Fast Company December/January 2018-19

secrets of the most productive staff

I enjoy Fast Company’s annual Secrets of the Most Productive People package in the same way an armchair tourist might experience magazines such as Departures or Travel & Leisure. I make a mental note of every tip and recommendation—then promptly ignore all the good advice I’ve just received. I know from reading psychologist Art Markman’s column in this issue (page 70) that I should limit my multitasking, and yet I know I will continue to answer emails while I’m on conference calls. Author Lee Child (page 74) tells us he has two computers in his office: an internet-connected one for research and another purely for writing. It’s a clever idea, but I could never make it through 20 minutes of writing without interrupting myself to look up something—usually unrelated—or check…

the beat of innovation

UNDER NEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF STEPHANIE Mehta, Fast Company has been running on all cylinders in 2018. And I couldn’t be more proud to be her partner atop this brand, the only media title dedicated fully to the beat of innovation. ¶ Since Stephanie joined Fast Company on March 5, we’ve been true to our beat: We’ve broken ground internally (Stephanie’s the first female and person of color to lead the brand in its nearly 25 years of publishing); we’ve redesigned the visual identity of our brand across the magazine and digital and experiential platforms (timed to our November issue); and we published a cover featuring a gay African-American woman (Backstage Capital founder Arlan Hamilton in October). And there’s so much more to come in 2019. For our marketing partners this year, the…

master of the games

Sporting a pair of black Jordan 11 Cap and Gowns that look like they were just unboxed and a dark baseball cap that casts a slight shadow over his baby-cheeked face, Delane Parnell fields questions from the audience at this September’s TechCrunch Disrupt, the annual San Francisco assembly that has become a startup kingmaker of sorts. He shares the stage with Jason Citron, founder and CEO of Discord, a messaging app for video gamers with more than 150 million users, and—after a $50 million fundraising round in April—a valuation of $1.65 billion. Parnell’s PlayVS (pronounced play versus), an e-sports platform for high schools, has raised just $15.5 million—and has yet to launch. But the 26-year-old Detroit native exudes confidence. “Investors are starting to realize that gaming is the next social…

welcome to the big leagues

$100 MILLION AMOUNT OF PRIZE MONEY FORTNITE PARENT COMPANY EPIC GAMES HAS COMMITTED TO 2018–2019 COMPETITIONS $11.2 MILLION First-place prize money taken home by the five-member og e-sports team for winning the 2018 Dota 2 tournament, known as the international 60 MILLION Unique viewers of last year’s six-week-long League of Legends World Championship, held in the Beijing National Stadium SOURCE: RIOT GAMES $500 THOUSAND Money spent by SUNY Canton to build an e-sports arena on campus $8,000 $500 AVERAGE RANGE OF A PARTIAL, ANNUAL E-SPORTS COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP SOURCE: NEXT COLLEGE STUDENT ATHLETE 1,500 student athletes in the national association of collegiate esports $50K Guaranteed minimum salary for players in the Overwatch League…

virtual athletics

MlS in January, major league soccer announced a partnership with ea sports, which makes the FIFA 19 video game, to create an emls league. it will pit the best players from the u.s. and canada against each other to determine who will represent the league in the fifa eworld cup. the tournament’s sponsors include at&t and wells fargo. NBA the nba 2K league, a partnership between the nba and game publisher take-two interactive, tipped off its inaugural season this past may with 17 teams (each owned by real-world nba franchises) competing for the $1 million prize. games were live-streamed on twitch, and sponsors included dell and intel. NFL and NHL owners pro sports team owners, including robert Kraft (new england patriots), stan and Josh Kroenke (los angeles rams), and Jeff wilpon (new york mets) each…

graphene dream

London-based adventure-wear maker Vollebak is known for technical innovation. Its latest accomplishment: creating a jacket out of the so-called “miracle material” graphene. This thin, strong, and versatile form of graphite can conduct heat and electricity—properties that could revolutionize everything from aerospace to medicine. “Graphene remains extremely difficult to work with, incredibly expensive to produce, and very hard to make in large quantities,” Vollebak cofounder Steve Tidball says. “Even two years ago this jacket would have been impossible to make.” Full Mineral Jacket Vollebak worked with a team of outside scientists to turn raw graphite into stacks of graphene that were blended with polyurethane to create a membrane. that was then bonded to nylon to form the jacket’s two-sided material. the company laser-cut the reversible panels and glued them together to use as…