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February 1 was National Change Your Password Day, a well-intentioned reminder that, ironically, highlights everything wrong with how we think about security in 2026. Here’s the truth: if you spent the first day of the month dutifully changing “Summer2025!” to “Winter2026!” across your accounts, you didn’t make yourself safer. In fact, you might have made things worse. Decades of Bad Advice We’ve spent decades teaching people the wrong lessons about password security. Add a number. Throw in a special character. Change it every 90 days. These requirements were etched into our collective consciousness, repeated by IT departments, enforced by login forms, and internalized by millions of users who thought they were doing the right thing. Meanwhile, the actual threat landscape evolved in an entirely different direction. Today’s attackers aren’t sitting at keyboards manually typing password guesses. They’re running offline brute force attacks with dedicated GPU rigs that can attempt 100 billion passwords per second against hashing algorithms like MD5 or SHA-1. At that speed, your clever substitution of “@” for “a” buys you microseconds of additional security. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which sets the gold standard for cybersecurity guidance, understands the new reality. Their latest digital identity guidelines represent a fundamental shift in how we should think about password security, and it’s not what most people expect. Length Beats Complexity Every Time NIST’s guidance is refreshingly straightforward. Length matters far more than complexity. A password should be at least 15 characters, but those characters don’t need to be a cryptic jumble of symbols that you’ll inevitably forget (or worse, write on a sticky note). Instead, NIST endorses the concept of “passphrases” or multiple words strung together that are easy to remember but difficult to guess. “DontAskMeToChangeMyPassword” is more secure than “P@ssw0rd!” and infinitely easier to recall. Even more surprising to many, NIST no longer recommends requiring special characters or numbers, and they’ve abandoned the practice of forcing regular password changes. Why? Because these rules don’t make passwords more securethey just make them harder for humans to manage, which leads to predictable workarounds that actually weaken security. Passwords Are the Problem, Not the Solution But here’s where NIST’s guidance gets really interesting. They acknowledge that even the strongest password is fundamentally insecure. Phishing attacks don’t care how long your password is. Data breaches expose credentials regardless of complexity. And with over 3,000 data breaches in 2025 alone, the question isn’t whether your password has been compromisedit’s how many times. NIST’s primary recommendation isn’t about crafting the perfect password. It’s about moving beyond passwords entirely. They emphasize multifactor authentication (MFA) as essential, not optional. They champion passkeyscryptographic keys stored on your devices that can’t be phished, guessed, or stolen in database breaches. They endorse password managers that generate and store unique credentials for every account. Organizations are realizing that the password is the problem, not the solution. Passwordless authentication isn’t a futuristic concept anymore. It’s a practical necessity for companies serious about security and user experience. What You Should Actually Do If you must use passwords (and let’s be honest, you probably still need them for many accounts), follow NIST’s guidance. Make them long, use a password manager, and enable MFA everywhere it’s available. Better yet, embrace passkeys when offeredthey’re more secure and more convenient than any password could ever be. But the real question isn’t “how do I create a better password?” It’s “why am I still relying on passwords at all?” Instead of changing your password on National Change Your Password Day, why not change your entire approach to authentication?
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E-Commerce
Being adaptable has always been a useful skill. But in todays world, its essential. In our volatile, AI-accelerated workplaces, adaptability lets us transform uncertainty and pressure into clarity, learning, and discerning action. Thankfully, adaptability is a skill we can develop. In fact, there are science-backed practices we can adopt to improve our adaptability, and the benefits go far beyond our careers. In practical terms, adaptability is being able to regulate and adjust your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors amid changing circumstances while staying aligned with your values and longterm goals. True adaptability is not passive compliance: its conscious ongoing calibration. Research links adaptability with higher life satisfaction and lower stress, especially when you add a sense of agency and social support. Many people discuss adaptability as an external performance metrichow fast you can pivot, how many priorities you can juggle. For smart professionals, the real question is: how do you build adaptability from the inside out, without burning out? Thats where the BRNT framework, which stands for Breathe, Rest, Nourish, and Talk, comes in. How to go about cultivating adaptability I designed the BRNT framework as an easy-to-remember anti-burnout tool, but it also forms the infrastructure of adaptability. Integrating the BRNT practices helps you alchemize your own adaptability. Its simple enough to act on and sophisticated enough to support sustainable high performance. Heres how: Breatheallowing you to regulate before you respond Breathe is about using breath, meditation, and movement to engage your parasympathetic nervous system, repair stress damage, and anchor yourself in the present moment. Practical expressions include guided meditation, a long walk, yoga, swimming, or simply watching the sunset with full attention. From an adaptability standpoint, Breathe is your first line of defense. When you flood your nervous system, you react from habit and fear. But when you regulate it, you can choose your response. Breathe widens the gap between trigger and action, which allows you to: Make better, calmer decisions. Distinguish between noise and meaningful signals. Access creativity instead of defaulting to defensiveness. Restrebuilding the system that adapts Rest focuses on improving and stabilizing sleep, taking breaks during the day, and disconnecting from work in the evenings, on weekends, and on vacation. As plenty of research shows, rest isnt a luxury: it is system maintenance for your adaptive capacity. Cognitively, adaptability relies on working memory, emotional regulation, and perspective taking. When you have chronic sleep debt combined with nonstop stimulation, these functions degrade sharply. By prioritizing rest, you protect the very hardware that allows you to pivot. Deep sleep consolidates learning, and breaks and disconnection create space for insights. In practice, rest might look like turning off your phone for an hour, taking a different route home to reset your senses, or setting a firm “no email after 8 p.m.” boundary. These microchoices accumulate into a state where you can tackle change with clarity, rather than exhaustion and fear. Nourishcurating your inputs Nourish is about making wise choices about what you consume. That encompasses nutrition, information, surroundings, and community. Thats why its important to be hydrated, have healthy social media practices, and block out some time in your week to do the things you love and spend time in nature. Inputs shape adaptability. It is the food that stabilizes or spikes your energy, the social feeds that calm or inflame your mind, and the environments that drain or restore you. When you nourish yourself deliberately, you achieve the following: Stabilize your baseline mood and energy, so change feels challenging, not catastrophic. Reduce cognitive overload by limiting junk information, which leaves bandwidth for real problem-solving. Reinforce a sense of self that isnt entirely defined by your work, which buffers you when roles or titles shift. For high-achieving professionals, nourishment is often the most radical act. That requires you to choose quality over quantity in everything from meals to media to meetings. That curation is itself a form of adaptive intelligence. Talkadapt together, not alone Talk is about building and nurturing strong social connections and surrounding yourself with people you can be open and honest with. Practical expressions include texting with a friend, joining a vulnerable conversation with colleagues, scheduling a coaching or therapy session, or having lunch with coworkers instead of alone at your desk. Adaptability is social, not solo. Social connection is one of the strongest predictors of both resilience and adaptability. Conversations can help you realitycheck your perceptions, access new perspectives, and co-create responses to change rather than carrying everything all alone. Talk supports adaptability by enabling you to: Surface and regulate emotions through language, instead of acting them out unconsciously. Borrow other peoples ideas, strategies, and courage when you feel depleted. Build networks that make practical adaptationlike changing roles, projects, or organizationspossible and even enjoyable. Putting everything together When you put everything together, the demand for adaptability will only increase. The challenge and the opportunity arent to meet that reality with frantic hustle, but with intentional inner work. Consider using BRNT as a weekly selfreflection ritual. To do so, ask yourself the following questions: Where did I breathe before reacting this week? How did I rest and restore my system? What did I nourish myself with, and what do I need to cut? Who did I talk to honestly about what is shifting for me? Over time, these practices do more than prevent burnout. They transmute everyday stress into data, insight, and growth. This is what real adaptability is. Its not about not becoming a different person every quarter. It is about continually evolving to meet the moment with a steady nervous system, a rested mind, a nourished body and soul, and a supportive community behind you.
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E-Commerce
When Howard Schultz joinedand later acquiredStarbucks in the 1980s, he was deeply inspired by the communal culture of Italian coffee bars. From the beginning, Schultz envisioned Starbucks as more than a transactional stop for coffee. He wanted to build a community-centered space for people to congregate and connect. That vision helped redefine what a coffee shop could be. In recent years, however, that vision has lost momentum. Shifts in how and where people work, rising costs, and intensifying competition have challenged Starbuckss dominance in the coffee shop landscape. In New York City, the company recently lost its position as the citys largest coffee chain to Dunkin, according to a report from the Center for an Urban Future. Starbucks has since closed 42 stores in the cityroughly 12% of its New York locationsas part of a broader $1 billion restructuring plan that shuttered 400 metropolitan stores nationwide. The company that once felt like it occupied every corner is now becoming more selective with its presence. As part of that reset, CEO Brian Niccol, former CEO of Chipotle and Taco Bell, is attempting to reestablish Starbucks as a true third place, distinct from both home and work. The third place is not something we need to reinventits who we are, Schultz said at the Starbucks Leadership Experience 2025. The strategy, branded Back to Starbucks, calls for a shift away from the grab-and-go model that has dominated in recent years and toward a more inviting in-store experience with comfy chairs, couches, and power outlets, according to a CNN report. Starbucks plans to renovate 1,000 U.S. storesabout 10% of its domestic locationsas part of the effort. As Niccol pushes to restore the brands third place ethos, Starbucks is betting that customers still want a place to stay, not just a place to order, in a market increasingly built around speed, convenience, and efficiency. By Leila Sheridan This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister website, Inc.com. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
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