Fast Company

It may feel daunting to ask permission to work from home—so don’t. Instead, prove that it can work, little by little.

I’m my own boss now, but not long ago I worked at a public relations firm in South Florida, where my commute was a routinely awful part of my day. It took about an hour to travel 20 miles. To me, it didn’t make much sense to spend all that time sitting in rush-hour traffic, twice daily, just so I could sit in front of a computer—I have one of those at home. Why couldn’t I just work from there?

Read Full Story

Like most other career decisions, opting for a household-name employer has its pros and cons.

Google, Bank of America, Exxon. Get a job at a big, well-known brand like these and you won’t have as much explaining to do to friends and family when they ask where you work. Same goes when you’re talking to recruiters. So, you’re better off working for a blue chip company early in your career, right?

Read Full Story

As one writer sees it, social media and commencement speeches both leave us with grand narratives that can do more harm than good.

In a speech at Singularity University a few years ago, Google founder Larry Page told a rapt audience that he evaluates prospective companies and entrepreneurs by a single metric: Asking them if what they’re working on is something that could “change the world.”

Read Full Story

The Republican nominee’s foray into interactive TV was an “early version of Netflix” but it didn’t catch on.

A federal appeals court judge held a hearing in D.C. to criticize independent counsel Kenneth Starr for news leaks about his investigation into President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. Saving Private Ryan dominated the box office and Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy Is Mine” sat at the top of the charts. And First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke before the nation’s largest Latino civil rights group, urging Latinos to get high-tech skills because “the 21st century will be ruthless.”

Read Full Story

The best way to watch Pearl is the way it wasn’t intended to be seen: in VR. Ironically, that version won’t be Academy-eligible.

There are films that make you feel like a kid again. There are films that make you feel the invincible freedom of your teenage years. And there are films that capture the pangs of parenthood.

Read Full Story

Think Richard Scarry, but with more bikes, high-speed rail, and wind turbines.

It’s a fact of the children’s publishing world that toddlers love books about trains and cars. But they tend to be a little dated—Thomas the Tank Engine runs on coal. A new kids’ book tells the story of a road trip and city infrastructure, based on the latest sustainable technology.

Read Full Story

This week, Fast Company hit L.A. to bring together the most creative minds under the sun. See how it all went down.

When Fast Company‘s FCLA 2016 festival kicked off earlier this week, expectations were high. Attendees would be shown the inner workings of some of Southern California’s most creative studios, businesses, and incubators, get a chance to hear directly from the biggest names in entertainment, the culinary arts, tech, and more, and mingle and network amongst themselves against the backdrop of the gorgeous Playa Vista campus of 72andSunny.

Read Full Story

Sometimes slow and steady incremental innovation wins the race.

What does a winning Formula One driver have in common with a business leader? Each counts speed, agility, precision, and teamwork as essential parts of their toolkit for success.

Read Full Story

Here’s what the experts (and the data) say about sending emails fast and getting useful responses faster.

There’s nothing like an overcrowded inbox to make you long for the days of smoke signals and carrier pigeons.

Read Full Story

In places like Detroit and Cleveland a grassroots coworking movement is welcoming minority and low-income entrepreneurs and artists.

Long Beach, California-based WE Labs just opened its second coworking space in the historic Packard Building, a Spanish Baroque-styled car showroom from the 1920s. Behind it is an empty lot, next door is an auto body shop, down the street are swanky new apartments, and a block away is the light rail. It looks like a textbook gentrification setting, but WE Labs’s clients differ from what you’d expect at mainstream, big-city coworking spaces like those in the WeWork empire. They include a bookkeeper, a mental health services nonprofit, painters, and a roller derby-themed fashion designer. Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. – 6p.m. access is $175 per month—on the low side for coworking space in the L.A. area.

Read Full Story