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Stress isnt just an occasional visitor in our livesits more the houseguest who never got the hint to leave. Between economic uncertainty, workplace upheaval, rounds of layoffs, and the delightful unpredictability of daily life (surprise traffic jams, anyone?), most of us are living in a near-constant state of low-grade panic. But heres something most people dont realize: resiliencethe ability to stay calm, flexible, and creative in the face of stressisnt just an inborn trait. Its a skill. One that can be learned, practiced, and strengthened. And some of the most effective tools for doing that come not only from the world of business or psychology, but also from improv comedy. I stumbled on this connection over a decade ago. During the day, I worked with startups and leadersafter hours, I practiced and performed improv. Eventually, I noticed the overlap: The same tools that help improv comedians thrive on stage can help anyone navigate the unscripted, often absurd, realities of modern work and life. And research backs this up. A study I conducted in collaboration with neuroscientist Dr. Ori Amir found that improvisational activities improve creativity, confidence, and even sleep, some of the key elements of resilience. Here are three specific improv-inspired practices I use myself and share with leaders, teams, and individuals navigating change, uncertainty, and desiring a new way to cope with lifes stressors. Theyre deceptively simple but surprisingly effective, precisely because they work with the brains stress response, not against it. The ‘Yes, And’ Mindset: From Resistance to Resourcefulness Weve all been there: The project scope changes at the last minute. The client scraps months of work. The market tanks overnight. The instinctive reaction? Resistance. Frustration. Freeze mode. Thats not just emotional, its neurological. When our brains perceive a threat (even a calendar invite titled urgent), the body shifts into fight, flight, or freeze mode, flooding us with cortisol and narrowing our focus to survival. In improv, the foundational rule is Yes, and. It means accepting whats happening (even when its not what you wanted) and building from it. Its not about blind agreement; its about acknowledging reality so you can move forward instead of staying stuck. From a nervous system perspective, Yes, and mimics emotional acceptance and acts as a regulatory tool: It signals safety to the brain by reducing resistance, which helps shift you out of survival mode and into a more flexible, solution-oriented state. Consider this real-world example: When the pandemic hit, many restaurant owners faced ruin. Some who thrived, like those who pivoted to pop-up markets or meal kits, were effectively practicing Yes, and. They acknowledged reality and improvised forward. Next time stress hits, try this: Literally say to yourself, Yes, this is happening. And heres one thing I can do. Even identifying one small action helps break the paralysis of overwhelm. Fire Your Inner Judge: Quieting the Critical Voice That Blocks Action One thing that keeps people stuck in stress is an overactive inner critic. In improv, theres no time for the voice in your head that says Thats a stupid idea or Youll mess this up. You have to act before you overthink. In every workshop I lead, including one for a Fortune 500 team navigating layoffs, the first thing I ask everyone to do is fire the judge. Everyone pictures their inner critic, then, together, on the count of three, we say whatever needs to be said to let go of judging the activities were about to do, judging each other, and judging ourselves. The effect? Most people report feeling both lighter and sharper, because theyve bypassed the internal filter that often fuels stress and indecision. This isnt just theatrical. Its neurological. Research shows that self-criticism is associated with higher anxiety, while reducing it through self-compassion improves emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility. Softening judgment creates the conditions for clearer thinking and more effective action. If It Feels Weird, Do It: Using Unusual Actions to Ground and Reframe One of the fastest ways to disrupt a stress spiral is to do something that feels slightly ridiculous. In improv, weird is where the magic happens. The unexpected action, like walking backward while giving a speech, or delivering a toast in gibberish, pulls us out of autopilot and into the present. It breaks habitual thinking and creates space for a new response. When we do something weird, it works in two ways: First, it grounds us. Movement or gesture helps regulate our emotions and the nervous system. Second, it primes the brain for possibility. Engaging in unexpected behavior temporarily loosens our grip on the way things are, which makes space for the way things could be. Its a reset button for the brain. Heres one weird three-minute exercise to try. Start pointing at objects around you and naming them out loud. Point to a table and say table, a plant and say plant. Do this for 30 seconds. Now shift: point at objects and label them with anything they are not. Point to a chair and say giraffe, a laptop and say birthday cake. It feels silly, and thats the point. Research shows that simply naming what we see or feel can calm the nervous system by shifting attention to the present moment. Combined with deliberately disrupting automatic thinking (even by saying the wrong word), we loosen cognitive rigidity and open the door to more creative problem-solving. I’ve led this exact exercise with executive teams navigating pressure, and every time, it opens the room. People laugh. Shoulders drop. Ideas start flowing. Weird works. These tools arent about turning you into a comedian. Theyre about building a more responsive, resilient nervous system, and one that can meet chaos with curiosity instead of collapse. Stress may be the houseguest who never leaves, but improv is how you learn to live with it, laugh with it, and maybe even dance with it. Try one of these practices the next time stress hits, and you might just surprise yourself.
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E-Commerce
Spotify’s most senior engineers dont type code anymore. In fact, they have not written a single line of code since December, co-CEO Gustav Söderström revealed during a recent earnings call. Its not that theyve stopped working. Instead, through a combination of Claude Code and Spotifys specialized internal system Honk, engineers can now develop new features simply through Slack. As a concrete example, an engineer at Spotify on their morning commute from Slack on their cell phone can tell Claude to fix a bug or add a new feature to the iOS app, Söderström told analysts on the company’s Feb.10 earnings call. And once Claude finishes that work, the engineer then gets a new version of the app, pushed to them on Slack on their phone, so that he can then merge it to production, all before they even arrive at the office. Söderström said the new AI-fueled developmentswhich he traced to the December release of Antropics Claude Opus 4.5 within Claude Codeare just the beginning in how it will deploy these tools to build new features. The company has been on a big push of new user tools, adding more than 50 new features in 2025, most of which launched in the past few weeks. Söderström credits the combination of Claude Code and Honk with speeding us up tremendously,” noting that it’s changed how developers operate. Certainly [before AI tools,] I spent my entire vacation coding rather than being on holiday, and I think most people in tech did, Söderström said regarding the release. He isnt alone. A few weeks ago, the head of Anthropics Claude Code, Boris Cherny, shared that he also hasn’t written any code in more than two months. Across the rest of the company, he says pretty much 100% of code is also AI-generated, in a post on X. At Davos last month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted a year from now AI will be handling most or all of software engineering work from start to finish. “I think we will be there in three to six months, where AI is writing 90% of the code. And then, in 12 months, we may be in a world where AI is writing essentially all of the code,” Amodei said at a Council of Foreign Relations event, Business Insider reported. That timeline is looking increasingly realistic given that Spotify is s just one example. Pinterest is another. In the companys most recent earnings call on Feb. 12, CEO Bill Ready revealed roughly half of itsnew code is now AI-generated. Even as AI does the lion’s share of coding, developers are focused on learning quickly and refining their approach, according to Soderstrom. “The tricky thing right now is that if this was the end of the change, you could say this is what happened. Now let us retool for this,” Söderström explained. “The tricky thing is that we are in the middle of the change, so you also have to be very agile.” Söderström’s AI bullishness wasn’t entirely echoed among professional developers, some of whom took the opportunity to get a joke in. Its true, Epic Games programmer Ryan Fleury wrote on X. In fact, I was under the impression that Spotifys best developers hadnt written a line of code since 2014.
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E-Commerce
The global market for hair extensions is booming, and projected to hit $14 billion by 2028. What was once a niche luxury item for women is now widely available. Now, a new study from Silent Spring Institute says many hair extensionsincluding products made from human haircontain dozens of hazardous chemicals, some linked to cancer. The research, published in the American Chemical Society journal Environment & Health, provides the strongest evidence to-date about the potential health risks associated with these beauty products, which are largely unregulated. The risks disproportionately affect Black women: The study found over 70% of Black women report wearing hair extensions at least once in the past year, compared with “less than 10% of women from other racial and ethnic groups.” The findings come at a time when many women’s beauty products are under scrutiny, with a growing number of studies finding cancer-causing chemicals in products ranging from shampoo and conditioner, to soap and lotion, to skin lightener, eyeliner, eyelash glue, and even lipstick. Many hair extensions are made from synthetic fibers and bio-based materials, which are often treated with toxic chemicals to ensure they are flame resistant, waterproof, or antimicrobial. Researchers analyzed chemicals in 43 popular hair extension products, including compounds that are not typically tested, and using machine-learning software, were ultimately able to identify 169 of the more than 900 compounds. According to the study, all but two of the samples tested contained hazardous chemicals. Those chemicals included flame retardants, phthalates, pesticides, styrene, tetrachloroethane, and organotins, which are linked with cancer, hormone disruption, developmental problems, and disrupting the immune system. (In girls, they are also linked to early puberty and uterine fibroids.) Companies rarely disclose the chemicals used . . . leaving consumers in the dark about the health risks from prolonged wear, Dr. Elissia Franklin, scientist at Silent Spring Institute, said. “The fibers sit directly on the scalp and neck, and when heated and styled, they can release chemicals into the air that wearers may breathe in.” The study concludes more industry regulation is needed. “The findings make clear that stronger oversight is urgently needed to protect consumers and push companies to invest in making safer products, said Franklin.
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E-Commerce
It’s only February, and an outbreak of measles infections is already inching toward nearly 1,000 cases this year in the U.S. Infections are at an all-time high as a result of declining vaccination rates, following a steep rise in cases in 2025 at 2,280 cases, the highest in 33 years. This week saw new outbreaks concentrated in both South Carolina and Florida. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? As of Thursday, February 12, there were 910 confirmed measles cases in 24 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Another six cases were reported among international visitors coming to the U.S.) Those states are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, per CDC data. There have been five new outbreaks reported in 202690% of which are associated with outbreaks that started in 2025. Cases in South Carolina and Florida are spreading In South Carolina, the largest outbreak continues to spread with over 900 cases since last September, CBS News reported. The South Carolina Department of Health reported 933 cases centered around Spartanburg County as of February 10. Meanwhile, in Florida, more than 50 nursing students at Ave Maria University near Naples have contracted the virus, bringing the total there to 57 cases, USA Today reported. What is measles? Measles is a highly contagious virus. A person is contagious four days before showing signs of a rash, meaning they can spread the virus without knowing they are infected. The virus can stay in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves. It causes a blotchy, red rash that usually appears on the body three to five days after initial symptoms. Getting the measles vaccine (MMR and MMRV) is the best way to protect against it. Who is contracting measles? Of the 910 cases in the U.S. in 2026, 94% of those that contracted measles were either unvaccinated or of unknown vaccination status, according to CDC data. Only 2% received one vaccine dose, while only 3% received both doses. A majority of those infected (58%) are aged 5-19 years old. Of the 910 cases, 277 cases (25%) were in people under 5 years, 527 cases (58%) were in people aged 5-19 years, 136 cases (15%) were in those aged 20+ years, and 20 cases (12%) were in people of unknown age.
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E-Commerce
Wendys is moving ahead with its plans to close hundreds of restaurants, amounting to between 5 and 6% of its total stores in the U.S., according to its fourth quarter earnings report. The report, published on February 13, showed that Wendys business in the U.S. is currently lagging behind its international efforts. Total same-store sales fell 10.1% over the quarter, driven by performance in the U.S., where same-stores sales were down 11.3% compared to 2% at international locations. Overall, global systemwide sales were $3.4 billion, a decrease of 8.3% from the previous quarter. According to Wendys interim CEO Ken Cook, one way the company is addressing this trend is through ongoing system optimization, which includes the closure of consistently underperforming restaurants to allow franchisee partners to focus on more profitable locations. Shares in Wendys Co. (Nasdaq: WEN) jumped about 5% in early Friday trading, but the companys stock prices overall are nearing lows that havent been seen since 2013. Wendy’s closure updates Wendys first announced plans to shutter several hundred U.S. stores in November 2025. At the time, Cook told investors that some current restaurants do not elevate the brand and are a drag from a franchisee financial performance perspective. Based on todays update, some of those closures have already taken place: Cook shared that 28 restaurants closed during the fourth quarter of 2025. In total, he added, the company expects to close 5% to 6% of its total U.S. restaurants, with all remaining closures slated for the first half of 2026. Given that Wendys operated about 6,000 U.S. before any of the closures, that means that it plans to shutter between 300 and 360 locations. Cook said that the closures were decided in partnership with franchisees, who were allowed to flag the restaurants they were interested in to the company. We established a disciplined process with our franchisees to approach this restaurant-by-restaurant, working with them to make the best decisions that strengthen the system in the long term, Cook said, adding, Obviously, it takes time to work with landlords and achieve what will be a win-win for both the franchisees and the Wendy’s company for those sites that we’re in, so that’ll take a little bit longer to see the rental income impact versus the closures. Wendys did not immediately respond to Fast Companys request for more information on the specific numbers and locations of the closures.
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E-Commerce