Monday 31st March 2025

Where’s Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Now? - Intelligencer (No paywall)

Justin Posey spent 780 days hunting for treasure in Yellowstone. In Netflix’s docuseries Gold & Greed, he reveals the launch of a new hunt.

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The Battle for Attention

LinkedIn shows that I have six notifications, I know that none are interesting, but I click on them anyway.

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Two Frameworks for Balancing AI Innovation and Risk

Organizations that view AI as just another technology project will increasingly find themselves irrelevant. Success will go to those who adopt a balanced approach—being radically optimistic about AI’s potential while remaining cautious about its risks. By integrating structured frameworks like OPEN and CARE, organizations can navigate this challenge, harnessing AI’s transformative power while building the resilience necessary to thrive in an uncertain future.

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The Secret to Cross-Cultural Negotiations

Successful cross-cultural negotiations require clear communication, trust-building, and flexibility throughout the process while avoiding power-based tactics. By following these guidelines, negotiators can navigate cultural complexities and build stable, lasting, and mutually beneficial agreements.

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Science Says This 20-Minute Coffee Nap Hack Boosts Energy and Productivity

I'm a big fan of naps. I'm not afraid to admit that a short nap in the afternoon can make a huge difference to my productivity. For years, my strategy was simple: set a three or four-minute timer on my watch, and then restart it twice. The idea was to get a short nap in to get rid of the tiredness that naturally comes in the middle of the day.

Anything longer than 20 minutes and you risk entering deeper stages of sleep, which can leave you feeling groggy when you wake up—what sleep experts call sleep inertia. That grogginess can completely undo the benefits of your nap (and maybe even that coffee). Keeping it short means you get the lightest stages of sleep—just enough to clear out some adenosine—without slipping into slow-wave sleep, which is harder to wake from.


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Neuroscience Reveals the Secret to Giving and Receiving Great Feedback

The PDF markup I got back looked like a 10th-grader's essay nightmare. Red lines. Comments. Questions. Thoughts I should make shorter, others I should expand. I didn't take it well. I do a favor for someone I hardly know, and this is how you thank me?

Mean-spirited feedback is obviously hard to take. But why does constructive criticism—well-intentioned feedback meant to help us improve—tend to make people (which absolutely includes me) feel defensive?


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After Reaching the Final Four, Auburn University Coach Bruce Pearl Was Asked a Pointed Question About Success. His Answer Was Eye-Opening

After Auburn University beat Michigan State to take the last spot in the Final Four of the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament Sunday, a reporter had to wait until all of the student-athletes had left the press conference before he could ask Coach Bruce Pearl a pointed question about success.

"Guys have been with me for a long time," he said, joking that "Steven Pearl has been with me his whole life," before adding that his son has been on the coaching staff for 11 years and that three of his four assistant coaches who have been on the staff for most of that time.


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CEOs of Gensler, Betterment, Zelle, Axon, and 10 Other Companies Give Their Best Advice for Leading in Times of Great Uncertainty

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I'm Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.

Uncertainty is at an all-time high. Business leaders—many of whom thought President Donald Trump's reelection would usher in tax cuts and deregulation—are navigating on-again off-again tariffs, skittish investors, and growing risk of a recession. An index created by professors at Northwestern, Stanford, and the University of Chicago, shows global economic policy uncertainty—not knowing how policy decisions will affect business and markets—reached its highest level ever in January, surpassing the previous peak in May 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.


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Are Signature Scents the Secret to Boosting In-Store Sales?

It dates back to the dinosaurs - or at least, the animatronic ones at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park. In 1984, Disney consultant Robert E. McCarthy patented scent-emitting systems that made attractions more immersive; one released swamp smells on a dinosaur ride while another offered more pleasant orange blossoms. Later, Disney employed this same "smellitzer" technology to pump the scent of candy outside stores on Main Street and around its parks. 

There's a reason Cinnabon stores strategically place ovens near entrances—and a reason sales fell "significantly" when they tested bumping ovens to the back. But since this became big news a decade ago, so-called scent marketing has only become more pervasive, and it's now used in countless locales, from airports to elementary schools to dental clinics. Scent doesn't just sell—it affects our mood, which, in turn, affects the way we feel about brands. Indeed, it impacts customers so much that some now buy candles fragranced like their favorite stores.  


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Coworking Horror Stories: Bare Feet and Bearded Dragons

As more remote workers return to the office, companies are learning that some employees seem to have forgotten basic office manners while they worked from home, like how to dress appropriately and share office space. Etiquette schools have seen a surge of interest in recent years from companies that want help restore decorum to the workplace. But in co-working spaces, the situation appears to  be even worse, with members strolling around barefoot and bringing in exotic pets.

Socially, co-working spaces operate unlike traditional offices, says Nick Leighton, who co-hosts the etiquette podcast Were You Raised by Wolves? First, members pay for access, and because they're paying, some feel entitled to use the space however they like. 


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