Workplace Trends

Wind and solar generation is scaling faster than any other electricity sources in history. This chart looks at the time taken for different technologies to grow from 100 TWh to 1,000 TWh of annual electricity generation. ✅ Solar took just 8 years ✅ Wind took 12 years ✅ By comparison, gas took 28 years, coal 32 years and hydro 39 years Nuclear also reached the milestone in 12 years, but then its growth slowed sooner than wind. Importantly, this chart is not measuring market share. It is measuring how quickly different technologies scaled once they reached meaningful levels of deployment. And the story today is also bigger than generation alone. Batteries are increasingly extending solar generation into the evening peak, while electrification is creating new demand for clean electricity in transport, heating and industry. Much of this growth is being driven by improving economics, with wind, solar and batteries becoming increasingly competitive across a growing range of applications. That combination is beginning to reshape energy systems around the world. Renewables now generate more than one third of global electricity, and wind and solar continue to account for the majority of new power capacity added each year. The pace of deployment matters because energy transitions are ultimately about scale. And by that measure, wind and solar are growing faster than anything that came before them.

I just discovered something terrifying about those fake job postings flooding the market. We already knew about "ghost jobs", aka the positions companies advertise with zero intention of filling. Research shows 3 in 10 companies admit to posting these phantom roles. But here's the terrifying part. These fake listings aren't just wasting your time. They're harvesting your data. Think about what you share when applying: • References • Contact details • Salary expectations • Full employment history • Even SSN for "background checks" All that sensitive info is being collected, stored, and potentially sold—while you think you're applying for a real opportunity. Privacy experts are pointing out the very real risks: • Identity theft • Targeted phishing scams • Your data sold to third parties • Discrimination based on harvested info So how do we protect ourselves in this dystopian job market? Google the job posting ↳ If it's been up for months, it's probably fake Limit initial info ↳ Save sensitive details for after the first interview Check company reviews ↳ Glassdoor often reveals serial ghost posters Report suspicious postings to data protection authorities ↳ Create a "public" resume with less detail for initial applications The job search is hard enough without becoming a data product. Companies treating desperate job seekers as data mines is a new low, even for this market. ♻️ Reshare to warn someone in the job hunt—they deserve to know.

Louder for the people at the back 🎤 Many organisations today seem to have shifted from being institutions that develop great talent to those that primarily seek ready-made talent. This trend overlooks the immense value of individuals who, despite lacking experience, possess a great attitude, commitment, and a team-oriented mindset. These qualities often outweigh the drawbacks of hiring experienced individuals with a fixed and toxic mindset. The best organisations attract talent with their best years ahead of them, focusing on potential rather than past achievements. Let’s be clear this is more about mindset and willingness to learn and unlearn as apposed to age. To realise the incredible potential return, organisations must commit to creating an environment where continuous development is possible. This requires a multi-faceted approach: 1. Robust Training Programmes: Employers should invest in comprehensive training programmes that equip employees with the necessary skills for their roles. This includes on-the-job training, mentorship programmes, online courses, and workshops. 2. Redefining Hiring Criteria: Organisations should revise their hiring criteria to focus more on candidates’ potential and willingness to learn rather than solely on prior experience or formal qualifications. Behavioural interviews, aptitude tests, and probationary periods can help assess a candidate's ability to learn and adapt. 3. Partnerships with Educational Institutions: Companies can collaborate with educational institutions to design curricula that align with industry needs. Apprenticeship programmes, internships, and cooperative education can bridge the gap between academic learning and practical job skills. 4. Lifelong Learning Culture: Encouraging a culture of lifelong learning within organisations is crucial. Employers should provide ongoing education opportunities and support for professional development. This includes continuous skills assessment and access to resources for upskilling and reskilling. 5. Inclusive Recruitment Practices: Employers should implement inclusive recruitment practices that remove biases and barriers. Blind recruitment, diversity quotas, and targeted outreach programmes can help ensure that diverse candidates are given a fair chance. By implementing these measures, organisations can develop a workforce that is adaptable, innovative, and resilient, ensuring sustainable success and growth.

Should you try Google’s famous “20% time” experiment to encourage innovation? We tried this at Duolingo years ago. It didn’t work. It wasn’t enough time for people to start meaningful projects, and very few people took advantage of it because the framework was pretty vague. I knew there had to be other ways to drive innovation at the company. So, here are 3 other initiatives we’ve tried, what we’ve learned from each, and what we're going to try next. 💡 Innovation Awards: Annual recognition for those who move the needle with boundary-pushing projects. The upside: These awards make our commitment to innovation clear, and offer a well-deserved incentive to those who have done remarkable work. The downside: It’s given to individuals, but we want to incentivize team work. What’s more, it’s not necessarily a framework for coming up with the next big thing. 💻 Hackathon: This is a good framework, and lots of companies do it. Everyone (not just engineers) can take two days to collaborate on and present anything that excites them, as long as it advances our mission or addresses a key business need. The upside: Some of our biggest features grew out of hackathon projects, from the Duolingo English Test (born at our first hackathon in 2013) to our avatar builder. The downside: Other than the time/resource constraint, projects rarely align with our current priorities. The ones that take off hit the elusive combo of right time + a problem that no other team could tackle. 💥 Special Projects: Knowing that ideal equation, we started a new program for fostering innovation, playfully dubbed DARPA (Duolingo Advanced Research Project Agency). The idea: anyone can pitch an idea at any time. If they get consensus on it and if it’s not in the purview of another team, a cross-functional group is formed to bring the project to fruition. The most creative work tends to happen when a problem is not in the clear purview of a particular team; this program creates a path for bringing these kinds of interdisciplinary ideas to life. Our Duo and Lily mascot suits (featured often on our social accounts) came from this, as did our Duo plushie and the merch store. (And if this photo doesn't show why we needed to innovate for new suits, I don't know what will!) The biggest challenge: figuring out how to transition ownership of a successful project after the strike team’s work is done. 👀 What’s next? We’re working on a program that proactively identifies big picture, unassigned problems that we haven’t figured out yet and then incentivizes people to create proposals for solving them. How that will work is still to be determined, but we know there is a lot of fertile ground for it to take root. How does your company create an environment of creativity that encourages true innovation? I'm interested to hear what's worked for you, so please feel free to share in the comments! #duolingo #innovation #hackathon #creativity #bigideas

Earlier this year, a close family member was dangerously ill in India. The diagnosis wasn’t working. The symptoms were escalating. No one knew why. We felt that familiar dread - being far from the situation, and even farther from certainty. So I did what millions of people now do in moments of uncertainty: I asked ChatGPT. Typed in the symptoms, context, and history - not expecting magic, just hoping for perspective. What came back was startlingly precise: It could be this. If so, check the kidneys. If the kidneys are involved, watch for infection. If it’s in the blood, it could be sepsis. Escalate - fast. It was right. All of it. We flagged it to the doctors. It shaped the next set of tests. And it helped turn a very bad situation around- fast. That moment crystallized something for me: AI isn’t about replacing doctors. It’s about replacing helplessness. There’s a lot of talk in Silicon Valley about curing death. Like, literally - curing aging, reversing entropy, building new bodies from cells that forgot they were old. Some of it will work. Much of it will take decades. But the more immediate, life-changing breakthroughs are already happening - not at the edge of life, but at the frontlines of medicine. Just this week: ▪️Microsoft AI Diagnostic Orchestrator (MAI‑DxO) outperformed experienced physicians. It was tested on 304 real-world case studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine. MAI-DxO solved 85.5% of them. By comparison, 21 experienced physicians solved just 20%. How? By mimicking a panel of clinical minds: One AI model orders tests, another evaluates the results, others debate, reframe, escalate. It’s a structured, chain-of-thought system modeled on real diagnostic reasoning. And it recommended fewer unnecessary tests, saving both time and cost. Yes, it’s early. It hasn’t been deployed in hospitals. But the signal is loud: we’re not far from AI-powered co-pilots for frontline care. ▪️ Google DeepMind's AlphaGenome, tackled a different frontier: the "dark matter" of DNA. Most disease-causing mutations don’t lie in genes, they hide in the regulatory code. Until now, we couldn’t see them at scale. AlphaGenome can process 1m base pairs at once - entire genomic neighborhoods. It’s already predicted how some non-coding mutations can trigger cancer. And it trained in just four hours. If MAI‑DxO gives us a better map of what’s happening now, AlphaGenome gives us a telescope into what might happen next. These tools don’t just answer questions. They reshape who gets to ask them. This is what makes the AI revolution in medicine so powerful. Not just that it might one day extend life. But that it already extends understanding. That it makes complexity legible. That it turns patients into partners - and doctors into augmented super-thinkers. And that alone could save millions of lives.

Over the last year, nearly every FMCG executive I’ve spoken to whether sitting in Chicago, Paris, or São Paulo has echoed the same challenge: “We need to get closer to the consumer, faster.” Global brand, local nuance the future of FMCG growth depends on how well your leadership understands the street, not just the spreadsheet. It’s no longer enough to run a global playbook and hope for local resonance. Why? Because the center of gravity in FMCG has shifted. 84% of FMCG companies are now increasing local decision autonomy in key growth markets. (Bain FMCG Operating Model Report, 2023) → That means your CMO can’t be the only one with a finger on the pulse. → Your regional GM can’t just execute HQ strategy. → And your global leaders can’t lead with assumptions they need cultural fluency and operational humility. In other words: local-for-local is not just a supply chain shift. It’s a leadership shift. The most successful candidates weren’t those who had rotated through five global hubs. They were the ones who could… → Read the cultural nuances of consumer behavior in that specific region → Navigate the regulatory quirks that could derail a product launch → Influence global teams while building trust with local retailers → Speak the language literally and commercially They understood the street not just the spreadsheet. And they had the rare ability to connect what’s happening on the ground with what needs to be shifted at the center. These are the leaders FMCG needs now. → Strategists who don’t just adapt to the market, they anticipate it. → Operators who don’t wait for HQ they build and test in-market. → Connectors who know when to push back and when to align. Because in today’s world, speed and relevance win. And that doesn’t come from waiting for global sign-off. It comes from empowering the right local leaders. Here’s where I see many companies trip up: They treat “local” as junior. As operational. As reactive. The truth? Your next competitive edge may be a GM in Manila, a Marketing Director in Lagos, or a Commercial Lead in Warsaw who’s trusted enough to build strategy from the ground up. That’s what global FMCG companies are starting to understand and what we’re helping them solve for in every executive search we run. Not just global leaders who can work across regions…but local leaders who can lead across functions, cultures, and expectations while driving growth with urgency and empathy. This is the new face of global FMCG. Not centralized, but coordinated. Not rigid, but responsive. Not top-down, but built from the middle out. #ExecutiveSearch #FMCGLeadership #GlobalGrowth #ConsumerGoods #TalentStrategy #LeadershipHiring

About a year ago, I created a comprehensive graphic comparing the major cloud providers. As I revisit it now, I'm struck by the rapid evolution of the cloud landscape. While each provider's core competencies remain largely unchanged, there have been some significant developments and emerging trends. Let's dive in! 1. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶-𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱: Increasingly, businesses are adopting a multi-cloud approach, cherry-picking services from different providers to optimize costs, avoid vendor lock-in, and take advantage of each platform's unique offerings. This shift towards a more diverse and flexible cloud strategy is a testament to the growing maturity of the market. 2. 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲: In response to the pressing need for environmental action, the big three cloud providers have all stepped up their sustainability efforts. From renewable energy initiatives to tools that help customers monitor and reduce their carbon footprint, the cloud is becoming greener. 3. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜/𝗠𝗟 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗺: Artificial intelligence and machine learning have seen explosive growth, with each provider offering an expanding array of AI/ML services. These tools are becoming more user-friendly and accessible, democratizing AI and enabling businesses of all sizes to harness its power.     4. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀: Edge computing has come into its own, with Azure Arc, AWS Outposts, and Google Anthos all seeing significant enhancements. This development is crucial for IoT, real-time data processing, and low-latency applications. As the intelligent edge continues to evolve, it's opening up exciting new possibilities. 🚀 5. S𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆: Serverless computing has been a game-changer, abstracting away infrastructure management and enabling developers to focus on writing code. Over the past year, serverless offerings have continued to mature, with improved tooling, easier integration, and more robust functionalities. As always, the "best" cloud provider is the one that aligns with your unique requirements, existing infrastructure, and long-term objectives. It's crucial to periodically reassess your cloud strategy to ensure it remains optimized for your evolving needs. I'm curious to hear your thoughts! What notable changes or trends have you observed in the cloud ecosystem recently?

Saudi Arabia built the world's largest virtual hospital, and we haven't even heard of it. It connects 224 hospitals and treats 400,000 patients a year without a single physical bed. It's called Seha Virtual Hospital in Riyadh, and it just earned a Guinness World Record for being the largest virtual healthcare provider in the world. But how can a hospital be “virtual”? How does it work? → Imagine you live in a small town with only a basic local hospital. → It has doctors and equipment. But if you need a cardiologist or neurologist, you travel 6+ to a bigger city. In urgent situations, people lose lives. → With Seha, specialists treat you remotely through your local hospital - reviewing scans, diagnosing conditions, prescribing treatment - while local staff execute it. That's the model. Specialist expertise delivered through existing hospitals. And here's what makes it work: ▶️ AI prioritizes urgent cases - analyzes CT scans and imaging to rank who needs immediate intervention ▶️ IoT monitors patients remotely - heart failure patients wear devices that alert doctors before hospitalization is needed ▶️ Integrated health records - manages prescriptions and reports across all 224 hospitals in real-time The results? - ICU patients now stay an average of 4 days instead of weeks.  - Stroke patients get CT scans within 25 minutes of arrival. - Treatment starts in 28 minutes.  - Radiology reports in 2 hours. This isn't telemedicine where you video-call a doctor from home. This is expertise delivered through your local hospital without the specialist being physically there. It proves you don't need cardiologists and neurologists in every town. You just need good internet and hospitals willing to collaborate. Do you think virtual hospitals could solve specialist shortages in rural areas? #Entrepreneurship #healthtech #innovation

The typical read on falling job openings is wrong. ➡️ During the pandemic jobs needed were not matching job offered. So vacancy rates/ job openings were higher during pandemic (green cluster) than pre pandemic (red cluster), for the same unemployment rate. ➡️ Coming out of the pandemic (yellow and pink clusters) this mismatch started unwinding. So vacancy fell while unemployment rate and layoffs still stayed low. Bottom line is: the fall in vacancies/ job openings does NOT have the same signal effect about growth as before, because of pandemic distortion. And the tick up in unemployment rate also does NOT have the same signal effect, because of positive supply shock from immigration. Context is everything. #BeveridgeCurve #MegaForces #SlowdownNotRecession

Behind every opportunity is a relationship, and behind every relationship is a conversation. Networking is about building real connections that last and have the potential to help you find your next opportunity. Data shared by the University of Maryland’s Department of Economics indicates you won’t find 70% of available jobs on any site that posts open positions. Those positions are usually found on a company’s internal network, often by referral. In other words, relationships can make the difference between finding a job or not. That’s no surprise to me. Throughout my journey, from engineer to investor, relationships have been a constant driver of growth. Mentors, colleagues and peers have not only opened doors, but also challenged my thinking, sharpened my skills and inspired my vision. Here’s what I have learned: - Be curious: Ask questions that show you care about people’s stories. - Be intentional: Connect with purpose, not just for your own gain. - Be consistent: Follow up, follow through and add value where you can. Networking isn’t a one-time event. It requires maintaining ongoing relationships rooted in trust and genuine interest in other people’s lives. Whether you’re just starting out on your professional journey or deep into your field, relationships are what power careers.