is Productivity? Not long ago, the answer to that question, at least in certain quarters ofthe business world, would have included secrets to surviving (no, thriving!) on four hours of sleep, replacing solid foods with Soylent (so much faster, even more nutritious!), and an assortment of ridiculous life hacks in the manic pursuit of “crushing it” at work. Then came the pandemic and all the other chaos of the early 2020s. None of that was good, but it did have a silver lining: It made a lot of people realize they were burning themselves down to nothing at the office ... and neglecting the rest of their lives. Over the past couple years, the movement to decenter work and re-center everything else has become so prevalent that we briefly debated whether…

Most of the time, 21-year-old photographer and influencer Tati Bruening uses Instagram to post photos of herself and behind-the-scenes looks at her shoots for her 320,000 followers. But in July, she took to Instagram to clap back at it. Like TikTok, it had started pushing full-screen videos from people she wasn’t following into her feed, submerging the social aspect that had drawn her to the app in the first place. She channeled her ire into a cry that rocketed around the Instagram community when she posted it to her feed: MAKE INSTAGRAM INSTAGRAM AGAIN. (stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends) SINCERLY, EVERYONE “Everyone,” it turned out, included Instagram superusers Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, both of whom shared Bruening’s plea with their followers—360…

Rapper Kendrick Lamar sits between comedian ExavieiTV and billionaire investor Ray Dalio. The strange trio is discussing a problem: Exavier lost money in a dice game to a friend, torpedoing his plans to grow his barbershop—a fact we (most of us) know only byway of Lamar’s effordessly translating Exavier’s slang-heavy rant. Dalio offers a jargonfilled assessment of Exavier’s situation that Lamar distills into something decipherable: Avoid risky dice games and in vest in yourself. The clever scene, made by Lamar’s creative collective pgLang, was a recent ad from financial service platform Cash App. It’s just one of many savvy campaigns that’s made Cash App, which is owned by Block, an unlikely buzzy brand given that its main function is utilitarian: You send money You get money End of transaction. Cash App has…

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) racked up some eye-popping fundraising numbers in its 2021 fiscal year. It raised $484 million, which allowed the organization to increase its total grants awarded to more than $241 million—a 70% year-over-year increase. Those numbers are great news, but for Troy Dun mire, the organization’s chief operating officer, the real bottom line is a smaller figure unadorned by a dollar sign: 42,000. That’s how many patients received support through LLS’s patient financial aid programs during the year. “One person who actually survives their cancer and then ultimately thrives in society today—that is an incredible measure of success,” Dunmire says. “And that’s ultimately how you make the largest change in the world: one person at a time.” Supporting that metric can be both more rewarding and more…

Sitting inside every pair of Apple’s recently upgraded AirPods Pro is its new H2 chip. Like all Apple products, the H2 was designed in California. But it was likely built in Taiwan, home of supplier TSMC. This design-then-outsource method has become a staple of the U.S. approach to bringing upgraded semiconductors into cellphones, defense systems, and cars. U.S. chip manufacturing is now a third of what it was in 1990. To energize the domestic market and create jobs while addressing shortages and maintaining defense systems, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act. Whether it’s the best investment is an open question. Where Chips Go The bulk of semiconductor supply goes to computers and cellphones. Buyback Mountain Chipmakers that will benefit from U.S. subsidies have billions on hand for share buybacks. Raking in the Chips Apple's approach…

Like most larger men, Bruce Sturgell has spent a good portion of his life wearing some variation on ill-fitting khakis and tentlike polo shirts. “It’s the fat-guy uniform,” says Sturgell, founder of Chubstr, a fashion blog for plus-size men. “I hate it so much.” Sturgell, who has a 46-inch waist, has struggled since his teens to find stylish clothes that fit. Many menswear brands don’t go beyond a 40-inch waist, even though the average American man measures 40.5 inches around, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since Sturgell launched Chubstr 12 years ago, men’s fashion has become a little more inclusive, he says: Brands like Nike and Target’s private label Goodfellow & Co. now offer shirts up to 5X and pant sizes up to 42 or 4XL,…