Lessons learned

The holidays are a great time to catch up on reading, and think beyond day-to-day issues. Here are 10 of our favorite business and productivity books from 2015 that will help you see larger trends–and your own career–in a new light. advertisement advertisement 1. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future Tech writer Ashlee Vance gained access to serial entrepreneur Elon Musk without promising to make him look good, and this biography paints a delightfully nuanced picture. At times he’s a “sci-fi version of P.T. Barnum,” talking of saving humanity while he’s got dessert lingering on his face. Other times, he’s “the possessed genius on the grandest quest anyone has ever concocted.” The American economy has long grown based on the dreams of unreasonable people, and Vance argues that Musk is the next in that line. 2. The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute It’s hard … [Read more...] about The 10 Best Business And Productivity Books Of 2015

Transitioning from one job to the next is never an easy feat. Those final few weeks at a job typically involve bittersweet goodbyes to colleagues and emails to various contacts to notify them ahead of time. All of this, while preparing for your next opportunity. advertisement advertisement I recently experienced the pangs of a transition myself, after accepting a new job at Fast Company. My final weeks at my previous role were a flurry of activity. Before jetting off on a relaxing break to Florida, I finished up some remaining projects and set up an auto-responder to notify contacts that I’d left. Disaster. Dozens of people emailed me during my break to ask where I’d be headed to next. On my first day at Fast Company, I spent several hours updating all of my digital signatures–LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter–and responding to dozens of messages of support, while delaying important tasks, like enrolling in benefits. In the aftermath of this experience, … [Read more...] about Avoid These 5 Mistakes When Transitioning To A New Job

Many people take the New Year as an opportunity to start fresh in a new job. The good news is that there will be plenty of openings to suit a wide range of seekers as CareerBuilder reports that over 100 occupations in the U.S. have more job posting activity than hiring month to month and a recent report from career site Dice finds a record 78% of hiring managers anticipate more hiring in the first half of 2016 compared to the second half of 2015. advertisement advertisement For those looking to hire, Dice found that companies are taking a greater interest in candidates with less experience. More than a quarter (27%) of hiring managers said they plan to hire entry-level candidates and 62% said they’re looking for those with two to five years’ experience. Finding and applying for those open positions may be taking on a different look in 2016. For example, the Boston Consulting Group and Recruit Works Institute surveyed 13,000 individuals from 13 countries and found … [Read more...] about How You’ll Search For A Job In 2016

Robots in movies are usually clever, cute, and friendly. But for decades, real-life robots have been basically awkward, clumsy, and really not-so-smart hunks of metal. That’s drastically changed in the last two to three years, as both robot hardware and AI software have improved by leaps and bounds. This year, we’ve seen robots do all kinds of things that were previously the realm of sci-fi. advertisement advertisement Some are assisting us mere humans at all kinds of mundane tasks, such as making pancakes, folding laundry, forming new habits, and finding beer pong buddies. Others are extending human capabilities, especially in the area of prosthetics (see this drummer who plays better with his new robot hand than his original one) and surgery. Still, others are all-out replacing what humans do: Today, robots can be security guards, bus drivers, farmers, and journalists–and they haven’t hit their limit yet. These advances have huge implications for the … [Read more...] about We Will Remember 2015 As The Year The Robot Revolution Began

2015 was the year we continued to see new types of transportation, including self-driving cars and buses, all kinds of drones, and even futuristic trains, like Elon Musk’s Hyperloop. advertisement advertisement It was also when we started to see transport become better integrated. Bike-share companies looked to become part of wider transit systems (rather than just standalone services). Uber started to share data with cities, auguring a time when ride-sharing become part of public networks. And, we saw plenty of new apps and sites allowing people to move more seamlessly between modes. For any given journey, we can now understand the best way to get from A to B. There were some failures as well. Leap Transit, an upmarket private bus service in San Francisco, went out of business (not that anyone minded too much). Generally things got better. As we gather and crunch data more effectively, we should be able to move more quickly and with less hassle, even as cities become … [Read more...] about Bike Sharing, Driverless Cars, And Hyperloops: 2015 In Transportation