July 18, 2019 6 min read How’s this for mad science: Within the next 15 years, people could elect to have their brains “zapped” to boost creativity in the workplace or classroom. The process — based on functional MRI studies — is headed up by Adam Green, director of the …

Quantum computers will never fully replace “classical” ones like the device you’re reading this article on. They won’t run web browsers, help with your taxes, or stream the latest video from Netflix. What they will do — what’s long been hoped for, at least — will be to offer a …

It’s not about the perks. For Fast Company‘s inaugural Best Workplaces for Innovators list, we set out to find companies that empower all employees—not just top executives, scientists, or coders—to create new products, improve operations, and take risks. We searched for businesses where innovation isn’t just a buzzword but a …

If you bike down a street on the edge of Los Angeles’s Echo Park neighborhood, you’ll see a sudden change in the pavement on one block, where the black asphalt shifts to white. A little over a year ago, the city covered the street with a special coating—light in color, …

MirageC/Getty Images Predictions about how products spread are usually based on the assumption that a few early adopters encourage an increasing number of people to start using the product. This assumption has largely been true of new technologies. But our research on phones, cars, and apps shows that when a …

By Wunderland/Getty Images Algorithms have taken a lot of heat recently for producing biased decisions. People are outraged over a recruiting algorithm Amazon was developing that overlooked female job applicants. Likewise, they are outraged over predictive policing and predictive sentencing that disproportionately penalize people of color. Importantly, race and gender were not …

Spencer Harrison, an associate professor at INSEAD, says that managers in any industry can learn from the success of the Marvel movie franchise. While some sequels lack creativity, Marvel manages to make each of its new releases just different enough, so consumers are not just satisfied but also surprised. Research …

Arthur Debat/Getty Images In May of this year, a rocket launched by SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk, carried aloft a payload that heralds great opportunities for global business. Atop the rocket were 60 internet satellites, stacked like pancakes, representing the start of an ambitious network called Starlink. SpaceX …

HBR Staff/Yagi Studio/Getty Images An athletic mediocrity by most Major League measures, Trevor Bauer became a $13 million-a-year All-Star pitcher thanks to his singular talent: a relentless, data-driven focus on self-improvement. “I wasn’t a natural born athlete,” Bauer told a Sports Illustrated reporter in August 2011. “I’m not that strong. …

  India’s richest man’s Reliance Jio, which has disrupted the local telecom and features phone markets in less than three years of its existence, is ready to foray into many more businesses. In a series of announcements Monday, that included a long-term partnership with global giant Microsoft, Reliance Jio said it …