Nolan's box office flex, OpenAI's creepy little roommate, and my closet's villain era

The Odyssey is out here breaking box office records like it’s no big deal, OpenAI wants to live in your house and get to know you a little too well, and corporate America is quietly (jk, very loudly) walking back WFH.

Let's get into it.

Nolan really said "I'll take Barbenheimer numbers solo, thanks." 

Looks like the cinema snobs, ancient Greek literature freaks, and Zendaya and Tom Holland stans all met up at the movies last weekend to welcome Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey to the box office. His much-anticipated cinematic take on the centuries-old classic pulled in $124.5 million domestically over its opening weekend, then kept going, landing an estimated $17.5 million on Monday alone. For anyone living under a rock, those numbers are for a nearly three-hour movie about a guy trying to get home from war, starring basically every actor you have a group chat crush on (Matt Damon, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, take your pick). I have not seen it yet, but if there was ever a reason to spend 20 bucks and 3 hours of my life at the movies, this is it.

OpenAI wants to move into your living room, but Amazon and Google already own the place.

The company's first hardware device is reportedly a screen-less, battery-powered smart speaker with a camera, sensors, and "mechanical elements" designed to make it feel less like a gadget and more like a little creature living in your home. Cute concept, mildly unsettling execution. Even without the creepy vibes, OpenAI will have a hard time competing with Alexa for space in your home. Amazon has been doing the smart-speaker thing since the original Echo dropped in 2014 and just rolled out Alexa+ across its new Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio. And Google's newest Gemini-powered Home Speaker is doing basically the same "AI companion for your house" pitch at $99. OpenAI's whole bet is that its model is smarter and more conversational than what's already sitting on your counter. It’s also set to be even more in your business by reading your emails and digital info to get "personalized" responses, which is a generous way of saying it's going to know everything. Depending on how you feel about AI, this sounds like a dream come true or a total nightmare.

Corporate America has collectively decided hybrid was a phase and we hate to see it.

If you’re still living that hybrid-work life or, even better, working fully remote, hold on to that job for as long as you can. More than half of Fortune 100 employees are now required in the office five days a week, up from just 11% a year ago, and up from 5% back in 2021. We're talking Amazon, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Walmart, Bank of America, and Instagram, so this isn't some niche industry thing— it's basically every major employer deciding at the same time that hybrid was a phase. Attendance tracking is also up sharply (37% of companies are now actively enforcing it, compared to 17% just two years ago), so the "badge in and disappear" era is ending too. So if your company hasn't said the words "return to office" out loud yet, I'd start paying very close attention to how your manager talks about "collaboration" in the next few months.

I hosted a dinner party this weekend with my husband (still get a little thrill typing that) and a few of our undergrad friends, and I made the executive decision to wear long jean shorts. Long jorts? Lo-jorts? Whatever you want to call them, it felt like an incredibly brave sartorial choice. Of course, no one commented, and no one cared, so I’m taking that as a sign that I nailed the trend. We all stayed up way too late doing the thing where you catch up with people who knew you before you had a real job or real opinions, and I remembered again why being married rocks: he did the dishes without being asked while I continued yapping. Wedded bliss!

I genuinely could not tell you when my closet became 99.9% black, but here we are. I've fully accepted my new personality as someone who could dodge bullets in The Matrix if the situation called for it. Is it a phase? A cry for help? The start of my villain origin story? Jury's still out, but somewhere between retiring my wedding wardrobe and my honeymoon looks, things got moody. All black everything is always chic, so I'm not questioning it.

If your work wardrobe still looks like it belongs to the version of you who wrote your resume, it might be time for an audit. Not a full closet gut, just 20 minutes and some brutal honesty about whether your wardrobe is accurately dressing the person you are right now or, more importantly, the person you’re trying to become.

Even if your work is mostly remote, with more and more companies calling everyone back in, it wouldn’t hurt to do a quick check of what you own that isn't a hoodie. Go ahead and set aside five "office-ready" outfits now so you're not scrambling the morning your calendar fills up with in-person meetings.

This is particularly pertinent to anyone who recently started a new role or just got a promotion. To start, pull five outfits you'd wear to present in front of leadership tomorrow with zero notice. If you're struggling to find five, that's your sign to prioritize a few well-made investment pieces before your next big meeting, not after. Take a photo of your five best "I mean business" outfits and save them in an album on your phone. Future you, running on four hours of sleep before a big presentation, will thank past you.

If you’re still fairly early in your career, this applies to you, too. As you grow in experience, you want to make sure you look the part for whichever role you’re working towards. Go through and pull anything that reads "intern" instead of "the person people go to for answers." You don't need a full rebrand, just an upgrade on the basics: one good bag, shoes that aren't falling apart, a few tops that have a bit more structure than your usual t-shirt. Even simply taking your current workwear pieces to the tailor to make sure they fit you like a glove will make a big difference.

Thanks for reading!