If Tax Day has you in a sour mood, there’s some good news: The IRS got its act together for 2023. Last year was the agency’s worst ever for customer service — with long hold times for phone service and a large backlog of individual tax returns. Today, however, the average wait times have fallen from 27 minutes to just four minutes.

That’s good for business owners who need last-minute assistance. If you’re really running late, make sure you know what to do if you’re behind on your taxes. 

And if you’re still in a sour mood, Krispy Kreme is offering a sweet deal. When you order a dozen donuts, the pastries-and-coffee chain will only charge you the sales tax on a second box. Share them with coworkers or stress-eat them all by yourself!

Silence is golden: Talk less, succeed more.

Heinz: Brand “ketches up” with survivor at sea.

B.J. Novak: Actor’s restaurant Chain is not a chain.

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We live in a culture with unprecedented communication options … and an unprecedented number of people embarrassing themselves professionally. 

That’s why Dan Lyons, a writer and producer on HBO’s Silicon Valley — whose “Fake Steve Jobs” blog went viral in the ‘00s — is encouraging all of us to shut up. A self-described talkaholic, Lyons was pushed out of Hubspot (which inspired his bestseller Disrupted) and found his marriage on the rocks. To put it bluntly, Lyons’ life “kind of sucked,” he told b., until he realized that he just needed to learn to pipe down.

In STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World, Lyons explores why we have such a hard time lately being quiet. While overtalking can sometimes be a result of unmanaged ADHD and hypomania symptoms — for the book, Lyons interviewed researchers who’ve found a link to prenatal biology — it’s often driven by our collective need to flex in the attention economy. 

“We have this idea in our culture that success is measured by your ability to attract attention,” Lyons says. “Everyone wants to have a podcast and give a TED Talk and be an influencer. It’s just noise.”

However, when Lyons studied objectively successful people like Apple CEO Tim Cook (who is harshly critical of social media) and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, he realized that many of them were quiet by nature. “Nobody ever knew what [Wintour] was thinking, which gave her an advantage,” Lyons says, adding that most people are so uncomfortable with silence that they “will start to tell you all sorts of things they didn’t want to tell you.” (Talking less is not just a way to keep your foot out of your mouth; it’s a power move.)

Lyons found that meditation apps like Calm helped in his self-shushing journey. Now he tries to wait until the end of business meetings to talk, chiming in only if necessary. Not only will you save your breath, Lyons says, but your energy as well: “The real flex is not having to work so hard.”

(Source: Heinz)

Back in December, wild currents swept Dominican sailor Elvis Francois out to sea. Lost and without a signal, he survived for nearly a month on rainwater, garlic powder, and (this detail is important) ketchup packets. A Colombian Navy ship finally rescued him.

Heinz’s marketing department saw an opportunity to give Francois “a new state-of-the-art boat,” except he didn’t seem to have any contact info, and Dominica’s government couldn’t help. So in February, Heinz asked the public for “any credible leads” with the Instagram hashtag #FindTheKetchupBoatGuy.

With an estimated social-media reach of approximately 5 million, Heinz’s IG post worked like magic within a single week. Francois will indeed get his new boat courtesy of Heinz … even if he never wants to eat ketchup again.

Heinz succeeded where many businesses don’t. Check out these cringey brand fails on social media.

(Source: Chain / Shutterstock)

B.J. Novak is best known for making us laugh on The Office, but his new West Hollywood pop-up restaurant Chain — which is not a chain, but lovingly recreates foods from actual chains — is a serious venture.

Launched with chef Tim Hollingsworth after years of ideation, Chain serves up elevated emulations of ‘90s food culture classics, including McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Chili’s, Applebee’s, TGI Fridays, Outback Steakhouse, among others.

It’s been a massive hit — household names such as Dakota Fanning and Novak’s The Office costar Mindy Kaling have been snapped there. However, if you want to taste foodie-approved versions of the Crunchwrap Supreme or Bloomin’ Onion, you’ll need to join a waitlist that’s reportedly 15,000 names long. Rumors are swirling of a second Chain location in Las Vegas, though, so maybe it’ll be a real chain restaurant after all.

(Source)

“For most of us, talking is like breathing. You don’t think about it; you just do it. But when you start paying attention to how you speak, this leads you to think about why you speak the way you do. … You’re engaging in self-reflection and self-examination. You’re figuring out who you are.”

—Dan Lyons, STFU

Written by Lauren Vino, Dan Ketchum, and Elizabeth Barton.