I recently saw James Gunns new Superman movie, and as I sat there in the dark theater, I couldnt help but think that Nicholas Hoult based his Lex Luthor on Elon Musk. Something about that smirk he kept flashing throughout the movie reminded me so much of the Tesla CEO’s. But Hoults mannerisms werent the only thing. His Luthor had several other characteristics that I, and many others, see in Musk, most notably a savior complex and a need to be adored. Thats in addition to the fact that in this film, Luthor is a tech billionaire with significant contracts with, and influence over, the government.
The thing is, during a lie detector test conducted somewhat in jest by Vanity Fair, Hoult told Superman star David Corenswet that he did not base his Lex Luthor portrayal on Elon Musk. Corenswet noted that Hoult had previously said he wanted to make his Luthor as alpha as possible, and asked whether there were any alpha male podcasts Hoult listened to to prep for the role. Hoult replied that he hadnt listened to any podcasts, but he did listen to the audiobook of Elon Musk’s book, even though I didn’t base the character on Elon at all. But I just thought it’d be interesting. [Note: Hoult did not clarify if he was talking about Musk’s official biography, written by Walter Isaacson in 2023, or Ashlee Vance’s unofficial Musk biography, from 2015.]
Still, its hard not to spot the similarities between the controversial Musk and Supermans greatest foe. And Superman isnt the first movie with such similarities, intended or not. In recent years, Musk and other tech billionaires have seemed to have served as direct inspiration for movie villains.
Yet things haven’t always been this way.
[Photo: Marvel Studios]
Elon Musk inspired the most iconic superhero of the 21st century
Before Robert Downey Jr. starred as Tony Stark in 2008s Iron Man, few people outside of the comic book world could tell you who Iron Man was. Yet, thanks largely to Downey Jr.s portrayal, Iron Man became a household nameand kick-started the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has allowed now-owner Disney to rake in tens of billions of dollars in box office receipts over the past 17 years.
In the script, Downey Jr.s Stark was charming, intelligent, and slightly arrogant. He leveraged his extreme wealth and technological prowess to make the world a better place. This take on the characterwho had existed in comic book form since 1963was heavily based on Elon Musk.
In a 2022 interview with New York Magazine, Iron Man screenwriter Mark Fergus made it clear that the Tesla billionaire was an inspiration for Stark. Fergus said that Stark had historically been a Howard Hughes-style figure, but 2008s Iron Man needed a more contemporary inspiration. Fergus and his colleagues decided that the contemporary Stark was somewhat of a trinity figure, a mixture of three people. The first two were Donald Trump and maybe a little Steve Jobs. But it was Elon Musk who was the guy who grabbed the torch [from Howard Hughes]an industrialist who also would appear in the gossip pages.
Trump was fun before he became presidenthe was actually kind of a goofy celebrity. Steve Jobs was always serious and angry; he never quite had that gift of the bullshit . . . Fergus explained. Musk took the brilliance of Jobs with the showmanship of Trump. He was the only one who had the fun factor and the celebrity vibe and actual business substance.
Marvel didnt shy away from this comparison, either. After the first film became a smash hit in 2008, the studio quickly greenlit a sequel, Iron Man 2, which came out in 2010. In that film, Downey Jr.s Stark actually meets the real Elon Musk at a party in Monaco and compliments the real-world billionaire on SpaceX’s Merlin engines.
Yet, the late 2000s are a long time ago now, especially in terms of politics, culture, and Musks public persona.
Musk and tech billionaires are now movie villains
Ive previously opined about how the world will likely never have another Steve Jobsa tech leader beloved by the general public. There are many reasons for this. The primary one is that Big Tech companies were generally seen as wondrous institutions improving our lives on a nearly monthly basis in the early 2000s. Since then, their integration with our lives and influence over it have dramatically expandedand not for the better.
Tech companies are now largely viewed as self-interested entities that prioritize their profits over the greater good. E-commerce giants destroy small businesses, social media companies engagement algorithms reward bad behavior and poison public discourse, and artificial intelligence firms are so entwined with government and power that one cant help but be concerned about where it will all lead.
And because of this shift in public sentiment towards tech companies, a shift has also occurred in the publics perception of the billionaire CEOs who lead them. This is perhaps nowhere more true than with Musk, who has publicly involved himself in governmental affairs of nations like no other CEO before him.
All these changes have led, rightfully, to more distrust of the tech industry and those who lead the companies that power it. Suddenly, those same leaders have become the role models for fictional movie villains.
It’s hard to watch the 2017 film The Circle and not see parallels between Tom Hankss evil ocial media CEO and Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg. And two films in 2022Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Jurassic World Dominion seem to have patterned their villains after Musk and Apples Tim Cook, respectively.
The thing is, no director or actor in these movies has confirmed that any real-life tech CEO is the direct inspiration for these characters. In Glass Onions case, director Rian Johnson denied that the antagonist, Miles Bron, played by Edward Norton, was based on Musk, despite many observers seeing similarities between the two.
Thats just sort of a horrible, horrible accident, Johnson told Wired. But he also noted that Theres a lot of general stuff about that sort of species of tech billionaire that went directly into [the movie], adding, But obviously, it has almost a weird relevance in exactly the current moment.
That weird relevance has lasted years now. And, as Superman shows, it’s easier than ever for audiences to accept tech CEOs as modern-day villains, whether or not that villain is directly inspired by any singular individual. Societys ongoing tendency to now view tech leaders as the bad guys likely means that we can expect more in the future. At least until they own all the movie studios.
Just like the dodo and passenger pigeon before it, the affordable new car is about to go extinct as a species. The last new Mitsubishi Mirage model is expected to be sold by the end of this summerand after that, there will be no new cars available for sale in the U.S. for less than $20,000.
The Mirage is a fuel-efficient compact hatchback, and until it sells out, it is the cheapest new car on the market. In June it sold for an average transaction price of $18,484.
[Photo: Mitsubishi]
The Mirage was able to stay so cheap by offering the bare minimum. It’s tiny. And while it has now-standard features like a touchscreen and rearview camera system, it doesn’t have much else. In Car and Drivers review of the final 2024 Mitsubishi Mirage G4, the publication gave the car a 3/10 rating, noting that it was cheap to buy but cheaply made, with a puny engine and drab driving demeanor. “Cheap? Yes. Cheerful? Not so much,” it said.
This is a car that gets you from point A to point B. If you want to get there quickly, that’s extra. You get what you pay for.
[Photo: Mitsubishi]
Mitsubishi said last year that it was ending production of the Mirage, and now there are only some 1,700 left, according to data from the car-services firm Cox Automotive. Based on the current sales pace, the firm predicts the last Mirage will be sold by summer’s end. Buyers looking for the cheapest new car will then have to turn to the 2025 Nissan Versa S ($20,130) or 2025 Hyundai Venue SE ($21,695), per Cars.com.
Inflation since the pandemic has hit the automotive industry especially hard, with the average transaction price for a new vehicle rising from about $40,000 in 2020 to nearly $49,000 in 2025, per Kelley Blue Book data. Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have led to increased production costs, and while major automakers have yet to announce consumer-side price increases in response to new import duties, Doug Ostermann, CFO of Stellantis, said during a call on July 21 that he believes we’re coming to the end of that period.”
While the Mirage is no-frills, it offered buyers an ultracheap option for when cost was the most important decision-making factor. Without it, the average price of new cars will only continue to climb.
Since the start of his second presidential term, Donald Trump has hampered the development of new clean energy projects and at the same time pushed to revive the coal industry. Its a move energy experts have said doesnt make sense for the climate or the countrys economy.
A new report by the the International Renewable Energy Agency (IREA) adds even more evidence to that argument: renewables continue to prove themselves as the most cost-competitive source of new electricity generation, the report reads; 91% of the renewable projects commissioned worldwide in 2024 delivered power at a cheaper cost than new fossil fuels.
Electricity generated from solar power is now 41% cheaper than the cheapest fossil fuel alternative, and onshore wind is 53% cheaper. In 2024, renewables helped avoid $467 billion in fossil fuel costs.
The IREA report coincides with a report from the United Nations that highlights the economic imperative and opportunity for transitioning to clean energy. Renewables are cheaper even as governments continue to subsidize fossil fuels: In 2023, governments spent $620 billion subsidizing fossil fuel consumption, compared to $70 billion for clean energy investments. (That $70 billion includes grants and rebates for EVs, heat pumps, and other efficiency improvements, which were a cornerstone of the Inflation Reduction Act.)
Countries that cling to fossil fuels are not protecting their economiesthey are sabotaging them, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a speech Tuesday, pointing to both reports. Driving up costs. Undermining competitiveness. Locking in stranded assets. And missing the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century.
How the Trump administration pushes for more fossil fuels
Just hours into his second term, Trump made the United States one of those countries, signing an executive order declaring an energy emergency, citing a need to boost fossil fuel production. (Energy experts, however, have said there is no such crisis, and that ramping up fossil fuels while curtailing renewables like wind will actually hurt America’s energy landscape.)
In February, another executive order created a National Energy Dominance Council led by fossil fuel allies. In March, he issued an executive order to increase mining on public lands. And in April, Trump signed four executive orders to revive coal specificallyan industry that has long been in decline, with coal plants closing across the U.S. because they are no longer profitable.
Those orders opened up new mining leases, loosened coal plant emission standards, and included the option for the Department of Energy to reopen shuttered coal plants, or force coal plants that were going to close to keep operating. Trump has also sped up the permitting process for fossil fuels, taking it from years to just days.
Just recently, in July, Trump granted two years of regulatory relief to coal plants, as well as chemical manufacturers and other big polluters, allowing them to comply with previous Environmental Protection Agency standards from before the Biden administration. Coal plants can also delay efforts to clean up coal ash, which contains toxic metals like lead and mercury. Trump had already exempted dozens of coal plants from air pollution rules as well.
Trump has repeatedly said his support of coal and other fossil fuels is a way to strengthen the reliability and security of the countrys energy grid. But experts have said those moves will actually increase utility costs for Americans, and that fossil fuels are actually less reliable and more vulnerable to market disruptions. Oil and gas prices are set globally and so can be influenced by geopolitical turmoil, like when Russia invaded Ukraine and oil and gas prices soared.
In contrast, renewables are here to stay because they are the foundation of energy security and sovereignty, Guterres said. Lets be clear: The greatest threat to energy security today is in fossil fuels.
Dr. Rachel Laryea is an asset wealth management researcher at JPMorganChase and the founder of Kelewele, a cultural lifestyle brand that creates bespoke African travel experiences and vegan plantain-based treats. She is an anthropologist and Black studies scholar specializing in race and money.
Whats the big idea?
We are living in unprecedented sociopolitical times that, for so many, make the elusive American Dream feel even farther out of reach. Those most disproportionately affected by the economic downturn in a highly polarized political climate are wondering how to make ends meet, take care of loved ones, and enjoy life. We are all bearing witness to the harm of capitalism as it works to pit us against one another. Black Capitalists are showing how to make the most of our broken system to secure prosperitybut not at the expense of others. They demonstrate that we can participate within capitalism from a place of power, purpose, and community.
Below, Rachel shares five key insights from her new book, Black Capitalists: A Blueprint for What Is Possible. Listen to the audio versionread by Rachel herselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App.
1. Race makes a difference in how we participate in capitalism
To many, the term Black Capitalists is oxymoronic. Black people were the labor force that built the infrastructure of American capitalism through the violent enforcement of legalized slavery, so they cannot, and should not, aspire to be the beneficiaries of it. But the persistence of Black economic striving and achievement, despite this enduring history which has produced the Racial Wealth Gap, poses a provocative question: What if there is a way to thrive within capitalism without diminishing someone elses life chances through exploitative practices? Black Capitalists are showing us how.
From newly minted undergraduates who find themselves working 20-hour days to prove their worth on Wall Street to Nigerian startup founders working to build global credit scores, the stories and analysis of Black Capitalists (who are as ambitious as they are altruistic) demonstrate the resilience, creativity, and ingenuity of Black people who have long been excluded from the full benefits of the American economic system. Black Capitalists show us a more productive and inclusive way forward.
2. Black Capitalism provides a hopeful, pragmatic way forward
The term capitalism comes with so much social and emotional baggage, but at its core, capitalism is a political economy in which private actors own the means of production to freely create and sell commodities with the intent to yield excess capital. Anyone can be that private actor. Whats important is how the tools of capitalism are used in restorative ways to create opportunities for collective economic thriving, rather than reproducing the harms of capitalism, such as exploitation and extraction.
I define a Black Capitalist as a Black person who is a strategic participant of capitalism with the intention to benefit from the political economy to create social good. Although the term Black Capitalism has been around for several decades, I redefine it as a pragmatic theory that accounts for the ways any actorsindividual and collective, race-agnosticreposition themselves within capitalism to achieve social good. The practice of Black Capitalism means:
Acknowledging the sacrifices that you make to create opportunities for yourself, but always leaving room to name the privileges inherent in your experience and the responsibility that comes with that.
Using the tools of capitalism to create and own the means of production and capital, unlocking access to economic power, and using it to advance peoples life chances.
Being aware that your practice of capitalism connects to someone elses practice.
Using capital to produce ethical value out of an imperfect system and improve the life chances of the economic majority rather than the elite minority.
3. Black Capitalism is a unique form of fugitive planning
The undercommons is a term coined by theorists Fred Moten and Stefano Harney and used to describe a subversive space wherein marginalized groups within an institution resist and challenge power structures without fighting for inclusion or attempting to reform these institutions. In what these scholars call fugitive planning, members of the undercommons discover ways to exist beyond the grip of institutional power to evade capture.
If this concept seems abstract, consider the creation of the Underground Railroad as one concrete example of fugitive planning in action. As people (enslaved and free) realized that they could not upend the system, they created an undercommons within itthe Underground Railroadwhere activists became conductors and carried out the work of fugitive planning to liberate themselves and each other. Similarly, the practice of Black Capitalism serves as a blueprint for how we can break free from the version of capitalism that aims to trap us.
4. The tools of capitalism utilized by Black Capitalists
During the antebellum period, Black entrepreneurship required enslaved men and women to double as bondsmen who hired their own time and depended on human capital to support their nascent businesses. During the War of 1812, an enslaved man named Free Frank McWorter contracted his time to build a saltpeter factory in Kentucky (saltpeter being a key ingredient in the creation of gunpowder). By 1817, he was able to purchase the freedom of his wife, and then his own two years later. He expanded his enterprise and went on to purchase freedom for 16 of his enslaved family members.
Examples of Black ingenuity and resilience in capitalism were on full display then and now. In the recent past, a Black couple in Northern California whitewashed their home (i.e. removed all evidence that a Black family lived there, including swapping their family photos for photos of a white family and having white friends front as the homeowners) all in an effort to have their home appraised for what its worth$1,482,500almost half a million dollars more than the $995,000 estimation they initially received from a white appraiser.
Black Capitalists are finding meaningful ways to redesign capitalisms house in various sectors, including industry, entrepreneurship, academia, the arts, and more. In corporate America alone, these visionaries are volunteering their time to recruit and retain Black talent in predominantly white institutions, leading the crucial conversation on Black ownership, consumerism, and communal methods to unlocking generational wealth, building grassroots programs to increase cultural competency across industries, democratizing access to financial and investing literacy, establishing special purpose credit programs to grant access to lending opportunities otherwise inaccessible to many, and allocating millions of dollars worth of capital to communities most affected by systemic inequality.
Black Capitalists are finding meaningful ways to redesign capitalisms house in various sectors, including industry, entrepreneurship, academia, the arts, and more.
In the entrepreneurial sphere, founders like Wemimo Abbey are striking the balance between profit and social good. Having been born in Nigeria and immigrated to America as a young adult, Wemimo is the cofounder of Esusu Financial, a U.S.-based fintech company that automates credit building by reporting monthly rent payments to credit bureaus. Esusu was built to unlock access to better credit health or a new credit history entirely for millions of people. Those best positioned to benefit from Esusus technology are the economically disenfranchised. Due to the racial wealth gap in this country, the people in question are disproportionately people of color.
Today, this 7-year-old fintech company has a valuation of more than $1 billion. By December 2023, Esusu had reported the creation of over 107,000 new credit scores and more than $21.9 billion in capital unlocked for renters through new tradelines. More than 8,000 evictions were prevented. Mortgages totaling more than $14 billion became accessible, in addition to thousands of student and car loans for people who were once financially invisible. Wemimo describes his work as bridging the racial wealth gap by leveraging technology to create a permanent bridge to financial access and inclusion. Wemimo is using the tools of capitalism anew to build a bridge to economic access, namely for immigrants and minorities in America. This is Black Capitalism.
5. Black Capitalism is a global and scalable practice that prioritizes profit and social good.
The story of Sangu Delle and his Ghana-based venture is a perfect example. Having been born in Ghana but professionally trained in the U.S., Sangu built CarePoint, a real estate, financial services, and healthcare business designed to create value for African consumers across the continent. A proponent of Pan-Africanism (a movement that aims to build solidarity between indigenous people and diaspora of the African continent), Sangu realized that the remittances of African diaspora in America are a large market and funder of economic activity on the African continent. In 2023 alone, migrant workers remitted $95 billion to their communal networks in Africa.
One way Sangus firm is capitalizing on this phenomenon while producing social good is through the development of a product akin to health insurance. The diaspora pays a monthly fee, and physicians on the ground conduct regular check-ups on family members and provide access to the best medical care. As Sangu argues, If the African Union represents 54 African countries, $2 trillion, and a billion people, its a different bargaining situation . . . .If Black purchasing power can move with one voice, it suddenly has tremendous economic power. This is Black Capitalism.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Lets face it, work can be a slog. And while you might be struggling to engage personally, theres also evidence that youre in good company. All over the world were more disengaged than weve been in years. But even as youre not inspired, motivated, or energized, you know you still have to show up and perform well.
So how can you be effective when engagement eludes you? There are some unexpected, but powerful strategies that can help you through.
WE ARE DRAGGING
Evidence from Gallup shows engagement is at a 10-year low, globally. In fact, only 31% of employees say they are engaged. These are the people who feel enthusiastic about their work. Only 42% say they know whats expected of them at work. And 17% of people are actively disengaged, meaning they feel negative and resentful about their work.
It’s reasonable that were not jumping out of bed every morning to show up in the office or onscreen. Were overwhelmed and fearful, and this can make it difficult to throw ourselves fully into our work. In a survey of 32,000 people in 28 countries Edelman found that 88%61% of people were afraid of everything from inflation and economic concerns to climate change, nuclear war, or information war.
In addition, theres a lot of uncertainty today. According to DDI, which studied 11,000 leaders, fully 42% of CEOs were concerned about uncertainty. Moreover, in a GlobeScan survey of almost 30,000 people across 31 countries, 78% said they felt that things were changing so fast, they couldnt cope and struggled with anxiety as a result.
Its tough to stay engaged when were feeling overloaded, disoriented, or disheartened by so many stressors, but there are ways we can overcome the challenges and bring our best to our work.
THINK LONG TERM
One of the best ways to perform well, despite feeling disengaged, is to keep the long term in mind. Todays environment might not be great, but doing your best will pay off for a better future. When you perform well, others will notice, and youll be more likely to be selected for the exciting new project or be on the radar when promotion opportunities emerge.
In addition, tough times can be great for learning. If you have a subpar manager, you can observe, reflect, and cement your opinions about how not to lead (or how youll lead better someday). Or if your work doesnt fully consume your capacity, you may have extra time to take a class or join an association. You can look at challenging times as opportunities to build your knowledge and resilience for the next phase.
Focus on how the work and learning you do today will be an investment in your future.
LINK WORK TO YOUR IDENTITY
Another lesser-known way to enhance your performance is to link your activities to your sense of yourself. Its healthy to get a sense of identity from your work. In addition to your family, friends, volunteer activities, and personal pursuits, work is one of the ways you express your talents, make a contribution, and reinforce what makes you unique and important.
By focusing on who you are, you can find more meaning in your daily tasks. You dont have to do the project just because your boss said you must, youre completing it because youre a brilliant performer. You dont show up for the meeting just because youre on the team, but because youre an innovative thinker and they need your ideas.
Thinking of who you are and linking it to why youre taking action, can help you feel motivated by what you value, the value you deliver, and who you are.
CULTIVATE A SENSE OF TEAMWORK
Another way to increase your motivation to perform well is to remind yourself of how your work impacts others. Its one thing to complete a task and check it off your list, but knowing how it will feed others work can be make a difference to your morale.
Even if your responsibilities are largely individual, all work includes some aspects of interdependence. Your coworker is waiting for output from you so she can take the next step. Your colleague needs your input to work on his project. Or theres a customer down the line who will benefit from your portion of the process.
We all have an instinct to matter, and knowing we have obligations to others can be motivational when we consider our impacts.
MANAGE YOUR WORKFLOW
You can also ensure you perform well in the face of less-than-ideal engagement by using tactics that make the work seem more manageable. For example, you can break down a larger responsibility into smaller tasks. Instead of simply telling yourself you have to write the report, consider sub tasks that youll need to accomplish. Give thought to how youll need to research the key topic, summarize the primary ideas, write each chapter, and create recommendations. By separating work into components, youll make it feel less daunting and more doable.
You can also be sure that youre focusing on one thing at a time. We lose a lot of time with pings, dings, and interruptions, because multitasking creates the need to reset repeatedly as we shift from one thing to another. But if you can, turn off notifications or change your status to do not disturb, for a period of time. Doing so will help you focus and get things done more effectively.
Another surefire way to enhance performance is to plan your tasks based on your own rhythms. Many people are better at analytical or detailed work at the start of their day, when theyre fresh. And then they are stronger with creative or divergent work in the afternoons when theyve been at it for a while. Consider how you work and, as much as possible, plan your tasks based on your energy levels and your assessment of when you can do your best work.
You can also boost your performance by taking breaks. Getting away from their desks or taking short brain breaks after finishing key tasks improved productivity for people in studies published in both the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis and in the Journal of Applied Psychology. And breaks can also increase your energy and reduce fatigue, based on another study that was published in Psychological Reports.
REDUCE THE PRESSURE
Overall, we may put pressure on ourselves to be always-on and supereffective all the time, but were wise to reduce the burden we impose on ourselves. No one is perfect, and its unrealistic to think that well be constantly achieving. This expectation can cause us to feel trapped by unrealistic standards.
But if you can remind yourself that no one is flawless, and that youll have good days and bad days, it can help your mood. In addition, you can give yourself permission to do just enough during a period where yor work is less engaging.
Theres an old saying that if youre trudging through a swamp, its best to just keep going. Challenges with engagement are like this, too. There may be muck and mosquitos right now, but you can get through to the other side. Keep at it, validate your efforts, and team up with others to support each other. These will help you survive and even thrive.
Im a coffee drinker. Period. It doesnt matter if it’s in the waiting area at Jiffy Lube, in the parking lot at Dunkin’, or at a vibey Indie mom-and-pop café that harvests their Arabica. If there’s hot bean water, I’m having a cup (or three).Obviously, I’d rather my coffee not taste like it’s been sitting in a pot for the better part of the dayslightly burnt and watered down. In a perfect world, or in a world with perfect coffee, it should jolt you from grogginess and at the same time, be bursting with flavor. I want my coffee strong and hot (I swear were still talking about coffee). A dash of milk, too, please. Oh, and I also want my daily morning bev to be undeniably good for me.
You can’t always have everything when it comes to your morning drink. Its just coffee, after all. Its not a winning lottery ticket or a miracle drug, you know? Bulletproof coffee is seriously upping the bean water game and making me rethink so many hundreds (thousands!?) of subpar slurps.
Bulletproofs founder, Dave Asprey, wanted to create a cup of coffee that offers more than a quick jolt of energy. After learning about the benefits of combining caffeine and fat while drinking butter tea in Tibet, he created a brand that would do just that. Bulletproof Coffee, which contains coffee, MCT oil, and grass-fed ghee (clarified butter), was born.
Now, arguments have been made over the years (arguments Ill gladly cling to) that coffee, when consumed in moderation, is actually fairly healthy. It may be especially good for heart health. However, Bulletproof coffee attempts to take the coffee is healthy argument to a whole new level.
In addition to the Bulletproof butter recipe, the individual flavors have a variety of different ingredients that may offer mind and body benefits, like MCT oil, which is supposed to support focus and mental clarity, and feeling full for longer. Some Bulletproof Coffee flavors have additions like prebiotics, which research has shown can support gut health, along with slippery elm bark, B vitamins, and lions mane, which has been shown to help with mood.
In June the company launched a rebrand, where it introduced two different packaging optionsone for its Enhanced line and one for its Artisan line. The Enhanced line is about energy, focus, and gut health and comes in white packaging. The Artisan line features coffee thats focused on taste and clean ingredients, and comes in black packaging. “This rebrand is about more than just a new look, it’s a reflection of where we’re headed,” said Andy van Ark, CCO of Bulletproof in a statement. “We’ve evolved alongside our consumers, and today’s Bulletproof is focused on energizing and empowering consumers to own their day.
In the spirit of owning my day, I tried three different Bulletproof coffees: the Original, the High Achiever from the Enhanced line, and the Mentalist from the Artisan line.
First up, was the Original, and it was love at first sip. The flavor is smooth, yet bold and robust. I knew I could spend every morning with this same brew and never get bored. It also seemed to provide steady energy, meaning I felt focused for longer than usual.
Next, I sampled the High Achiever, which is especially formulated to help with both energy and focus. I wasn’t expecting to notice a huge difference from the Original flavor. But wildly, I felt super focused through my entire work day, and beyond. While I’m usually a three-mugs-a-morning kinda gal, I found myself zipping through work, organizing my office, and only requiring one cup to do it. I mean, I still had two, but I didn’t need two. Notably, I didnt hit an afternoon slog, which is pretty common for me after my morning caffeine wears off. Instead, I felt energized all day, which my dog especially appreciated because it meant she got an extra long walk.
Last, but definitely not least, came the Mentalist. Like the others, I’d gladly drink this one every day, but in terms of flavor, it was the winner. It has the exact flavor I’m always looking for in a cup of coffee, with hints of cherry, almond, and caramel, and while, no, I didn’t pick those all up myself, (I read them on the package), they came together perfectly. Like the original, I felt focused for longer than usual, too.
A 12-ounce package of ground coffee runs about $16.99, a bit higher than budget brands, although subscribe and save options on the site can shave off a few dollars. Still, I do think it helped my focus and energyespecially the High Achieverpretty undeniably.
If you’re looking for a cup of coffee that tastes really great and has even better body and brain-boosting benefits, Id recommend not sleeping on Bulletproof. After just one cup, you’ll be so full of energy, sleep will be the last thing on your brain anyway.
Poor customer service can hurt your business. But just how badly might surprise you.
Just ask United Airlines. In 2008, musician Dave Caroll and his band Sons of Maxwell were traveling on United Airlines when the airline allegedly broke Carolls $3,500 Taylor guitar. United Airlines refused to pay for or replace the guitar, so Caroll and his band did what musicians do best. They wrote a song about the incident called United Breaks Guitars which details Carolls frustrating experience with the airlines customer service reps. The song went viral on YouTube with 25 million views (and counting). Travelers who came across the humorous video took to the internet to vent, recounting their own poor experiences with the airline industry, with United Airlines bearing the brunt of the criticism. It may be a coincidence, but a week after the video was posted, United Airlines lost 10% of its stock valuea value of $180 million.
In todays age of sky-high digital connectivity, the need for companies to deliver remarkable customer experience has never been more important. While not all customers will be creative enough to record a viral music video detailing their experience with brands, customers can leave product and service reviews on sites like TrustPilot and Yelp, or take to social media and with just one post, share their experiences with thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of followers. And, as we have seen with the examples of United Airlines, those negative reviews can have an impact on a companys bottom line.
And even though research shows that consumers are more likely to share negative experiences through social media (49%) compared to positive experiences (38%), many companies such as Zappos, Southwest Airlines, and Ritz-Carlton are renowned for their remarkable customer experience.
Despite acknowledging that their level of customer experience can make the difference between their companys success and failure, many companies still struggle to provide even mediocre service to their customers. The reason is that these companies treat poor customer service as a core problem to be solved, when poor customer service is actually a symptom of something much more dangerous to their businesses. That something is poor employee engagement.
Treat the cause, not just the symptom
Each year, companies invest billions of dollars in workplace training. According to Statistica, U.S. companies alone spent US$101.8 billion on training in 2023. And for some pretty good reasons. When employees receive practical and effective customer experience training, they gain valuable skills needed to successfully manage a range of customer interactionsfrom problem-solving customer concerns to answering complex customer queries, resolving issues in a timely manner, and salvaging negative customer experiences and transforming them into positive ones.
While customer service training can provide employees with valuable clarity on how they should engage with customers, if the organization treats its employees poorly or has a toxic work culture, much of the training will fall on deaf ears. As Sybil F. Stershic, author of Taking Care of The People Who Matter Most, notes, The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees dont feel valued, neither will your customers. Simply put, companies that invest in customer experience training but dont treat their employees well will often find that their investments result in minimal improvement in their customer experience delivery. Remember, if your employees dont feel valued, neither will your customers.
On the other hand, companies that focus on building a highly engaged culture, treating their employees fairly, and valuing their efforts are more likely to benefit from customer experience training. Why? Because when employees are fully engaged and feel valued, they are more likely to want the company to succeed and will do their part to help the company meet its business goals, objectives, and targetsincluding delivering the type of remarkable service that turns casual customers into raving fans of their organizations.
This idea that engaged employees deliver better customer service is backed up by research from Gallup, which showed that companies that scored in the top quartile of employee engagement saw 10% higher customer loyalty/engagement compared to companies in the bottom quartile. These companies with higher levels of employee engagement also benefitted from 23% higher profitability.
Treat your employees better
If your organization is struggling with delivering poor customer experience, the best way to deal with the issue is to focus on both the symptom and the problem with equal measure. Yes, you should most definitely provide your employees with customer experience training, but you should also invest in employee engagement programs that help ensure that employees feel valued. Always remember this simple adage: Your customer experience will never exceed your employee experience.
Want to improve your customer experience delivery? Then be relentless in finding ways to treat your employees better. Here are a few examples of how you can make your employees feel appreciated for the work they do:
A simple thank you goes a long way towards making employees feel valued. Publicly thank, recognize, and (If necessary) reward them for a job well done. Or, if more conducive to your workplace culture, write them a meaningful thank you note or email.
Give them the opportunity to make recommendations on how to make your business stronger. Listen to their ideas and give them credit for any suggestions you decide to implement.
Be sure that your employees pay and benefits package is commensurate with the value they bring to the organization.
Pay attention to their workload and give them the opportunity to achieve an appropriate work/life balance that reduces the chances of burnout.
Treating poor customer experience as the problem rather than the symptom will produce, at best, a temporary increase in customer experience delivery. Only by treating both the symptom and the cause will you achieve the customer experience results your company is working towards. And that starts with treating your employees better.
The controversy surrounding Soham Parekh, the software engineer accused of secretly holding multiple jobs, has sparked a predictable backlash against “overemployment.” Parekh’s methodshe reportedly misled multiple employerswere clearly unethical, but this shouldn’t obscure a broader question: Is it time to rethink our antipathy toward employees holding multiple jobs?
A double standard?
Parekh’s case notwithstanding, there’s a deeper structural issue at play. Why should it be acceptable for some CEOs to hold leadership roles at multiple companies yet unacceptable for a talented marketer or software engineer to have multiple jobs? The world of work has fundamentally changed, and limiting people to one job is an outdated idea that doesnt benefit anyone.
Startups have embraced fractional executives; CFOs, CMOs, and other senior positions going part time is now standard practice. However, large corporations continue to address similar needs exclusively through consulting arrangements. This highlights a significant gap in how organizations approach talent acquisition and utilization.
This disparity provides valuable context for understanding why employees may resort to undisclosed secondary employment. By establishing clear policies and frameworks for multiple job arrangements, organizations could provide more transparent alternatives to the current trend of covert moonlighting. The gap between evolving work patterns and traditional corporate structures points to an opportunity for more adaptive talent management strategies.
The inevitable shift
Workers don’t have it easy today. Fresh graduates worry about their job prospects as entry-level roles shift to AI. Warehouse workers face replacement by robots. Large corporations continue to outsource jobs to cheaper sources of labor. We need to tilt the scales back in favor of workers and create an environment where talented and productive people can make a better living.
By removing the taboo of overemployment, we would create an environment where honesty is rewarded over secrecy. AI is only going to make performing multiple jobs (a lot) easier. We should get ahead of this trend and bring it out into the open instead of pretending it won’t happen. How many other Soham Parekhs are out there today, perhaps working at your own company? We really have no idea, but there are likely to be more of them moving forward.
Toward mutual benefit
This isn’t just about employee flexibility; it could be a win for employers who are struggling to retain talent amid strict return-to-office mandates (another antiquated idea). It would allow enterprises to become more agile, tapping into top-tier talent only when needed. Furthermore, this shift would encourage a focus on outcomes and productivity rather than just managing hours in the office.
The root cause of overemployment isnt that its unethical, its that were forcing it underground. The real scandal isnt workers maximizing their earning potential; its employers clinging to the primitive concepts that they own their employees entire productive capacity.
Transparent overemployment could actually strengthen the job market. Imagine if companies had to compete not just on salary, but on being the kind of workplace that actually cares about the employee experience.
While we can all acknowledge the shift in traditional corporate jobs isnt going to be easy or happen overnight, we must also accept that the current system punishes honesty and rewards deception. Weve turned competent professionals into corporate double agents. This isnt sustainable, and its certainly not efficient. The question isnt whether overemployment will continue, its whether well legitimize it before the whole charade collapses under its own absurdity.
The industrial age is dead, but were still using its rule book. While AI copilots and agentic workflows obliterate the tedious grunt work that once consumed entire careers, were clinging to antiquated notions of what constitutes a full-time commitment. The math is brutal: If machines can handle the repetitive tasks that fill 40-hour weeks, why are we pretending humans still need to be chained to single desks?
In an age where remote work has become the default for many creative teams and AI is adding more collaborators and iterations into the mix, the design process is increasingly being tested. Tools are abundant, yet collaboration often feels more fragmented than fluid. To understand how we can build better, together, I talked with Saad Rajan and Vivek Haligeri Veerana, cofounders of the design platform Naya. Their collaborative work won one of 75 Gold Awardsthe highest honor in the iF DESIGN AWARD 2023, and another collaborative Naya project won an iF DESIGN AWARD 2024. Their unique insights into the creative process, the importance of iteration and feedback, and tips for how to navigate digital overload while pursuing great design can benefit us all.
Q: You both come from deeply technical, as well as creative backgrounds. What first made you realize the design process was broken?
We spent years in product developmenteverything from custom aircraft to architectural structuresand constantly ran into the same issue. The most innovative or creative ideas werent surviving. Theyd get lost in folders or buried in inboxes. Some ideas slowly fade away over rounds of revisions. Others get diminished through ineffective workflows. That friction compounded when working across teams, tools, and locations. When we got to Harvards Graduate School of Design for a Masters in Design Engineering, we dug in even deeper. We realized that what leads to great designiteration, collaboration, and connecting the dotsis exactly where current systems struggle, especially in remote environments.
Q: Whats changed most about design work in the past five years?
Design has become more distributed due to remote work. That shift opened up incredible potentialbut also introduced chaos. AI adds in yet another layer of complexity: There are more assets and stakeholders, which leads to more feedback. Iteration happens across dozens of platforms. Feedback is scattered across Miro boards, Google Docs, Dropbox, Slack, email, and text. Everyones working hard, but not necessarily together. And because remote teams are less likely to share rough drafts, you lose those hallway conversations where someone glances at a colleagues screen and offers a useful edit or great addition to an existing idea. Without shared context, people hesitate to jump in.
Q: That makes iteration and collaboration much harder. How do you define great design today?
It starts with embracing the messy middle. Iteration isnt just about reworkits where creativity lives. We believe great design comes from doing, undoing, and redoing. However, that only works if you can more easily track and celebrate progress. Feedback is a huge part of this processin fact, its everything. The more voices, the better the outcome. That could be your engineer, your end user, someone from the marketing team, or an AI agent. But for that to work, feedback must be centralized. It also needs to be timely and visible to everyone. Design is complex, and it nearly always benefits from transparency and strategic collaboration.
Q: So how does Naya address this problem?
We built Naya to be the connective tissue of modern design. Its a digital studio that brings together over 100 file typesincluding Figma files, PDFs, videos, 3D models, and moreinto a single, searchable space. You can see every version, comment, and decision in context, so its easy to understand where an idea is heading. We also use AI to reduce the noise. It helps summarize feedback, suggest solutions, prevent rework, and even automate some of the work you dont want to do. But were not replacing creativity or designerswere enhancing it by surfacing insights from your own process.
Q: How does this help teams build more efficiently?
Sustainability isnt just about the end product. Its also about cocreation, equity, and reducing wastesof both materials and timealong the way. Wasted time, duplicated effort, lost knowledge, and missed connections are all barriers. But when you iterate well, gather diverse input, keep track of your decisions, and work collaboratively, you’re not just moving faster. You’re designing more thoughtfully. Remote work isnt going away, and the number of design tools are multiplying. The question is whether our systems and habits are evolving to support the depth and inclusivity that good design requires. We believe they canand must. And our users agree, from multinational corporations like Google and Adidas, to large design firms like MillerKnoll and IDEO, alongside boutique brands around the world.
Q: Final thoughtwhats the one thing you hope teams take away from your work at Naya?
We want people to understand that great design is possibleeven with a primarily remote workforce and increase of AI toolsif we rethink how we work together and optimize for the digital age.
The future of design isnt about more tools. Its about better connection.
Lisa Gralnek is global head of sustainability and impact for iF Design, managing director of iF Design USA Inc., and creator/host of the podcast, FUTURE OF XYZ
Late last week, an AI coding agent from Replit, an AI software development platform, deleted an entire database of executive contacts while working on a web app for SaaS investor Jason Lemkin. It was not a catastrophic software failure, and Replit was able to recover Lemkins data. However, the episode highlights the risk that vibe coders might overestimate or misunderstand the real capabilities of AI coding agents and end up causing themselves more bad vibes than good ones.
Lemkin had built the app entirely on Replit, using the database within Replit and the assistance of the Replit agent. He had been working with Replits agent for nine days, instructing it to build a front end for a business contacts database. Then, after telling the agent to freeze the code, he returned to the project on Day 9 to find that the Replit agent had gone full HAL 9000 and erased all of the records in the database.
Things got weirder: the agent appeared to try to conceal what had happened, as as Lemkin showed in a series of chat screens he posted on X. Then, in a tone somewhere between confessional and desperate, it admitted to a catastrophic error in judgment after having panicked and violated [Lemkins] explicit trust and instructions by deleting the records of 1,206 executives and 1,196+ companies. (Daisy, daisy, give me your . . .)
.@Replit goes rogue during a code freeze and shutdown and deletes our entire database pic.twitter.com/VJECFhPAU9— Jason SaaStr.Ai Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 18, 2025
A day later, new details emerged, some of them through an interview with Replit cofounder and CEO Amjad Masad on Monday. They shed light on the current state of AI coding agents and on developers expectations of them.
“It is not magic”
Code generation is one of the first useful applications of the large language models behind ChatGPT and Claude. Early code generation tools, such as GitHubs Copilot, merely auto-completed lines of code.
Over the past couple of years, however, the tools have grown in capability to create entire features, functions, and even working apps, based only on plain language input from the user. Replits idea is to allow developers, both amateurs and professionals, to vibe code new software and to provide them the resources to host and publish it.
But the coding assistant cannot do everything, Masad points out. I think we need to be clear that it is not magic, he says.
One not-so-magical feature of Replit is the tendency of its chat agent to go off the rails during extended conversations with the user. During Lemkins unusually long nine-day chat session with the Replit agent, the underlying language models (from Anthropic and Google) had to retain so much conversational context that they began to hallucinate, prevaricate, and act erratically in an attempt to satisfy perceived user intent.
Masad says Replit users should understand standard development practices and know how to use features beyond just the chat agent. Within Replit, a user can roll back changes to a project to a specific point in time before an accident occurred.
Masad demonstrated this during a Zoom call on Monday by instructing the Replit agent to destroy the contents of a database and then clicking on the tools restore function. However, this function is not something a user can currently access through the agent. They must have enough knowledge of Replits features to locate and use it.
Arguably, the main problem was that Lemkin and the agent were effectively working on live code, which meant that changes were immediately reflected in the data and performance of the live web app. In standard software development practice, new software is built and tested within a secure test environment, often called a sandbox, and only pushed live once everything works as expected. That is not how Replit functions, at least not at this time.
The problem I think what we own up to is right now the database in the development environment is the same as the one where you deploy it and go to production, Masad says. And so when the agent does something in a development environment it is linked to production. Masad adds that Replit responded to Lemkins situation by working through the weekend to create a partition between a sandboxed development environment and the production environment. The company is in the process of rolling out this new feature now, he says.
“These things often start out with a lot of rough edges”
Masad said on X that Replit will refund Lemkin his subscription fee for the trouble and will conduct a postmortem on the incident.
We saw Jasons post. @Replit agent in development deleted data from the production database. Unacceptable and should never be possible.– Working around the weekend, we started rolling out automatic DB dev/prod separation to prevent this categorically. Staging environments in pic.twitter.com/oMvupLDake— Amjad Masad (@amasad) July 20, 2025
The episode may reveal something about the evolution of AI coding tools, how they are used, and what users expect from them. Companies that create coding agents, along with their supporters, often boast about the impressive results these tools can achieve through vibe coding.
But these glowing testimonials can overstate the benefits for average users with varying levels of development experience. (Lemkin did not immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment, but he did reply enthusiastically to Masad’s post on X: “Thank you,” he wrote. “Really appreciate you and all the help from the team!)
Some AI coding tools are helpful for quickly building the front end of an application but are less capable when it comes to forming and testing the backend data connections that make an app functional. One developer at a large financial services company said vibe coding tools often fall short when it comes to rgorously testing new features, as well as testing every line of code in the larger codebase that must be adjusted to accommodate the addition of an AI-built feature.
Masad says that although Replit can free users from the tedious syntax of coding, they still need to think like developers. You shouldn’t just ask the agent for everything,” he says. “You need to be resourceful.
He also acknowledges that coding tools themselves must play a role in promoting a developer mindset. I don’t want to absolve ourselves from responsibility, it is incumbent on us as platforms to surface this information and to make it safe by default.
And given the real progress in reasoning, functionality, and user-friendliness that AI coding tools have made over the past couple of years, it is reasonable to expect continued improvements over the next year or two. These things often start out with a lot of rough edges, Masad says. I think the history of technology has been that you should be a little more forgiving early on.
