Author: Elon Mark

In the early stages of building a business, experimentation is everything. It’s a fast-paced cycle of testing ideas, learning from mistakes, and making rapid adjustments. While this trial-and-error process is essential for growth, it can be intimidating—especially when a Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey shows that 49 percent of people said they wouldn’t start a business for fear of failure. How do you know when you’ve hit the sweet spot: that moment your product resonates with customers and sets you on a path to success? Understanding the importance of failing fast is crucial in entrepreneurial marketing and launching new technology ventures,…

the naming of Nintendo’s Switch successor might seem like pretty straightforward choice, but developers say they spent years during the development process, brainstorming names and scrapping them. Eventually producer Kouichi Kawamoto, director Takuhiro Dohta, and technical director Tetsuya Sasaki landed on what was, for them, an unconventional route: the Switch 2.They first discussed calling it the Super Nintendo Switch, Kawamoto tells media during a private event held in New York City, paying homage to the jump from the original Nintendo to the Super Nintendo console—but there was an important distinction. The NES and SNES do not share compatibility between their…

President Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on America’s trading partners has widened the rift between the United States and some of its closest allies while reconfiguring the global economic order.Mr. Trump’s plan, which he unveiled on Wednesday and is calling “reciprocal,” would impose a wave of tariffs on dozens of countries. Among America’s most important trading partners affected were the European Union, which will face 20 percent tariffs under the plan, and China, which will absorb an additional 34 percent on top of existing levies.The new tariffs represent “a major blow to the world economy,” Ursula von der Leyen, the…

Markets around the world shuddered on Thursday after President Trump announced across-the-board 10 percent tariffs on all U.S. trading partners except Canada and Mexico, as well as even higher tariffs on dozens of America’s other main trading partners.Futures on the S&P 500, which allow investors to trade the index outside normal trading hours, slumped over 3 percent. Asian markets fell sharply, with benchmark indexes dropping more than 3 percent in Japan, and nearly 2 percent in Hong Kong and South Korea.The slide came after Mr. Trump, speaking at a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday, announced a new 10…

Tim Stokely, founder of the adult content platform OnlyFans, has submitted an eleventh-hour proposal to buy TikTok’s US operations from its Chinese owner ByteDance.The “intent to bid” was made by Zoop—a social media startup Stokely cofounded with RJ Phillips, who serves as CEO and has a background in influencer marketing strategy—and cryptocurrency company The Hbar Foundation. For Zoop, the bid “represents a David vs. Goliath moment against traditional social media giants by endorsing a creator-first revolution,” according to a statement the company shared with WIRED. They said they want to put power back in the hands of creators through better…

The Trump administration has abruptly laid off the entire staff running a $4.1 billion program to help low-income households across the United States pay their heating and cooling bills.The firings threaten to paralyze the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which was created by Congress in 1981 and helps to offset high utility bills for roughly 6.2 million people from Maine to Texas during frigid winters and hot summers.“They fired everybody, there’s nobody left to do anything,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which works with states to secure funding from the program. “Either…

Getting vaccinated against shingles can reduce the risk of developing dementia, a large new study finds.The results provide some of the strongest evidence yet that some viral infections can have effects on brain function years later and that preventing them can help stave off cognitive decline.The study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, found that people who received the shingles vaccine were 20 percent less likely to develop dementia in the seven years afterward than those who were not vaccinated.“If you’re reducing the risk of dementia by 20 percent, that’s quite important in a public health context, given that…

This is a non-exhaustative list of places microplastics have been found: Mount Everest, the Mariana Trench, Antarctic snow, clouds, plankton, turtles, whales, cattle, birds, tap water, beer, salt, human plancentas, semen, breast milk, feces, testicles, livers, brains, arteries, and blood.My blood, specifically. In early March I milked a few drops out of my fingertips and sent the sample to be tested for microplastics. I was in the London office of Clarify Clinics—a firm that offers to cleanse your blood of microplastics, forever chemicals, and other toxins, in treatments that start at £9,750 ($12,636).Each week around 10 to 15 people walk…

China held military exercises around Taiwan for a second day on Wednesday, sending warships and fighter planes near the island in what Beijing said was a warning to its president, Lai Ching-te, after he called China a “foreign hostile force.”The second day of exercises would focus on the Chinese military’s abilities to control and seal off seas and skies around Taiwan, Senior Col. Shi Yi, a spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army regional command that oversees Taiwan, said in a statement. Senior Colonel Shi also said that in the East China Sea — farther from Taiwan — Chinese forces held…

President Trump plans to meet with top White House officials on Wednesday to discuss a proposal that could secure TikTok’s future in the United States, two people familiar with the plans said.Mr. Trump will consider a proposal for a new ownership structure for the popular video app, which is owned by the Chinese internet giant ByteDance. Lawmakers and other U.S. officials have argued that the app’s ties to China raise national security concerns, and a federal law that was passed last year requires TikTok to change its ownership or face a ban in the United States. The latest deadline for…