He took it, managed to decipher my terrible penmanship, and wrote me a reply. I didn't ask him weighty questions about politics, I think I probably asked his favorite color. People's favorite color was a major interest for me when I was eleven. He wrote some questions for me, (perhaps also my favorite color, which was blue.) and soon we were in a conversation, the kind of sweet conversation where a thoughtful grown-up pays attention to a child.
His answer cut through the noise. "Look," he said, "in the end, there's only one thing that matters, which is trust. We're all in the trust business. That is the business. And the leaders who succeed are the ones who have a reservoir of trust." That idea has stayed with me because it's old wisdom that is increasingly forgotten. We are living through an era obsessed with speed, scale, and technology.
There haven't been many slow news days in 2025, a year which further highlighted how increasingly divided our world - and, indeed, our country - is becoming. But the busy news cycle was also filled with stories that unite us, such as the 96th-minute goal from Troy Parrott that served to give the entire country a badly-needed lift last month.
For years, innovation has centered on speed. Faster processing. Faster decisions. Faster communication. But as artificial intelligence reshapes the modern workplace, a quieter truth is emerging from neuroscience and behavioral psychology: as technology accelerates, people are slowing down emotionally. Across industries, employees report rising cognitive fatigue, decreased trust, and a growing sense of isolation despite being more digitally connected than ever before.
Over time, you learn that trust is not built in the moment of a sale, but in the quiet consistency that comes before and after it. It's about listening more than you speak, remembering the small things that matter to people, and showing up when it counts. Homes are where people live their stories, and when you help them find one, you become part of that story too.
This is a story about Starbucks, economics, and good things that are hard to put a number on. The company invested over $500 million in additional labor hours. They brought back Sharpies so baristas could write names and smiley faces on cups. They set a goal to fulfill orders within four minutes while emphasizing personal connection.
"Today, usage is dominated by these generalist AI systems, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini, but we're seeing, starting with specific categories, this move into more specialized apps."
