Arianna Huffington

Among the advice I shared for those early in their careers: quiet that obnoxious roommate living in our heads! I am a ruminator, and it took me years to learn to deal with this voice of negativity that criticizes us, puts us down and focuses on our mistakes. The first step is acknowledging that that voice isn’t you and it’s not the truth. One of the Microsteps we have at @Thrive is to set aside a specific time (even 5 minutes) each week dedicated to worry time. It helps us remain more focused on the present moment and reduce the amount of worry in our lives!

Great to be with Monica Mandelli for a conversation at @KKR_Co in celebration of Women's History Month.

Dr. Tommy Wood's new book “The Stimulated Mind” is out today, and it gives people a practical toolkit to improve their cognitive function on a day-to-day basis while decreasing their long-term risk of dementia.  “Every one of us has the ability to dramatically improve our brain health and cognitive function today by doing things that are simple and enjoyable,” he writes. “And most importantly, it’s never too late to start.” And the book provides plenty of Microsteps to guide us. Brain health is at the heart of the zeitgeist. And with small changes in our daily behaviors, we all have the power to make it our own personal moonshot. You can find out more about @DrRagnar's book here: drtommywood.com/stimulated-mind

For more than 50 years, Kleiner Perkins has partnered with founders at moments of inflection. AI is reshaping every industry from the ground up, faster than anything we've seen before. This is the moment to build. Today, we're proud to announce KP22, our twenty-second venture fund: $1 billion to back early-stage companies, alongside $2.5 billion in growth funds to back high-inflection, category-defining businesses. A moment like this is where the most enduring companies take root. Deep founder relationships and hands-on support matter more than ever, and we believe in lean investment and portfolio operating teams that work on founder time to deliver exactly that. We're so grateful to the founders and LPs who have trusted us over the years. We couldn't be more excited to partner with the next generation of history-making companies. Read more: kleinerperkins.com/perspectives/o…

"How might a home shape the health of its inhabitants over decades?" This is the question @dianabudds and the @ArchDigest team asked for their latest piece on designing homes for longer, healthier lives. Here is how I have integrated certain things into my home that have an impact on my health: a treadmill, a bike and an elliptical. Because I have an addictive personality, habit stacking is a way to use that to my advantage! So I only allow myself to binge watch my favorite shows on one of these three! So I’m currently sweating my way through The Pitt! And my @Thrive Global Phone Bed Charging Station has been game-changing — it allows me to tuck in my phone outside my bedroom and reunite with my phone in the morning, when my phone and I are both fully recharged! And yes, the bed includes a mini blanket! architecturaldigest.com/story/what-lon…

Do you check your phone 144 times a day? If so, you’re in line with the average American (according to a survey by DemandSage). Not only that, but nearly 90% of us reach for our phones within 10 minutes of waking up, and more than half of us say we’re addicted. But maybe the tide is turning. Kate Lindsay recently wrote on her Substack newsletter Embedded that being chronically online is no longer cool and that “our lack of screen time is a new social indicator.” thedailyvalet.com/p/the-daily-va… So how about you – are you less tethered to your phone than in recent years?

Happy, happy birthday to my darling sister and best friend, @AgapiSays! There’s nothing like basking in our sisterly love while walking (or boating) through this life together — what a gift it is being on this journey with you! 💜

So how about you — would you support a ban on phones in bars and restaurants?

Should restaurants and bars ban phones? Does the phenomenon of everybody checking their phones dozens of times long before the check comes bother you? For @InsideHook, Kathleen Willcox makes the case. As she notes, the rise in phones was accompanied by a rise in loneliness. Willcox cites the fact that the portion of Americans dining alone is at a record high, with people sharing an average of only 7.9 meals with others per week. And Americans are spending less time with other people than at any time going back to 1965, when the data started being collected. As one restaurateur put it, “You can be in a room full of people and still feel like no one’s really there because everyone is half on their phone. Screens cut through the natural rhythm of a space — the generosity, the spontaneity, that shared pulse that makes hospitality feel special. After so many years in this industry, you really see the difference when guests stay present. The whole room changes. The experience becomes real again.” insidehook.com/cocktails/bars…

Now that #tradwife has entered the collective chat, what does it mean? According to @sherylsandberg, writing in the most recent edition of @LeanInOrg's great newsletter “The Lead,” the trend is actually being driven by a much older phenomenon women have to deal with: guilt. The majority of women work outside the home and the #tradwife movement is a subtle signal that to be a good wife/mother/partner you shouldn’t. With working mothers it feels like they take the baby out and they put the guilt in. But as Sandberg notes, working outside the home doesn’t diminish your other roles. “Let’s keep the past where it belongs—in the past,” she writes. “Instead, let’s focus on a future where each woman has the chance to pursue the life she wants, develop the talents she has...and achieve the goals that matter most to her.” Here’s the whole thing: bit.ly/4uFkOPV

Revisionist history has gone too far! As part of a “Popular Science” series on little-known science stories, Andrew Coletti concludes that the Oracle of Delphi “was just high on gas fumes.” As a Greek immigrant, and thus a devotee of ancient Greek wisdom, those are fighting words. On the other hand, Coletti seems to have the goods on the Greek priestess. Plutarch’s reports about the Oracle noted that the priestess would sit on a stool near a natural spring that produced a sweet-smelling gas, or “pneuma.” Years ago, in a hunt for what that gas could be, researchers John Hale and Jelle Zeilinga de Boer examined a fault underneath the temple. Samples of the bedrock tested positive for ethylene, a gas that was used as an anesthetic in the past. What does it do at lower doses? “People under the influence of ethylene remain lucid and responsive, but may speak or behave strangely,” writes Coletti. Which is why Hale pronounced ethylene a “perfect match” for pneuma. As Wordsworth wrote, “Let Nature be your teacher.” Though maybe not if you’re sitting near a plume of ethylene. You can read more here: popsci.com/science/oracle…

How do you feel about the return of the iPod?

The iPod is making a comeback. Though in my house, it never left! As @samisparber reports for @Axios, people are buying iPods again. And it’s not just the oldsters. As one Gen Z fan said, "The act of playing my music, with the sole purpose of listening to music — no ads, no apps, no distractions — makes my brain feel brand-new again.” I couldn’t agree more. I love my iPod and use it for music during the day and sleep meditations (with no doomscrolling possible) at night. Read more here: axios.com/2026/02/21/ipo…

Read more from @harari_yuval and seven other leading thinkers in the @nytimes about where AI is taking us: nytimes.com/interactive/20…

We don’t know what changes AI will bring to our lives in the years ahead, but we definitely do know that those years will be defined by constant change. And the most important quality we can nurture in ourselves to navigate change is resilience.

In the @nytimes, @loracorkelley reports on the rise of “bossware,” technology managers use to monitor employees. The phenomenon has been around for years but is now being super-charged by AI. It can take many forms, including monitoring keyboard strokes and even pauses. As @Stanford University political science professor Rob Reich says, employees need “moments of downtime outside of the gaze of the surveillance tools that are meant to drive productivity gains.” Not only are those moments of recovery good for employees, they also help drive better performance. A leader’s job isn’t just monitoring output but creating intrinsic motivation and buy-in among team members to meet their goals. Having to rely on fear-based extrinsic tools is a sign that it's not happening. In other words: bossware = bossfail. You can read Kelley’s piece here: bit.ly/4urxvOd

So how about you: do you like hearing music everywhere?

Silence please! Not to make an announcement — just silence for its own sake. Because there’s a war on silence and silence is losing — along with all of us. I was prompted to raise my (quiet) cri de coeur by this New York Times piece about how “sync music” has become “the soundtrack of our lives.” As Ryan Francis Bradley reports, sync music is meant to be paired with video, which is ubiquitous in our lives now. But my complaint goes beyond sync music, because that’s only one form of the music that now fills every corner of our lives. It’s like elevator music has jumped the lab and become an unstoppable aural pandemic. When I go in for a facial or a massage, there is music (which I immediately ask to be turned off). When I go to the gym, there is music. I finally found a small hotel gym in the San Francisco area without music and it’s now become my go-to. Restaurants are even worse — I now choose them mostly based on the sound level. Sure I want good food, but what I don’t want is for my dinner companions and me to laboriously lip sync a conversation. I was even surrounded by music recently in a museum and more and more outdoor shopping plazas now have loud music! My idea for a stop-gap solution: a portable remote music jammer we carry in our pockets to jam — and silence — unneeded music. Maybe if we call it an “AI-Driven Music Jammer,” we can get some VC mojo. My second idea: similar to air quality reports on our weather apps, we add a widget to give us the sound quality report for our area. (“Sorry, I have to stay in today — the Light Jazz level is dangerously high in my neighborhood”). It all stems from a category error. Silence is not absence. It’s not a vacuum. It doesn’t need to be filled. Silence is a thing in and of itself. And it’s incredibly valuable — all the more so now that it’s become so rare. Silence can lower stress and actually increase social engagement. Plus, it allows us to think our own thoughts, which is hard when being pointlessly bombarded. The Japanese concept of “Ma” is about the essential space between things. It can also be about time and silence, which can recenter us and enrich what comes before and after. We talk about light pollution — man-made light that prevents us from seeing the stars. And now we have noise pollution that prevents us from fully experiencing earth-bound moments. In the @nytimes piece, Bradley notes the “frequency illusion,” also known as the Baader-Meinhof or yellow-car effect. It’s when you notice something (like a yellow car) and then you can’t stop seeing it everywhere. So apologies if I’ve triggered it in you and now you’re going to be driven as crazy as I am by this new invasive species. As Paul Simon wrote, “The words of the prophets are… whispered in the sounds of silence.” True, but we can’t hear them! bit.ly/46SYYyg

From @BStulberg's inspiring new book "The Way of Excellence: A Guide to True Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World" — a book particularly welcome during a time of growing isolation and what Brad calls "zombie burnout." You can read more here: bit.ly/4rq1DGV

From @BStulberg's inspiring new book "The Way of Excellence: A Guide to True Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World" — a book particularly welcome during a time of growing isolation and what Brad calls "zombie burnout." You can read more here: bit.ly/4rq1DGV