With thanks to Thomas Fraher, the Co-founder & CTO of Novastart, I’d like to pass along some screenshots about one of Novastart’s products below.
Per Thomas:
It’s an infinite canvas whiteboard where your apps open as real windows. A whole team can share one canvas, each person with their own cursor, and everything stays where you left it. You can also work alongside AI agents on the canvas.
DC: If we truly cared about our employees, would this be the case?
https://t.co/Sq3hH8Mo8q https://t.co/xG7SUB59xK
— Daniel S. Christian (@dchristian5) October 27, 2026
Develop students’ oracy with these activities — from timeshighereducation.com. by Paul Demetriou
Oracy skills can empower graduates to contribute meaningfully to societal challenges in an increasingly dynamic and interconnected world, says Paul Demetriou, who shares practical advice
University students should be able to speak well about their subject, but they don’t automatically learn to question, reason and defend ideas simply by studying it. Many students have underdeveloped critical thinking skills when they enter higher education, because primary and secondary education often emphasises rote memorisation over analytical thinking. In addition, students transitioning to university might find it challenging to adapt to independent and self-directed learning, which demands deeper reasoning and justification of ideas.
The ability to question, reason and defend is crucial in today’s world, in which graduates must navigate misinformation, solve complex problems and make informed decisions. These skills can empower graduates to engage in debates and innovate in professional settings and contribute meaningfully to societal challenges in an increasingly dynamic and interconnected world. Here are strategies to develop these skills in the classroom.
Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees as AI leads to efficiency push — from cnbc.com by Jordan Novet
Around 60,000 people are eligible, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named while discussing an internal matter. The effort affects about 27% of Microsoft’s total workforce of 223,000 people.
I Teach at a Business School. It’s Time to Shut Them Down. — from nytimes.com by Chris Marquis; this is a gifted article
Business schools have always struggled to justify their place in the university. A medical school’s core justification is health, and a law school’s is justice — undisputed public goods. Business schools are organized explicitly around a private good: the pursuit of profit. The American sociologist Thorstein Veblen identified this tension a century ago, criticizing university schools focused on commerce because they “need imply nothing in the way of serviceability to the common good.”
Corporate influence feeds a larger problem: The cases almost always feature winners, making it easy to mistake luck or timing for a proven strategy. Failures, dead ends and nonmarket solutions are rarely considered.
…
Furthermore, edits that push the case narratives away from reality are often meant to make it “work” in a classroom. Complexity is systematically shaved away, and dissenting voices often go unheard.
Business schools have a divided mission: They seek to legitimize an economic system focused on private gain while also developing guardrails to tame it. They found a remarkable way to manage this tension: the “win-win” story in which the conflict between private gain and public good simply evaporates.
Many of my students arrive on campus wanting to work on the crises that our economic system has created. What they lack is an institution that is worthy of their better impulses.
Ann Toebbe’s Skewed Paintings Transform Architectural Spaces into Cherished Places — from thisiscolossal.com by Ann Toebbe and Grace Ebert
This used to be a cornerstone of every job application. Not anymore. — from washingtonpost.com by Julia Carpenter; this is a gifted article
Has AI finally killed the cover letter?
“It’s not just easier to write a cover letter, it’s easier to write a phenomenal cover letter,” Kessler said. “That’s become more of a prerequisite and less of a differentiator.”
At the same time, the use of AI has contributed to an explosion of applications. For every open role in 2026 there are twice as many applicants as there would have been for similar roles in 2022, according to a recent study from LinkedIn Research.
That makes hiring managers and recruiters less likely to give cover letters even a perfunctory glance. They have too much else to handle during a busy job search, said Johnny C. Taylor, president and chief executive officer of the Society for Human Resource Management.
“The cover letter is literally dead, never to be resuscitated,” he said. “There’s too much volume for this beautiful piece of prose.”
“It’s tough when no one can give you a right answer,” Ogunlana said. “You have some recruiters saying ‘It’s worth it’ and others saying ‘No.’”
If there is any consensus, it’s that cover letters with a “human element” still can help an applicant stand out.
They need to sound different from all the ones written with AI, said Jason Baker, vice president of talent acquisition at Arctic Wolf, a security operations firm.
Baker recalled one applicant who didn’t land the job they originally applied for, but because their cover letter made such an impression, Baker invited them back when the company was hiring again for a similar position.
