4 links to read on the beach, on the plane, or while you’re playing hooky from work this month
Is there a real cost to being invisible? What we can learn about Lizzo's failed return to pop culture, Fei-Fei Li's new AI company, and my new favorite productivity "hack": the micro retreat
Welcome to Reframed by Ashley Rudolph. One idea, every week, that changes how you see your career.
Summer is the best time for reinvention. Do you feel it too? Every summer I get the same feeling and it’s the urge to level up. This year is no different. Everyone’s talking about visibility — personal brands, staying relevant, becoming creators — as though disappearing were the worst thing that could happen to a person. I've been thinking about whether that's true.
This week I'm sharing 4 links that made me feel smarter this weekend: the case for micro retreats, unpacking Lizzo's failed comeback attempt, Fei-Fei Li's new spatial intelligence AI company, and Luddism is making a comeback.
4 links that made me feel smart
01. Have you heard of micro retreats?
I’ve been obsessed with the concept so much that I booked one of my own. Nothing snaps me back to myself quicker than a nice hotel, a massage, a notebook and a good book. My hot take: sometimes what we call work stress isn’t about workload at all, it’s about feeling stuck, unproductive, and under-rested. The fastest way out of that loop is pattern interruption. I felt it last month! Six hours at Off the Record did more for me than most weekends have. What caught my attention here is that the author time-boxes her retreats. 24 hours, no more.
I can’t imagine a better forcing function for creativity. If you want my itinerary, reply to this email ;)
02. How Lizzo became one of pop culture’s biggest flops
Everyone’s obsessed with relevance now. Personal branding? Relevance. Job hugging? Relevance. Tech’s current obsession with taste? Relevance.
The trend cycle moves so fast that there’s no one failsafe solution for staying relevant, it just takes real work. Part of that work is knowing how to capture the minds, hearts, and attention of the public. Even celebrities are struggling to keep up. Just a few years ago Lizzo was everywhere, now she’s wondering how to hack the algorithm. The right visibility and self-promotion strategies matter whether you’re a Director in tech or Lizzo. Your work won’t speak for itself and talent is just one piece of the equation. Celebrities, they’re just like us.
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I want to know what you’re reading this summer
I asked what everyone is reading on the Reframed chat, there’s some great reccs. Hop in there if you need a new book to read and if you haven’t shared your faves yet, what are you waiting for?!
03. Inside Fei Fei Li’s $1B AI company
Fei-Fei Li is one of the few voices in AI who doesn’t feel like she’s selling a dystopian version of the future, which is exactly why I trust her. What stuck with me is that while everyone else seems to be chasing automation for its own sake, she’s building what she calls human-centered AI. Tech that serves as a co-pilot, not autopilot. Her vision reminded me of a lecture I sat in on at my UN seminar this spring on the role AI plays in preserving cultural heritage (like the 3D renders behind Notre Dame’s restoration). To be honest, what excites me isn't the tech. I’m glad she’s not asking us to disappear into a fake world (thank god - RIP metaverse). IMO the best tools have always solved real world problems or helped us understand our own world more deeply, so we can get back to actually living in it.
04. The moral case for being less online
Because I contain multitudes, I spend half my time outsourcing administrative tasks to AI and the other half fantasizing about throwing my phone into the reservoir. I'm not the only one. I was at a friend's birthday last week and the neo-Luddite movement came up. A few days later, I stumbled upon this piece in Vox highlighting the parallels between the advent of Luddism and today's burgeoning neo-Luddite movement. In 2026.
Anyway, there's a moment in the piece where someone asks how to actually cut back on social media and a political scientist just says: "I think we just have to make real life more attractive." I’d like to see him and Fei-Fei Li in conversation.
I feel like there’s something refreshing about more people wanting to tell their own stories. I wonder how much of that is in response to AI and to algorithms doing their best to serve us up our own personal desires. It certainly is for Lizzo, who’s chosen to talk about her failure instead of disappearing in shame (whether you think it’s cringey or not). Then there’s Fei-Fei Li talking about an AI vision for the future that’s different than her peers. She’s choosing to stay true to her beliefs and her real lived experience. And finally, people (and not just neo-Luddites) making choices about their own digital consumption and forming communities around it. Something feels different. I like it.
See you next week!
Ashley
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