Costco is well-known for its no-questions-asked return policy. Now some shoppers are taking it upon themselves to test the limits of that policy.
Returning my slime stained carpet to Costco, one TikTok user posted earlier this month.
Costco offers customers an unlimited grace period to return most purchases for a full refund, earning the wholesaler a top-six spot among stores with exceptional return policies, according to a 2023 ranking by U.S. News and World Report.
While the customer received a full refund for the ruined rug, the comments section on the TikTok video was divided. That’s embarrassing for you, one person wrote. This just seems wrong, another added.
For others, its simply about getting their moneys worth. I could be mad but in this economy . . . hell yeah, one comment read. Even Costco employees chimed in. Our upper management has said Costco makes way too much money. [T]hey would rather take the hit than lose a member, one wrote. Customer satisfaction at the end of the day.
What if the rug is in perfect condition but you just dont like it anymore? No problem. Another TikTok user returned a rug bought over a year ago because it no longer matched their aestheticand received a full refund.
@brooke_mydlo Ive always wondered how good costcos return policy is. Today I found out. #costco #momlife #costcofinds #costcoreturn original sound – brooke_mydlo
Costcos return policy is not only open-ended in terms of time frame, but it also doesnt clearly define the condition items must be in upon their return to the store. One person returned a broken couch four years after buying it. Another brought back a half-eaten chicken bake. Both were refunded in full. This is why we cant have nice things, one person commented.
This isnt the first time customers have pushed the policys boundaries. One notable return made headlines in 2018 when a woman brought back her dried-up Christmas tree in January.
Extreme as it may seem, the policy supports Costcos membership model. Kudos for Costco, the couch-returner said at the end of his video. Youve got me as a client for life now. Research shows that restrictive return policies can cost retailers business, whereas positive return experiences often lead to more purchases.
Still, that doesnt mean the customer is always right. Of the $685 billion in U.S. retail merchandise returned in 2024, $103 billion was attributed to return/claims fraud or abuse, according to a 2024 report from Appriss Retail and Deloitte.
Just because you can, doesnt always mean you should.
There’s an air of panic in the media world. The specter of AI has been looming large for a couple of years now, but the threat now appears to be solidifying. Publishers are reporting that search traffic is in free fall, and there’s overwhelming evidence that AI chatbots give very little in terms of referrals. What to do about “Google Zero” has gone from a theoretical destination to a reality that the media world must contend with.
Of course, panicking is never a good strategy. But pivoting can be, and there’s been no shortage of that lately. Both Wired and The Verge announced this week a stronger push into newsletters, one of the more reliable ways to connect directly with readers. When Business Insider recently announced layoffs, it also said it would invest in live events. And even publishers that already charge for subscriptions are doubling down on them: Newsweek will launch new types for both consumers and businesses, and The Guardian now has a new, cheaper tier for readers who want to opt out of personalized ads.
While AI may be the impetus behind a lot of these changes, they’re all directionally pushing toward building direct relationships with audience members. That is smart, but at a more basic level, they’re appealing to human desires that go beyond just getting informationa task AI fulfills very effectively. Offerings like newsletters, memberships, and events give a sense of belonging, encourage reading habits through consistency, and emphasize voiceeither that of the brand or the individual writer.
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Within all this is the beginnings of a post-Google content strategy for media. But really, it’s only half a strategy because it only accounts for humans. Much of internet activity in the future will be the result of bots, whether they’re hoovering up data to inform AI models or acting as agents on behalf of individual users. Data from TollBit indicates bot crawling is already comparable to what the big (non-AI) search engines dowhen everyone has their own AI agent, I would wager it will be the majority. Any forward-looking content strategy needs to take into account both humans and machines.
The new organic audience
Let’s start with the people. A few months ago, I hosted a webinar on the types of content that are most resilient to AI summarization. AI does a great job of summarizing news, but it struggles with voice and unique perspectives. The consequence: If you want good opinion and analysis, you’ll need to click through. Visual and interactive content is poorly conveyed by AI. And because AI is well known to hallucinate sometimes, anything that might inform a crucial decision for a readerlike context for health, legal, or financial decisionswill likely motivate readers to check the original source.
Certainly, memberships and subscriptions are important mechanisms to build a loyal audience, but they also need to be centered around something readers can’t get anywhere else. That usually means narrowing the lens of focus rather than widening it. Niche subjectseven within a more general brandwill typically see higher engagement and more loyalty than general ones.
Then there’s the stickiness of interactivity. One thing that emerging media platforms like Substack and TikTok do well is encouraging direct conversation between content creators and audience members. But being interactive doesn’t always have to be so hands-on: Semi-automated features like polls, quizzes, and games are all effective habit-buildersand cannot be substituted by AI.
Rise of the machines
If you think about it, there’s a kind of a “well, duh” quality to all the reports that confirm people don’t click through to sources when they use AI. (Pew Research just put out another, by the way.) That’s because removing the need to click is largely the point. Why go and read a whole bunch of articles when bots can do it for you?
But that reveals the other side of the coin: Bots are now doing the searching and the clicking, and that activity is traceable, measurable, and potentially monetizable. In other words, the inevitable rise in bot traffic represents both an unprecedented threat and a massive opportunity.
First, there’s the obvious idea of charging bots to scrape your site. Putting in paywalled endpointswhere AI bot operators pay a small fee to access contentmay work, especially now that Cloudflare is leading the charge in empowering website owners to block bots. However, it greatly depends on the scrapers acting in good faithand even if they do, it’s doubtful if the fee per scrape that publishers charge would ever be enough to build a sustainable business.
What could help is winning the next SEO war: AIEO, or artificial intelligence engine optimization. Being one of the primary sources in an AI Overview or a ChatGPT answer might not seem like much of a prize, given the low click-through rates. But if you pair it with both a pay-per-crawl mechanism and a content strategy that focuses on the AI-resilient content types discussed earlierthe ones that have a higher chance of audiences seeking them outthe benefits could end up being more than mere bragging rights.
This kind of AI-first content strategy does require a more sophisticated approach. You’d have to make use of the full search and AI toolbox, including things like Google snippets to ensure AI crawlers highlight the most enticing parts of your content without giving the store away, and MCP servers that can ensure bots have diect access to the content you green-light for them. While that can be technically cumbersome, the market is already adapting, with AIEO specialists like Scrunch AI offering one-stop-shop packages that essentially make a bot-friendly copy of your website so that crawlers can feast while humans enjoy your regular site.
Smaller, better . . . robot-ier?
The truth about the future of media is that the audience, the human audience, will be smaller for pretty much everyone. As more people get their information from AI portals, publishers will need to make the most of the few people who come directly to them. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Going small can ultimately be part of a healthier brand of journalism, as I argued in my very first column.
But the parallel trend is that the bot audience is rising fast, and it undoubtedly will be a dominant force in the way information is distributed. Harnessing that force will be essential for the media. And though there are still a lot of unknownsthe best practices, the legal framework, even the potential rewardsat least it’s easy to see what not to do: wait.
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Its true that personal ambition fuels success. But we can reach a dangerous tipping point when healthy drive becomes hyper-ambitiona compulsive cycle of excessive striving that becomes self-defeating.
Unlike healthy ambition that energizes you, hyper-ambition can leave you perpetually unsatisfied, overextended, and grinding to exhaustion. The cost isnt just personalhyper-ambition eventually undermines the very professional success it promises.
Heres how to recognize if youve crossed into the danger zoneand take practical steps to realign toward healthy ambition.
1. You Feel Like Youve Never Achieved Enough and Are Never Satisfied
Are you on a professional achievement treadmill, immediately shifting focus to your next goal after hitting a milestone?
While accomplishments and rewards can provide short-term satisfaction, the challenge to getting into such a rhythm is that you may pursue goals without considering what you truly want. This can catch up to you when you realize youve met external expectations but never connected to your internal motivation, leaving you dissatisfied.
Putting all your attention against the pursuit of professional validation can also lead to ignoring key areas of ones life that affect long-term happiness and well-being, such as your personal relationships, your health, and activities that fulfill and restore you.
To realign to healthy ambition, orient your goals toward internal motivation firstits a better predictor of engagement and success. Research has shown that putting attention and focus on personal success linked to fulfillment, satisfaction, and happiness begets external success, while the opposite focus doesnt hold true.
Start with your values: test if a goal is aligned with what is important and matters to you, rather than solely meeting external expectations. Academic studies have shown that aligning our goals with our values leads to more satisfaction, higher persistence, and more goal attainment.
Expand your ambition to include meaningful life goals and challenge what success truly means in your life. Studies confirm that once our basic needs are met, more income, wealth, or possessions dont correlate with lifelong happiness. Plus, Gallup research finds that well-being isnt tied just to career or finances, but also encompasses physical, social, and community well-being.
2. You Feel Constantly Over-Extended and Frustrated You Cant ‘Do It All’
Do you say yes to every opportunity without strategic prioritization, then feel stretched thin and frustrated by your inability to pursue them all effectively?
This suggests you either think more is always better, leading to overload and overwhelm, or you may not have an approach to help you choose where to put your time and attention when faced with seemingly equally valid goals.
To shift toward focusing on what matters, use strategic methods to make conscious choices. Create and visualize a goal system by identifying your core priorities and mapping how other goals connect. This can reveal if youre pursuing too much, show how aligned actions serve multiple goals, and reduce perceived friction between supposedly competing goals. You can maximize goal attainment by creating these positive connections, minimizing conflicts, and better understanding trade-offs you may make.
When faced with choices, apply the urgencyenergy filter. Ask, What has urgency, and do I have energy for it? This reveals several strategies:
Prioritize: Commit to high-urgency, high-energy ambitions
Reinterpret: For high-urgency, low-energy goals, find ways to achieve the same outcome with less time and effort
Postpone: Back-burner lower-priority ambitions
Let go: With self-compassion, release goals that no longer serve you
Learn to compromise wisely by focusing on what matters at this time rather than trying to do everything.
3. Youre Grinding Hard All the Time Without Recovery
How often do you find yourself compulsively working, putting in excessive hours without recovery time, leaving you exhausted?
Operating in a persistent high-performance mode leads to unproductive stress, causing your physical and mental health to suffer. Ironically, your productivity declines and your work suffers, too.
To break this pattern, be strategic about managing your effort and prioritizing recovery.
Our ambitions arent created equal. Be discerning about the effort put against your goals by asking three key questions:
Aspiration: How good do I want to be at this?
Determination: What is worth the hard work?
Motivation: How much effort do I want to put in and whats required?
Additionally, manage perfectionism. Be conscious about where you apply excellence and give yourself permission to say this is good enough for lower-stakes areas.
Finally, make recovery a leadership imperative. Doris Kearns Goodwin, the celebrated presidential biographer, has said: The most underappreciated leadership strength is the ability to relax and replenish energy. Research shows we paradoxically neglect recovery practices when we need them most. We need a deliberate plan to sustain ourselves for the work that matters and to prioritize time to psychologically disconnect from work.
Sustainable success comes from strategic ambition, not hyper-ambition. The idea that you have to choose between being ambitious and being well is a false choice. The goal shouldnt be to eliminate ambition, but to keep it in a healthy zone where it energizes rather than depletes youallowing you to achieve what you really want both professionally and personally.
The YIMBY (yes in my backyard) movement has achieved remarkable growth in the past few years, uniting people across the political spectrum who share a common belief: It should be easy to build more housing. You can find shared interests among unlikely alliances when you step out of political tribes. People who label themselves as socialists and capitalists are standing at town hall podiums to support and promote abundant housing. High fives! Hooray for unity, right?
Insert record scratch. Socialists and capitalists have economic worldviews that are incompatible with each other. There’s definitely consensus about the ends (plenty of homes), but the means will be hotly debated. The clash was inevitable, and the recent book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance, has keyboard warriors starting to realize there are a host of competing opinions on how to get past the gatekeepers who would have homes remain scarce.
You might think something as apolitical as a townhouse wouldnt be a lightning rod for a populist left-versus-right debate. The reason is economics. Considering the surge in populism in recent years, its worth understanding why economics, not neighborhood character, is at the heart of the argument.
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The Socialist YIMBY
Socialist YIMBY advocates believe housing should be universally accessible, treated fundamentally as a human right rather than a commodity to be bought and sold for profit. Prominent democratic socialists, like New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh, argue for “decommodifying” housing, where the government would guarantee homes. Market forces are not part of the equation. A socialist YIMBY is going to want state-managed housing solutions, price controls, rent freezes, and strict regulations on private ownership. Mamdani even said hed be open to the abolition of private property if it meant getting people places to live.
Socialist YIMBYs build their case on fairness, social justice, and community stability. They argue that a free market creates disparities, displaces vulnerable populations, and commodifies essential human needs. The belief here is that removing profit motives from housing reduces speculation, stabilizes communities, and ensures housing stability and equity, prioritizing human dignity and communal well-being above private gain.
The Capitalist YIMBY
Capitalist YIMBY advocates believe in leveraging market mechanisms. To them, the root cause of housing shortages lies in artificial restrictions imposed by zoning laws, burdensome permitting processes, and other bureaucratic interference. Their economic rationale hinges on the concept of supply and demand, and prices as crucial signals.
Capitalist YIMBYs argue that when the price of a type of home goes up in an area, it signals to developers, investors, and builders that demand is high and supply low. Rather than suppressing these signals through artificial price controls, they propose getting rid of laws that prohibit housing and streamline approval processes in order to spur rapid and flexible housing production. They argue that robust competition among builders and investors inherently leads to diverse housing options, lower overall costs, and more innovation in housing solutions.
The Perplexed YIMBY
A person is standing at the philosophical crossroads to abundant housing and two fellow YIMBYs are giving conflicting directions: We have to go left. No, we have to go right.
Socialists look at capitalist solutions as inherently exploitative, always creating more inequalities, and they believe profit motives are what make homes too expensive. Capitalists look at socialist solutions as inevitably leading to inefficiencies, housing shortages, and stagnation.
When Ive asked people about their take on this conflict, a common response is something like Well have enough homes for everyone if building regulations are relaxed and the government is in charge of low-income housing. I believe thats wishful thinking, since it brings us right back to the fundamental disagreement on economics. A capitalist will say, There is a market for small and modest housing, so get the government out of the way. The socialist will say, We dont believe you.
I truly believe that populists on the left and the right want there to be enough homes for everyone. But its also clear that the populist left and right will forever treat each other like theyre living in a cartoon or comic book. Im the good guy and youre the bad guy. In spite of their shared interest in abundant housing, the socialist YIMBYs and capitalist YIMBYs are never going to agree on the means to the end.
The best first step is something both sides claim to support: getting rid of the local regulatory barriers that are preventing anyone from building a granny flat, a townhouse, a duplex, etc.
Legalize housing and lets see where that takes us.
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Get up. Start work. End work. Eat dinner. Get a few things done. Sleep. Rinse and repeat.
Sometimes it can feel like weeks, months, or even years, fly by without feeling like much has happened.
As a time management coach, I help clients make many tasks in life automatic so that they can accomplish more in less time and with less effort. To optimize our efficiency and effectiveness, routine is a necessary part of our lives. The only issue is when youre so systematized that youre not fully experiencing the joy and meaning in your life. Youre just checking things off the list.
But what if there could be some simple, accessible ways to slow down the passage of time and fully engage in your life? Im here to offer you good news: There are.
With these three simple tricks, you can start to feel like youre experiencing your days instead of speeding through them.
Savor the Little Things
Lifes simple, everyday moments can be incredibly satisfying, if you let them. But so often, were rushing through an activity or multitasking through it so much so that it simply passes us by.
Researchers encourage mindful attention where you take notice of whats happening in familiar experiences to sensitize yourself to the joy they offer.
Ive found that some small, intentional choices can make a big difference in my life. One ritual that Ive incorporated when the weather is nice is to sit outside during lunch and eat without doing anything else in particular. This little break to just stop and notice the grass, the trees, the flowers, the birds, and anything else around me helps me to fully experience the beauty of the season.
Another choice that Ive made is when I hold my daughter at night before bed to keep my phone away from me. Its not a very long timejust about 10 minutesbefore I lay her down in her crib for the night. Although the time is short, I find its some of the moments that I stop and appreciate the gift of her precious life the most. Shes growing so quickly, and I dont want to miss out on enjoying my daughter because Im doing something else while Im with her or always trying to head on to the next activity.
How about you? Is there an area where you could stop multitasking and more fully enjoy the precious moments around you?
Sprinkle in Novelty
Another way to extend the feeling of time is to sprinkle in dashes of the out-of-the-ordinary that break up your routine. When youre only doing your habits, your brain blends together the experiences from day-to-day. But when you do something distinctive, you experience the novelty effect where your brain has a higher state of attention and stores the experience as a separate and distinct memory.
This could look like signing up to attend larger events like going to a new work conference or taking a vacation to explore a different locale. Or you can add in novelty in much smaller ways throughout your weeks to help you feel like life isnt passing by in a blur.
On the professional side, small moments of novelty could look like adding in some networking lunches or events where you connect with new people and see new places. Or it could look like learning a new skill that you havent tried your hand at before. Or it could look like setting up your computer at a new coworking space or coffee shop.
On the personal side, you could attend a local festival instead of watching Netflix, check out a new restaurant in town instead of going to the place where youre a regular, or try out a new workout class instead of going to the one youve attended for years.
Its completely fineand even goodto have routines and do standard things you enjoy. But mixing up your experience every once in a while can help you slow down your subjective experience of time.
Is there some novel experience you could insert in your life this week?
Stop Trying to Keep Up
In a time not so long ago or far away, there were no smartphones, no apps, and no streaming services. And life was well, good.
Another way to slow down time is to take away the pressure that just because you could do something that you should. Just because someone you follow posted something doesnt mean you need to read it. Just because some major world event is happening doesnt mean you need to be an expert on it. Just because a new season of a show came out that you like doesnt mean you need to watch it nowor ever.
Most of the content created in the world is entirely optional for you to read or consume. Letting go of the need to engage 24/7 can dramatically increase your feeling of being relaxed and like you have more time.
In my personal life, Ive placed boundaries on social media use. I dont even have accounts on some social media apps, and for the ones where I do engage, I try to limit myself to a few times a week. When I get the itch to engage more often, I try to pick up a book instead. Its a lot more satisfying to get through a relevant book than to scroll endlessly through a feed.
Do you pressure yourself to keep up on content where you dont have an actual responsibility to engage? If so, how could you lower your standards to open up more time and space to just be?
A lot of life is routine. Thats not a bad thing. But by trying out these strategies, you can slow down your perception of time and experience deeper satisfaction in the moments.
Not long ago, leaders largely steered clear of the rough-and-tumble of politics. They inhabited a culture of impartiality, and for the most part stayed in their lane, rising now and then when called upon to offer observations about their specific sectors.
Those times are over.
We now live in an era of CEO activism, where shareholders, employees, and consumers expect corporate leaders to take a stand on issues far beyond their core industryissues like immigration, DEI, or gender rights.
Whereas before, hardly anyone outside of their industry could pick a chief executives out of a lineup, todays business leaders from Howard Schultz to Bill Gates to Elon Musk are household names, with the ability to influence public discourseand policywith a single tweet.
For a business, there are distinct advantages to taking a political stand. At the same time, there is a fine line between brand enhancement and brand destruction. In this climate, how can a leader be transparent about her or his belief system without alienating anyone?
Rewards and Risks
First, its hard, if not impossible, to reveal your belief system without alienating someone. Its almost a given: audiences and stakeholders these days may demand a political stand, but they can also be thin-skinned and easily offended when they dont agree with that stand.
For the leader, the key is to avoid alienating significant portions of the constituencies and stakeholders responsible for the companys ultimate success: shareholders, employees, and consumers.
When it comes to affiliating openly with a political figure or party, there can be advantages, such as privileged access and perhaps the ability to favorably influence policy direction. That said, there are also risks. Some of them are obvious: political fortunes are volatile, and public opinion is fickle, both of which can spell trouble for an aligned business. Political leaders have many priorities, and can shift their own positions on a dime, leaving a company that has publicly pledged allegiance with a case of whiplash. They are also prone to scandal, leaving aligned brands exposed to public outrage.
Moreover, while there are certainly dangers in speaking out, silence can also have negative consequences in the public eye.
Its important to realize that political parties, personalities, even movements come and go. Leaders are in this for the long haul; they should want their company to prosper for more than one election cycle.
Recent events demonstrate the power of public opinion. The Trump administrations executive orders against diversity and inclusion initiatives split the business communities. Target rushed to align with the new directives, but Costco remained true to its own DEI stance. As a result, consumers punished Target and rewarded Costco.
Staying true to the core
Remember that politicians are paid to be politicians. Executives are not. Leaders are paid to ensure a company grows and prospers far into the future. That might mean rubbing elbows with those in power, or even contributing to campaigns, but it does not have to mean selling the soul of your identity, i.e. politicizing the brand or dragging a companys image (along with you) for the sake of a small short-term advantage. Reputations are hard to rebuild, and customers, once lost, are hard to reclaim.
While a leaders personal beliefs may inform actions both private and professional, there are a few basic principles that can act as guardrails, providing the freedom to be transparent while preventing the leaders viewpoints and actions from creating conflicts and harming the companys fortunes.
1. Focus on values, not politics
Nobody expects an executive and a workforce of thousands to agree on every issue. But a leader can set the tone by emphasizing core organizational values rather than personal political opinions. Companies are strongest when they articulate and consistently adhere to a clear set of valuesregardless of shifting political winds.
2. Tie beliefs to business mission
As a leader, you are a steward of your companys missionnot a political spokesperson. If your personal convictions align with your businesss purpose, express them in a way that supports that mission. If they dont, reflect on whether your current role aligns with your values. A CEO thrives when personal belief and business purpose reinforce one another.
3. Build credibility through consistency
While political trends are fickle, brand trust is built over time. Consumers reward companies that consistently uphold their stated commitmentswhether to sustainability, product quality, or inclusion. Consistency is credibility.
4. Respect dissent, invite dialogue
Foster a culture where respectful disagreement is welcome. Employees should feel safe expressing differing opinions without fear of retaliation. Provide spacesforums, listening sessions, anonymous feedback toolsfor difficult conversations to happen constructively. Diversity of thought is a strength, not a liability.
5. Be strategic
If you choose to speak out, do so with intention. Consult your communications team, evaluate stakeholder impact, and conduct a risk-benefit analysis. As Harvard Business Review contributors Aaron Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel advise: Select issues carefully, reflect on the best times and approaches to get involved, consider the potential for backlash, and measure results.
Whos doing it right?
A number of well-known CEOs have made a point of voicing their beliefs, and have not suffered for it. On the contrary, they have developed a leadership style that manages to be both values-informed and advantageous from a business standpoint.
1. Satya Nadella (Microsoft). Nadella openly discusses empathy and his Hindu faith, speaking often of caring for his son with special needs. He is upfront about his personal values of humility and purpose, but does not impose these upon the firm directly, emphasizing instead organizational culture and customer impact. Under his watch, Microsoft has quadrupled its market capitalization.
2. Dan Schulman (former CEO, PayPal). Schulman has been vocal in support of social justice and economic inclusion, which he links to his personal Jewish ethical values. PayPal pulled out of North Carolina to protest anti-LGBTQ legislation, a move that was criticized by the right but rewarded by stakeholders, with shareholder returns remaining strong.
3. Rose Marcario (former CEO, Patagonia). Markarios Buddhist beliefs and environmental ethics were strongly aligned with Patagonias corporate mission. So when the company sued the Trump administration over its intention to dismantle and sell off national monuments, it mobilized the companys core outdoor audience and strengthened the brand, with increases in both consumer loyalty and profits.
4. Ken Frazier (former CEO, Merck). In 2017, Frazier resigned from President Trumps American Manufacturing Council following the administrations tepid response to the white supremacist marches and ensuing violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Fraziers action was see as deeply principled, and Mercks shareholder value was not damaged. Other CEOs (UnderArmour, Intel, et al) followed suit, in part because Fraziers action created a public demand for moral leadership.
Finding balance
In the end, leaders must balance their own need to reveal their personal beliefs with the greater good of the organization. This is both an internal and external journey that requires a high degree of reflection as well as an appreciation for the complexity of the company and its role in both the market and society.
Its an extremely challenging time to be a leader, but also an exciting one.
One of the best predictors of your happiness at work is whether you have colleagues that you are close with. You dont necessarily need to be friends with your colleaguesthat is, you may not want to hang out with them outside of workbut you do want to have people you feel you can talk with and share your experiences.
Unfortunately, many people feel like they dont have anyone at work that they know well at all. Workplaces have gotten more efficient, and so there is less time for people to engage in small talk that solidifies their relationships with others. In addition, even at workplaces where everyone is working on-site, there are still many meetings done via videoconference, so it is hard to connect with your colleagues before or after to say a few words.
If youre feeling lonely at work, there are a few things you can do.
Make space and time for relationships
Developing better relationships with your colleagues may seem like a waste of time, but it isnt. Not only does it help to predict workplace satisfaction, but having close colleagues also helps to build trust.
Some amount of trust building involves demonstrating to people that you will carry out tasks that you promised and do your work well. But, a lot of trust is built through relationship development. You tend to trust people you know well. When you let people in on details of your life, youre showing some vulnerability, which also builds trust.
Indeed, when you think about it, the people you are closest to in your life are people you share a lot of your life with. They know what you like, what you want, and what you have done. They have shared good times and bad. That sharing influences trust in the workplace as well, and so it is valuable to set aside some time to build your relationships with others.
Take some initiative
When youre feeling lonely at work, you may also feel rejected by others. You may look around and see other people having conversations and wonder why nobody has talked with you. You might even start to wonder if there is something wrong with you that is preventing other people from wanting to engage with you.
Rather than wallowing in the feeling that you dont deserve to be close to your colleagues, do something about it. Invite a colleague for coffee or lunch. Bring in pictures of your kids, pets, plants, or the products of your hobbies. Create chances for people to get to know you better.
Over the years, I have collected and built a variety of Lego models. I have brought the finished models to my office, and I display them there. They are there in part because I think they are fun. But, they are also here to generate conversations when people come to my office. It creates a light moment to talk about something unrelated to work that builds my relationship with colleagues. It is a small thing, but I think it has an impact.
Build a group
For many people, it can be awkward to try to build relationships with one person at a time. If youre socially awkward, you may not want to have sustained conversations but you would still like to feel that youre part of a team.
In that case, you might want to find or start a group at work that gets together on occasion around an activity to build a community. Use lunch hours once or twice a month to start a book club or take time before or after the workday to do a volunteer effort. A group that has a common goal is a great way to feel connected to your team. That spirit can feed back on the workplace.
Constructing a group like this is different than the traditional team building activity that workplaces often create. Those activities are often forced on a group. They are done once. They may be fun, but they dont create anything sustaining. The groups I am suggesting are intended to persist over time to develop a set of relationships and lay down a collection of memories that ultimately create a more cohesive workplace.
Not willing to be caught idling while Chase and American Express release new premium credit cards, Citi is launching one of its own: the Citi Strata Elite Card.
While Citi has offered a premium credit card in the past (the Prestige Card, which some customers still have and use, but is no longer available to new customers), the Citi Strata Elite Card is the companys return to the pitch in many years. Specifically, the new card is designed to directly compete with Chases Sapphire Reserve card and the Platinum Card from American Expressboth of which have recently announced new features, fees, and revamps.
As for what makes Citi Strata Elite superior to its competitors offerings? Pam Habner, Citis head of U.S. branded cards and lending, says that in the simplest terms, its the best card for premium customers who have a passion for travel and dining.
The card itself boasts an overall value of $1,500 annually, against an annual fee of $595. That includes an annual $300 hotel benefit, $200 splurge credit (for use with certain brands, such as Best Buy or American Airlines), a $200 Blacklane chauffeur credit, and a fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck.
There are numerous perks associated with American Airlines, too, which has had a long relationship with Citi, including four Admirals Club lounge passes. Card members also multiply their points earnings by 12 when booking hotels, car rentals, or attractions through the cards travel portal, along with a six-times multiplier when booking air travel or ordering from certain restaurants at certain times.
In all, it packs a powerful punch for people who like to travel and eat out. Habner says that compared with competing cards, it is the card with the highest reward potential on the marketit offers travelers more benefits than any other card. And she notes that the top reason premium cardholders opt for high-level or premium cards is for the travel benefits, according to her teams research.
There was a good amount of research, too, that went into the development of the card. While Citis previous premium card was designed for its time, the new card meets the needs of the modern premium customer, Habner says, and it took a good amount of time, data, and research to figure out exactly what those were.
The Strata Elite Cards slate of benefits and perks, she says, reflects Citis findings.
In a world of endless pings, scrolls, and streams, digital burnout has become a modern malaise. Particularly for Gen Z, whose lives have played out almost entirely online, theres now a growing hunger for something more grounded. In fact, 69% of 1824-year-olds now shop in-store weeklya striking shift back to the physical, the real, the tangible.
This isnt a rejection of tech, but a rebalancing. For brands its a fundamental recalibration of what connection really means. Its both a challenge and a golden opportunity to deliver a life-led response to digital fatigue, and to become facilitators of meaningful moments in peoples lives.
So, how can they do it? How can they create physical spaces that help people reconnect with themselves, with each other, and with the world around them?
Retail as a Remedy, Not Just a Transaction
It begins with a recognition that today’s consumers want more than shelves and sales. They want stories. Spaces that reflect their values, spark curiosity, and invite participation. Retail can no longer be passiveit must provoke.
This starts with intentional design. Sustainability isn’t a nice-to-haveits a nonnegotiable. From ethical materials to platforms that elevate underrepresented voices, physical stores are a powerful stage for a brands values to be seen and felt.
Think of Wingstops informal spaces for teenagers, or Raphas cycling clubhousesplaces with a purpose, not just a product.
Community is the New Currency
People arent just buying thingstheyre buying into tribes. And the most successful brands are those creating reasons for people to gather. From cooking classes to craft clubs, physical spaces can be reimagined as community hubs that foster identity and belonging.
The brief? Create spaces where people want to linger, learn, leave their phones alone for five minutes. Maybe even make a friend.
The Offline Club is showing whats possible here. Already established in Amsterdam as a place to disconnect from electronic devices, the concept recently launched in London, and hundreds of people flocked to unwind, engage in creative activities, and form meaningful in-person connections without digital distractions.
Play as Protest, and Joy as Connection
The exact nature of that purpose or community varies by brandsand crucially should feel authentic to that brand. For some this will be about play. In uncertain times, play isnt trivialits transformative. From the Balloon Museum to ball pit bars, were seeing a resurgence of immersive, childlike wonder. But the best examples go deeper, using play to spark connection and creativity.
LEGOs Botanical Truck Tour is a brilliant exampleflorist workshops on wheels, where people can build, share, and display their own Lego floral creations. Its playful, meditative, and deeply social. A brand moment thats not about screensits about presence.
More brands could lean into joy as a design principle, and in doing so, they could create spaces that cant be replicated on a screen.
Mindfulness, but Make it Matter
For others, the focus is on wellness. As with play, wellness cant be bolted onit has to be baked in. Todays consumers are seeking brands that help them feel better, not just look better. That might mean sensory spaces, quiet zones, or experiences that invite reflection and presence.
Take HOKAs Run, Stop, Corner Shopa place for runners to recharge body and mind. Or imagine Urban Outfitters offering mental health workshops for Gen Z. Its not about becoming a wellness brandits about becoming a better human brand.
Post-Digital, Deeply Human
Yes, AI and AR are redefining experience. But the goal isnt to dazzleits to deepen. Virtual try-ons, AI beauty consultations, and frictionless checkout should exist not to replace people, but to enhance their time together.
Sides, a fried chicken brand by YouTube collective The Sidemen, does this beautifully. We designed interiors that feature LED tickers showing live social content, connecting digital community with real-life vibe. This is tech as connective tissue, not wallpaper.The future of retail isnt screen-freeits meaning-full. Its about designing experiences that offer real reasons to return. Spaces that recharge us. Experiences that anchor us.
In the face of digital burnout, people arent running away from tech. Theyre running towards connectionwith themselves, their people, and the planet. The brands that respond with intention, imagination, and integrity? Theyll be the ones shaping not just what we buy, but how we live.
Back in 2008, The Atlantic sparked controversy with a provocative cover story: Is Google Making Us Stupid?
In that 4,000-word essay, later expanded into a book, author Nicholas Carr suggested the answer was yes, arguing that technology such as search engines worsened Americans ability to think deeply and retain knowledge.
At the core of Carrs concern was the idea that people no longer needed to remember or learn facts when they could instantly look them up online. While there might be some truth to this, search engines still require users to use critical thinking to interpret and contextualize the results.
Fast-forward to today, and an even more profound technological shift is taking place. With the rise of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, internet users arent just outsourcing memorythey may be outsourcing thinking itself.
Generative AI tools dont just retrieve information; they can create, analyze, and summarize it. This represents a fundamental shift: Arguably, generative AI is the first technology that could replace human thinking and creativity.
That raises a critical question: Is ChatGPT making us stupid?
As a professor of information systems whos been working with AI for more than two decades, Ive watched this transformation firsthand. And as many people increasingly delegate cognitive tasks to AI, I think its worth considering what exactly were gaining and what we are at risk of losing.
AI and the Dunning-Kruger effect
Generative AI is changing how people access and process information. For many, its replacing the need to sift through sources, compare viewpoints, and wrestle with ambiguity. Instead, AI delivers clear, polished answers within seconds. While those results may or may not be accurate, they are undeniably efficient. This has already led to big changes in how we work and think.
But this convenience may come at a cost. When people rely on AI to complete tasks and think for them, they may be weakening their ability to think critically, solve complex problems, and engage deeply with information. Although research on this point is limited, passively consuming AI-generated content may discourage intellectual curiosity, reduce attention spans and create a dependency that limits long-term cognitive development.
To better understand this risk, consider the Dunning-Kruger effect. This is the phenomenon in which people who are the least knowledgeable and competent tend to be the most confident in their abilities, because they dont know what they dont know. In contrast, more competent people tend to be less confident. This is often because they can recognize the complexities they have yet to master.
This framework can be applied to generative AI use. Some users may rely heavily on tools such as ChatGPT to replace their cognitive effort, while others use it to enhance their capabilities. In the former case, they may mistakenly believe they understand a topic because they can repeat AI-generated content. In this way, AI can artificially inflate ones perceived intelligence while actually reducing cognitive effort.
This creates a divide in how people use AI. Some remain stuck on the peak of Mount Stupid, using AI as a substitute for creativity and thinking. Others use it to enhance their existing cognitive capabilities.
In other words, what matters isnt whether a person uses generative AI, but how. If used uncritically, ChatGPT can lead to intellectual complacency. Users may accept its output without questioning assumptions, seeking alternative viewpoints, or conducting deeper analysis. But when used as an aid, it can become a powerful tool for stimulating curiosity, generating ideas, clarifying complex topics, and provoking intellectual dialogue.
The difference between ChatGPT making us stupid or enhancing our capabilities rests in how we use it. Generative AI should be used to augment human intelligence, not replace it. That means using ChatGPT to support inquiry, not to shortcut it. It means treating AI responses as the beginning of thought, not the end.
AI, thinking, and the future of work
The mass adoption of generative AI, led by the explosive rise of ChatGPT (it reached 100 million users within two months of its release) has, in my view, left internet users at a crossroads. One path leads to intellectual decline: a world where we let AI do the thinking for us. The other offers an opportunity: to expand our brainpower by working in tandem with AI, leveraging its power to enhance our own.
Its often said that AI wont take your job, but someone using AI will. But it seems clear to me that people who use AI to replace their own cognitive abilities will be stuck at the peak of Mount Stupid. These AI users will be the easiest to replace.
Its those who take the augmented approach to AI use who will reach the path of enlightenment, working together with AI to produce results that neither is capable of producing alone. This is where the future of work will eventually go.
This essay started with the question of whether ChatGPT will make us stupid, but Id like to end with a different question: How will we use ChatGPT to make us smarter? The answers to both questions depend not on the tool but on users.
Aaron French is an assistant professor of information systems at Kennesaw State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
