• I spent 17 months traveling with my partner while trying to stick to a budget of about $50 a day.
• My budget kept me on track for the first three months, in part because Peru felt affordable.
• I definitely spent more in countries known for being expensive to visit, like Japan and Singapore.

After saving up for years, my partner and I spent 17 months traveling around the world.

We started our trip in Peru and traveled north to Mexico before heading to Asia.

Since my partner is an accountant, we thought it would be useful to track every expense along the way. My initial budget was $1,500 a month or roughly $50 a day. He had the same budget, but we kept our money separate.

Here's what it was like exploring multiple countries while trying to manage my spending.

I stayed under budget for only the first 3 months of the trip

We spent the first two months in Peru, where I spent $1,370.29 in July and $1,179.96 in August.

Of all the countries we visited, I found Peru had some of the lowest prices for things like food and accommodations.

Our real key to staying under budget the first few months, though, was traveling at a slow pace. We took long bus journeys instead of quick, pricey flights and got deals on accommodations for staying longer. We also frequently cooked for ourselves and didn't book any expensive tours or activities.

I also stayed under budget in September, which we spent in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. I spent $1,325.07, with a daily average of $33.35 in Peru and $45.60 in Ecuador.

Colombia was more expensive for me at an average of $57 a day, but we spent only a few days there at the end of the month.

I didn't stay under budget any other months, but some countries still felt affordable to me

While exploring Central America, I didn't go over my monthly budget of $1,500 by too much. One month I spent $1,646, and another $1,888.

My daily spend was below $50 in El Salvador ($38.70) and Costa Rica ($33.09).

To be fair, though, my Costa Rica budget is skewed because my parents visited and paid for our accommodation for 10 days as our joint Christmas and birthday presents. Without their gift, I would've spent way more.

I thought El Salvador, on the other hand, felt extremely affordable, but I spent only 12 days there. I wish I'd stayed longer — both for my wallet and because I enjoyed the people, scenery, and food (pupusas forever!).

I also went over my daily budget — but only slightly — while visiting Colombia ($57), Honduras ($58.41), Nicaragua ($53.43), Guatemala ($62.72), and Vietnam ($54.23).

Looking back, I think I could've stayed under budget in those places if I'd tried harder or reorganized my itinerary.

Cutting out pricey experiences like the motorbiking trip in Vietnam or the overnight volcano hike in Guatemala would've lowered my expenses — but those felt like once-in-a-lifetime opportunities I couldn't pass up.

I also could've saved a significant amount by booking cheaper accommodations like hostel dorms, but the longer we traveled the more we opted for more comfortable (often pricier) stays like Airbnbs or private hostel rooms.

Splitting accomodation costs between the two of us helped — I couldn't have justified the upgrades as a solo traveler — but we rarely chose the cheapest options.

Some countries surprised me by how expensive they felt

In March, I spent $3,076.75 across Belize and Mexico — double my monthly budget.

I splurged on some experiences, like a snorkel tour in Belize and a mezcal tasting in Oaxaca, but the average prices for just about everything were higher than I expected.

Though I overspent, I still refrained from certain activities, like a $125 cave tour in Belize, because I wanted to try to stay close to my budget. Looking back, I wish I'd just spent the money.

In Indonesia, I spent $109.96 a day, which might seem high for a country that has a reputation for affordability, though I spent five days on its island of Sumatra on orangutan trekking tours.

My flights, transport, and tours were expensive for that short amount of time, but it was one of my most memorable experiences.

I knew in advance that my budget would be too tight for some countries

Before I left, I knew I'd likely exceed my budget in some countries that are known for being expensive to visit.

My average daily spend in Panama was $98.38. My food and accommodations there were on the pricey side, and I also splurged on a five-day sailboat trip from Colombia to get there. (The alternative was an equally expensive flight, which was how I justified it.)

I also knew Singapore would be expensive, so I limited myself to six days there across two separate layovers. I stayed in hostel dorms or used credit-card points for hotels and mostly did free activities. My spending in Singapore still came out to $95.74 a day.

Finally, the most expensive country I visited was also my favorite: Japan. I spent an average of $121.79 a day, or $3,288.28 across 27 days — aka more than double my monthly budget.

Though I dipped more into my savings than I'd have liked, budgeting made this travel dream possible

Traveling for this long was incredible, and it wouldn't have been possible without my budget. Daily and monthly spending goals helped me keep my spending in check.

Setting a conservative budget, having savings separate from the money I'd set aside for this trip, and earning some cash along the way meant I didn't stress too much when I went over budget.

Looking back, I could've rearranged my itinerary to spend more time in countries where I spent less, but ultimately I don't have any significant regrets.

In fact, my advice would be to splurge on bucket-list activities (within reason) — I'll never forget seeing wild orangutans in Indonesia or learning to make sushi in Japan.

Money can come back, but memories are forever.

• 3,800 North Koreans have been killed or wounded fighting alongside Russia, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
• But Ukraine's president told the Lex Fridman podcast that hundreds of thousands more could arrive.
• The estimate came amid a discussion of the danger to Europe if the US leaves NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a podcast interview released Sunday that 3,800 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in Russia's Kursk region to date.

Zelenskyy's figure suggests that a third of the North Korean troops brought over to fight alongside Russia have been taken out of action.

"12,000 has arrived. Today, 3,800 killed or wounded," he told podcaster Lex Fridman, but he cautioned that North Korea could send many more, giving a figure as high as half a million troops.

Estimates of North Korean casualties have varied since intelligence agencies reported in October that it was sending troops to help Russian President Vladimir Putin defend territory seized by Ukraine in the summer.

In late December, the White House estimated that more than 1,000 North Koreans had been killed or wounded in the space of a single week, amid mass dismounted attacks.

And in his nightly address on Saturday, Zelenskyy said that the Russian army had lost "up to a battalion of infantry, including North Korean soldiers and Russian paratroopers," in fighting in the village of Makhnovka in Kursk.

Concerns for Europe

Zelenskyy offered the latest casualty figures as part of a broader argument about the dangers to Europe if the US retreats from NATO.

President-elect Donald Trump has long been critical of NATO and the defense spending of some of its members, leading to concerns that he could slash support for the alliance or even walk away.

Zelenskyy said that if Trump decides to leave NATO once back in office, "Putin will destroy Europe."

He also argued that European countries are much less willing and able to raise massive armies compared to an autocracy like North Korea.

While Ukraine has around 980,000 military personnel, the militaries of its European allies are a fraction of the size, Zelenskyy said.

"Can Europe bring people together? No," he said. "Will Europe be able to build an army consisting of two to three million people? No, Europe will not want to do this."

Dmytro Ponomarenko, Ukraine's ambassador to South Korea, told Voice of America in November that the number of North Korean troops aiding Russia could soon reach 15,000, with troops rotated out every two to three months.

That could mean about 100,000 North Korean soldiers serving in Russia within a year, he added.

• 156 accounting executives and partners were interviewed about why firms have been making more auditing errors.
• The auditors were split on whether a better work-life balance could reduce the number of errors.
• But they also have to consider whether remote work could help attract Gen Z workers amid a nationwide accountant shortage.

US accounting firms are split on how to deal with the shift to remote work, a report published by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a government-backed audit oversight board, has found.

The report, published in December 2024, was part of the PCAOB's investigation into why auditing errors have surged following the pandemic and whether internal culture has contributed. Though deficiency rates slowed in 2023, they have consistently risen since 2020. Accounting errors can lead to embarrassing and costly legal challenges and can damage business integrity.

The report was based on inspections of quality control systems and anonymous interviews with 156 executives and partners at six major firms: Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, BDO, and Grant Thornton.

64% of respondents said that improving work-life balance for firm personnel improves audit quality.

However, roughly a third of senior executives and partners from the six major firms surveyed said that contemporary remote and hybrid work culture has negatively affected auditing firms' quality control.

They said a loss of in-person interactions was making assimilation into the firm's culture more difficult, leaving newer recruits less attuned to the cultural importance of audit control.

Development opportunities were another concern, with some respondents saying firms were losing the "apprenticeship culture" they traditionally favored.

"The delayed development of firm personnel affected productivity and made it difficult for some to meet deadlines and expectations," some respondents said.

At one of the audit firms, managers and partners were stepping down a level to do audit work traditionally performed by more junior personnel. This led to reduced scrutiny of the audit work, respondents said.

The Gen Z problem

Tied up with the questions about work-life balance and audit quality is the other big issue facing accounting firms: how to attract Gen Z talent.

Respondents from all six firms included in the survey said that "resource challenges," in terms of hiring were a factor in the increasing audit deficiencies or were an overall concern for their companies.

In recent years, auditing firms have struggled to attract younger generations who expect a better work-life balance.

"The younger generation have differing views on careers than their older counterparts, with many viewing their work more as a job, rather than a career, and are therefore more likely to leave the profession if presented with more attractive opportunities," the PCAOB found.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants says about 65,000 students in the US completed bachelor's or master's degrees in accounting in the 2021-22 school year, 18% fewer than a decade earlier. Of those who study accounting, only a portion become certified public accountants. About 30,000 people took the CPA exam in 2022, compared with nearly 50,000 people in 2010.

The fear of personnel leaving was one reason that return-to-office policies weren't being pushed at firms, according to some respondents.

• Timothée Chalamet and Glen Powell brought lookalike competition winners to the Golden Globes.
• Lookalike competitions sprung up in 2024 for actors like Zendaya, Paul Mescal, and Jeremy Allen White.
• After Chalamet and Powell took theirs to the Golden Globes, some say the lookalike trend should stop.

Timothée Chalamet and Glen Powell brought the winners of their lookalike competitions to the Golden Globes, and it's clear that the trend can be left in 2024.

On January 5, the actors brought the winners of their respective lookalike competitions to the Golden Globes awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

They were Miles Mitchell, who won wearing a "Wonka" costume, and Max Braunstein, who won dressed as Powell's "Top Gun: Maverick" character.

The pair of impersonators walked the red carpet and met their respective actors during the event.

Many fans were surprised at how much Braunstein looks like Powell, but some were more critical of Mitchell.

The lookalike events gained momentum at first because plenty were amused by the the idea of dozens of people trying to convince fans they looked like their favorite A-lister.

But the pair's Golden Globe appearance feels like the natural conclusion to the lookalike fad.

Going to the Globes ceremony is quite a coup, and hard to top in the future — unless they suddenly find themselves at the Oscars, of course. (Don't do it, Hollywood!)

Like any trend, the lookalike competitions got boring as other events around the world tried to do the same for other actors including Zendaya, Paul Mescal, and Jeremy Allen White. Some now think it's time to put these contests to bed.

Powell and Chalamet's decision to embrace the lookalike contests has probably made them more accessible to their audience and could help their careers.

The events originally started in October when hundreds of Chalamet fans and impersonators gathered in Washington Square Park in New York for the competition. The actor himself briefly attended the event to pose for photos with some of the lookalikes.

Powell upped the stakes for his lookalike competition, held in November in his hometown of Austin. He offered the winner a chance for their family to have a cameo in his next movie, a cowboy hat, and a year's supply of tacos.

• Sherri Carpineto is senior director of strategy and operations Ascom Americas.
• A few years ago, she was headhunted for a VP role but only offered 10 days off.
• She said she always negotiates time off, because flexibility is critical.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sherri Carpineto, senior director of strategy and operations Ascom Americas. It has been edited for length and clarity.

A few years ago, I received an email from a recruiter out of the blue. I wasn't looking for a new job — I had been with my company for over a decade — but I was head-hunted for this position.

The role was for vice-president of operations for a publicly traded company. It would have been a big step in my career, and the salary increase was significant. It involved working with older people, so there was a chance to make a real-world impact.

It seemed like a great opportunity until I learned that the job was only offered 10 days of paid time off, including all sick and vacation time. When I talked with the CEO about it, she said, "I wish we had better work-life balance, but we don't." That's when I knew I had to turn down the job.

As a mom of 2, flexibility is key

Being a mom of two has certainly impacted my career in corporate America. I took a job that offered remote work long before that became the norm. I stayed there for 15 years because the flexibility was critical for my family.

When my oldest son was 3, he was diagnosed with Celiac disease. At 6, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Because of my remote work and flexible schedule, I could run down to the school when he was sick and go on field trips to make sure he was taken care of medically.

Staying with the same company for 15 years no doubt impeded my career, but the positive impact on my family was well worth that compromise. Today, my sons are 12 and 15. They still need me but in different ways. Most recently, I utilized time off and remote work when a teacher strike kept them home for three weeks.

I don't usually take all my PTO, but like knowing I have it

When I was offered the vice-president role, I refused, on principle, to take it. But in reality, I've never been someone who uses all their time off. In the job I was in for 15 years, I was often the person calling into meetings, even on days off, or taking on more projects, even when they were outside my scope of work.

I was laid off from that company after 15 years, during the pandemic. That changed my philosophy. I had thought that I could make myself indispensable by going above and beyond, but at the end of the day, layoffs are a money decision.

As I interviewed for new roles I knew that time off and remote work were priorities for me. Although I don't always take my allotted time off, I like knowing it's there if I need it.

As a manager, I encourage people to take time off

As a manager, I've always encouraged my employees to take time off. The least productive employee is one that is burned out. We're all salaried adults, and as long as the work is getting done, I encourage people to take their time and disconnect from work.

When I was offered the VP role, I tried to negotiate. I wanted at least four weeks of time off annually. The company refused to negotiate, but I've had better luck asking for more time off in other roles. Time to focus on family while also having a meaningful career is non-negotiable for me, and I'll always take a stand for it.

• Barnes & Noble plans to open around 60 new stores in the US, says CEO James Daunt.
• Daunt said it would be "logical" to consider a future initial public offering in London or New York.
• Barnes & Noble was acquired by Elliott Investment Management for $683 million in 2019.

James Daunt, the CEO of Barnes & Noble and Waterstones, said he would open about 60 new stores in the US.

The British bookseller boss told the Financial Times that he is considering a future initial public offering in London or New York as well as the expansion.

Throughout 2024, 57 Barnes & Noble locations were opened across the US, which currently has approximately 600 stores. In the UK, 12 new stores were added. Speaking about additions in the new year, Daunt said to the FT that he plans to "do that or more in 2025."

Barnes & Noble is the largest book chain in America. After he quit his investment banking job, Daunt launched Daunt Books in London in 1990 — where there are now about 10 stores. In 2011, he was appointed managing director of British bookseller Waterstones to help the struggling business, which faced growing competition from Amazon.

In 2018, Waterstones was sold to Elliott Investment Management by Russian billionaire and publisher Alexander Mamut. Barnes & Noble was acquired by the same New York-headquartered hedge fund the following year for $683 million.

Daunt was named CEO of both book retailers. He also continues to run his independent book chain in London.

The Barnes & Noble and Waterstones boss told the FT it would be "logical" to contemplate an IPO but that any plan would be based on Elliott's strategy for the future. Citing a person familiar with the matter, the FT reported there are no current plans to list the chains. However, it could be a possibility at a later stage.

At present, Daunt hopes to combine the IT and finance platforms at Barnes & Noble and Waterstones into one system.

He noted that it was a "solid Christmas" because as the holiday fell on a Wednesday, last-minute shoppers had the weekend before to purchase gifts.

"The last weekend and [December] 23-24 were exceptional on both sides of the Atlantic," he told the FT. "It has been a good post-Christmas as well."

• North Korea could get Russian satellite tech, the US Secretary of State has warned.
• The tech would be in exchange for it sending troops to fight Ukraine, Antony Blinken said on Monday.
• The US and its allies have accused Russia and North Korea of trading arms and military technology.

Russia could share satellite technology with North Korea in exchange for the troops it sent to fight Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned.

Blinken said the US had reason to believe that "Moscow intends to share advanced space and satellite technology with Pyongyang," during a press conference in Seoul on Monday.

North Korea "is already receiving Russian military equipment and training," he added.

If confirmed, it would add to Russia's reported ongoing efforts to help North Korea advance its satellite launch program.

Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, has repeatedly tried and often failed to launch satellites into space. The country said it had successfully launched a military spy satellite in November 2023. The most recent failure was when a rocket exploded during the first stage of flight in May last year.

At the time, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, citing an unnamed senior defense official, that a "large number" of Russian technicians had entered North Korea to guide the country's space program ahead of the failed launch.

In September 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Russia would help North Korea build satellites.

Having a satellite network would allow North Korea to identify targets to strike with its missiles and strengthen its ability to launch a preemptive strike against the US or its allies, giving them only a few minutes to respond.

Russia and North Korea's relationship has come under scrutiny in the past year after both countries signed a strategic partnership agreement in June, which requires the countries to defend each other in the event of aggression.

The US and its allies had previously accused Moscow of sending raw materials, food, and technical expertise to Pyongyang in exchange for shipments of artillery ammunition and missiles that Ukraine has reported seeing on the battlefield.

North Korea has also sent thousands of troops to aid Russia in its fight against Ukraine, officials from South Korea, Ukraine, and the US have said.

Blinken suggested Russia-North Korea's relations could go deeper as Putin may be "close" to formally accepting North Korea's status as a nuclear power.

He also described North Korea's deployment of artillery, ammunition, and troops as one of the "biggest ongoing drivers" that enabled Russia's war against Ukraine.

• Pornhub exited Florida at the start of the year because of a new age-verification law.
• The HB3 law requires users to provide ID to access adult sites. Noncompliant platforms face fines.
• After the law was enacted, interest in VPNs in Florida skyrocketed.

Searches for VPNs in Florida skyrocketed after Pornhub exited the state over a new law requiring age verification for adult websites.

VpnMentor told Forbes it "detected a surge of 1,150% in VPN demand" in Florida in the first few hours after the law took effect at the start of the year.

The company described the surge as "staggering."

Google searches for "VPN" in Florida also experienced a notable rise.

While Google Trends doesn't give exact search figures, it showed that interest in the term "VPN" in Florida reached a score of 100 on New Year's Day. A value of 100 represents peak popularity for a term, a sharp increase from a score of 58 the day before.

Interest remained high as of Monday, with the term scoring 82.

VPNs allow users to hide their location and IP address by routing their internet connection through a remote VPN server, allowing them to bypass regional blocks on websites.

The surge in VPN interest followed the implementation of HB3, which was passed by Florida lawmakers and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

HB3 requires users to verify their ages with a third party using a driver's license before they can view pornographic material. If platforms hosting explicit material fail to comply, they can be fined up to $50,000 for each violation.

Oklahoma, Idaho, and North Carolina have also introduced similar age-verification laws.

Last year, Pornhub exited Texas in protest over a legally contentious effort to introduce age-verification requirements.

Proton, a VPN service, said on Friday that it had received a "massive surge" in sign-ups for its services in the US.

"Typically, we see such spikes from countries with unstable governments facing internet shutdowns, meaning this is an anomaly," it said.

In a follow-up X post, Proton described it as a "false alarm" and said the surge was the result of "porn."

Pornhub, the world's most visited adult website and one of the most visited websites in the world, has already blocked access to its content in 17 states, according to The Independent.

In a statement provided to media outlets, Aylo, Pornhub's parent company, described the age-verification methods outlined in such laws as "ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous."

"Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is jeopardizing user safety," it continued.

Those attempting to access Pornhub in Florida without a VPN are now shown a video presented by the adult-entertainment star Cherie DeVille, who says "giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform" is ineffective and puts children and users' privacy at risk.

Beyond grappling with age-verification laws, Aylo is also dealing with a wave of legal challenges.

Hundreds of people have sued the company, alleging the website knowingly profited from videos depicting their abuse.

In August, a Toronto law firm began a three-year independent monitorship of Pornhub and Aylo, which will review how Aylo responds to takedown requests and how it screens for illegal content.

• A Swiss International Air Lines flight made an emergency landing last month.
• The Airbus A220's cabin was filled with smoke after encountering an engine problem.
• An autopsy said a flight attendant died due to hypoxic brain damage, Blick reported.

A 23-year-old Swiss International Air Lines flight attendant died due to a "severe lack of oxygen to the brain," according to an autopsy reported by Blick, Switzerland's largest newspaper.

It comes after an incident on December 23, when Swiss Flight 1885 encountered engine problems, and the cabin was filled with smoke.

The Airbus A220 was flying from Bucharest, Romania, to Zurich when it made an emergency landing in Graz, Austria.

All 74 passengers and five crew members were evacuated, 17 of whom required medical attention, the airline said.

A week later, Swiss announced that one of the flight's cabin crew members died in the hospital in Graz.

"We are devastated at our dear colleague's death," said CEO Jens Fehlinger. "His loss has left us all in the deepest shock and grief. Our thoughts are with his family, whose pain we cannot imagine."

Blick reported that the public prosecutor's office in Graz has launched an investigation into the flight attendant's death.

A spokesperson told the newspaper that a Friday autopsy found the provisional cause of death to be hypoxic brain damage and cerebral edema, meaning brain swelling.

"The brain was massively damaged by a severe lack of oxygen, and the young flight attendant died of it in the intensive care unit," the spokesperson told Blick.

"We are also looking into the role played by the respiratory mask that the flight attendant was wearing," he added.

The Graz public prosecutor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider.

Swiss said the investigation's initial findings point to a problem in one of the plane's Pratt & Whitney engines.

"We have no indication that the safety of the aircraft type is in question," it added.

• Hertz is asking some people renting Teslas and other EVs if they want to buy their vehicles.
• The rental company said last year that it would sell 30,000 EVs amid a slowdown in demand.
• Hertz is offering used Teslas for as little as about $18,000.

Hertz is continuing to reduce the number of EVs in its fleet by offering customers renting an electric car the opportunity to buy it at a bargain.

Last year Hertz said it would sell 30,000 EVs, including cars from Tesla, Polestar, and Volvo, because of the cost of repairs and maintenance.

The fire sale means Teslas are being listed at discounted prices on Hertz's website, and now the company is asking some renters if they'd like to buy their EV.

One person on Reddit recently said they were offered a 2023 Tesla Model 3 — which sells new for about $35,000 after federal incentives — for $17,913. The post included a screenshot of an email describing the offer as an opportunity "to think of this rental as a test drive!"

Other people said they'd been offered similar deals for Polestar and Chevy electric cars.

A Hertz spokesperson told Business Insider the emails were part of an effort to give all customers the chance to buy an EV or combustion-engine car that the company would soon put up for sale. Rental companies usually sell their cars after they have been driven a certain number of miles.

Hertz's decision to buy 100,000 Teslas in 2021 was hailed as a turning point for the EV industry, but the rental company's electric shift hasn't gone to plan.

Its EV fleet, which also includes cars from General Motors and Polestar, has had higher-than-expected repair costs and low resale values as demand for EVs has slowed over the past year.

Hertz's EV fire sale means buyers can pick up a used Tesla Model 3 for as little as $17,900 or a Model Y for $27,700.

• When my husband was diagnosed with cancer, I was shell-shocked.
• My routines were upended at the same time I became his caregiver.
• I reached out to family and other caregivers for support.

People often remark on how healthy my husband is. At 82, Barry scampers up and down hills like a mountain goat and out-paddles many members of his kayak group. So it came as a shock in September when we discovered he had stage 2 lymphoma. Cancer? Unbelievable.

I was amazed by Barry's reaction to his cancer diagnosis. He didn't ruminate endlessly over what he could have done to prevent it, as I might have. A science journalist, he has researched and written a great deal about cancer. "Some cells mutate when they divide," he said to me. "If they didn't, we wouldn't be here. It's part of evolution."

His diagnosis changed our plans — and our routines

Not only did we cancel an international trip when we found out, but in spectacularly bad timing, the routines that anchored my life also came to an abrupt stop. Both my yoga teachers stopped teaching, my weekly walking partner left town for the season, and as a freelance writer, I had few assignments.

In the Myers-Briggs personality assessment, I'm known as a "J," a person who needs structure. The prospect of several empty, shapeless months was deeply discouraging for me.

It took time to adapt to being a caregiver

Because Barry's treatment plan involved no radiation and only one chemo infusion every three weeks, we joked that he was experiencing 'cancer lite.' But his energy level dipped precipitously, and sometimes, I felt as though I had chemo fatigue, too. Our home situation reminded me of the beginning of the pandemic, except everything stopped for us while the rest of the world carried on.

The uncertainty was the worst part. After the oncologist and nurses repeated the mantra "only three chemo treatments" several times, we optimistically penciled in the date when we hoped to fly to Mexico, where we spend part of the year. Then one week, during an appointment, our oncologist offhandedly said, "Could be five, maybe six treatments."

What? I fumbled for Barry's hand under the table. "I thought you said three," I said, trying to sound neutral.

He shrugged. "We don't know for sure."

I was furious at him for messing with our plans. How dare he? Of course, I was ignoring the fact that despite all the advances in the field, cancer is still an unpredictable science.

I reached out to family and other caregivers for support

As Barry's caregiver, I felt a responsibility to be resilient, but didn't always feel that way. My sister helped. "Call me anytime," she said. She sent Barry homemade oatmeal cookies with a note that said, "The way I'm supporting you is by supporting Louisa."

Through the internet, I found an online support group for caregivers sponsored by the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. It was only once a month — not enough for me — but I appreciated hearing from other caregivers about their cancer situations. We shared stories about feeling overlooked and neglected at times. Listening to them, I felt grateful that Barry's case was relatively mild. We weren't living through grinding years of cancer, and he wasn't going to die (not yet, anyway!).

I also reached out to other family members. My brother-in-law, who lives with depression, told me that accompanying my sister to chemo appointments during her breast cancer a few years earlier had given him a sense of purpose and direction. Unlike me, he wasn't perturbed at not having much of an independent life.

Barry, on the other hand, thrived on his solo time at the infusion center, chatting with the other patients. He joked that it was like flying Business Class, with reclining seats and gracious nurses attending to his every whim. Although he enjoyed introducing me to his new-found friends, he didn't want me there all six hours, and I, too, enjoyed my "day off."

He's cancer-free now, but we're still getting through it

It's now been four months since Barry's diagnosis, and I am indeed writing this from sunny Mexico. Barry's latest scan showed him free of cancer, and his energy is gradually returning. And I'm back into yoga.

But I don't have the pillowy confidence I once had, and maybe that's a good thing. I used to brag about my health — how fit I was, how I'd live to 100 or more. Now, I'm more humble. I feel for people with cancer, and especially for their caregivers. I know cancer never happens in a vacuum. It's a family disease, where everyone is affected, and no one is spared.

• One of the most common job interview questions can also seem like one of the hardest to answer.
• The simply phrased "Tell me about yourself," can lead to sprawling answers.
• An ex-MBA admissions director shared a common mistake people make — and how they should answer instead.

For as common an interview question as it is, it can still trip up a lot of job candidates.

"Tell me about yourself."

One of recruiters' favorite questions, the simple prompt can be daunting because many candidates may try to squeeze too much of their professional experience and qualifications into their answers.

Thomas Caleel, former director of MBA admissions and financial aid at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, told Business Insider there is an effective approach to framing your answer to the question in both an academic or job interview context.

"Being able to clarify a question and re-frame it in a way that is respectful to the interviewer and shows that you can think and act under pressure, is, to me at least, a valuable skill in both the academic and corporate worlds," Caleel told BI.

Caleel talked more about the open-ended question on a recent episode of his "Admittedly" podcast.

"Most people when you ask them tell me about yourself, they will start to talk, and they will ramble and ramble and ramble," he said. "What happens is you lose your interviewer, like 30 seconds into that interview response, the interviewer's eyes glaze over, they kind of look at you and they're like, 'Oh my gosh.'"

So how exactly should you tackle the question?

Caleel recommends breaking your answer down into parts and posing a question back to the interviewer.

"What I say to do and what I think you should do instead is say 'Love to tell you about myself. There are three main areas that I'm involved in: academics, extracurricular activities, and sports (or volunteering.) Which one would you like to start with first?'" he told the podcast.

Compared to the common mistake candidates make of talking at their interviewer, this approach gets the interviewer's attention by making them "an active participant" in the conversation, Caleel said.

"By involving the interviewer in the conversation, you draw them in, you invest them in your answers instead of boring them with just a torrent of words," he added.

As a former admissions director, Caleel's advice is geared toward students applying to colleges — job candidates probably won't be talking much about academics or extracurriculars. However, for those applying to jobs, you might use as categories leadership, teamwork, and directly relevant experience, he told BI.

Regardless of the type of interview, his key point is "to try to engage the interviewer and set a more dynamic tone," he added.

Career experts also suggest highlighting some career accomplishments and focusing on the parallels and transferrable skills between your past experience and the position at stake when answering "Tell me about yourself." They say to try not to spend too long on this one question and aim to cap your response at around a minute.

"In my experience, candidates who can think on their feet, who are not cowed by the process and can remain genuine and engaged with the interviewer, usually fare well," Caleel told BI.

• Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI will likely play out in 2025.
• Musk says OpenAI has lost sight of its mission to develop AI safety, prioritizing profits instead.
• Here's what you need to know about a battle that could impact the future of artificial intelligence.

Two of the most powerful forces in the AI industry are set to collide this year: xAI's Elon Musk and OpenAI's Sam Altman.

Musk was one of 11 cofounders, including Altman and President Greg Brockman, who established OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015 with the mission to "advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return."

Musk left in 2018 — a year before OpenAI added a for-profit arm — citing a conflict of interest with his work at Tesla, though his lawyers say that he contributed to the company until mid-2020.

Since then, he's become a vocal skeptic of OpenAI's commitment to prioritizing transparency and safety over profit.

The feud between the founders escalated in August when Musk filed a lawsuit against Altman, OpenAI, and Microsoft, the company's biggest investor. Musk accused them of deception, prioritizing profits despite its stated mission.

That lawsuit will likely play out this year — a major battle that could impact the future of artificial intelligence. Here's what to expect.

Musk's legal challenges against OpenAI

Musk first filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in a California state court in February 2024, accusing OpenAI of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft. Musk withdrew that suit in June.

He filed a new lawsuit in August 2024, this time in a federal court, accusing OpenAI of a bait-and-switch deception that violates RICO laws — anti-racketeering laws first designed to target organized crime families.

Musk's lawyers say in the lawsuit that Musk "lent his name to the venture, invested significant time and millions of dollars in seed capital, and recruited top AI scientists for the company," all with the understanding that OpenAI would remain a nonprofit and prioritize developing the technology safely.

Musk's lawyers say OpenAI "betrayed" its mission when it added a for-profit arm in 2019 and deepened its partnership with Microsoft in 2023.

"Musk and the nonprofit's namesake objective were betrayed by Altman and his accomplices," the lawsuit reads. "The perfidy and deceit are of Shakespearean proportions."

In mid-November, Musk's lawyers expanded their complaint to include accusations that OpenAI and Microsoft violated antitrust laws by asking the company's investors not to back competitors in the generative AI space, like Musk's own xAI, which he launched in 2023.

In his latest move, Musk — also in November — asked a federal judge to stop OpenAI from converting into a fully for-profit corporate entity.

OpenAI has denied the claims. A representative for the company directed Business Insider to a post it published on December 13 responding to Musk's allegations.

"Now that OpenAI is the leading AI research lab and Elon runs a competing AI company, he's asking the court to stop us from effectively pursuing our mission," OpenAI wrote. "You can't sue your way to AGI. We have great respect for Elon's accomplishments and gratitude for his early contributions to OpenAI, but he should be competing in the marketplace rather than the courtroom."

Resolving the lawsuit could take months or even years. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the case in the San Francisco federal court, hasn't yet set a trial date.

Rogers will begin hearing arguments on January 14 on whether she should issue the preliminary injunction to prevent OpenAI from converting into a nonprofit until the rest of the case is resolved.

In weighing whether to issue the injunction, Rogers is supposed to consider the "likelihood of success" that Musk will win the case. Her decision would strongly indicate how the rest of the case might play out.

Why OpenAI's corporate structure matters

In a blog entry posted to its website on December 27, OpenAI explained why it needed to evolve its corporate structure.

The company said it wants to transition its for-profit arm into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation⁠ — which, unlike a traditional company, prioritizes social good alongside profit — to prepare for a more capital-intensive future.

OpenAI said the structural change would enable it to "raise the necessary capital" to pursue its mission of developing artificial general intelligence and to give it more leeway to consider the interests of its backers.

The company said it would still run a nonprofit on the side focused more narrowly on charitable initiatives in healthcare, education, and science.

Rose Chan Loui, a nonprofit legal expert at UCLA, said OpenAI's current nonprofit status grants it significant control over technological development.

"What we lose in this conversion is a nonprofit with the unique ability to control AI development activities — to be a watchdog from the inside, making sure that AI is being developed safely and for the benefit of humanity. From that perspective, it seems to me that the nonprofit's current control position is priceless," she wrote to Business Insider in an email.

If the conversion to a for-profit public benefit corporation goes through, OpenAI would need to ensure that the nonprofit retains assets worth as much as what it's giving up, including a significant premium for its control. That could be in the form of cash or stock that it can sell for cash.

Still, "what seems to be envisioned is a grant-making foundation that can do good but will have a very reduced, if any, impact on the development of AI," Chan Loui said.

Former employees have also raised concerns that the nonprofit would have a reduced role in public safety.

Miles Brundage, OpenAI's former head of AGI Readiness, who left in October, responded to OpenAI's December post, saying on X that "a well-capitalized nonprofit on the side is no substitute for PBC product decisions (e.g. on pricing + safety mitigations) being aligned to the original nonprofit's mission."

He added that much of OpenAI's rationale for conversion makes sense. However, there are still "red flags," including a lack of details about its new governance structure and guardrails around the technology.

Other individuals and organizations have filed amicus briefs to the federal court where Musk filed his suit. These briefs are meant to inform the court and help it make a decision.

Kathleen Jennings, the attorney general for Delaware, where OpenAI is incorporated, filed one last week. She detailed her role in protecting the public interest if OpenAI becomes a for-profit public benefit corporation.

Chan Loui said Jennings's brief is a hopeful sign that, no matter what happens, public interest will ultimately win.

"It is encouraging that the Delaware AG has stated her commitment to protecting the public interest, including seeking an injunction if she determines that the conversion is inconsistent with OpenAI's mission and its obligations to the public, that OpenAI's board members are not fulfilling their fiduciary duties, or if the value of the conversion or the process for arriving at it is not 'entirely fair.'"

Lawyers for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Storm Blair has caused travel disruption in several states.
• More than half of flights were canceled at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Monday.
• 94% of flights were canceled in Kansas City, Missouri, on Sunday.

More than half of flights were canceled at Washington, DC's Reagan National Airport on Monday, according to data from FlightAware, as Storm Blair brought snow and ice to a large part of the country.

The winter storm has triggered a state of emergency in Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, West Virginia, and parts of New Jersey.

FlightAware data showed 1,339 flights within, into, or out of the US were canceled on Monday as of 6:30 a.m. ET.

Reagan National Airport appeared to be the worst hit with 229 cancellations, equivalent to 58% of all flights scheduled there for Monday.

Nearby Baltimore/Washington International and Washington Dulles airports were also affected, with 38% and 25% of flights canceled respectively on Monday.

The National Weather Service warned that the DC area could face between 5 and 10 inches of snow, with a winter storm warning in effect until 1 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News that the formal certification of Donald Trump's election as president will still go ahead on Monday.

In Cincinnati, where the National Weather Service predicts up to four inches of snow, one-third of Monday's scheduled flights were canceled, FlightAware data showed.

More than 1,800 flights were canceled on Sunday, per FlightAware.

Heavy snowfall was also recorded in Kansas City, Missouri, where local media reported 10 inches fell on Sunday night. According to FlightAware, 94% of flights were canceled there on Sunday.

Airports in Indianapolis and Kentucky also saw rates of cancellation above 20% on both Sunday and Monday.

When Avenues: The World School opened in 2012 in Chelsea, it was supposed to revolutionize education. The for-profit school had a 215,000-square-foot, tech-heavy campus, and students partook in a dual-language curriculum with their choice of Spanish or Mandarin.

Founding families weighed in on everything from what language STEAM subjects should be taught in to whether the cafeteria pasta should be gluten-free. One mom who enrolled her 4-year-old that first year was floored when her son asked for water in Mandarin. And how many preschoolers could come back from a school visit to Chuck Close's gallery and talk about the artist's face blindness?

When one family rejected an admission offer, an Avenues cofounder, Alan Greenberg, wrote a letter urging them to reconsider. Greenberg wrote that Avenues would be "the most important new school ever opened."

"I don't in any way mean this to be demeaning," he added in an excerpt of the letter that was published in The New York Times. "But I would not be forthcoming or truthful if I did not say there is absolutely no comparison."

Thirteen years later, Avenues has had seven different heads of school, including one whose tenure lasted two months. After once talking of building 20 campuses around the world, it ended up with three. In November 2023, the school's two profitable campuses, Manhattan and São Paulo, were sold to Nord Anglia Education, a private-equity-backed chain of for-profit international boarding schools. It was the third time the school had been sold.

While some parents sang Avenues' praises, many told Business Insider they'd been disappointed by what they had come to view as essentially an educational experiment gone awry. They said the focus on dual-language learning came at the expense of core subjects. Parents of older students lamented what they viewed as a lack of structure and said kids weren't penalized for not doing their homework.

"Your kids are kind of like the guinea pigs for this growth model," said one mom who enrolled her 2-year-old son at Avenues before the pandemic. In 2023, after four years at the school, she pulled him out. Having him learn Mandarin without a native-speaking nanny or heavy tutoring was increasingly unfeasible, she said.

This year, close to 2,000 students are enrolled at Avenues' Chelsea campus, where tuition for nursery school starts at $68,850 — among the highest in the city.

Avenues' head of school, Todd Shy, told BI in a statement: "We have thousands of happy, satisfied families and thriving students. Avenues is an innovative school that achieves exceptional student outcomes using research-backed practices." An Avenues spokesperson added that in the school's annual "voice of the community" survey, 90% of parents "agreed that Avenues is an enjoyable school for their family" and more than 90% were happy with the college their child ultimately attended.

Chris Whittle, an Avenues cofounder and former CEO, told BI he was "really proud of how the school has done." But some people said Avenues had failed to achieve an impossible vision.

"A for-profit school with great tech support and dual-language programs seems pretty sexy," Wendy Levey, an admissions consultant, said. "But if people are going to spend that kind of money, they want faculty that have been in place for a long time, a curriculum that has been proven to work, alumni who are attached to the school. They want the whole nine yards."

In short, they want to be part of the "club" — the loosely affiliated network of girls, boys, and co-ed schools that make up the city's educational elite. "Even now," Levey added, "Avenues is not part of that club."

If you're a New York City parent in a certain income bracket who has deemed public school a nonstarter, chances are you're familiar with the hellscape that is trying to get your kid into private school. The search for a competitive preschool often starts when your child is just a year old. By the time you get to primary school, it seems as though all but one open spot is reserved for siblings and legacies.

If you do manage to land at Horace Mann, Spence, or one of the other elite nonprofit private schools that some admissions professionals call the "big 20," you're so grateful that you tolerate the incessant fundraising emails for the early-learning center that won't be built until your child is too old to use it. You tell yourself that the dingy basement where you deposit your toddler each morning is quaint, cozy, and traditional.

In an increasingly high-end city, private school remains a remarkably spartan affair. If there are elevators on campus, students are often forbidden to use them until senior year. Children served by macrobiotic chefs at their Hamptons summer homes push beat-up plastic trays down a poorly lit cafeteria line.

It was amid this landscape that Avenues burst onto the scene. Whittle, a former Esquire publisher who'd turned — somewhat controversially — to for-profit education, imagined a sleek, newfangled school with a global mindset. Graduates would be "artists no matter their field," "at ease beyond borders," and "architects of lives that ascend the ordinary," Avenues' mission statement said.

Whittle and his two cofounders — Benno Schmidt, a former Yale president, and Greenberg, who used to be the publisher of Esquire — spent a lot of time and money selling their idea. Avenues hired a marketing team that included an MTV animator and Ken Segall, who conceived of Apple's famous "Think Different" campaign. They sent a direct-mailer brick to 1,000 New York City parents and threw swanky cocktail parties at the Crosby Street Hotel.

Even parents who snickered at the school's tactics showed up to see what all the fuss was about. "The idea was, let's make it feel like we've been there forever and you just found out about us," the former Avenues global creative director Andy Clayman said.

Whittle had made a career commoditizing education. In the 1990s, he conceived of The Edison Project, a network of commercial private schools that eventually transitioned into managing low-income public schools in cities such as Baltimore and Philadelphia. In 2003, Liberty Partners bought The Edison Project for $174 million. A decade later, Liberty sold the company, reportedly taking an 85% loss.

Avenues embodied the same premise as Edison: namely, that innovative business people could educate students better than traditional nonprofit schools. At the time, this was a welcome philosophy in New York City. During Mike Bloomberg's 12 years as mayor, nearly 200 "low-performing" public schools were closed, replaced by 150 privately operated, publicly funded charter schools. As much as 40% of the city was rezoned to accommodate mixed-use development, paving the way for Avenues' flagship campus in a converted industrial building sandwiched between public housing and the High Line, the elevated park that runs through Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.

Avenues' for-profit status was appealing to what one Avenues parent, Euan Rellie, called a "certain kind of Bloombergian New Yorker." "You can imagine if you're an entrepreneur or private-equity guy, you might say, good, there's less bullshit," said Rellie, who cofounded the private-equity firm BDA Partners. "This is just a straightforward service provider."

Sejal Shah enrolled both her daughters after touring the school in 2012. "It seemed like a place to move and grow versus being stagnant in one way of thinking and one way of doing things," she said.

Avenues' timing couldn't have been better. From 2006 to 2011, the number of kids younger than 5 in Manhattan had increased by 32%, Whittle told The New York Times, while only about 400 spots at top independent schools had emerged over the past decade. According to the Times, by June 2011, 1,200 families had applied for early admission to Avenues, even though just eight of 180 teachers had been hired, the building was a construction site, and the curriculum was still a giant question mark.

Avenues hired academic heavy hitters like Nancy Schulman, the former director of the 92nd Street Y preschool, one of the city's most prestigious private-school feeders, as well as a former Dalton headmaster, Gardner P. Dunnan. Still, Whittle made clear that he had no interest in being another Dalton. "To me, the biggest risk is that we are just another fine school," he told The New York Observer in 2012. "If that's all we are, this was a waste of time."

Whittle's run at Avenues was relatively short-lived. In 2013, John Fisher — the conservative Gap Inc. heir whose family gave The Edison Project $25 million and who was an early minority investor in Avenues — bought out one of the school's two main backers. "It was a hostile takeover in that I fought it, and I lost," said Whittle, who also placed a bid at the time.

Fisher tapped Jeff Clark as the new president of Avenues in November 2013, the change briefly mentioned at the end of Whittle's annual newsletter. The Avenues spokesperson said the school didn't make a big deal about the appointment to parents because it "in no way impacted day-to-day operations."

That same year, the school's parent company, Avenues Global Holdings, loaned Whittle almost $11 million that a 2018 legal document said was meant to "ameliorate his dire personal financial situation so he could focus on his work for Avenues." (A person close to the company said the loans had nothing to do with purported financial struggles.) Whittle got an additional $1 million in 2014, but he ultimately failed to pay back the entirety of the loan.

In February 2015, Whittle left the school. Two years later, the parent company sued him and foreclosed on his Hamptons home. In 2018, Fisher bought out the last minority investor, gaining full control of Avenues.

The typical New York City private school grows incrementally. Nightingale, Spence, and Chapin began in Manhattan brownstones and expanded over decades, one capital campaign and Ivy League acceptance at a time. Whittle, on the other hand, raised $75 million to renovate Avenues' Chelsea campus in just three years.

The facility embodied Whittle's idea of education as a luxury good. The cafeteria is named "FOOD" after the SoHo restaurant founded by the artist Gordon Matta-Clark, and Avenues students in first through fifth grade receive iPads to do their schoolwork. There is no central library; Whittle told New York magazine in 2012 that his eventual goal was to have a paperless campus.

Many parents were drawn to Avenues' modern approach to elite academia. Instead of the pinafores and khakis favored by private institutions like Brearley or Collegiate, students wear a mix of gray, black, or white solids. There's an emphasis on boardroom-style presentations and group projects, rather than teacher-led lectures, essays, or written exams.

"If you attended the first year, you drank the Kool-Aid," said a mother who enrolled her 4-year-old son at Avenues in 2012. "Why would you choose an unknown entity for top dollar with no proven track record? You had to believe in something bigger." Another mother, who transferred her daughter out of Avenues in 2023 after her freshman year, called the early years there "magical," adding, "These kids would run with smiles into school."

The school's biggest academic selling point has always been its language immersion program. Originally, 2-year-olds at Avenues were taught in a combination of English, Spanish, and Mandarin. When students entered the threes program, they chose Mandarin or Spanish as their target language and spent half their time learning in that language. For instance, after a bilingual morning meeting, students might do a small-group reading in Mandarin, followed by another learning period in English. Science would then be in English, with music and art taught in Mandarin. (Beginning next year, based on parent feedback, kids will choose a target language at age 1, the Avenues spokesperson said.)

In first through fifth grades, subjects like language arts and math switch between English and Spanish or Mandarin on alternating days. By sixth grade, the dual-language component tapers off because, in theory, students are highly proficient.

For some, the bilingual program turned out to be more than they'd bargained for. One mother told BI that by the end of her son's first year in Avenues' twos program in 2019, she began receiving feedback from the school that he needed additional support to learn Mandarin. "They were telling us to get him a tutor and potentially a Mandarin-speaking babysitter," she said. "We started realizing that it's not practically possible."

At one point, the mother said, Avenues suggested that she take her son to occupational therapy for behavioral issues that she felt stemmed from the immersion program's rigor. "It just felt like we had to outsource everything," she said. Last year, she transferred her son to a traditional nonprofit school for first grade where she said he's thriving.

The Avenues spokesperson said that "while some families may choose additional support outside of school, this is not required nor expected at Avenues" and is discouraged in early years.

The mother who enrolled her 4-year-old son at Avenues the year it opened said she started noticing in elementary school that her son's basic reading and writing skills paled in comparison with his Mandarin. She also became exceedingly frustrated that he completed assignments mainly on his school-provided iPad.

For all the hype around Avenues, "I was just not impressed with it as an academic institution," the mom said. She decided to transfer her son out for eighth grade.

The Avenues spokesperson said that learning in two languages "does not detract from what children need developmentally" and that the school's language immersion program had "been designed to maintain literacy development." The spokesperson separately said that Avenues graduates were "thriving at leading colleges and universities." From 2016 to 2024, four went on to attend Harvard, four went to Yale, and one student attended Princeton, according to Avenues' website.

Not all parents or even teachers are convinced of the efficacy of Avenues' methods. One teacher who worked at the Chelsea school for a year prior to COVID said she noticed a skills gap between her Avenues lower-school students and those at the nonprofit private school where she now teaches. She believed Avenues students' writing suffered because they learned in English only half the time. The Avenues spokesperson said they did not recognize the teacher's characterization.

Multiple former Avenues parents also told BI that while they bought into the school's modernistic approach to education, they grew concerned that it was becoming too loose. One mother said that when her daughter entered middle school in 2019, Avenues "tried to teach math three different ways at one time," confusing her preteen, who didn't know which method to use.

The mother who transferred her daughter out of Avenues during high school expressed similar reservations. She told BI that in middle school, her daughter was surprised to learn from a friend at an uptown private school that they got in trouble for not doing their homework. There was so little communication between parents and teachers, the mother said, that one year she didn't learn her daughter was struggling academically until January. (The spokesperson said that if a student doesn't complete their homework, a teacher might pull them aside to "talk about the importance of personal accountability." The spokesperson added that "student progress is carefully monitored through regular formal and informal assessments" that are reported to and discussed with parents.)

No school, no matter how lauded, can be perfect for every student. One mother recently transferred her daughter from Avenues to a more traditional private school for sixth grade. While at Avenues, she'd suspected her daughter might be behind her peers at other private schools, but she was willing to make the trade-off for a kid who was fluent in Spanish, tech-savvy, and a confident public speaker. "Then I came here, and she was literally almost three years behind in math," the mom said. "In English, she was getting tested on adverbs and pronouns, and she knew none of them."

Avenues "really honed in on skills that you need for the future," the mother said, "but not the basics of education. But who knows if the basics of education are even necessary 10 years from now."

Avenues had always planned to build a global network of schools, a former administrator told BI, pointing to its robust research and development team, which totaled 30 full- and part-time staffers by 2019. But in the end, Avenues ended up with only three campuses: in Shenzhen, China; Sao Pãolo, Brazil; and New York City. A temporary Silicon Valley location served 70 students during the 2022-2023 school year.

When Fisher decided to sell the business, the goal was to find a buyer to purchase the whole thing. "And that didn't happen," the former administrator said. "Did they make mistakes? Hell yeah," and "their mistakes cost them their vision," she added.

While the former administrator called the dissolution of that vision "heartbreaking," she believes the new ownership will bring "real stability." A Nord Anglia spokesperson said the group chose to purchase Avenues' Chelsea and São Paulo campuses in part because of a "close cultural fit between us as educators." Plans to build a permanent Silicon Valley location were scrapped after the Nord Anglia acquisition, and Avenues Shenzhen is now independently owned and operated by a local partner in China, which licenses the Avenues brand.

"I did have some parents reach out to me after the sale," Whittle said. "And I think overall, it is going to be quite good for Avenues. They're a capable, thoughtful group. They have global reach, which I think is important to the student body."

In October, Nord Anglia itself was sold to a new ownership group, which could theoretically shift things at Avenues again. Avenues' spokesperson said that, despite the changes, "our focus has been — and always will be — on our students and providing a world-class education."

Meanwhile, the school has taken steps to appeal to a broader swath of families. In the early days, students hoping to transfer into Avenues from first to fifth grade had to pass a Spanish or Mandarin competency exam. But in 2017, Avenues launched a pilot English-only program for incoming fifth graders that gradually expanded to include the third and fourth grades. This past school year, 33 students enrolled at Avenues were non-immersion, the spokesperson said, adding that the school would be willing to add more English-only lower-school spots if parents asked.

Some parents see Avenues' flexibility as a plus. "If you don't like change, Avenues is not the right place for you," said Lynn Berney, who has two children in high school and one who recently graduated. "But I do think that they're constantly improving themselves."

Rellie's younger son, who's now a senior, is staying put. "Being the parent of a teenager is such an effing roller coaster," he said, that "you tend to muddle through until there's a crisis."

Avenues says its enrollment has remained consistent. The spokesperson told BI that applications to its New York campus increased by 50% from September 2018 to September 2023, while the acceptance rate fell by 18%. They added that 2024's admissions rate was about 5% lower than 2023's, "which indicates continued strong demand for limited seats."

Avenues may not have become exactly what Whittle imagined. Depending on whom you ask, it might not even be a particularly successful academic institution. "It's a consultant-created conceit," said the mother whose son struggled to keep up with the Mandarin component. "The shots are called at corporate."

But the school succeeded in at least one way. "We did the impossible thing: We were profitable," said Clayman, the former Avenues global creative director. "This is why we were bought."

• Sam Altman wrote a blog post about his experience running OpenAI on Sunday.
• Altman said OpenAI would have fallen apart in 2023 without Ron Conway's and Brian Chesky's help.
• That was the year Altman was briefly ousted and then reinstated as OpenAI's CEO.

OpenAI would have fallen apart back in 2023 without venture capitalist Ron Conway and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Sam Altman wrote in a blog post on Sunday.

Altman expressed his gratitude to Conway and Chesky in a blog post titled "Reflections," which detailed his brief ouster from OpenAI. Altman said the post was inspired by a recent interview he gave to Bloomberg, which was published on Sunday as well.

"Ron Conway and Brian Chesky went so far above and beyond the call of duty that I'm not even sure how to describe it," Altman wrote.

Altman was fired as OpenAI's CEO on November 17, 2023. The company's board said in a statement that it was removing Altman because he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board" but did not elaborate further.

Altman returned as CEO on November 22, 2023, after nearly all of OpenAI's staff threatened to quit if he wasn't reinstated.

In his blog post, Altman said "there were a lot of people who did incredible and gigantic amounts of work" to help him and OpenAI when he was ousted, but Conway and Chesky "stood out from all others."

"I've of course heard stories about Ron's ability and tenaciousness for years and I've spent a lot of time with Brian over the past couple of years getting a huge amount of help and advice," Altman wrote.

"But there's nothing quite like being in the foxhole with people to see what they can really do," he continued. "I am reasonably confident OpenAI would have fallen apart without their help; they worked around the clock for days until things were done."

Conway and Chesky, Altman wrote, gave him "great advice" and "stopped me from making several mistakes." The pair also tapped on their vast networks to assist him, Altman added.

"I thought I knew what it looked like to support a founder and a company, and in some small sense I did," Altman wrote. "But I have never before seen, or even heard of, anything like what these guys did, and now I get more fully why they have the legendary status they do."

Representatives for Conway and Chesky did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Conway and Chesky are longtime friends of Altman and were one of the first people he called after OpenAI fired him.

Conway was also one of Altman's guest speakers when the latter taught a class on startups at Stanford University in 2014.

Altman and Chesky's friendship, meanwhile, goes back more than a decade. Altman mentored Chesky when Airbnb was a part of Y Combinator, a startup accelerator.

When Altman was fired from OpenAI, he briefly considered launching another AI startup but was discouraged by Conway and Chesky, The New York Times reported in December 2023.

"You should be willing to fight back at least a little more," Chesky told Altman, per The Times.

OpenAI's board, Conway later told Time magazine, had fired Altman for "nitpicky, unfireable, not even close to fireable offenses."

The billionaire venture capitalist had spoken to the magazine as part of a profile on Altman that was published in December 2023.

"It is reckless and irresponsible for a board to fire a founder over emotional reasons," Conway told the outlet.

• Manufacturing engineer Douglas Dorsey started working at Boeing in 1984 and retired in 2017.
• Dorsey worked on the Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliner, where he said things began to unravel.
• He reflects on his time on the shop floor and how Boeing plans to repair its reputation.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Douglas Dorsey, from Washington, about his career as a manufacturing engineer at Boeing. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I started my career at Boeing in 1984, and I worked there for over 30 years.

I was a manufacturing engineer. My responsibilities included writing instructions and coming up with assembly sequences for aircraft.

During my career, I worked on several aircraft projects for Boeing, including the Advanced Tactical Fighter program, the Boeing 777, and the 787 Dreamliner. It was always interesting and challenging. I worked with dedicated employees and on cutting-edge programs.

I retired in 2017 feeling proud to have worked there. I was a "lifer" with Boeing blue blood running through my veins.

However, while working on the Boeing 787 program in the 2000s, I noticed that outsourcing manufacturing tasks to suppliers became a really big problem for Boeing. When I worked on the shop floor, I saw the negative impacts of outsourcing to suppliers, such as slower production and delivering incomplete parts.

Even after retiring, I've stayed up to date with Boeing. I've followed the news on malfunctions and strikes, but I think management is taking baby steps in the right direction.

I saw chaos unfold at Boeing due to mismanagement and outsourcing

During the good old days, I had a positive opinion of Boeing. In my first decade at the company, the chain of command was clear. You knew what your job responsibilities were and could count on your line managers. Most importantly, there was no drama with executives, and we had confidence in those in command.

But in 1997, upper management was thrown into chaos when Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, with McDonnell Douglas executives taking top positions at Boeing. Harry Stonecipher, who was briefly Boeing's CEO, resigned in 2005 after he was found having an affair with an employee.

It was like a corporate soap opera played out in the media. As an employee, the news was distracting and felt like evidence of the level of disorder at the top of the company.

At the same time, the Boeing 787 program was underway. The 787 was launched as a complete departure from how Boeing airplanes had traditionally been constructed. To reduce the time from program launch to when the planes were in service, Boeing would have "risk-sharing partners" deliver complete aircraft sections to the final assembly site.

787 program managers and employees implicitly understood this new production method, and we cautiously believed it might work. But it began to unravel bit by bit and ended in a three-year delay.

I wondered why we were accepting substandard work on 787

I was a project manufacturing engineer for the 787, creating work instructions, and a liaison manufacturing engineer, working on the shop floor to resolve issues with existing work instructions.

At the beginning of each new airplane program, program leadership and supply chain management divided major sections of the aircraft among various subcontractors, suppliers, and risk-sharing "partners." When suppliers were late in delivering their components or delivered them incomplete, this became "traveled work," which had to be completed by Boeing employees during final assembly.

I spent much of my time on the program trying to accommodate parts that had a "non-conformance" tag on them and had to be reworked and installed into the build.

I wondered what was going on and why we were accepting substandard, incomplete work.

As an engineer, I wasn't privy to the decisions going on in the upper chambers of management, but I could see the chaos filtering down. It felt like the company wasn't listening to its mechanics about how to improve processes.

I remember group meetings where employees, including myself, questioned decisions by management and offered constructive criticism that was politely but bluntly blown off.

The 787 was sadly delayed three years.

Confusing supply chains seem to still cause problems

In 2024, there was an incident with a Boeing 737 Max plane, where a door plug blew out after take off.

Although I retired in 2017, I think this was caused by mismanagement of traveled repair work. The plug door was manufactured by Spirit AeroSystems, a Boeing subsidiary that was sold off in 2005.

An investigation found that because the part 737MAX9 fuselage is shipped in whole, mechanics at Boeing rarely work on the plug doors. When the plug door frame had to be repaired and the plug door replaced, two separate groups of mechanics working on the door made mistakes.

As a result, a plug door malfunctioned, and Boeing's reputation was damaged alongside it, causing the FAA to increase its oversight of 737MAX9 planes' production processes.

It's always disappointing when the company you worked for makes major news headlines for a mistake. However, it doesn't change my general opinion of Boeing. I know there are many dedicated employees who are committed to doing their jobs properly and safely.

Boeing is taking baby steps in the right direction

I still know some Boeing employees and followed the recent strike. I think employees have gotten a good package, but they didn't get a return to the legacy defined-benefit pension plan. When I retired, I still benefited from the traditional pension plan and also had a 401(k).

Back in 2014, Boeing promised employees that they'd build the 777-9 in Washington. Part of the strike package is also building the next new plane in Washington. These promises show that Boeing management is waking up to the matter of outsourcing.

Boeing is also bringing Spirit AeroSystems, which it sold in 2005, back in-house. All the workers will be merged back under one camp.

The lines of communication between two in-house teams are often simpler and more direct than with a supplier. When I was on the 777 program in the 1990s, I would call my counterparts at the Wichita site to resolve issues and exchange information. I couldn't do this with a supplier because all communication had to be through supply chain management.

I think this shows Boeing acknowledging it went down a bad path when it sold the supplier.

I see these actions as baby steps in the right direction. Kelly Ortberg, Boeing's CEO, is trying to steer the company on a new course, but I think it's going to take a long time.

Editor's note: In response to Business a request for comment from Business Insider, a Boeing spokesperson highlighted remarks by CEO Kelly Ortberg during the company's third quarter report:

"Much has been written about how we got to where we are, but most also recognize that Boeing was once a benchmark for what good culture looks like. And I believe we can return to that legacy. I know culture change starts at the top. Our leaders, from me on down, need to be closely integrated with our business and the people who are doing the design and production of our products. We need to be on the factory floors, in the back shops, and in our engineering labs. We need to know what's going on, not only with our products but with our people."

• Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says AI can perform his job as it has reasoning capabilities.
• The buy-now, pay-later firm's cofounder said the realization made him feel "gloomy."
• Siemiatkowski previously said Klarna stopped hiring because AI "can already do all the jobs."

Sebastian Siemiatkowski has said AI is capable of performing his job as CEO of Klarna — but he's not thrilled about the prospect.

The cofounder of the buy-now, pay-later firm said in an X post on Monday, "AI is capable of doing all our jobs, my own included," because it now has reasoning capabilities.

"I am not necessarily super excited about this," he added. "On the contrary my work to me is a super important part of who I am, and realizing it might become unnecessary is gloomy."

Siemiatkowski explained that AI can already routinely solve simple problems using basic reasoning. Because complex problems can be "divided into smaller and more basic reasoning tasks that are combined," the building blocks for AI solving advanced tasks already exist, he said.

"However, how exactly we will combine those building blocks of reason and knowledge to replicate the work we do today is not yet entirely solved," Siemiatkowski said.

This isn't the first time Siemiatkowski has voiced concerns about AI's potential to disrupt traditional roles. Siemiatkowski told Bloomberg in December that he believed AI could "already do all of the jobs that we as humans do."

Klarna itself has embraced AI. In February, the Swedish company said its AI assistant was "doing the equivalent work" of 700 full-time human agents.

The Klarna chief has also been outspoken about the firm's use of AI and how it's impacted the workforce. In August, he wrote in another X post, "AI allows us to be fewer in total."

In October, Siemiatkowski appeared on the "Grit" podcast and said that Klarna "stopped hiring due to AI, so we're shrinking because we have a natural attrition rate of 20%." He later clarified that Klarna continues to hire some engineers.

Meanwhile, the fintech company has been gearing up for an IPO in the US. In November, it announced it confidentially submitted draft registration documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The following month the company told its employees it would start random drug testing for staff in Sweden from January. Its director of people and HR, Mikaela Mijatovic, told employees in a Slack post the move was "part of a larger effort to strengthen security across Klarna."

Klarna didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Do you work for Klarna? Got a tip? Contact the reporter, Jyoti Mann, via the encrypted messaging app Signal at jyotimann.11 or via email at [email protected]. Reach out through a nonwork device.

• EY, Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG make up the world's largest accounting and consulting firms — the Big Four.
• The sector is tackling a slowdown in demand, new regulatory pressures, and the need to adapt to AI.
• These are the four leaders who have made it to the top of the firms.

EY, Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG make up the world's largest accounting and consulting firms, known as the Big Four.

They're billion-dollar companies with a collective 1.5 million staff and influence over hundreds of industries.

In recent years, the Big Four have faced a series of challenges, including a downturn in demand after the height of the pandemic, shifting regulatory requirements, and the need to adapt their skills and services for the emerging AI future.

Two of the firms appointed new leaders in 2024. The process varies by firm but generally includes hustings, in which contenders present their vision to voters, a partner vote, and global board ratification.

These are the four people who now sit at the helm of the world's biggest professional-services firms.

PwC — Mohamed Kande

In July, Mohamed Kande was elected as PwC's global chair for a four-year term, becoming the first Black leader of a Big Four firm.

Kande is also the first PwC head to come from the advisory division, as opposed to the audit wing.

Kande was born and raised in the West African country of Ivory Coast. When he was 16, he moved to France alone to study. He worked at a PwC subsidiary called PRTM Management Consultants before joining the firm in 2011. He became a global advisory leader in 2019.

Kande took over leading PwC's 370,000 employees at a time when it appeared to be tightening purse strings amid the consulting slowdown. Partner payouts dropped and more PwC partners took early retirement at the end of the year. In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that the firm would make its first major layoffs since 2009 and cut 1,800 jobs.

PwC is also working to rebuild trust in the Asia-Pacific region following scandals in Australia and China.

"The need for reinvention has never been more urgent," Kande said in the firm's 2024 annual review.

In 2021, he wrote a 1,000-word essay on LinkedIn about the impact his race had on his career in professional services.

"Often, I had to work hard to be included because I was different. I have felt slight but sharp jabs about my accent and my name, accompanied by quieter, larger unspokens about my skin color," Kande wrote.

"I try to give the opportunities that others gave me," he added. "I try to bring them into the room, knowing that their diversity, their unique perspective is a strength and something to be valued."

Deloitte — Joe Ucuzoglu

Joe Ucuzoglu has been Deloitte's global CEO since January 2023.

Ucuzolgu, who grew up in Los Angeles, was CEO of Deloitte US from 2019 to 2022 before ascending to the top job. He was a college intern in 1997. He rose to become a senior advisor at the SEC before rejoining Deloitte in 2015.

Deloitte is the largest of the Big Four by both revenues and number of employees, with 460,000 staff.

In March 2024, Deloitte announced a major restructuring aimed at cutting costs and repositioning it for future success. It said it was "modernizing and simplifying" its core offering into four categories: audit and assurance, tax and legal strategy, risk and transactions, and technology and transformation.

Ucuzoglu told the firm's partners in an email that the reorganization would reduce the firm's "complexity" and "free up" more partners for client work instead of managing staff.

Under Ucuzoglu, Deloitte has taken steps to drive investment in green hydrogen, releasing a report in 2023 estimating that the energy source could become a $1.4 trillion global market by 2050 and arguing that it "is moving into prime position as a solution for hard-to-abate sectors."

The CEO continues to engage with clients. He's also a frequent speaker at the World Economic Forum, a member of the Business Roundtable, and regularly gives interviews on issues affecting the business community.

EY — Janet Truncale

Janet Truncale was elected as EY's global chair and CEO in July, making her the first woman to lead a Big Four accounting firm. She joined EY as an intern in 1991.

Prior to her election, Truncale had spent almost four years as the vice chair and regional managing partner of the Americas Financial Services Organization.

The New Jersey native now heads EY's global workforce of more than 400,000 staff.

In her first public statement as global CEO, she launched a new strategy called "All in."

"All in is not just a business strategy, it captures an attitude and way of working," Truncale said. Her focus on unity has come after EY was rocked by a failed plan to break up its consultancy and audit divisions into two units, known as Project Everest.

Truncale was named as one of the "25 Most Influential Women" of 2023 by the Financial Times, which described her as "a trust builder" and "an advocate of being down to earth."

Outside EY, she serves as board chair for Women's World Banking and is on the board of UNICEF USA and the US-China Business Council.

Truncale has a BSE from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia University.

KPMG — Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas became KPMG's global chairman and CEO in October 2017. Three years later, he was unanimously reelected to a second term.

Thomas has more than a decade in executive-level leadership and was previously the chairman of KPMG's Americas region from 2014 to 2017.

The Canadian leads KPMG's 275,000 employees. The firm is the smallest of the Big Four.

Over the past seven years, Thomas has focused on overseeing the development and implementation of KPMG's global strategy. Under Thomas, KPMG has launched a $5 billion digital-strategy investment plan.

"Over the coming years, my focus will be on continuing to enable and empower these talented teams to achieve their full potential," he said in a statement released on his reelection in 2020.

KPMG's global annual revenues have grown by 45% since the year Thomas was appointed CEO. In its latest annual earnings, it reported annual revenue of $38.4 billion.

Thomas stays largely out of the media spotlight, giving few interviews. Before entering the business world, he studied science, which he says is "extremely relevant today as technology infuses every part of our business and the businesses of clients."

Do you work at the Big Four and have a tip or story to share? Contact this reporter in confidence at [email protected] or on Signal.

• Microsoft launched its Xbox gaming console nearly 25 years ago.
• The brand has become beloved, owning popular gaming franchises like "Call of Duty" and "Minecraft."
• Read about the Xbox's history, and how it became a staple of the gaming industry.

Since its debut in 2001, Microsoft's Xbox has become a cornerstone in the gaming industry, quickly coming to rival and challenge the market dominance of the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo.

The Xbox brand has evolved through multiple console generations, introducing innovations that have not only influenced competitors but also helped cement Microsoft as a serious player in the entertainment sector.

The development and launch of Xbox

Starting in the late 1990s, Microsoft recognized the growing importance of the gaming industry and the potential of integrating personal computing into a home console.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was intrigued by the idea of entering the console gaming market, but posed a major hurdle in the beginning. It took months to convince a skeptical Gates to agree to fund the Xbox project, Business Insider previously reported.

A team of engineers led by Seamus Blackley had already started work on the project before it was even presented to Gates. They envisioned a console that could leverage Microsoft's expertise in DirectX graphics technology — hence the code name "DirectX Box," which was later shortened to "Xbox."

The original Xbox was unveiled on November 15, 2001, in North America. It was the first gaming console produced by an American company since the Atari Jaguar ceased operations in 1996. With a built-in hard drive and Ethernet port, the Xbox was technologically advanced for its time. It introduced the world to franchises like "Halo: Combat Evolved," which became a flagship series for the brand.

From Xbox 360 to Xbox One

In 2005, Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 aimed at building online gaming. Xbox Live, initially introduced with the original Xbox console, was significantly expanded, allowing players to connect, compete, and share content globally. The console popularized achievements and "Gamerscore," incentivizing gameplay and fostering a competitive environment. It also introduced the concept of downloadable content (DLC) for consoles, changing how games could be monetized and extended post-release.

The Xbox 360 S was released in June 2010. Its slimmer design aimed to address the infamous "red ring of death" overheating problem that plagued the original Xbox 360 consoles.

The Xbox 360 consoles saw the rise of the best-selling video game series "Call Of Duty." The series is published by Activision Blizzard, which Microsoft acquired in 2023 for $68.7 billion. DLCs for "Call of Duty" games typically released earlier on the Xbox than the PlayStation, leading fans who wanted to experience newly released content as soon as possible to adopt the console.

After an 8 year run, Microsoft retired the Xbox 360 lineup in 2013 in favor of the Xbox One, which it marketed as an all-in-one entertainment system not just designed for gamers. Microsoft ceased producing the Xbox 360 in 2016.

Satya Nadella's strategic pivot

The Xbox One generation saw a stronger focus on exclusive titles and services like Xbox Game Pass, a subscription-based model offering a library of games for a flat monthly fee. This service-oriented approach was part of a larger monumental strategic pivot facilitated by current Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Under his leadership, the company has prioritized investment in cloud infrastructure, which caused Azure to surpass its Windows business and subscription versions of Microsoft Office to amass some 50 million monthly users by 2015.

In a 2018 E3 appearance, Microsoft introduced the Xbox Adaptive Controller, designed to make gaming more inclusive by making gaming accessible to those with various disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy.

The controller, designed to work with both Windows and Xbox One games, gives players with limited mobility large programmable buttons, a single joystick, and easy mounting options to wheelchairs or the player's legs. It also boasts compatibility with headphones and other accessories, including additional switches and buttons. Time magazine considered the Adaptive Controller among the best inventions of 2018.

Xbox Series X and Series S

The years 2016 and 2017 saw the release of the Xbox One S and Xbox One X, respectively. Both consoles introduced 4K resolution support for games, with the Xbox One X's implementation featuring a 31% graphics performance boost over the original Xbox One.

Building on the success of the Xbox One lineup, Microsoft released the latest two iterations of the console in 2020: the high-end Xbox Series X and the more affordable Xbox Series S. Both systems boasted faster load times, higher frame rates, and support for ray-tracing. With this console generation, Microsoft embraced backwards compatibility, allowing players to play games dating back to the original Xbox console.

Further illustrating Microsoft's heavy investment in cloud technologies, the company expanded the Xbox Game Pass and introduced the Xbox Cloud Gaming beta. Game Pass essentially works as a Netflix-like service for games, allowing players to pay a flat monthly fee to access a large library of games; Xbox Cloud Gaming allows players to play Xbox games on their computers, Smart TVs, or phones — even using a Sony DualShock 4 PlayStation controller if they so choose — through Game Pass' Ultimate tier, entirely removing the need for an Xbox console.

Microsoft layoffs hit Xbox and Activision Blizzard

However, despite its success, Microsoft's Xbox division has had layoffs and has not been immune to overall market forces. A major slowdown in video game sales following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in job cuts across the gaming and tech industries.

In early 2024, Microsoft layoffs affected 1,900 workers between Activision, Xbox, and Bethesda Softworks' parent company ZeniMax.

Later that year, some Xbox employees took voluntary severance packages, and a further 650 employees were laid off from the Xbox division itself.