With little more than a coat of paint, buildings could soon make the air around them cooler and harvest gallons of water directly from the atmosphere.
Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia have created a nanoengineered polymer coating that passively cools building surfaces while enabling them to collect water like dew-coated leaves. It’s a material solution that could help combat rising heat and water insecurity in places all over the world.
The white coating, a porous paint-like material, reflects up to 97% of sunlight and radiates heat, making surfaces up to 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding air, even under direct sun. This cooler condition allows water vapor in the air to condense like dew on the smooth coating surface, where it can be collected. In a recent test, a roughly 10-square-foot area treated with the coating was able to harvest 1.6 cups of water over the course of single day.
Prof. Chiara Neto and Dr. Ming Chiu [Photo: University of Sydney]
This research was led by Chiara Neto, a professor at the University of Sydney’s Nano Institute and School of Chemistry. Neto is also cofounder of a startup that’s commercializing this coating, called Dewpoint Innovations. “Our main goal in designing this new material is to address water scarcity, providing a sustainable and delocalized source of water that is entirely passive,” she says.
[Photo: University of Sydney]
Reflective paint 2.0
Solar-reflective paint is hardly new to the world of sustainability, and it’s been used widely to reduce heat gain on everything from buildings to UPS trucks to playgrounds. This new coating builds on those applications by taking more advantage of the cooler air produced by bouncing heat off a building, creating a surface onto which water vapor can condense in the cooler ambient temperatures. The coating’s porous nature makes it more durable than typical reflective paints, which enables it to better collect dew than other surface coverings that quickly degrade.
The cooling and water harvesting potential of the coating could be substantial, according to a study recently published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. The researchers measured the coating’s performance in six months of outdoor tests on the roof of a building on the campus of the University of Sydney. Specially designed surfaces and measurement tools tracked surface temperature and dew water collected on a minute-by-minute basis alongside weather and climate data to better understand when the coating would perform best.
[Photo: University of Sydney]
A theoretical model extended that data to create a water capture prediction for the rest of Australia, suggesting the highest water capture rates in the tropical northeast of the country. Neto says this model could be used by extension in the rest of the world, and has identified places where the coating could be especially useful.
“The areas most suited to the passive cooling effect are areas in which the sky is often clear of clouds, and the amount of water in the air is not too high and not too low (ideally around 80% relative humidity), to obtain the highest cooling of the surface and the highest water condensation,” Neto explains.
She notes that the coatings need to be clearly exposed to the sky to be most effective. “If used on the walls of buildings, they would still bring some cooling, but not as much as on the roof,” she adds. The ideal configuration is at a small tilt, a roof angled at about 30 degrees, to enable the roll-off of water droplets.
[Photo: University of Sydney]
But even in places where the humidity is too low to harvest much dew, the reflectivity of the coating will still provide the benefit of lower ambient temperatures and reduced energy requirements for buildings. The coating is not designed to be used as a ground cover, but Neto says it could be used in tilted and flat areas around sport courts, fields, on tents, on animals sheds, and other spaces.
If it were to be implemented widely, the coating could provide a steady source of water, albeit a small one. The study found that a one-square-meter section of roof treated with the coating could harvest up to 390 milliliters of water per day, a little more than a cup and a half of water from about 10 square feet of surface. Scaling up to the size of a building, that could add up to several gallons worth of water a day. That may not seem like a lot when the average person in the U.S. uses more than 150 gallons per day, but the volume could easily add up as more buildings are retrofitted, or even designed specifically, to use this coating.
This passive approach to water collection “opens the door to sustainable, low-cost, and decentralized sources of fresh watera critical need in the face of climate change and growing water scarcity,” Neto says.
There are certain things that make it obvious that you are a working parent. And I am not talking about the bags under your eyes or the six cups of coffee needed to get through the day. It usually happens at 4:59 p.m. when they start to pack up so they can make it to daycare or a school recital or any number of obligations parents have. As they slip out of the open-plan cubicle maze, a child-free colleague glances over and thinks (or sometimes says out loud), Must be nice.
Welcome to the us versus them of modern work life: parents versus nonparents, aka committed versus distracted or the all-in versus the always juggling. In my book How to Have a Kid and a Life, I wrote about the motherhood penalty, the well-documented hit mothers take in pay, promotions, and perceived competence. Decades of research show that when you add kids to a womans résumé, hiring managers see her as less committed and less competent than an identical candidate without children. The same studies show fathers are often perceived as more committed.
Before hybrid work was an option, mothers had a clear disadvantage. The question now is: Does flexible work close that empathy gap or widen it?
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Many workplaces still worship the ideal worker. You know the typealways available and never needs to slip out for a child with a fever. In interviews for my book, women described how the bias shows up in little moments:
The big project that always gets handed to the single guy and then becomes his fast track to promotion.
The manager who says, I just didnt want to burden you, a move that quietly sidelines a new mom.
The performance review that praises a mothers flexibility but questions her availability.
Parenthood isnt seen as a strength or a crash course in time management and crises response. Its treated as a potential liability the company is doing us a favor by accommodating.
Is hybrid work the cure parents need?
On paper, hybrid work should be the great equalizer. Parents gain flexibility, lose the soul-sucking commute, and can occasionally make it to the school play and not worry about annoyed glances from colleagues. Studies show that hybrid arrangements can reduce stress and improve well-being, particularly for caregivers. But the reality is more complicated.
Post-pandemic research on working parents finds that while many value flexibility, they worry it could hurt their careers. In one national survey, parents reported feeling pressure to hide caregiving responsibilities again. Sociologists call this flexibility stigma, which is the perception that people who work remotely or adjust their hours for family reasons are less committed and less deserving of moving up. Not surprisingly, this stigma hits mothers the hardest.
So hybrid schedules can actually create a new divide:
The nonparent whos in the office four days a week is seen as visible and all-in.
The parent whos remote two days a week is seen as harder to reach. Never mind that they are online and answering emails at 9:30 p.m.
Same output, totally different story.
The backup system
Heres where the us versus them really kicks in. Nonparents sometimes feel like they are the default backup system. They are the ones who stay late, travel on short notice, or cover the late-night launch because you dont have kids. Meanwhile, parents scramble to log back on after bedtime. In How to Have a Kid and a Life, I talk about this: parents trying to prove theyre as committed as ever while also trying not to miss their entire family life. Many moms told me they felt they had to be better than before and better than everyone else just to be seen as equally talented at work.
The result is a workplace full of exhausted parents and quietly resentful nonparents; each convinced the other group has it easier.
So, is hybrid helping? The honest answer is it depends on how we use it.
Hybrid work can bridge the empathy gap when:
Leaders model flexibility for everyone, not just parents.
Promotion and star status are tied to measurable results, not just hours behind the desk.
Parents dont feel the need to make their personal lives invisible by muting their kids and hiding school pickups.
It widens the gap when:
Flexibility is unofficial and negotiated in whispers.
Remote days become mommy track days.
Teams quietly equate butt-in-seat time with loyalty and ambition.
The real opportunity isnt to build a special system for parents. Its to stop treating not having a busy personal life as a qualification.
Everyone benefits from a workplace where:
People can have caregiving responsibilities or a passion or a life outside Slack and still be seen as serious about their careers.
Nonparents can say, I cant stay tonight without needing a daycare story to justify it.
Parents dont have to apologize for being parents or prove their worth with late-night emails.
If theres one thing my reporting, my book, and, frankly, my own life have taught me its this: A workforce full of burned-out, overcompensating people is bad for business and terrible for human beings.
Hybrid work gives us new tools. Whether it becomes a bridge or a black hole depends on how honest were willing to be about the biases we still carry and whether were finally ready to dump the myth of the ideal worker and replace it with something real: the ideal human.
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If your team cant function without you in the room, you dont have a team, you have a dependency. Too many business owners confuse supporting their team with carrying them. Instead of learning how to coach team members, they do the work for them. They jump into every problem, solve every issue, and answer every question themselves. It feels like good leadership, but its actually just bottlenecking in disguise.
The goal of leadership isnt to be the smartest person in the room. Instead, its to build a room full of people who can think, solve, and act without you. That shift, from problem-solver to coach, is one of the most important moves a business owner can make. Its also the only way to scale without burning out. Heres how to make it.
1. Stop answering every question
When a team member asks you, What should I do about X? dont give them the answer right away. Instead, ask:
What options have you considered?
What would you do if I werent here?
Whats the next step you could take?
This isnt about being evasive. Its about developing their decision-making muscles. Every time you solve it for them, you train them to keep coming back. When you coach them through it, you grow their confidence and capability.
2. Trade firefighting for frameworks
Good managers put out fires. Great leaders build fire prevention systems. Start capturing how you think through challenges:
What is your decision-making process?
What questions do you ask before committing to a course of action?
What patterns do you see in recurring issues?
Turn those into frameworks your team can use. That could be a decision tree, a checklist, or a step-by-step doc. If its in your head, its a habit. If its on paper, its a tool.
3. Coach on outcomes, not style
Many owners get stuck correcting how something is done instead of focusing on the result. If a team member gets to 90% of the desired outcome in their own way, then celebrate that. Tweak where needed but resist the urge to micromanage their method.
Too much intervening or micromanaging can stifle creativity and growth. Your goal isnt to build clones. Its to build capability. Let people solve problems in their own voice as long as the standards are met.
4. Create a feedback loop. Then, step back
Coaching doesnt mean disappearing. It means setting up support and structure:
Weekly check-ins focused on progress, not perfection.
Clear KPIs tied to outcomes, not hours.
Open channels for questions but with the expectation that they will bring solutions too.
When you step back with structure, your team steps up with ownership.
5. Let go of the hero identity
It feels good to be the fixer, the rescuer, or the one who always has the answers. However, if your business depends on you always being the hero, youll never escape the hamster wheel. And your team will never reach their full potential. Great coaches dont chase trophies. They build champions.
Be the multiplier, not the machine
Your job isnt to do more. Its to make everyone around you better. Coaching is the leverage point where leadership stops being reactive and starts becoming exponential. Its the difference between growth that drains you and growth that sustains you.
So the next time you feel the urge to fix something for your team, pause and ask: Is this a task to completeor a chance to coach? One builds a to-do list. The other builds a business.
David Finkel
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.
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.
Instead of teens simply putting down their phones to take a break, TikTok wants them to use the app’s new breathing exercises and affirmation journal to improve their well-being.
Over the past couple of years, a growing number of legislators have been proposing or enacting laws to restrict or limit minors access to social media apps in order to protect children’s and teens mental health.
TikTok has other ideas on how to boost well-beingwithout ever leaving the app. This week, it launched a Time and Well-Being space within users account settings, replacing the existing screen-time management page.
New features in the space include an affirmation journal with more than 120 positive prompts that let users set an intention for the day ahead. (Naturally, they are shareable on social media.)
Theres also a sound generator that can play calming sounds like rain or ocean waves. TikTok cites survey data that those who use the platform are 14% more likely than nonusers to listen to music to help them sleep or relax.
The page will also feature a breathing exercise module and content from creators who discuss topics including limiting screen time, utilizing parental tools, and customizing feeds.
The company said that during its early testing, more people visited the new well-being screen versus the previous version of the screen-time menu. The affirmation journal has reportedly been the most popular tool.
To incentivize users to prioritize their well-being while using the app, badges will be given to those who complete well-being missions, which include meditating on the app and sticking to a self-imposed screen-time limit. In a blog post, TikTok said that tens of millions of people have meditated using the tool after it was made available earlier this year.
The company also said that it will prompt people to visit the Time and Well-Being section of the app settings if they use the app during designated sleep hours.
Considering how much time teens spend on TikTok, prioritizing their well-being while on the app is paramount. According to the Pew Research Center, 6 in 10 U.S. teens visit TikTok daily, and 16% say they use it almost constantly.
However, these latest features may simply be a case of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Last year, more than a dozen states sued TikTok for its allegedly addictive algorithm, claiming it was deliberately designed to keep young people hooked on the app.
These tools are meant to improve safety and well-being on the platform, particularly for teenagers. Yet, if you have to turn to deep breathing or be incentivized to stay off an app, it just might be the app that is the problem.
Earlier this week, communities around the world observed World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. It’s a day to honor those we’ve lost and recommit ourselves to preventing future tragedies. As someone who’s worked in the transportation industry for more than 25 years, I come at this topic as an insider.
You may have heard the term Vision Zero in local political campaigns or public safety PSAs. Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all severe crashes. It’s not just a marketing campaign, it’s an approach to road safety that begins with this basic understanding: Severe motor vehicle crashes are preventable.
The status quo believes the fantasy that traffic violence is inevitable. That there’s nothing we can do. The truth is, we can prevent severe crashes.
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Every day, another 100 families are grieving the loss of a loved one. Every day, thousands of families are dealing with medical bills, physical therapy, loss of work, loss of mobility.
Vision Zero is the strategy to end this pain and suffering. It’s a wildly different approach from the status quo in two major ways:
First, people make mistakes. A transportation system needs to be designed so that when people do make mistakes, it doesn’t result in a death or serious injury.
Second, safety is multidisciplinary. People are influenced by more than just street design. In Richmond, Virginia, 1 in 12 residents is dealing with a combination of substance abuse and mental health disorders. And then they get behind the wheel of a car.
In other words, Vision Zero is a practical strategy to save lives that’s based on understanding human nature. So if we know how to fix this crisis, why isn’t culture changing? It’s because the average person needs to hear the personal stories about the victims of traffic violence.
The power of emotion
Any historian or psychologist will tell you that facts alone don’t move humans to action. Emotion moves us. It’s hard to admit, because on some level we all want to think of ourselves as rational and logical creatures. But it’s when we get emotionally attached to something that we take action.
That might sound overwhelming, but let me give you an example of how culture changed just in my lifetime, and not at all based on logic.
In a 10-year period, about 13 Americans died from peanut allergies. Each one of those cases was tragic. But in that same 10-year period, more than 400,000 Americans were killed in traffic crashes. And that’s not even counting the millions injured.
Compare 13 deaths from a chemical reaction in the body versus 400,000 deaths from preventable crashes.
An entire generation of kids was led to believe that peanuts might send one of their classmates to the hospital. The peanut became a bogeyman in neighborhoods across the country. Now you can’t get a bag of peanuts near a school, or a soccer game, or a birthday party, or even on some airplanes.
In a very short period of time, America mobilized for a Peanut Vision Zero.
Change is possible
Im telling you this not to mock people who have to be careful around nuts, but to tell you our culture is capable of radical change in a short period of time.
So when it comes to road safety:
We have the data explaining whats causing tragedies.
We have the engineering and enforcement solutions to prevent tragedies.
We can change culture. We can stop the tragedies.
Whatever your background, your economic status, your education level, your job statusyou’re a human being who interacts with other human beings. Get people emotionally connected to the impacts of traffic violence. There are many ways you might choose to do that. Maybe its playing a short video at a PTA meeting of a heartbroken parent talking about their child who was lost in a preventable crash. Maybe its inviting a survivor whos dealing with life-altering injuries to speak at a local forum.
No severe crash is acceptable. If you truly believe that, youll drive carefully and youll be the person in your friend group whos always pressing on others to drive carefully.
We’ve seen culture change in small and large ways. We can do this together. We can reduce life-altering crashes down to zero.
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As startups race to keep up with advances in artificial intelligence, some of them seem to be borrowing from Chinas exacting work culturewhich normalized a 72-hour workweek, or a 996 schedule of working six days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
While the 996 parlance and laser focus on AI may be new, hustle culture has always been embedded in Silicon Valley to some degree. Some business leaders, perhaps most famously Elon Musk, have long demanded those hours from their employees: There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week, he once said of the hardcore work ethic promoted at his companies.
Now that culture seems to be seeping into more and more workplaces, as young founders and tech workers try to capitalize on the rise of AI. The CEO of the $10 billion AI startup Cognition has talked openly about the intense work ethic expected at his company.
“Cognition has an extreme performance culture, and were up front about this in hiring so there are no surprises later,” he shared on X earlier this year. “We routinely are at the office through the weekend and do some of our best work late into the night. Many of us literally live where we work.”
In this environment, Karri Saarinenan early employee at Coinbase and the former principal designer at Airbnbhas sought to do things differently.
Saarinen founded Linear, an AI-powered enterprise software company, in 2019. It was well before the pandemic, but Saarinen believed it was important to lean into remote worknot just because Linear was creating tools for companies to use remotely for project management and product development, but also because the founders did not want to get stuck in Silicon Valley for the foreseeable future.
We honestly asked ourselves: Do we want to do a company here for the next 10 or 20 years? And we decided no, Saarinen says.
Linear has raised $82 million this yearspiking its valuation to more than a billion dollars. It boasts high-profile clients like OpenAI and Perplexity. And its done so without blindly embracing the hustle culture spouted by people like Musk.
Avoiding an unsustainable pace
In spite of this success, Saarinen says he has tried to be deliberate in his approach to building Linear, rather than cave to the pressure so many companies seem to feel amid the rapid clip of AI innovation. (It likely also helps that Linear has been profitable for four years, per Saarinen.)
The tone of corporate messaging on AI, both from tech giants and smaller startups, has been that the technology is moving fastand their employees need to step up to meet the moment.
In a memo earlier this year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy noted that the company was already using generative AI in nearly every part of the business, but that Amazon was still at the relative beginning and should move faster.
Were going to keep pushing to operate like the worlds largest startupcustomer-obsessed, inventive, fast-moving, lean, scrappy, and full of missionaries trying to build something better for customers and a business that outlasts us all, he wrote. (Jassy also explicitly said AI adoption would necessitate job cuts, though he has denied the recent layoffs at Amazon were due to AI.)
Other Big Tech companies have also tied AI strategy to breakneck speed and a potentially draining work culture. At Meta, senior leaders have called for employees to go 5x faster by using AI.
Our goal is simple yet audacious: Make Al a habit, not a novelty, Metaverse VP Vishal Shah wrote in an internal message, per a 404 Media report. This means prioritizing training and adoption for everyone, so that using Al becomes second naturejust like any other tool we rely on.
Shah added, We expect 80% of Metaverse employees to have integrated AI into their daily work routines by the end of this year. Meta has also invested billions of dollars in hiringand poachingtop AI talent.
Saarinen understands why company leaders feel like they need to move fast, but he argues the pace is likely not sustainable, noting that the current AI race is not going to end after this year. It will probably go for the next decade. So are you going to race that whole next decade?
As a founder, Saarinen says there can be an impulse to emulate other successful companies or keep up with peers, regardless of what might be best for your own company.
I think a lot of this pressure is somewhat self-created, he says. I don’t know if it’s even real. Companies are so focused on what all the other companies are doing, so they’re trying to build the same things or catch up to everyone.
Taking time for test runs
Linear has intentionally taken a slower approach to growing its ranks, in stark contrast to the companies offering huge sums of money to out-hire their competitors. The company has more or less doubled its headcount each year and now employs about 80 people.
At Coinbase, I was [maybe] the 12th person there, Saarinen says. And then in a year, there were like 60 people. Now most of the people around you are new and have been there a very short time. I think it can be useful, and it’s exciting [when] a company is growing fast. But there are a lot of situations where it gets quite chaotic, and the culture kind of suffers.
A core part of its hiring process is what the company calls a work trial. Once a candidate gets to the final stage of the interview process at Linear, they are invited to participate in a paid trial periodtypically two to five dayswhen they are tasked with working on a real project alongside employees at the company.
Its a feature that adds friction to the hiring process but helps the company understand whether someone will be a good fit. Sometimes its a differentiator that pushes a candidate to accept a job at Linear over other offers; in other instances, it has weeded out people who did not want to commit to a work trial.
The aim is trying to simulate the real working relationship as much as possible, Saarinen says. We can obviously see how the person gets things done, but also: What is their thinking style? What’s their communiation style? For the candidate, I think it’s also a good way to know if they want to work in this company.
It can also help determine, for example, whether engineers are looking for a job where they are told what to do, or if they are interested in taking more ownership of their work, as is the norm at Linear.
People should have some life outside of work
The work trial and other atypical elements of Linears culture have helped attract people who are not interested in the endless grind of working at some of the hottest AI companies.
Linear has had very little attrition, according to Saarinen, and the company usually tries to promote from within. Saarinen also firmly believes that the quality of work is compromised when you work people to the bone.
That quality piece that we value the mostwe think that doesn’t happen if you just keep pushing people harder and harder, he says. People should have some life outside of work. They should get inspired by their life, and then hopefully that will kind of bleed into the work as well. If you just feel better, then I think the work you do is a little better.
He hopes that Linear might offer a counterexample to tech workers who are building companies in the AI space at this particular juncture.
I want to show other founders that you can also do things differently, he says. You don’t always have to do what everyone else is doing. I think that’s kind of what is happening in the market, that everyone is hearing this story: Those guys work really hard, so I must do it as well. And maybe it makes sense for youor maybe it doesn’t.
Your new boss didnt even offer you a glass of water? my mother had questioned me in disbelief. After how many interviews? You should not take that job. I am telling you not to take that job.
I had received a call from a recruiter to interview with one of the biggest beauty brands in the world. This was my chance to catapult my career into a company that didnt often have job openings at my level, but didnt have the best Glassdoor reviews. And I didnt have time to ask too many questions. The recruiter had given me 48 hours notice to come in and do interviews. I had shared with my mother that I did close to a dozen in-person interviews, 30 minutes each, back-to-back.
During those interviews, no one ever offered me a glass of water. Not the recruiter who greeted me. Not the other individuals who interviewed me. And no, not my future boss. I remember that at some point I had to use the bathroom. My future boss seemed annoyed that I asked where the ladies room was. I scurried into the bathroom quickly, not wanting to be late for the next interview.
This was one of the handful of times in my career that I didnt listen to my mother. The recruiter made me an offer the next day, and I accepted on the spot. I was desperate to work at this big beauty brand with a fancy title that I know so many other candidates were vying for. And my future boss did, indeed, go on to display many characteristics of a bad boss.
Other than the water test, as I coined it, thanks to my mom, I have missed a number of other red flags during interview processes. Now I coach individuals who are looking for their next opportunity to watch for these three signs; they may indicate you are about to work for a bad boss:
1. Doesnt seem interested in interviewing you
In that specific interview at a beauty company, I remember my future boss walking in late, with no apology, sitting down abruptly and firing off the first question. He was scrolling on this phone as I tried hard to be energetic to get his attention. After I was done with that answer, there was a long awkward pause, and then he stumbled, asked another question, and was staring out the window. For most of the interview, he was slouched away from me, fidgeting with a pen, and barely made eye contact.
If your future boss is distracted or disengaged, without any explanation, this could be a telltale sign of what its like to work for them. But also could signal bigger issues brewing at the company. They may be overwhelmed by work and not capable of staying present in the conversation. They may be forced into hiring someone for their team. They may be disgruntled or disinterested in their work. Study their body language, and non verbal cues, as well as what they dont say and what they do say. If they are unhappy, chances are this will impact how they manage you.
2. Makes sarcastic comments about your résumé or the company
Is Been-gali really a language? Or did you just make that up to sound impressive? joked a potential future boss. This was in an interview I had a few years after I had worked at that big beauty brand. Why dont you say something? Like Hi . . . my name is . . .
In my additional information section on my resume, I listed I was fluent in Bengali. After what I thought was a pretty good interview, this potential future boss doubted if Bengali was even a language. He did it right at the end of the interview as I was about to walk out. I spotted this red flag, so when the recruiter called, I declined to go any further in the interview process.
During the interview, watch for comments like these from a potential future boss, either about your résumé or the company youre interviewing for.
Making fun of activities in your additional information section:You volunteer at a nonprofit?So are you one of those do-gooders?You have a black belt in karate?Can you show me some of those Mr. Miyagi moves?
Dropping sarcastic comments about former companies on your résumé:I cant believe you worked at that competitor.Their products suck.How did you get a job at that place?Arent they bankrupt?
Sharing disparaging comments about the current company:I hope they warned you that this place is a real mess.Well, we are hiring for a number of roles right now, tough times here.
Watch for even an innocent joke, an offhanded comment or sarcastic remark. It may be a window into their leadership style or dysfunction occurring at the company.
Takes Up Most of the Air Time
Finally, I once was interviewing at a software company where the future potential boss would ask a question and go on to answer it himself. Lets talk about a time when you failed to lead a project. I remember once when I was After he talked and talked, I was able to squeeze in a quick response until he interrupted me again. He asked another question, and then another, and pretty much took up all the air time in the interview. I barely had time to share about my experiences.
If you witness a future potential boss talking incessantly, answering their own questions, or interrupting you in an interview, this could be a sign they have some bad behaviors. If you do end up working for them, be prepared that they might talk more than they listen. They may ignore or dismiss your ideas. They may lecture you instead of coaching and collaborating. They may also be the type of boss who believes its my way or the high way, and makes decisions on their own without the teams input.
If you dont see any of the red flags in an interview process, and end up working for a bad boss, dont beat yourself up. Most future bosses should be on their best behavior, trying to court candidates during interviews. Finally, if you are actively looking for a new job, you may see some of these red flags and still choose to accept the job. For many of us, the reality of having bills to pay can outweigh any potential bad boss behavior. Spotting these red flags can help prepare you for what it might be like to work for this future boss, and at this future employer.
Executives are no longer measured by the weight of their title but by the scale of what they create, especially in an era reshaped by AI. The most effective leaders now marry vision with execution, using technology as a co-pilot to accelerate outcomes while keeping human judgment at the center.
Strategy isnt declared anymore; its built in real time, constantly iterating and leveraging AI to turn ideas into outcomes faster than ever. The builder CEO is a visionary who architects systems, coaches teams, and removes obstacles through hands-on involvement. Heres how executives with a builder leadership style are involved with the day-to-day work and unite teams around a shared mission.
FROM VISION-SETTER TO VELOCITY ARCHITECT
The builder mindset thrives where growth, technology, and disruption collide. Customers demand speed, relevance, and trust simultaneously. Meeting those demands requires leaders who are adaptive, accountable, and relentlessly driven by outcomes.
Builders shorten decision loops by being present where the work happens: sprint reviews, demos, and product trade-offs. Their involvement clarifies priorities, reduces friction, and ensures strategy is lived at every level, not left on a slide deck.
Stability still matters, but speed is the differentiator. Builders create systems that allow rapid testing without recklessness: guardrails, rollback plans, and clear accountabilities. They collapse silos by taking ownership of the P&L, customer outcomes, and cross-functional metrics. Marketing, product, operations, and sales work as one team because builders demand it.
Builders flatten hierarchies and empower autonomy, but with accountability. Teams know exactly which calls they can make, which require escalation, and how success is measured. When a feature underperforms, the team doesnt wait for a quarterly review. They assess metrics, test hypotheses, and implement fixes in days, not weeks.
This rhythm of experimentation and fast learning ensures companies adapt in real time to customers and markets. The builder is always asking, What can we test now? and What can we improve today?
BUILDERS IN AN AI-FIRST WORLD
The builder archetype matters most in an AI-driven commerce environment. AI is the co-pilot bringing precision and scale, while human oversight preserves trust. Executives who design for measurement, keep human judgment where it counts, and integrate AI thoughtfully create enduring advantage.
The best builders set a single customer outcome as the north star, participate directly in product reviews, require every experiment to have guardrails, and assign clear ownership for cross-functional work. They standardize where possible but keep space for human judgment where it drives value.
AI, in their hands, is not a replacement but an amplifier, removing repetitive work so teams can focus on judgment, creativity, and engagement. This balance accelerates both growth and employee buy-in.
THE HUMAN CORE OF BUILDING
Builders arent flawless. Over-involvement can slip into micromanagement, while too much autonomy without boundaries breeds chaos. The remedy is clarity: metrics, cadence, and transparent ownership.
Most importantly, builders lead with humanity. They celebrate wins, fail fast, and then mine failures for lessons, and ensure every team member understands the impact of their work. They know speed without trust is brittle, and systems without people are hollow.
The modern C-suite is no longer judged by how many strategies it produces but by the outcomes it builds and the speed with which it learns. In an era defined by complexity and constant change, the builder mindset is the defining quality of leadership.
The leaders who shape the next decade will be those with builder DNA.
Elizabeth Buchanan is chief commercial officer of Rokt.
IT development has been around for more than 60 years and it has undergone radical transformations from the emergence of the first programming languages and OS development to the internet boom and the current AI era. Although programming tools and approaches are constantly changing, one thing remains constant: Only those developers who can adapt and master new knowledge and skills survive.
Im the chief software officer of a 70-strong team that designs a predictive maintenance system (PdM): A solution based on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and AI. Without continuous growth, our developers cannot remain competitive. The same is true in nearly every industry; when individuals stop working on their skills, a company can lose its edge.
Heres a look at how we have created a system where professional development is an integral part of the work and how we help developers avoid and overcome stagnation.
MUST EVERYONE GROW?
Every team has specialists who prefer routine work, and to some extent teams need those people who do well in a position that does not require growth.
But for a project to develop steadily, I believe such experts should not exceed 20% of the team. If their share is higher, other developers will eventually start to emulate their passive colleagues. Optimally, the majorityabout 80%should be actively developing and improving their expertise.
Not everyone in the 80% needs to generate new ideas. The driver-to-performer ratio depends on the company’s development stage. A start-up needs 80% drivers because theyre the ones who forge ahead. Conversely, in mature companies, sustainable quality leads require constant hard-skill honing rather than a fountain of ideas.
DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SMALL ACTIONS
Encouraging developers to advance their skills can start small. For example, one underrated tool is having a person write tests to check their code, which is mandatory for everyone on our team, including senior specialists. Many teams use code reviews more often than writing tests. But when a developer writes a test, they may find that their method or function is too cumbersome, with many exceptions and dependencies, and its almost impossible to test it entirely. As a result, they begin redesigning their code and look for solutions to improve its logic. They study additional materials, such as technical blogs and best-practice guides, and consult with colleagues to deepen their expertise.
However, tests have limitations. Once a person learns patterns, writes tests quickly and confidently, growth stops and routine begins. This tempts developers to automate their work.
CASE-BY-CASE APPROACH
There are many reasons why professionals pause in their development. They may be satisfied with their position/skills, bored, or facing challenging external circumstances. For example, most of our developers are Ukrainian, and our work has been affected by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has been a great stress to everyone.
Team members have responded differentlyapproximately 30% lost their motivation to do anything, and another 30% have taken a deep dive into their development. One strong junior immersed himself so deeply in his studies that in just six months, he mastered senior level theory. The rest simply adapted and returned to their usual pace.
After 10+ years in tech management, I realized that everyone has different motivations for advancing their skills. Your task is not to pressure them but to understand what is holding them back and what incentivizes them. Some practices that Ive found helpful when developers stagnate are:
Provide new context. Offer the developer an opportunity to work on another project or change domains. A new environment presents new challenges, requires adaptation, and learning.
Present challenges. Give the developer a task that requires creative thinking and independent research. Dont provide an answer. This will let them take initiative and responsibility for the result.
Encourage learning. If a person seeks development opportunities provide them with resources. For example, compensate for conference or workshop participation.
Adjust expectations. Sometimes a person is satisfied with their expertise. In this case, its important to agree: If the developer doesnt want growth, they dont seek promotion.
Each specialist must have their own development plan. We draw it up twice a year, based on in-depth assessment. We set goals that meet the company’s expectations and the developer’s interests.
THE COMPANY’S SYSTEMATIC APPROACH
In my experience, developers often stop focusing on advancing their skills when they are overloaded. After intense work, they no longer have the energy to learn. Learning by working is our main principle. We believe developers can improve their skills through hands-on experience, so we integrate this approach into employee development plans.
Daily: Giving them a short technical digest and work with code through tests and reviews.
Two-week sprints: Each sprint includes two to three days when a developer can try a new approach, technology, etc.
Once a month: Internal clubs sessions in each department lasting one hour to 90 minutes where they can share experiences, run practical workshops, and exchange best practices.
Once every three to six months: Three-hour sessions with external speakers, advanced training.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Im convinced that development begins with dialogue. You should understand what motivates a person. I also believe that there are no wrong decisionsonly different points of view. Developers shouldnt be afraid to disagree because critical thinking and constructive discussion always help team growth.
Illia Smoliienko is the chief software officer for Waites.
How did you get to this article? Maybe you opened a link in an email, or you navigated from the Fast Company home page. Perhaps you Googled agentic AI and this figured in the results. The point is, you almost certainly clicked, scrolled, tapped, or typed your way here, because thats the digital grammar that shapes nearly every online experience.
But that 30-year-old paradigm is about to change. Agentic AI is ripping up the rulebook, by creating a new layer of intelligent, autonomous mediation between us and the digital world. Personal shopping agents will handle routine purchases, while in the workplace, agents will automate workflows and streamline procurement.
Investors are excited, of course. Earlier this year, more than half of the Y Combinator startups chosen for its accelerator program were working in agentic, while the three biggest Q1 acquisitions in the AI sector involved companies building agentic enterprise technologies. This is because agents are about to transform how work gets done, how businesses operate, and how systems interact. And nowhere are the consequences more profound than in e-commerce.
CLICKLESS COMMERCE
Today, e-commerce success depends on online visibility, with search driving half of website traffic and fuelling the $75 billion search engine optimization (SEO) industry. But agentic AI upends the traditional business model. For agents, displays and brand content are less important. Merchants must focus on making product data machine-legibleaccurate, structured, and accessiblebecause machines wont browse sites. Theyll connect directly to sales platforms and databases via APIs, creating a parallel e-commerce track that serves agents rather than human shoppers.
Building out that machine track will be a critical job for merchants, fintechs, software companies, and financial institutions. For merchants, an early task is compiling and structuring data in a way thats visible and relevant to agents. Another is creating seamless connections between merchant systems and agent systems. The good news is that the connective tissue is already here. New protocolsmodel context, agent-to-agent, and agentic paymentsnow enable agents to connect, communicate, and transact autonomously.
MARKETING TO MACHINES: A NEW INDUSTRY
For retailers, one question looms: How do I market to machines? As SEO evolves for human audiences, new disciplines are emerging to optimize digital environments for AI agents. Agent engine optimization helps make digital spaces easier for agents to understand and use. Agent interaction design focuses on how they communicate with platforms, APIs, and other agents to get things done for users. These areas connect with generative engine optimization, which improves content so AI systems can better generate recommendations and make decisions. Taken together, they signal a new ecosystemone that will create fresh roles, unlock new value streams, and redefine how businesses compete in an AI-driven economy.
Another way of attracting machine buyers is to reward them. This is the agentic version of e-commerces affiliate system, where publishers, partners, and influencers are paid a commission for driving sales. Theres feverish speculation as to how an attribution mechanism may work, and who will get paid. There are plenty of challenges toonot least verifying agents identities, knowing with confidence which agent influenced the sale, and preventing fake agents from gaming the system. But the opportunities are apparent. The affiliate market is predicted to double in size by 2030, even without agents.
FACE THE HEADWINDS
Certain issues will require regulatory clarity. Agentic referral will have to be transparent, for example, to ensure fair competition. Then theres the matter of trust. Well need confidence in the agents and the ecosystems they operate in. Giving an autonomous bot spending authority is a big commitment, but getting it right is key to scaling agentic commerce. Ensuring agents can operate across different payment systems, platforms, and legal jurisdictions will also pose technical and regulatory challenges.
That said, were about to experience the biggest transformation in e-commerce since it began. This promises to be an era of great innovationa time to build new tools, new ecosystems, and new ways of creating value. Agentic commerce isnt just a tech shift; its a reimagining of how we buy, sell, and connect in a digital world.
Ken Moore is chief innovation officer at Mastercard.
