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Some days, Have a great day!!! is just too much to ask. You might even be tempted to respond to this effusive well-wisher: Have you seen the news? Have you seen my to-do list? Have you seen my teams numbers? Have you seen my sleep score? Some days, you might just settle for Having a day. And yet, that doesnt feel great either. It would be nice to do more than get through the week, to do more than endure. I have guided many leaders whose company cultures were built on endurance. I have endured many days myself. I know how easy it is to paint a day or week as categorically hard or bad. But calling a whole day bad is like calling a gravel driveway flat. Sure, from a distance its flat-ish, but from an ants point of view, it might as well be a mountain range. What we sometimes miss is that even on aggressively bad days, there is often an hour or two that is kind of okay. Or maybe every single last hour is hard, but within an hour, there is a minute when you laugh at a colleagues joke or check out your good hair day in the mirror. Even if youre in a meeting when every last minute is painful reviewing your businesss financials, you still have access to a delicious five seconds of deeply breathing in the smell of your coffee. Or in other words: You can thin-slice your joy. Because the last thing harried, overworked people need is to add learn meditation to their to-do list. Similarly, deciding to focus on fewer things sounds nice, but your boss may respectfully disagree. It would also be good to distance yourself from people who stress you out and demand your attention unfairly, but you know what? Sometimes those people are your kids. In these moments, you can thin-slice your joy in two ways: savoring the joy already present in your day, and creating new moments of micro-joy. Savoring your daily joys Like scarfing down a meal while watching TV or getting some work done, its easy to anesthetize ourselves to pleasure without realizing it. The good news is that it takes the same amount of time to chew mindlessly as it does to savor the taste of your foodit simply requires attention. Here are three no-time-required actions you can take to bank more joy from your day: Appreciate a quirk. In your next meeting, look around the room (2D or 3D) and identify one quirky thing you like about a colleague. Maybe someone throws their head back when they laugh and its joyful. Or another person drums their fingers when theyre about to share a good idea. Its an appreciation of their humanity and individuality, which makes us feel closer to them. Smell first. Before sipping your coffee, tea, or other beverage, take three seconds to smell it first. Risk looking indulgent: close your eyes and breathe in for three secondsthen sip. If its a particularly rough day, sprinkle some cinnamon on that cappuccino. This practice is especially useful when you feel in your head. Reconnecting with our senses brings us back to the present moment. Revel in your work. The next time you write a particularly funny Slack message, a compelling email, or create some bit of work thats better than your average, take one minute to simply stare at it and enjoy how clever you are. Were so often on to the next thingand when we do review our work, we often do so with a critical eyethat we miss the part where we feel pleased with ourselves! Even enjoying a cute turn of phrase in an email is plenty to savor. Creating new micro-joys It would be lovely if we all had the time, energy, and budget to take up new hobbies, make new friends, and take two-hour lunch breaks. And if you can, you should! But also, joy is not all-or-nothing. A good thought experiment to get you dreaming about micro-joys is to consider what sort of habits, experiences, or moments bring you the most joyand then identify their smallest viable unit. Here are three micro-joys to try this week: Ask a random question. The next time you see a colleague you like, take two minutes to get to know them a bit better. You could say, Random question: Whats your middle name? or Random question: Do you have siblings? Longitudinal studies of human happiness are very clear about what mattersand thats the quality of our relationships. And yet, how often do we work with people and not know even the most basic facts about them? These questions shouldnt be a long diversion from your workeven a minute of knowing someone better and that person feeling seen can be a high point of joy in your day. Do a doodle a day. Spend two minutes on a simple doodle. Maybe you draw a different timepiece each day (watch! clocktower!). Maybe its an abstract shape or a hand-lettered word. Maybe you draw a family of ducks, one day at a time. Bonus points if you do each doodle on a Post-it and then create a collection at your desk. We benefit from art, play, and self-expression during the workday, but maybe youd garner some side-eye if you set up an easel in the office. If you love art, then a daily doodle can be your version of a micro-joy. Misbehave. Mischief at work can give us a much-needed shot of adrenaline, connection, and adventure. This might look like rearranging the office furniture, using Comic Sans font in your next presentation, or playing a quick round of guess that tune with your colleagues as you hum your favorite throwback song. At best, work is steak: rich, juicy, delicious. But sometimes its just notsometimes work is broccoli. On those days, your job is to throw some cheese on it. Never gonna give you up . . . never gonna let you down . . . take it, reader! Louder, so coworkers can hear! And have yourself a great day! Or, you know, a daywith at least one truly great moment.
Category:
E-Commerce
A few years ago, I met a woman at a networking event who whispered her confession over a plastic cup of chardonnay: I love my job. Im proud of what Ive built. But every time I miss a school play or forget to sign a field trip form, I feel like I failed them. She didnt say who them referred to. Perhaps her kids, society, herself. Maybe all three. That moment stuck with me because it symbolized the tension so many ambitious parents live with every day: The drive to achieve versus the guilt that comes from not always being present for our family. And lets be clear, this isnt just a working mom issue. Dads feel it. Stay-at-home parents with side hustles or passion projects feel it. Anyone who wants something outside of parenthoodwhether its a promotion, a creative dream, or even just a regular workout routineknows that familiar battle between showing up for yourself and showing up for your kids. Where does the guilt come from? Lets start with the root of this guilt. For many of us, especially women, ambition and parenting, have long been thought of as rival (if not warring) priorities. A parent who is all-in at work is assumed to be checked out at home. The culture tells us you cant be fully present in both places. And if you try, be prepared to be stretched thinner than a toddlers patience in a long checkout line. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2015\/08\/erikaaslogo.png","headline":"Girl, Listen: A Guide to What Really Matters","description":"Ericka dives into the heat of modern motherhood, challenging the notion that personal identity must be sacrificed at the altar of parenting. ","substackDomain":"https:\/\/erickasouter.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} Social media certainly doesnt help. While were eating chips over our laptops, we scroll past moms packing bento box lunches with star-shaped cucumbers and love notes. We see dads coaching every Saturday soccer game while were FaceTiming from a hotel room on yet another work trip. The comparison game is brutal. Yet, guilt doesnt only come from comparing ourselves to the parents who treat lunch prep like a Top Chef challenge. It hits because we care. Ambitious parents arent just chasing promotions, were also chasing snuggles, bedtime stories, and the sense that were nailing this whole being a present parent thing. So if we fall short, it feels like a dagger to the heart. Is it possible to be ambitious and a great parent? The short answer is yes. But not without first redefining what great really looks like. Being a good parent isnt about being there for every single moment. Its about being there for the ones that matter most. You can miss the bake sale and still raise a kid that feels cared for and secure. What children need more than perfection is a realistic role model. They need to see what it looks like to pursue a dream, have challenges, set boundaries, and show up for the people you love. When its rooted in purpose, ambition teaches kids resilience, how to manage their time and what it looks like to care deeply about something. That doesnt mean we should be so focused on the next achievement that we miss whats happening right in front of us. The key is staying in syncpursuing your goals without neglecting your childs needs . . . or your own. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2015\/08\/erikaaslogo.png","headline":"Girl, Listen: A Guide to What Really Matters","description":"Ericka dives into the heat of modern motherhood, challenging the notion that personal identity must be sacrificed at the altar of parenting. ","substackDomain":"https:\/\/erickasouter.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
Ever since AI chatbots arrived, it feels as if the media has been on the losing end of a war of attrition. Chatbots are surging in popularity, and the more people use AI to get answers instead of search results, the fewer visits to the websites that provide those answers. Even Google, whose business model depends on monetizing search, is pushing deeper into AI, and industry data shows AI bots are flourishing. However, actions have a habit of inspiring reactions. Lawsuits are mounting as more media companies take on the AI giants over copyright, which may yet prove decisiverecent rulings notwithstanding. And publishers are increasing their website defenses against AI crawlers, blocking more of them than ever. And now we may have hit a tipping point: Cloudflare, a major internet infrastructure provider, has taken a stand in the conflict. In an announcement designed for maximum impact, the company said it would begin blocking AI scrapers by default on the websites it manages. If you’re a site operator on Cloudflare’s network, you will now need to actively allow AI bots to index your content. If you don’t, they get blocked. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/mediacopilot-logo-ss.png","headline":"Media CoPilot","description":"Want more about how AI is changing media? Never miss an update from Pete Pachal by signing up for Media CoPilot. To learn more visit mediacopilot.substack.com","substackDomain":"https:\/\/mediacopilot.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} Clout in the cloud Cloudflare manages about 20% of all internet traffic, so the implications of the move are significant. And so is the business opportunity: With the announcement, Cloudflare is also launching a marketplace for bot traffic. Instead of blocking AI bots completely, site owners will be able to charge them a fee for access via the new Pay Per Crawl programessentially a micropayment system. A few startups, such as TollBit and ScalePost, operate similar systems, but considering CloudFlare’s scale, it may have instantly become their biggest competitor. Cloudflare is a content delivery network (CDN), a crucial but largely invisible part of the internet to most users. A CDN will cache content to keep it closer to end users, generally speeding up web traffic. It runs many other related services, toothings like preventing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, enabling secure connections, and hosting websitesbut mostly it’s a middleman between website visitors and website servers, optimizing delivery and ensuring security. The way AI bots interact with websites is usually managed by each site’s Robots Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt), but it’s largely an honor system that depends on bots accurately identifying themselves and then following the rules, which they tend to liberally interpret. Cloudflare’s influence isn’t regulation per se, but it may give that standard some de facto teeth. The company claims it “identifies and distinguishes AI crawlers through its sophisticated bot detection system.” If that means Cloudflare can detect, trace, and perhaps even punish bad actors who ignore or bypass the protocol, it could mean the tides are turning. However, there is the nagging reality of the other 80% of the internet. Other CDN giants, such as Akamai, would need to get on board to really have an effect, but even that would only amount to about half of web activity. And large parts of the rest of the internet aren’t motivated to act: Google, Meta, and Microsoft operate much of the infrastructure that supports their massive, scalable businesses, and they’re all in the business of building AI models so they have an interest in maximizing AI crawler activity. Still, the pushback is real. Cloudflare’s announcement was deeply planned: the press release includes quotes from dozens of media executivesfrom Time to Dotdash Meredith and even content-based tech platforms like Quora. Although some in the group are media players who are suing AI companies, you get the sense that the others are using this moment to voice their own indignation at what they see as the wide-scale theft of the lifeblood of their industry. That indignation is fueling a new consensus, which is reflected in the many content licensing deals publishers have signed with AI companies over the past two years: that AI summarization should require some form of compensation. Monetizing the internet of bots The Cloudflare news gives publishers a more solid foundation to not just mount a defense against AI bots, but to build on that consensusto turn the rising robot activity into an opportunity. A comprehensive strategy around the growing “internet of bots” should include three elements: Block or introduce a toll for AI scraping: Identifying bots is conceptually straightforward, but has practical challenges because they multiply and sometimes mask what they are. Build for bots: Publishers should build a good user experience, and that goes for bots, tooas long as they pay to get in. They should have real-time access to simply presented, accurate information to fuel the best possible summaries, with correct citations. Build branded AI experiences: For the people who do come to your site, give them a reason to stay. Going back to ChatGPT for every query isn’t idealfor anyone. The third element is important because, while publishers are threatened by unscrupulous AI bots, they can’t deny that people still want to use them. AI answers remove friction andare changing expectations around searcheven site search. Publishers shouldn’t just acknowledge that, but take advantage of it to keep audiences on its own site. All of this depends on being able to separate bot traffic from human traffic. And if Cloudflare is indeed only the first CDN to make this move, there’s a hope that publishers won’t have to wait for a favorable court ruling or new regulations to get the teeth they need. However, there is still a role that the government can play. Cloudflare’s sophisticated bot detection would have an even greater effect if it were illegal for bots to hide their true nature and try to pass for humans. Such a rule would be simple and strongly encourage a fairer information ecosystem, one where publishers can start designing the right experiences for the right audiences. If the future of websites is to serve up the best experience to a bot, they should at least have clarity on what that is. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/mediacopilot-logo-ss.png","headline":"Media CoPilot","description":"Want more about how AI is changing media? Never miss an update from Pete Pachal by signing up for Media CoPilot. To learn more visit mediacopilot.substack.com","substackDomain":"https:\/\/mediacopilot.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
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