Journal

New research draws attention to the role music plays in workplace productivity.

New research draws attention to the role music plays in workplace productivity.

If you want your employees to work well together and get more done as a team, it might help to pipe in some upbeat tunes. Research from Cornell University has found that employees who listen to happy music—like the Beatles’s “Yellow Submarine”—are able to cooperate and make group decisions better than employees who work without a background soundtrack.

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The brain’s creative circuitry holds some unexpected secrets that scientists are only just beginning to understand.

The brain’s creative circuitry holds some unexpected secrets that scientists are only just beginning to understand.

Daydreaming. Horsing around. Aimless wandering. A sudden, traumatic loss. So many things that seem to conjure an automatic, negative connotation can actually have an interesting—indeed, often positive—impact on our creativity. In fact, the further you dig into the inner workings of the creative side of our minds, the more surprises you’re likely to uncover.

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Former WeWork executives want to help landlords and corporations build modern office spaces themselves.

Former WeWork executives want to help landlords and corporations build modern office spaces themselves.

WeWork, a company that offers shared, flexibile-lease offices in 113 locations in 33 countries, has achieved a position in the “coworking” world similar to that of Starbucks in the coffee world. While plenty of smaller companies offer coworking in a myriad of flavors—focusing, for instance, on designers or startups—they’re not a significant threat to WeWork’s business. No Dunkin’ Donuts has emerged. A bigger potential problem for WeWork as it strives to live up to its $16 billion valuation would be if the landlords and companies it works with build their own hip office spaces.

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Research suggests that a majority curse at work, but it still makes many uncomfortable.

Research suggests that a majority curse at work, but it still makes many uncomfortable.

Do you not give a sh*t when your coworkers swear? Or does it drive you f*cking crazy?

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These products didn’t connect, but they paved the way for tech we now take for granted.

These products didn’t connect, but they paved the way for tech we now take for granted.

1. Apple Lisa, 1983

The first personal computer with a windows-and-icons-style graphical user interface, Steve Jobs’s visionary Lisa had one disastrous flaw: a staggering $10,000 retail price.

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The luxury New York City retailer has spiffed up its Fifth Avenue women’s flagship, now optimized for social media sharing.

The luxury New York City retailer has spiffed up its Fifth Avenue women’s flagship, now optimized for social media sharing.

To visit the remodeled ground floor of the Fifth Avenue department store Bergdorf Goodman is to float on a pearly cloud of luxury dreams. An ordered landscape of designer handbags rises up from the gray marble floors, backlit and aglow. Restored chandeliers, princess-worthy and heavy as diamonds, dangle from the ceiling. Gentle waves of women come and go, talking of Michelangelo. Before long you are gone for this world, lost in the embrace of cashmere and suede.

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