David Lidsky's Blog

Quick-win ways to draft, summarize, and prioritize inboxes.

Let’s be honest: email kinda sucks. It’s not just the writing: it’s also the reading, the sorting, the figuring out what the third reply in a 15-message chain is supposed to mean.

Whatever your feelings about credit, it’s nearly impossible for active members of the consumer economy to opt out. Here’s how keep your credit rating from hurting you.

Several years ago, a conversation about credit ratings prompted a friendly argument with an acquaintance. My friend, an idealist who hated seeing how the rich and powerful took advantage of those with lower incomes, argued that credit was a force for exploitation.

Startup Portola is treating its AI companions like characters in a novel, complete with lore, emotions, and personal lives. The experiment raises the question: Can fiction make better AI companions?

When Quentin Farmer was getting his startup Portola off the ground, one of the first hires he made was a sci-fi novelist.

Research shows employees who commit unethical behavior have typically been in a company for at least six years—long enough to get promoted.

Research shows employees who engage in unethical behavior—surprisingly—are not new to their organizations. They have been there for a considerable amount of time, typically at least six years, and have risen through their companies. Worse, the longer they have been with their organizations, the greater the financial and reputational damage when unethical behavior occurs. 

Featuring sprints where catamarans hit 62 mph, SailGP now reaches a global broadcast audience of more than 200 million.

This summer, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman became co-owners of Australia’s three-time champion SailGP team. Days earlier, Anne Hathaway joined a female-led consortium purchasing Italy’s team for around $45 million. Kylian Mbappé has bought into France’s squad, while Sebastian Vettel, Deontay Wilder, and DeAndre Hopkins have each acquired stakes in teams.

Expired food aid, tariffs on soybeans, and anti-immigration enforcement efforts toward farmers are among the policies that have boosted food waste.

The U.S. government has caused massive food waste during President Donald Trump’s second term. Policies such as immigration raids, tariff changes, and temporary and permanent cuts to food assistance programs have left farmers short of workers and money, food rotting in fields and warehouses, and millions of Americans hungry. And that doesn’t even include the administration’s actual destruction of edible food.

Traditional search engines are still the backbone of the online information ecosystem, but searching has shifted in measurable ways with ChatGPT.

Three years ago, if someone needed to fix a leaky faucet or understand inflation, they usually did one of three things: typed the question into Google, searched YouTube for a how-to video or shouted desperately at Alexa for help.

Apple rarely offers sales on its iconic smartphone—even during the holidays. Yet that doesn’t mean deals can’t be had. You just need to know where to look.

Thanksgiving is behind us, which means the holiday shopping season has officially begun. And that means that both companies and third-party retailers will spend every day between now and Christmas morning trying to get you to spend your consumer dollars with them.

Or, why you should let the truth get in the way of a good story.

There’s an old myth that Inuit cultures have as many as a hundred words for snow. I remember learning about it in school, and there was just something wonderful about the idea that people’s perceptions can be so deeply rich and different. I guess that’s why, although it has been debunked many times, the story keeps getting repeated. 

Workers say AI tools are being used to intensify quotas, cut jobs, and accelerate burnout—while delivering shaky results.

A growing number of Amazon employees have signed onto an open letter issuing some dire warnings about the company’s sprint toward AI.