Sabina Wohlmuths days used to include long, hot walks across the city of Albuquerque, sometimes 2 or 3 miles at a time. Wohlmuth relies on the bus, but when she was short on cash, she walked instead of paying the fare.
It was only a dollar for a one-way trip, but still, if youre homeless and youre poor thats a lot of money, Wohlmuth says.
Wohlmuth now takes the bus every day, to her job at McDonalds, to the store, and to the sober living facility where she stays. And each of those bus trips costs Wohlmuth zero dollars.
Albuquerque made zero-fare transit permanent in November 2023, becoming one of the largest U.S. cities to implement zero-fare transit. About a year and a half later, transit officials and advocates say the zero-fare program is working as intended, by serving the citys lowest-income residents. As some other midsize cities walk back their plans to make transit free, in Albuquerque the program is sticking around.
This is a public service, and the people we serve really rely on it, says Leslie Keener, director of the City of Albuquerques transit department. I think its a way to really just open up access and create mobility so that people have the opportunity to have some upward movement.
Mobility for survival
Nearly 90% of Albuquerques bus riders have household incomes of less than $35,000 per year, and a similar percentage dont have access to a vehicle. Making it easier for the citys lowest-income residents to get around is part of what Christopher Ramirez calls the first purpose of public transit.
Transit equity is giving the people that are most in need the resources, and then build out other aspects of public transit, such as routes and frequency, says Ramirez, the cofounder and executive director of Together for Brothers. In 2017, the organization conducted a community health impact assessment that led to a focus on transit equity advocacy. Since 2019, the community organization has led a coalition to push for free transit in Albuquerque.
Many bus riders in Albuquerque are experiencing homelessness, and rely on the bus to get to medical appointments, social service providers, work, and to visit friends and family.
Charles Battiste says he takes the bus every day. On a Wednesday in February, Battiste was riding the bus west on Central Avenue, the citys main thoroughfare, from a methadone treatment program to a hotel where hed recently secured temporary housing on the other side of town.
Q, a 32-year-old who has been unhoused since they were 18, also rode the bus down Central Avenue that day in the opposite direction, to pick up some cough medicine at a hospital. Like Battiste, Q relies on the bus on a daily basis.
Transportation comes up frequently as one of the top barriers for our clients and those we serve in accessing healthcare, jobs, housing, all of the things that we know are the structural solutions to homelessness, says Rachel Biggs, chief strategy officer at Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless.
We know people in Albuquerque are stretched really thin, even the folks who arent already . . . experiencing homelessness. The numbers of people living in poverty and who need transportation support just continue to grow, and we have a lot of transit-dependent residents.
Biggs says her organization previously spent about $50,000 per year purchasing bus passes for clients so they could make appointments, look for housing, and get to work. This created a really cumbersome system that involved clients shuttling from the citys shelter on the far west side of town to Health Care for the Homelesss office early in the morning to pick up a free daily bus pass, then turning around and getting back on the bus to reach their destinations for the day. Monthly passes were less feasible because of the frequency that people experiencing homelessness lost their passes amid encampment sweeps, Biggs says.
Especially when youre experiencing homelessness, time is a very valuable resource, she says. So to be able to get around town and not have to go through all the hoop-jumping, so that you can now hop on and hop off, it does increase access to all the services and all the things that someone would need to end their homelessness.
For other Albuquerque residents, free public transit serves as a lifeline, a vital mobility option when money is tight or other transportation falls through. One 67-year-old woman found herself on the bus after her car was repossessed due to difficulties making ends meet recently. Its nice to have something thats free, when youve always driven, youve always paid insurance, and you pay for almost everything, she says.
Erica Grier, who works as a part-time caregiver and uses a Section 8 voucher to afford housing, uses the bus every day. She estimates that she previously spent at least $20 per month on the bus, money thats now back in her pocket to pay for groceries and other monthly expenses. Its a good service that the city provides, just like how the library is free, she says.
Keener says the city has seen ridership shift since the pandemic launched a new era of remote work and Albuquerque launched free transit: fewer commuters, and more people experiencing homelessness who can now more easily use the bus to reach their destinations or who are using it as shelter from the elements.
Recovering ridership
Ridership has steadily increased since Albuquerque first piloted zero fares in 2022, with overall ridership up 20% in the past three years. City officials credit the zero-fare program with helping ABQ Rides ridership numbers creep back up toward pre-pandemic levels.
Like Albuquerque, Kansas City, Missouri, made headlines when it became the first major U.S. city to go fare-free in 2020. But five years later, the Kansas City Council voted to bring back $2 fares in an attempt to stave off major service cuts amid a budget shortfall.
But for now, at least, it seems like Albuquerques free fares are sticking around.
Fare revenue previously wasnt much of anything, according to Keener, and brought in about $3 million in revenue before the cost of collecting fare was deducted. That represented a drop in the bucket for the transit agencys $67 million annual budget, comprised of about $23 million from the citys transportation infrastructure tax and about $8 million from the county and other regional government entities. The rest of the budget is subsidized from the citys General Fund to the tune of about $30 million each year.
The citys recently approved budget for fiscal year 2026 kept this subsidy, and the city stands behind its zero-fares system, Keener says, adding that the agencys focus right now is on expanding routes and increasing service frequency. ABQ Ride served 7 million riders in 2024, which is about 78% of the agencys pre-pandemic ridership numbersbut ABQ Ride is also operating at only 64% of its pre-pandemic service, with reduced frequency on many routes and some headways of up to an hour.
ABQ Ride is in the process of implementing a revamped recovery network that aims to bring the agency back toabout 95% of pre-pandemic service, according to Keener, since returning to 100% of service levels wouldnt be financially feasible. The proposed recovery network includes streamlining and restructuring some routes to offset costs of increasing frequency and evening and weekend service. The reconfiguring is expected to increase the number of residents within a half-mile of a route with frequent service.
Ramirez views expanding frequency as the next step after making buses free.
According to Ramirez, ABQ Ride has long tried to do a lot with a little, with the recovery plan raising questions of whether the agency should focus on having as many routes as possible or improving service in high-passenger areas. We need more frequency in the places that need it most, he says.
The bus should be for everybody, he adds. It should be to connect people who need it most to get where they need to go. Its people getting to schools, its people getting to work, its people getting outdoors, its people getting food, its people getting to healthcare.
This story was supported with grant funding from the Neal Peirce Foundation.
This story was originally published by Next City, a nonprofit news outlet covering solutions for equitable cities. Sign up for Next City’s newsletter for their latest articles and events.
As my family settles into a whole new city and community, Ive been eagerly exploring a variety of sites and services for discovering new gems and getting to know our area. And while our recent cross-country move is what inspired me to seek out such tools, Ive quickly realized these same resources could be every bit as useful in any scenariowhether youre visiting a new locale or even just looking for fresh inspiration in your existing everyday terrain.
Today, I want to introduce you to an especially cool tool I encountered for exploring eating options around youcause really, whats more important than finding fantastic froyo and magnificent meatballs?
Prepare your appetite, my friend. Its time for a tasty new treat.
Be the first to find all sorts of little-known tech treasures with my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. One useful new discovery in your inbox every Wednesday!
A food-finding supertool
If youre anything like me, when you want to find a place to grab some grub, you probably turn to Google Mapsor maybe something like Yelp, or even Reddit.
Those are all fine places to find places, but when it comes to cuisine, a site called TasteAtlas is a next-level resource for surfacing spectacular stuff.
TasteAtlas calls itself a world food atlas, and thats a pretty accurate description for what the site aims to do:
It highlights exceptional local food in a variety of places around the world, with an emphasis on unique dishes specific to different regions.
It lets you browse by the type of cuisine youre contemplatingor, more useful yet, by the exact area youre exploring.
And it provides you with all sorts of powerful options for narrowing things down and finding exactly what tickles your fancy.
TasteAtlas is completely web-based, and itll take you all of two minutes to start using.
If you just want to browse around, the sites home page has lots of interesting lists and ideas for getting going.
But the most useful parts of the site are its location-specific sections, where youll find endless advice about restaurants and other nearby food establishments in your exact area.
And youve got a few fun ways to dig into those details . . .
1 First, you can use the TasteAtlas Map to see and dive deeper into local dishes from different parts of the world.
2 Second, you can use the Destinations tab at the top of the site to hop right to different areas.
3 And third, you can use the Near Me option beneath the search box on the home page to grant the site access to your location and allow it to serve up specific human-curated recommendations for wherever you are. You can also type a location into the search box, if youd rather.
However you get there, once youre viewing info for a specific area, youll be facing the finest part of TasteAtlasand thats the sites sprawling suggestions for both local places and local products worth your while to try.
TasteAtlas doesnt dive deep into every single city in the world, as youd imagine, but it has an impressive array of places and possibilities to ponder. So even if it isnt in your specific corner of the globe, youll hopefully still find something intriguing to chew overwhether thats a worthwhile option close by or something to order online, or maybe even try the next time you travel.
Now, whos hungry?!
TasteAtlas is completely web-based and available in any browser, on any device. There are some apps under the same name in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, but they dont appear to be officially associated with the site, and I wouldnt suggest using em.
The site is completely free, with some minimal and not at all obtrusive ads sprinkled in throughout the experience.
You dont have to provide any personal info to use the service, and the company behind the site says it doesnt sell, share, or do anything shady with the limited amount of info it does see.
Hungry for more tasty tech goodness? Check out my free Cool Tools newsletter for an instant introduction to an incredible audio appand a new off-the-beaten-path gem every Wednesday!
Ive spent over two decades on stages around the world as a charity auctioneer. Even in the earliest years of my career, my job exposed me to titans of industry and people at the highest levels of business. But as I became more experienced in my career, I always had the same thought: What am I doing here? Everyone here knows so much more than I do.
Any comments or thoughts I planned to share remained exactly thatthoughtsbecause when I opened my mouth, I worried everyone would remember I wasnt supposed to be at the table in the first place. What started as a feeling that stopped me from speaking followed me in my career. That feeling stopped me from putting my hand up for a promotion, a raise, or for anything at all. It made me feel like I wasnt supposed to be sitting in the boardroomor anywhere near the building, for that matter.
Talk to any woman who has been in the working world or in a leadership position in the past two decades, and she can tell you all about imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is a feeling that stops many of us, particularly women, in our tracks. It keeps many of us from getting into the room where we would have the chance to fail.
As you ascend the corporate ladder, no matter how deserving you are of a new title, a raise, or a new position, you may never truly believe you deserve any of it. When you look around a room of your peers, theres a little voice inside telling you that youre lucky to be in that room. Sound familiar?
Its time to surmount the syndrome. Start with this simple three-step process so you can focus on the thing that matters most: you.
1. STOP THE SPIRAL
Tell me if this sounds familiar: Youre having a conversation with someone in your lifea friend, someone senior in your office, or someone whose opinion you care deeply about. They mention they are so glad that they get to see you now that your children are getting older and you can be in the office more. The comment stops you cold. Now youre spiraling, your mind filling in a narrative. Ive been out of the game for years. Everyone here thinks I dont work hard enough, that Im not here enough, that I dont do a good job. I need to show them I do care. Ill start working on the weekends, do extra work . . . On and on you go with a spiral of self-doubt and insecurity about everything that you have ever felt about your job performance.
What did this person actually say? Its great to see you in the office more now that your children are getting older. Period.
Your answer? Thanks!
End scene.
2. CONTROL THE NARRATIVE
Believe in yourself enough to believe that other people are thinking the best of you, not the worst. To really slam that imposter syndrome, rewrite your own story.
Lets go back and rewrite that scene, shall we?
What did that person say? Its great to see you in the office more now that your children are getting older.
Heres what I want you to hear: You are such a valuable member of this team, its really great to have your positive energy in this office. You must be an incredible multitasker to be raising kids at home and crushing it at work, too. What a role model for the people around you. We are lucky to have you.
End scene. Cue applause.
3. ACCEPT THERE ARE NO GOLD STARS IN LIFE
Never forget there are no gold stars given out when you are an adult. No one gives you a gold star for showing up to work, just like no one gives you a gold star for making your bed when you get up in the morning. You are responsible for everything that happens in your life and your response to it. Once you stop looking for affirmation from those around you and seek it from yourself, you can realize you have had the power all along.
If you cant afford a lawyer, it turns out theres nothing stopping you from sending a scary-looking letter that, at first glance, seems to come from oneand hoping the recipient doesnt read the fine print too closely.
Thats the idea behind Heavyweight, a tool that lets you take any complaint and format it with an official-looking letterhead, without ever actually claiming to be from a real lawyer.
If you’ve ever received a legal notice like a Cease and Desist, you know that the ‘oh shit’ moment doesn’t happen once you actually read the letter, multimedia artist and software developer Morry Kolman explained in a now-viral X post earlier this week. It happens the second you open it and realize a lawyer is mad at you.
Lawyers are expensive, but *looking* like you have a lawyer is free. Today, I'm happy to announce my latest project, Heavyweight! Heavyweight lets you take any complaint you have, and make it look like a scary legal document without ever actually claiming to be from a lawyer. pic.twitter.com/wf0GNmQsl9— no more docile users (@WTTDOTM) July 21, 2025
Thats the power dynamic the project aims to subvert. Kolman created the free, online, open-source tool with Kendra Albert, a public interest and media technology lawyer, after the two were paired at Rhizomes annual 7×7 program last month. First and foremost an art projectand definitely not legal adviceHeavyweight aims to democratize the aesthetics of (in lieu of access to) legal representation, according to a blog post about the project.
We wanted to make Heavyweight to show a lot of the power of the law, and this perceived importance and seriousness does not actually come from the letter of the law necessarily. It comes from how those letters are presented visually, Kolman tells Fast Company. Take, for example, a big fancy letterhead, or an official-sounding address. This is a project about design. It’s a project about aesthetics. It’s a project about how things look, he added.
While Kolman makes clear that a Heavyweight letter wont hold up in courtnor is it intended totheres nothing stopping you from making something that looks just as snooty and sending it to some obstinate landlord or customer service department to make them shit their pants, he wrote on X.
On the Heavyweight website, any aggrieved party can create their own legal-looking letter, choose the law firms floor (from 1st to 100th), the year it was founded (as far back as 1775), and even the snootiness level of the font. You can change the number of firm partners and generate their names from categories like “Greenwich, Connecticut, town representatives” or “equestrian riders.” Simply download the PDF and send it to whoever has landed on your bad side.
The X post announcing the project quickly went viral, with 1.5 million views at the time of writing. Lawyer here: Dying laughing, one X user commented. This is incredible. I have so many people to spook, another added.
Not everyone was amused. This might not be illegal, but I can practically guarantee the court system will magically think otherwise, one user warned. Actually a great idea until the recipient has a lawyer, and now you are tainted with this bad faith act in any future litigation, another wrote.
Kolman expected the controversy and advised anyone sending letters to do so at their own risk. Some fair use examples might include a landlord who has been ignoring your request to fix a broken dishwasher for months, or a client whos stopped returning your emails.
I think those situations, when you are basically just trying to go from ignorable mote to annoying horsefly, are a pretty good use case for when to send a Heavyweight letter, Kolman said. I’ve used it myself to send a letter to a customer service email that wasn’t giving me any of my money back.
Sadly, it didnt work.
Annie Wilson is a senior lecturer of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Ryan Hamilton is an associate professor of marketing at Emory Universitys Goizueta Business School. They have both served as consultants to top brands across all manner of industries.
Whats the big idea?
The Growth Dilemma is about how to manage relationships between customer segments. As brands grow and attract new customers, they serve a wider variety of groups who tend to want different things from the brand. Almost inevitably, as brands get bigger and bigger, this leads to conflict or disagreement between groups of customers who dont necessarily agree on who the brand is supposed to serve, what it stands for, or how it should be used.
Below, coauthors Annie Wilson and Ryan Hamilton share five key insights from their new book, The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things. Listen to the audio versionread by Annie and Ryanin the Next Big Idea App.
1. Segments of people relate to each other in predictable ways
Weve identified four different relationship types when it comes to customer segments.
The first type of relationship is separate communities. Some brands serve different segments of customers in such a way that they dont step on each others toes much. Customer segments may want different things from the brand, but it doesnt tend to cause problems. For example, Lego still serves its traditional customer segment of children who are looking for an interactive toy, but it also has a large and growing segment of what it refers to as adult friends of Lego. These are adults who purchase Lego as collectibles or models to display in their homes. Lego serves both customer segments without much problem.
The second type of relationship is connected communities. These are offerings that become more valuable when more people use them. This includes offerings like social media platforms or shared platforms like Venmo. Software platforms like Microsoft Office are another example because the more popular Microsoft Office becomes, the easier it is to transfer files between people.
The third relationship type is leader follower segments. This occurs when one segment is cooler, aspirational, or expert in some way, and because they use the brand, there is another segment of followers who like the brand because of those leaders. One example of this is Crocs. Crocs became cool a few years ago, in large part, because a group of trendsetters decided they were cool. Once they started using the brand, that gave everyone else social permission to also start wearing them without being embarrassed.
The fourth relationship type is incompatible segments. This is when brands try forcing segments together that want dramatically different things. They have different values or different preferences, and trying to serve them simultaneously causes a lot of heat and friction between these groups of customers. This can blow up in the face of the brand.
2. Growth itself can cause problems
Growth tends to be seen as just a good thing: Were going to get more customers in, get more revenue, and thats going to mean more profit. The big argument that we make is that some of the relationship types can lead to sustainable, profitable growth. However, other types of growth can be dangerous for a brand and cost the brand money in pursuit of that growth.
3. There are four main sources of conflict between customer segments
The first source of conflict is functional. This is when one segment of customers cant use the brands offerings the way they want to because another segment is using it in an incompatible way.
Think of Starbucks. Somebody who wants to go to Starbucks to hang out and read the newspaper with a cup of coffee comes into conflict with the mobile order segment who wants to quickly get their coffee and leave. The piling up of mobile orders and the masses of people rushing in to grab their drinks in a hurry ruins the experience of a lot of third-placers. Starbucks has managed this functional conflict in various ways throughout much of its corporate history and continues to grapple with it today.
Some types of growth can be dangerous for a brand and cost the brand money in pursuit of that growth.
The second source of conflict is brand image. This is the idea that because one group of customers is using the brand, the image of the brand comes into question for another group of customers. In the 1990s, Tiffany & Co. began selling a large number of more affordable silver products to less affluent customers, mostly teenagers trying to profess their love to high school sweethearts. This created a brand image conflict for wealthier customers who thought, Is this really Audrey Hepburns Tiffany if I have teenagers buying cheap silver jewelry from them? Tiffany had to figure out how to manage that brand image conflict before the brand became too diluted or eroded.
The next source of conflict is user identity. This is the idea that because one group of customers uses the brand, another group can no longer use it as a signal of their identity. For a lot of its history, wearing Vans signaled that you are a skateboarder. As Vans has become more fashionable and people who dont know how to skateboard wear Vans, it has created user identity conflict for the skaters who feel like wearing Vans no longer strongly or clearly signals their skater identity. Vans has to figure out how to protect that skater identity for the skater audience while still inviting in these more fashionable audiences.
Lastly, we have ideological conflict. If a brand aligns itself with a certain group of customers, it can create ideological conflict with another group of customers. Target has gone back and forth on whether it will support LGBTQ+ customers through its products and messaging. It has created and recreated ideological conflict between groups of customers who either want Target to support LGBTQ+ rights or those who dont want Target to take that stance. These different sources of conflict can either be managed or avoided by building fences, ladders, or planks.
4. You can manage segment relationships using fences, ladders, and planks
Fences is the idea that you want to create separation between segments that might otherwise come into conflict. Carhartt, famous for its workwear, has a segment of customers who are blue-collar workers who wear Carhartt because it is durable and good for working in. Carhartt also has a segment of customers who like Carhartt because their clothes have become fashionableeven on the red carpet. To prevent conflict between these groups, Carhartt keeps them separate. They market different products to them and use different messaging. Carhartt even has different stores for them, and that keeps both segments happy because they can get what they want without interacting with each other.
Another way you can manage these relationships is by creatig ladders. This is when you make one group of customers clearly higher status or more important than another group of customers. Youre making it explicit or implicit that one group of customers are leaders and the others are followers. Tiffany & Co. offers various lines of jewelry, each with a distinct price tag that clearly signals the leaders (who pay millions of dollars for Tiffany jewelry) and the followers (who pay hundreds or thousands). It creates a hierarchy that keeps segments happy because it allows them to give customers what they want without eroding the brand image.
The last thing you can do is create planks. Youre essentially showing some group of customers the door. Another way of saying this is firing customer segments. There are times when two customer segments are in conflict, and the smartest thing to do is let one of them go or force one of them away from the brand.
There was a time when Six Flags offered various pricing discounts and incentives. Many teenagers would buy tickets to Six Flags because they were cheap or discounted, and then they would visit the parks, enjoy the all-you-can-eat benefits, and act like teenagers. It ruined the experience for many other customers who wanted to enjoy Six Flags or potentially bring their families. Six Flags essentially showed those teenagers the door by changing the pricing incentives so that those customers didnt get as much access to the park. They implicitly fired those customer segments. Ridership overall did drop, but the park made more money from other customer segments that wanted to return because they had restored the parks experience for them.
5. You are never done managing customer segment relationships.
Managing customer segments isnt something that can be applied once to permanently solve problems. A different set of conflicts is bound to come up later. This is just the evolving nature of markets: new segments emerge, old segments fade, and brands change their positioning over time. We are proposing a discipline for managing growth and customers over time, which is that you constantly have to manage these relationships to avoid conflict.
You need to constantly think of different ways to prevent or mitigate that conflict.
Any time you bring different groups of people together, they can come into conflict. You need to constantly think of different ways to prevent or mitigate that conflict. For example, at a country club that I went to growing up, new members wanted different things from the club than what old members wanted. Club managers had to figure out how to build fences, ladders, or planks between those customer segments. But these instances are everywhere, beyond brands, like that one friend who went on a family vacation and discovered that their in-laws had different expectations of the vacation than their own family.
We see this in politics when a candidate tries to expand their base and increase their popularity. They try to appeal to a broader audience with diverse values. They have to figure out how to keep people who want different things happy simultaneously. We even see this within organizations. As organizations hire more employees, you sometimes get factions that have different interests. Whether its in marketing and brand management or any other domain, this fundamental idea of managing the different things that different groups of people want from an entity requires constant monitoring and supervision.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Today, the workforce is aging rapidly, but only 10% of companies have a strategy to retain mature workers, according to a survey by career support platform HR Brain. Since the 1980s, Pew Research Center reports the number of workers age 65 and older in the U.S. has nearly quadrupled.
Creating workspaces built for an aging workforce stands to benefit companies. A 2024 global academic study on age-inclusive workforce practices found that keeping more experienced, older workers on the job led to money saved on recruitment, training, and knowledge acquisition across organizations. Tim Glowa, founder and CEO of HR Brain, noted older employees have the most relationships with suppliers and clients, and the most institutional knowledge.
However, the design specialists Fast Company spoke to found most companies aren’t thinking of creating office spaces for their older employees. Instead, they are focusing on attracting younger workers and accommodating neurodivergent employees.
[Photo: Lord Abbett/Mike Van Tassell]
More than a decade ago, Jeremy Myerson, now professor emeritus in design at the Royal College of Art in London, noticed a brain drain problem in the U.K. workforce. Many workers were retiring in their fifties, leaving companies with knowledge gaps instead of taking the time to pass their experience down to newer employees.
To address the problem, Myerson got a government grant to examine older workers needs, collaborating with companies in the U.K., Japan, and Australia. They landed on the idea of inclusive design, he says, not just designing for older people . . . but providing better standards of all round design in the workplace.
Ironically, the inclusive design that Myerson thought about years ago is popular right now, because it also happens to accommodate the needs and desires of the neurodivergent and young workers companies prioritize. Older workers end up benefitingbut unintentionally, even though they were the original inspiration for Myersons inclusive design.
[Photo: Lord Abbett/Mike Van Tassell]
The Elements of Inclusive Design
Upon entering large office buildings, its common to find kiosks with screens depicting the buildings layout, complete with interactive maps you can click for directions. Often, officegoers can download these apps to their smartphones, and navigate with phones in hand as they walk. But not all workers have smartphones, particularly older ones, and too much screen time can strain eyes of all ages.
With generally reduced visual acuity, older workers relying entirely on screens or apps for [office] navigation can be a big barrier, says Carolina Madrigal, senior associate and creative director at HLWs brand experience studio, Brandx. Her studio implements high contrast analog signage and tactile cues for people finding their way around workspaces, a tactic thats also helpful for some workers with disabilities.
This often means implementing what Madrigal calls landmark elements. Colors that change depending on a spaces function and even art installations can serve as memorable references, she says. For example, at investment company Lord Abbetts New Jersey headquarters, Madrigals team commissioned custom art pieces that reflect the companys history, one incorporating its old ledgers, another a woven piece resembling financial graphs. The historical nod can also make older workers wanting to share company history with incoming employees feel seen.
[Photo: Lord Abbett/Mike Van Tassell]
Light and sound
The warmer lighting and aesthetics that make an office feel more like home have generally been tailored to younger workers. Ricardo Nabholz, studio creative director at TPG Architecture, has found these elements resonate just as much, if not more, with older officegoers, especially as many had spent decades in sterile cubicles with fluorescent lightingthey welcomed the comfortable change.
However, circadian rhythm lighting, in which artificial indoor lights change color throughout the day to match the shifting sun outdoors, thought to jibe with the natural sleep/wake cycles of the human body and therefore provide health benefits other artificial lights dont, doesnt work. It ended up overtaxing older employees, says Erin McDannald, CEO of tech-focused design firm Elevated. She and her colleagues came by this discovery after wearing Oura Rings to their circadian-lit workspace. The same was true, they found, for people with autoimmune disease and autism.
[Photo: Lord Abbett/Mike Van Tassell]
The sweet spot? When people are sitting under 2700 Kelvin lights, says McDannald, they’re calm, cool and collected. The warm lighting promotes relaxation, while changing lights, like those used in circadian rhythm lighting, or those that are too bright increase stress, making it more difficult for officegoers to access the logical, decision-making parts of their brains.
Certain office environments prove more stressful for aging workers. Older ears tend to have more trouble distinguishing single voices from background noise, making designated quiet spaces for meetings crucial.
Quiet spaces arent just for older people. On a recent project for a financial technology firm, Nabholz said the mostly Gen X executive team wanted something between a playground and a cube farm. Nabholzs team came up with what he calls a layered environment, which included quiet zones, social lounges, and flexible meeting rooms, he says. Younger employees ended up flocking to quiet zones, thought to appeal most to older workers. It was a reminder that design thats responsive to one group often ends up resonating more broadly, Nabholz says.
[Photo: Lord Abbett/Mike Van Tassell]
Diversity in workers, diversity in workspaces
Ultimately, accommodating an aging workforce means creating a variety of workspaces that cater to different workstyles. We use behavioral personaslike the heads-down worker, the hybrid floater, or the collaborative leadto understand needs more accurately, Nabholz says, not a hierarchy of ages.
Over and over again the designers pointed out that the inclusive elements meant to help one persona often benefit another. For example, the ergonomic equipment that benefits someone managing arthritis can also benefit a 28-year-old with sensory sensitivities or a 40-year-old parent balancing work and caregiving, Nabholz says. Clients dont explicitly ask us to design for older workersbut they are prioritizing things like retention, culture-building, and productivity, he notes. Those goals absolutely intersect with the needs of an aging workforce.
[Photo: Lord Abbett/Mike Van Tassell]
Still, says Glowa, most companies arent even aware of the demographic time bomb theyre facing as a significant number of workers across industries near retirementin nursing, for example, the average age is already 50, per HR Brains report. He suggests how companies can avoid missing the boat on retaining older workers through both policy and design: Talk to your older workers, he says. Do they want more opportunities to mentor younger employees? More comfortable seating? Quieter workspaces?
Then build policies that reflect that, he continues. Otherwise, you risk losing some of your most experienced people without a backup plan.
Working from home allows for the flexibility and work-life balance that many modern employees require in order to feel content in their jobs. Therefore, being asked to return to the office can be a very tough sell. But a new report found one factor to be majorly motivating when it comes to in-office work. And, surprisingly, it doesn’t have to do with benefits, pay, or even flexibility.
It’s having a work bestie.
A newly released report from ezCater surveyed 1,000 U.S. employees who work in an office setting and remotely. It found that 80% of employees feel more engaged at work when they have friends at the office.
According to experts, gabbing it up at the office isn’t only good for mental health and longevity, but it’s also good for cognitive function, meaning it’s tougher for workers to mentally check out. “Social activities cause us to use our brains more than almost any other activity,” Dr. Andrew Budson, a neurologist and chief of cognitive and behavioral neurology at VA Boston Healthcare System, says per Harvard Health.
In recent years, the ability to work remotely has become the most desirable perk of a job, with some reports finding it to be even more important than income, despite the fact that it can be isolating. However, according to the report, remote work hampers employees ability to build relationships. Only 43% of remote employees reported having close work friends, while 69% of office and hybrid workers did.
With a loneliness epidemic in full bloom, more workers may now crave socialization. That’s especially true for the youngest workers: 85% of Gen Z respondents said having a work bestie would make them more engaged.
Gen Z also expects socialization to be ingrained in their workplace culture. More than half (56%) expect their company to help foster that socialization by creating a sense of community at work.
Robert Kaskel, VP of people at ezCater, said in a press release that companies should pay attention to the need for socializationespecially when it comes to Gen Z. “Employees with friends at work are considerably more engaged, so its in companies best interest to create an environment that fosters socialization.
All right, settle in, folks, because today we’re going to try to out-Google Google with the next generation of search: Perplexity.
So, what exactly is Perplexity, and how’s it different from other AI chatbots like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot?
Gemini, ChatGPT, and Copilot are primarily generative AI tools meant for creating text, writing code, brainstorming ideas, and engaging in free-form conversations. They generate stuff based on their training data.
Perplexity is an answer engine. Its main job is to give you accurate, sourced answers to your questions by searching the internet in real time. It’s built for research and fact-finding. Instead of just generating text, it’s designed to summarize, synthesize, and cite information from across the web.
And the best part? A lot of Perplexity’s brainpower is available right out of the box for free, no wallet required. Lets take things for a spin using one overarching example throughout: the rapid evolution of electric vehicle (EV) battery technology.
Ask your question like a human
Perplexity understands natural language. Just type your question clearly, like you’re asking a person: “What are the latest breakthroughs in EV battery technology?”
Choose your sources
This is where you tell Perplexity where to look. Even with the free version, you get access to powerful source filters. Look for the “Set sources for search” dropdown in the lower-right corner of the search box. It looks like a globe.
Web (default) is for general news, current events, popular sites, and the like. For our EV example, this is perfect for getting an overview of “What are the latest breakthroughs in EV battery technology?” It’ll pull from tech blogs, auto news, and general science sites.
Academic sources is for scientific papers, scholarly articles, and research journals. Think: “Detailed chemical mechanisms of solid-state battery electrolytes.”
Social sources is for discussions, opinions, and real-world experiences from real people. Use Social and ask, “What are consumer experiences with EV range anxiety for new battery types?”
And Finance sources is best for market data, company reports, and investment news: “Investment trends for companies developing next-gen EV batteries.”
Follow up, then follow up some more
Perplexity is designed for conversation. After it gives you an answer, you can ask follow-up questions within the same thread.
Our initial “Web” search about EV battery breakthroughs mentioned “silicon anode technology.”
You can then type, “How does silicon anode technology impact charging times?” or, “What are the main challenges in using silicon anodes in mass production?”
Perplexity will remember your previous questions, making the conversation seamless.
Double-check the sources
Every single piece of information Perplexity gives you comes with clickable source citations.
If Perplexity states, “Solid-state batteries offer higher energy density (Source 1) and faster charging (Source 2),” those little numbers are links.
Click them to jump directly to the original article, research paper, or news report. This lets you fact-check Perplexity’s summary and see the information in its original context.
Leverage your daily free ‘Pro Searches’
Perplexity gives free users a limited number of Pro Searches per day. Think of these as a daily allowance of super-powered queries.
When you toggle on Pro Search (the looping X icon in the lower-left of the search box), Perplexity uses its most advanced AI models and a deeper search strategy.
Save these for when your question is complex, highly nuanced, or when a regular search isn’t quite hitting the mark. For example, if you’re trying to compare the long-term cost-effectiveness of different EV battery chemistries, a Pro Search can often provide a more detailed and structured analysis.
Other general tips
So there you have it: Your crash course in getting started with Perplexity’s free features, all framed around the fascinating world of EV battery tech.
Some other quick tips . . .
Be specific: “EV batteries” is vague. “Latest breakthroughs in EV battery recycling methods” is much better.
Use your free features strategically: The source filters, unlimited follow-ups, and daily Pro Searches are powerful tools.
Make use of the Discover and Spaces tabs: Located in the left-hand nav, Discover is a powerful news aggregator, and Spaces lets you cordon off related searches for stuff like vacation planning.
Consider a Pro plan: for $20 per month, you get more citations, file and photo uploads, unlimited Pro Searches, and a bunch of other goodies.
Go forth, explore, and may your information be ever accurate and your searches ever fruitful.
What happens when the wittiest fast food chain in the country and one of television’s sassiest characters come together? A not-so-happy meal.
Restaurant chain Wendy’s announced a forthcoming collaboration with Netflix’s Wednesday ahead of the show’s new season release. In Wendy’s disruptive fashion, the brand did not shy away from irreverent packaging and gothic names, with plans to launch a “Meal of Misfortune” on August 11.
The collaboration comes after a series of announced administrative changes at Wendy’s, a company currently valued at $2.1 billion. On July 18, the company’s CEO, Kirk Tanner, stepped down after a little over a year in the position.
Ken Cook, Wendy’s chief financial officerwho had less than a year in that position and no previous restaurant experiencetook over as interim CEO while the board continues to look for a permanent replacement.
In addition to the C-suite changes, Wendy’s has seen positive growth in its share price, up by 4.06% the time of publishing. The uptick follows the previous day’s announcement of Pete Suerken as Wendy’s new U.S. president, who will report to the current CEO.
Online chatter has also helped the stock, with increased mentions on the popular retail investment subreddit r/wallstreetbets. The subreddit, which identifies itself as “like 4chan found a Bloomberg Terminal,” plays an outsized role in promoting so-called meme stocks.
Just this week, several stocks have seen surprising gains thanks in part to online retail investors, including a boost for retailer Kohl’s and donut maker Krispy Kreme.
‘Nothing happy about this meal’
The Wednesday Addams collaboration is set to feature various Addams-family-inspired treats.
For instance, the collab’s dips are named “You Can’t Hyde,” “This Will Sting,” “Grave Mistake,” and “Nowhere to Woe,” an ode to the character’s dark humor. The meal will also include an order of nuggets dubbed “Rest in 10-Piece,” “Cursed & Crispy” fries, and a “Raven’s Blood” Frosty.
“This isn’t a typical collaboration, because not just any brand could scheme up a Meal of Misfortune with Wednesday Addams,” Liz Geraghty, Wendy’s International Chief Marketing Officer, said in a statement.
The meal’s packaging also boasts Addams fashion, featuring a black and purple color palette for the containers, as well as a carrier bag veiled with the fictional character’s iconic white collar and black dress combo. The phrase “there is nothing happy about this meal,” accompanies the bag’s design, an irreverent nod to the iconic Happy Meal from competitor McDonald’s.
“For a brand that’s proudly customer-obsessed and unapologetically bold, it was a match made in dark, dry-witted heaven,” Geraghty added.
Alphabet beat Wall Street estimates for its second quarter on Wednesday, and cited massive demand for its cloud computing services as it hiked its capital spending plans for the year to about $85 billion.
The search giant beat estimates for quarterly revenue and profit on the back of new AI features and a steady digital advertising market. Google Cloud’s revenue growth surged nearly 32%, well above estimates for a 26.5% increase.
“With this strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services, we are increasing our investment in capital expenditures,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in an earnings release.
Shares of the company, which have risen more than 18% since its previous earnings report in April, were down 1% in extended trading.
Google had earlier pledged about $75 billion in capital spending this year, part of the more than $320 billion that Big Tech is expected to pour into building AI capabilities.
The companies have defended their aggressive AI spending amid rising competition from Chinese rivals and investor frustration with slower-than-expected payoffs, saying those massive investments are necessary to fuel growth and improve their products.
Alphabet reported total revenue of $96.43 billion for the second quarter ended June 30, compared with analysts’ average estimate of about $94 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Google’s advertising revenue, which represents about three-quarters of the tech major’s overall sales, rose 10.4% to $71.34 billion in the second quarter, beating expectations for $69.47 billion, according to data from LSEG.
Deborah Sophia and Kenrick Cai, Reuters
