Ah, the first day back after the holidays… If ever there was a divisive day at work, it’s this one. Every office will be filled with two types of people:
- Those entering a new year energized and feeling so full of possibilities…
- … and those entering a new year anesthetized, feeling so full, wishing to keep pausing all abilities.
No matter if you’re wasting no time laying into 2024, or nursing that holiday hangover, we’ve got stories that’ll lean into your mood.
Ready to rock this year?
Look at you go. You spent all of December saying, “Let’s put a pin in it until the new year,” and now you’re charging back to their desk to yoink all those pins out. You’re not alone in that:
- Opportunity is knocking: For MIT-schooled technologist/artist Alexander Reben, opportunity is taking the form of OpenAI’s first-ever artist in residence. Reben starts this month with a huge, quite cool shot at bridging the gap between AI developers and an art community feeling under threat from AI.
- A reminder that making money doing something you love is possible: Just look at the UK’s Little Car Co., which sells two-thirds-size replicas of luxury cars for $45k-$156k. Its toy-sized Ferrari can hit 50 mph, and business is moving fast, too — the company is profitable and growing heading into its fifth year in business, and boasts a monthslong waiting list.
Ready to go back to bed?
Nothing offers perspective like a few days away from work — like how more time off spent with loved ones sounds better than another yearlong gauntlet. You’re already covered with a wet blanket; here’s some more cold water poured on top:
- Everyone else is slumbering, apparently: One of Google’s top trending gifts this holiday season was a $499 “dog bed for humans” made by crowdfunded startup Plufl. Searches for the big fluffy oval beds jumped 1,650% last year.
- Why bother? The deck’s stacked anyway: The cards favor the nepobabies, naturally. Over the holidays, Max Telles was gifted billionaire father Marcel’s $6.1B stake in AB InBev, and L’Oreal heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers became the first woman to accrue a $100B+ fortune.
Good for them; goodnight for you.
