• Josh Nichols commutes from Michigan to Chicago weekly for his analyst job at United Airlines.
• Nichols benefits from United's flight privileges, allowing standby travel for his commute.
• Supercommuting enhances Nichols' work-life balance, enabling him to live in Michigan.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Josh Nichols, a 25-year-old from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who regularly commutes to Chicago for his job as a senior analyst at United Airlines. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I live in Michigan and my office is in Chicago. I work on customer strategy and innovation as a senior analyst for United Airlines, and our department is hybrid. For the most part, we are in office Tuesday and Wednesday, and sometimes on Thursday, every single week. It's really nice to have that bit of flexibility.

When I first started the job I lived in Chicago for two years. But I hate Chicago with a passion. There's so much traffic, it was expensive, it was noisy.

I had heard several colleagues were doing supercommuting. Just thinking about the quality of life that I have back home in Michigan versus the quality of life that I had in Chicago, the decision was pretty clear.

After talking with my management and coming to a mutual understanding that they would give me the green light to leave the city but that I would still need to come into the office, it was a no-brainer.

I'm very thankful that our team is flexible in that regard. My leadership team is very understanding and very accommodating. But I also think that it might be a different story if I weren't a hard worker or if they had to keep close track of what I'm doing.

Flying from Detroit to Chicago

I normally take a 6 a.m. flight from Detroit that lands at Chicago O'Hare also around 6 a.m. due to the time difference. After boarding, I usually fall right to sleep and wake up in Chicago.

I have a United Club card, so on arrival, I will go there and have some breakfast, and then take the subway into downtown to our office at Willis Tower.

I'll work in the office all day Tuesday, spend the night in Chicago, and work all day in the office on Wednesday. Then I usually take the 7 p.m. flight from Chicago back to Michigan. Sometimes I'll stay another day and catch the same evening flight on Thursday.

As for where I stay, it's a good balance between friends and just getting hotel rooms. I have some very, very generous friends that I am very thankful for who allow me to be their local couch potato. Often I'll buy them dinner or we'll just hang out. If I stay in a hotel I usually get one by the airport because it's cheaper and then I'll commute back and forth on the train.

I use my flight privileges as a United employee

Because I am choosing to live outside of Chicago, I can't use our company-provided flights to commute in, and the company does not pay for my hotel stays or transportation to and from the airport.

Instead I fly standby with our flight privileges, which is where employees can fly for free if there's a seat available and you're senior enough to get it. On Monday night I have a general idea of how the flights look for the next morning.

If they don't look great, I might decide to take the train in or do the four-hour drive, and potentially leave Monday evening. Thankfully, my track record for getting on the Tuesday morning flight is pretty good.

When I show up in the morning, I have to wait to see if I get cleared and receive a seat assignment. If I don't make the 6 a.m. flight, there's a 7:30 a.m. flight as well.

I can also buy a ticket as a normal passenger. I try to avoid buying tickets as much as possible, but I certainly have purchased a ticket to get to the office, especially around the holidays. That's just what I have to do to be responsible and hold up my end of the bargain.

I don't think I would be willing to do this commute if I had to self-fund my flights or drive or take the train every single week.

Better work-life balance

I've been doing this for almost two years now. Sometimes it's a challenge because it's not a guarantee I'll be able to catch my flight or which return flight I'll be able to get on. But I would rather deal with those small challenges than live in Chicago.

Getting to live in Michigan, where I'm originally from, is so worth it.

I get to see my parents and my grandparents on a regular basis. I'm able to see so many more of my friends. It's really helped me maintain a healthy social life.

Supercommuting allows me to maintain a healthy work-life balance. I still maintain very strong relationships at work. I maintain the quality of work that I put out and I'm not missing my in-office days.

For others interested in supercommuting, I think taking stock of what you want out of your life is really important and knowing if you're willing to make certain sacrifices for the quality of life that makes you happiest.

I think the most important thing is, you cannot slack. You can't take virtual work as an opportunity to be mediocre. And if you know yourself, if you're someone that likes to not work as hard when you're not being managed, maybe it's best not to do it.

• I watched my first NFL game from a field-level suite at AT&T Stadium and felt like a VIP.
• I got tasty game-day snacks, and the field-level view put me right next to the action.
• A field-level suite here can cost $5,000+ to rent per game but comes with up to 21 tickets.

There's nothing like watching a football game, but some seats are far better than others.

Recently, I was lucky enough to experience my first NFL game from a field-level suite at the iconic AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Here's what it was like.

I felt like a VIP as soon as I got to the stadium.

I was invited to watch the game at field-level from a corporate suite, though the stadium's field-level suites usually cost $5,000 to $20,000, depending on the event. Each field-level suite comes with 21 stadium tickets and five parking passes.

Although it's certainly expensive, it's not as inaccessible as I'd expect for such a bucket-list experience, especially if you can split the price with a group.

I entered the stadium through a special VIP entrance and was escorted to our ground-level suite — an experience that made me feel like a celebrity right from the start.

The food spread was more game-day casual than corporate fancy, which made the experience better.

Food and drinks aren't included in the price of a field-level suite, but they can be purchased separately.

In this suite, I was pleasantly surprised to find classic game-day fare like tacos, jalapeńo poppers, pizza, and plenty of snacks and candy.

Although I'd expected to find fancier dishes, the casual menu perfectly matched the football-watching atmosphere.

Our suite also had a fully stocked fridge with everything from sodas to liquor, and I got a souvenir Cowboys cup I could refill throughout the day.

Being at field level gave me an incredible view that even celebrities would envy.

The suite had comfortable indoor seating and a screen playing the game, but the outdoor area was where the real magic happened.

The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders performed just yards away, making me feel like I was part of their famous routines. I was so close to the action that stray balls during warm-up could've landed in my drink.

Although I had access to additional regular seats on the first level, just rows from the sideline, I couldn't bring myself to leave the suite even for a quarter. The experience was simply too good to miss for even a moment.

Plus, the suite had a private bathroom — a small luxury that made the day even better by sparing me the hassle of waiting in long halftime lines.

The atmosphere at ground level felt unreal.

Watching the game from mere feet away heightened the intensity of every play.

With about 80,000 fans in attendance, the noise was incredible from my field-level vantage point. I could feel the crowd's energy in a way I'd never imagined.

During the game, I was also able to capture terrific photos, including some of a Detroit Lions touchdown, from the quarterback's setup to the celebration in the end zone.

Even a Cowboys loss couldn't dampen the VIP experience.

Although some nearby suites got rowdy as the day passed, my group stayed focused on the game. The Cowboys didn't perform well that day, but the entire experience was unforgettable.

After the game, one of the Lions players even came right up to our suite to celebrate and handed his game-worn jersey to a fan.

Overall, this upgrade was absolutely incredible.

The VIP treatment, incredible views, and proximity to the action have spoiled me for life.

In many ways, having seats yards away from the NFL action made watching the game feel like experiencing a private show.

While on the outdoor terrace, I even met a couple from Tennessee who had traveled for the game. They didn't support either team but treated themselves to one NFL game in a suite each year, paying up to $1,000 per ticket.

Maybe they're onto something. Having experienced a football game from this perspective, I worry that regular seats will never quite measure up.

And hey, if I choose a match with suites on the cheaper end ($5,000) and split the cost with 20 others, I may be able to watch the game at field level again someday for under $250.

Conor McGregor, the mixed martial arts champ known as Notorious, was spotted making the scene at STK Steakhouse in Washington this weekend.

• Other Ultimate Fighting Championship stars are expected at a black-tie reception Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — a UFC fan and Brazilian jiu-jitsu medalist — will co-host Monday night before the inaugural balls.

Why it matters: The fighters are part of a celebrity influx since President-elect Trump's last inauguration. Giddy MAGA insiders crow that Trump is culturally cool — or at least socially acceptable — after a stretch of toxicity.

Alex Bruesewitz — CEO of X Strategies LLC, based in Palm Beach, who advises Trump's inner circle on alternative media — told Axios between parties this weekend: "President Trump is cool again."

• "He's reclaimed that image he had his entire adult life before he ran for president — sitting courtside at New York Knicks games and lighting Kate Moss's cigarette," Bruesewitz said. "That Donald Trump is back, and now he's going to the White House. It's now socially acceptable to support it."

Behind the scenes: Bruesewitz helped lead the charge on VIP outreach for the inauguration. As the celebrity liaison, he drew on his personal relationships and input from other Trump friends to help build a glittery roster for this weekend's festivities.

• Bruesewitz told me part of the reason is that as celebrities met Trump personally, and as people hear him on long-form podcast interviews, they found him at odds with the portrayal in much of the media: "He was charming and hilarious, not crazy and angry."

Trump's inaugural weekend roster is expected to include:

• Iconic athletes: Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield.
• Current athletes: NHL player Evander Kane, free agent MLB pitcher Noah "Thor" Syndergaard.
• Retired athletes: Brian Urlacher, Le'Veon Bell, Antonio Brown.
• Internet celebrities: Jake and Logan Paul, the Nelk boys.
• Rappers: Rod Wave, Kodak Black.
• Comedian: Rob Schneider.
• Carrie Underwood sings "America the Beautiful" at the swearing-in.

As part of the Nashville-friendly festivities, country singer, guitarist and songwriter Parker McCollum will perform at the Commander-in-Chief Ball, one of three where the newly inaugurated president will speak Monday night.

• Performers at the unofficial Crypto Ball at the 90-year-old Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Friday night: Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, Soulja Boy.

The $TRUMP memecoin — a financial asset that didn't exist on Friday afternoon — now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump's net worth.

Why it matters: The coin (technically a token that's issued on the Solana blockchain) has massively enriched Trump personally, enabled a mechanism for the crypto industry to funnel cash to him, and created a volatile financial asset that allows anyone in the world to financially speculate on Trump's political fortunes.

• After another massive overnight rally, as of Sunday morning Trump's crypto holdings were worth as much as $58 billion on paper, enough -- with his other assets -- to make him one of the world's 25 richest people.

Where it stands: While the Biden administration broadly took the view that memecoins like $TRUMP are securities subject to SEC regulation, the incoming Trump administration has pledged to be much more crypto-friendly and to regulate such coins with a light or nonexistent touch.

For the record: The coin's official website, GetTrumpMemes.com, urges visitors to buy coins with either dollars or crypto in order to "Celebrate Our Win & Have Fun!"

• The coin is "not intended to be... an investment opportunity," per the site, which says that it "has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office."
• That hasn't stopped investors from making millions by speculating on the price of the coin, which was launched while Trump was reportedly hosting a "Crypto Ball" in Washington.

By the numbers: Some 200 million of the 1 billion total coins have already been released and are being actively traded. The rest, which are owned by Trump-controlled entities, will be able to be sold at various points over the next three years, starting in April.

• On average, Trump's companies will be able to sell some 24 million coins per month into the market, which at current prices would amount to an income of $675 million per month, or $8.1 billion per year. (Although no one has a clue what the value of the coin will even be this afternoon, let alone three years from now.)

Flashback: During the first Trump administration, there were worries that individuals were able to enrich the president by staying at his hotel in Washington.

• Since then, Trump has listed a meme stock where he controls more than 50% of the shares — and, now, has a meme coin that's even less tethered to reality.
• Both of them represent a much more direct way of funneling money to Trump than staying at his hotel did.

Between the lines: The emoluments clause of the Constitution, written in 1787, hardly envisaged a world where a president could conjure billions of dollars of wealth out of nowhere just by endorsing a meme.

• In the present day, it's impossible to track who's going to be buying this coin over the next three years and thereby directing their money directly at Trump.
• Given the Supreme Court's expansive view of presidential immunity, there's a good chance that any such action will be deemed lawful.

The bottom line: Trump has just delivered a masterclass in the ability of a president to turn power into wealth.

• Tatiana Smith spent five years teaching English as a second language in China.
• She lived in Beijing mostly, which was much bigger and busier than her hometown in Illinois.
• Smith said the cost of living is more affordable, but she experienced racism as a Black expat.

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations and emails with Tatiana Smith, 36, who spent five years teaching English as a second language (ESL) in China. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

For the vast majority of my life, I've lived in Illinois.

I grew up in a very impoverished environment, so I didn't believe that I would ever see the world. When I was 29, I joined the Peace Corps. I traveled to Liberia, an African country full of people who look just like me, which is cool but also impacted how I related to the country.

I could blend in, but I was very curious to know what it would be like to go someplace where they did not think I was native.

In 2018, I visited China and explored Zhengzhou, in the Henan Province on a tourist visa. In 2019, I officially moved to Beijing on the Z-visa, or the worker's visa. To get it, you need a job that will write you a letter, a physical, and a clean background check.

I came back to America in August 2024 to spend time with my family. By that time, many of my friends, other expats, had also left.

I've noticed big misconceptions between the US and China since I've returned.

China is surprisingly capitalistic

The unspoken rule of talking about politics when you are in China is that you do not talk about Chinese politics. That was made very clear to me.

I've heard a lot about how China's communist regime, but in terms of what I experienced it felt just as, if not more, capitalist than America.

Luxury is big in China. There is a whole section of Beijing where all the luxury stores and expensive places are.

In China, they promote entrepreneurship. There's a lot of opportunity to open a business and the threshold to do so is very low if you're Chinese.

There's also a lot of business turnover. If a business left an area, something else entered very quickly. In Beijing, if I'd walk by a closed shopfront that used to be a grocery store, a month later, it was like a hair salon.

As a teacher, life is more affordable

When I came back to the US and explained my lifestyle to people, there was a real cognitive dissonance around life in China.

For example, a teacher in America does not make a whole lot. As an expat teacher in China, my starting salary was 28,000 RMB, roughly a bit over $4,000 a month now.

In China, they have their version of Uber called DiDi. I could take a DiDi to and from work for less than $10 a day. Taking a US Uber for 15 minutes now costs me $20.

I made enough that I was able to eat out almost every day. Cooking was something that I did so rarely that it was an event, and I would invite my friends over.

I could finally pay off all my bills back home and have money to travel. It was much harder to escape a scarcity mindset in the US.

Chinese food in America is nothing like Chinese food in China

When I had Chinese food in China, it was dramatically different. At an American Chinese food restaurant, it's basically American cuisine coated in sugar.

But I'd say the bigger differences were in the style of eating.

As an American, we eat from our own plates, but in a lot of Asian countries, particularly China, you have a shared eating situation.

It wasn't like Thanksgiving, where you're served your portion on your plate. You order multiple plates and actively eat out of the same plate that everybody else was eating out of.

That took some getting used to, but hot pot, for example, became one of my favorite things. You can do individual hot pot, but the group ones were always the most fun.

Racism and discrimination arise differently

For the most part, I felt very welcomed in China. But I don't want to paint China as a glorious, perfect place because it's not.

The Uygurs and other minority groups are being persecuted in China.

As a Black expat, I dealt with some racism. Part of Chinese culture is the idea that being white is a sign of wealth and privilege, so the lighter you are, the more beautiful you are.

One time, one of my co-teachers said to me: "Oh my god, Black is so ugly. I can't get darker." She didn't recognize how I would take it.

It was an intense experience with COVID.

When America started reacting with anti-Chinese sentiment, there was a strong anti-American sentiment in China as a response.

One time, I went to the bank to transfer money, and one of the tellers threw my passport back at me, and they were just like, "We won't serve you."

In the US, people have been killed in racist attacks. Whereas in China, racism is prevalent, but felt less dangerous.

The pandemic wasn't scary, but I will say uncomfortable. The pro side was that the expat community bonded. We were more open and tried to build friendships because it was necessary for our mental health.

• TikTok went dark for 170 million US users on Saturday.
• Users have taken to other corners of the internet to react to the shutdown.
• Internet personality James Charles, who boasted over 40 million followers, called the move "dystopian."

TikTok shut down its app for 170 million US users on Saturday as the deadline for the app to go dark neared.

At around 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time, a message began popping up on users' screens: "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now."

Many celebrities, influencers, and other users have since flocked to other corners of the internet to mourn the loss of the hit app.

Singer Lizzo, who had more than 25 million followers on TikTok, took to Instagram to react to the news.

"In Loving Memory, Takesha 'TikTok' Woods," the post reads.

"They really took her… MY SHAYLA," Lizzo added in the caption, referencing a recent trend on the app.

Internet personality James Charles, who boasted over 40 million followers on TikTok also posted his reaction to the shutdown in a series of videos posted to Instagram.

In the first, Charles said: "I can't believe I'm making an Instagram Reel right now because normally when something happens in the world, I go to TikTok."

"I don't know what to do! Oh my god, I've already opened and closed the app probably six times already just to keep getting the same stupid warning message. This is so dystopian!" Charles said in a follow-up video.

Another Instagram émigré was Alix Earle, an influencer who rose to fame on the app in 2022 and had more than 7 million followers.

Earle posted a video of herself tearfully clutching a glass of wine in bed. "How I'm going to sleep tonight," she wrote over the video. "Thank god for this wine rn."

Key figures from the business world have also weighed in on the situation.

Posting on Bluesky, Mark Cuban said it would be interesting to see how many users moved to the platform from TikTok.

The social media app has seen a surge in users since President-elect Donald Trump was elected in November. In December, the company said it had grown from 3 million users to 25.9 million.

It is currently in the final stages of raising new funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, which would value the company at around $700 million, as Business Insider previously reported.

Prior to the shutdown, Cuban said he hoped TikTok would be "disabled tonight at midnight and all day tomorrow and Monday."

"Which means the biggest story on Monday will be… And the reaction from the newly installed President will be…" he wrote.

Cuban has said he previously tried to invest in TikTok's precursor, Musical.ly, but that the company turned him down.

In an interview with Jules Terpak in December, Cuban said the platform was more enjoyable under its former name and that it had become "more corporate" since it's been known as TikTok.

"I liked it better when it was dances and music," Cuban said. "Now it's a business."

The cast of "Saturday Night Live" also tackled the TikTok shutdown in last night's episode.

During the Weekend Update segment, comedians Michael Longfellow and Michael Che addressed the situation while poking fun at criticism the app has faced in the past.

"I feel it is my responsibility to come out here and defend TikTok's right to remain here in these United States," Longfellow said, posing as a typical app user. "It's the first political opinion I've ever had."

TikTok is banking on Trump

In its message to US users, TikTok indicated that it was now relying on Trump to save the app.

"We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!" it said.

Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he would "most likely" allow TikTok a 90-day extension to find a non-Chinese buyer.

"If I decide to do that, I'll probably announce it on Monday," he said.

Architects of the leading generative AI models are abuzz that a top company, possibly OpenAI, in coming weeks will announce a next-level breakthrough that unleashes Ph.D.-level super-agents to do complex human tasks.

• We've learned that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — who in September dubbed this "The Intelligence Age," and is in Washington this weekend for the inauguration — has scheduled a closed-door briefing for U.S. government officials in Washington on Jan. 30.

Why it matters: The expected advancements help explain why Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and others have talked publicly about AI replacing mid-level software engineers and other human jobs this year.

"[P]robably in 2025," Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan 10 days ago, "we at Meta, as well as the other companies that are basically working on this, are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of midlevel engineer that you have at your company that can write code."

• "[O]ver time, we'll get to the point where a lot of the code in our apps, and including the AI that we generate, is actually going to be built by AI engineers instead of people engineers," he added.

Between the lines: A super-agent breakthrough could push generative AI from a fun, cool, aspirational tool to a true replacement for human workers.

• Our sources in the U.S. government and leading AI companies tell us that in recent months, the leading companies have been exceeding projections in AI advancement.
• OpenAI this past week released an "Economic Blueprint" arguing that with the right rules and infrastructure investments, AI can "catalyze a reindustrialization across the country."

To be sure: The AI world is full of hype. Most people struggle now to use the most popular models to truly approximate the work of humans.

• AI investors have reason to hype small advancements as epic ones to juice valuations to help fund their ambitions.
• But sources say this coming advancement is significant. Several OpenAI staff have been telling friends they are both jazzed and spooked by recent progress. As we told you in a column Saturday, Jake Sullivan — the outgoing White House national security adviser, with security clearance for the nation's biggest secrets — believes the next few years will determine whether AI advancements end in "catastrophe."

The big picture: Imagine a world where complex tasks aren't delegated to humans. Instead, they're executed with the precision, speed, and creativity you'd expect from a Ph.D.-level professional.

• We're talking about super-agents — AI tools designed to tackle messy, multilayered, real-world problems that human minds struggle to organize and conquer.
• They don't just respond to a single command; they pursue a goal. Super agents synthesize massive amounts of information, analyze options and deliver products.

A few examples:

1. Build from scratch: Imagine telling your agent, "Build me new payment software." The agent could design, test and deliver a functioning product.
2. Make sense of chaos: For a financial analysis of a potential investment, your agent could scour thousands of sources, evaluate risks, and compile insights faster (and better) than a team of humans.
3. Master logistics: Planning an offsite retreat? The agent could handle scheduling, travel arrangements, handouts and more — down to booking a big dinner in a private room near the venue.

This isn't a lights-on moment — AI is advancing along a spectrum.

• These tools are growing smarter, sharper, and more integrated every day. "This will have huge applications for health, science and education," an AI insider tells us, "because of the ability to do deep research at a scale and scope we haven't seen — then the compounding effects translate into real productivity growth."

The other side: There are still big problems with generative AI's Achilles heel — the way it makes things up. Reliability and hallucinations are an even bigger problem if you're going to turn AI into autonomous agents: Unless OpenAI and its rivals can persuade customers and users that agents can be trusted to perform tasks without going off the rails, the companies' vision of autonomous agents will flop.

• Noam Brown, a top OpenAI researcher, tweeted Friday: "Lots of vague AI hype on social media these days. There are good reasons to be optimistic about further progress, but plenty of unsolved research problems remain."

What to watch: Two massive tectonic shifts are happening at once — President-elect Trump and MAGA are coming into power at the very moment AI companies are racing to approximate human-like or human-surpassing intelligence.

• Look for Congress to tackle a massive AI infrastructure bill to help spur American job growth in the data, chips and energy to power AI.
• And look for MAGA originals like Steve Bannon to argue that coming generations of AI will be job-killing evil for managerial, administrative and tech workers. The new models "will gut the workforce — especially entry-level, where young people start," Bannon told us.

Axios' Scott Rosenberg, managing editor for tech, contributed reporting.

• When I earned a director title and huge salary, I felt like I was at the top of my career.
• But then I was suddenly laid off and felt like I invested everything into my career.
• While traveling along the West Coast, I decided I wanted more freedom in my work life.

In September 2022, I made it to the pinnacle of success in my career. I switched from one med-tech company to another to take on a director role. It was one step closer to my goal of one day making VP.

The compensation was great. I was making more money than I had ever imagined, an almost 35% increase from my previous position to director level. Plus, I was leading a diverse functional team in a market-leading company.

In 2023, I completed a full year with the med-tech company and earned a multiple six-figure salary. I was at the height of my career and compensation dream.

Then, less than two years later, it all came crashing down. On April 1st — April Fools' Day, nonetheless — I was told that I would be laid off and my last day would be May 31st.

June 1st would be the first day in my 25-year career in med-tech that I would voluntarily be without a job. I was given 14 weeks of severance pay that would take me through mid-September.

I panicked. I was scared. I was lost. I had given my freedom, autonomy, and time to a company and an industry that I thought loved me just the way I had loved it. I was in an existential crisis and needed to figure out my next moves.

I moved with my girlfriend, opening up a new way of thinking

Around the same time my career took a hit, my girlfriend was moving to Arizona for work. She asked me to join her since I had all the time in the world now that I was laid off.

We began our journey on May 26th from Pennsylvania, where I owned my home. I decided to Airbnb the home to make additional income while I was out of work and traveling west. We timed the arrival perfectly to arrive in Scottsdale, AZ, by June 1st — my first official day of no work.

Driving across the country those four days gave me a sense of freedom and control that I had never experienced before.

As I drove across the country, I thought: What would be my next career move? If I could do anything, what would that look like? I had more questions than I had answers.

But I did know one thing. Never again would I let a private employer dictate my financial freedom.

I decided to take control of my career and finances — as well as my time and location. I recognized that this would not be an overnight achievement, and I still needed a job to make my next move to what I truly wanted most.

More travel helped me pave the way forward

We stayed at our first Airbnb in Scottsdale for a month. The view was against the backdrop of the nearby mountains. Although the temperature was over 100 degrees, I went on local hikes every day in the morning.

The hikes helped me get clarity on what I needed to do to take control of my future, career, and finances.

The first weekend after arriving in Scottsdale, my girlfriend and I took a road trip to San Diego, over a five-hour drive from Scottsdale. We visited different beaches in the San Diego area, including Coronado Beach. Sitting on the beach enjoying the view, I knew that this was what I wanted to have control over. I wanted to go to places and enjoy life on my terms.

From that moment on, I invested in career opportunities that took me out of the corporate world. I instead invested in becoming a certified leadership coach.

The road trip across the US helped me recover mentally and plan my next steps. The daily hikes and road trips to San Diego and other parts of Arizona helped me reduce the overwhelming thoughts of having been laid off. It also reshaped my understanding of resilience, adaptability, the power of embracing change, and next life moves.

• 2025 marked the birth of the new generation — Gen Beta.
• Mark McCrindle, whose research firm coined Gen Alpha, says the name has no inherent meaning.
• But he argues that "Beta" is fitting considering it signifies an "updated version" or the "2.0."

The year 2025 marked the introduction of a new generation, at least according to demographers at McCrindle, an Australia-based research firm that claims credit for coining the name of the preceding generation, Gen Alpha.

Generation Beta, or Gen Beta, the firm said in a research report, is represented by those born between 2025 and 2039. Their parents will be younger millennials and older Gen Zs, and many will live to see the next millennium, the report said.

On social media, the naming convention was quickly met with some jeering as "Beta" is sometimes colloquially used as a pejorative to refer to a weaker person — often a man — instead of the "Alpha."

Mark McCrindle, the firm's founder, is aware of the reaction but told Business Insider that Gen Beta was not meant to be derogatory.

"It does follow from that naming convention we introduced with Alpha," McCrindle said.

When naming Gen Alpha, the demographer said his firm went with Greek letters rather than the Roman alphabet — as with Gen Z — because it wanted to signify a "whole new generation, a whole new era."

"We didn't want to go back to 'A' because this is the first generation born in the 21st century," he said. "We're not a repeat of the old."

From there, the names of the next generations could follow a predictable, sequential path — Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on, he said.

The name itself has no inherent meaning, but if one insists on finding one, McCrindle said there's a case to be made for Gen Beta.

"If we even think about the general use of beta, in a software or technology sense — it's the new and improved version. It's the updated version. It's the 2.0. And that's what I think of beta as, and I think that's perfectly appropriate," McCrindle said.

Gen Beta and the third digital revolution

Generations preceding Gen Beta saw significant technological shifts.

Millennials and Gen Z experienced the rise and domination of the internet, and Gen Alpha came into a world where the connected world fit into people's pockets with the smartphone, McCrindle said.

Gen Beta, the researcher said, will be shaped by the third digital revolution — artificial intelligence.

"While Generation Alpha has experienced the rise of smart technology and artificial intelligence, Generation Beta will live in an era where AI and automation are fully embedded in everyday life — from education and workplaces to healthcare and entertainment," the McCrindle report said.

Simultaneously, the ubiquity of AI will come in the backdrop of Gen Z parents who are more familiar — and wary — of the impacts of technology such as social media.

Gen Beta "will be going to schools where teachers are informed through AI, so it'll be everywhere," McCrindle said, "but the parents will bring more of a constraint to its use rather than just a bright-eyed optimism. That's a big change."

The researcher imagines a scenario in which parents of Gen Beta will be more deliberate about their children's time on and off technology even as it becomes more seamless. For example, parents may emphasize the importance of spending time outdoors.

Still, even if AI blends seamlessly into our lives, McCrindle said the future will be human even hundreds of years from now.

"Technology comes and goes, but the timeless human drivers of connection, relationship, hope, understanding, and trust — all of that is timeless," he said. "We sort of forget that amidst all of the novelty and the invention and the change, there are timeless human needs and there are things that do not change amidst the changes."

President Biden will leave office having presided over a very strong stock market, but not quite as strong as either of his two predecessors.

The big picture: The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite all gained more during Trump's first term than during Biden's.

By the numbers: The S&P 500 gained 66.5% under Trump and 57.9% under Biden.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 56.8% under Trump and 40.2% under Biden.
• The Nasdaq composite gained a whopping 137.5% under Trump, and 47.1% under Biden.

Flashback: Trump had warned in 2020 that the stock markets would "crash" were Biden elected. That didn't happen.

The bottom line: Presidents don't determine stock market performance, but often their supporters like to use the markets as an economic measuring stick.

Go deeper: Biden job gains top Trump and Obama

After a three hour delay, the ceasefire in Gaza began at 11:15 a.m. local time (4:15 a.m. ET) with Israel and Hamas agreeing to stop the fighting for 42 days.

Why it matters: This is the first ceasefire in the Gaza war since November 2023, when the first hostage deal led to an 8-day pause in the fighting.

• The war, which started with the Hamas terror attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, has been the bloodiest period in the Israel-Palestinian conflict since 1948.
• More than 46,000 Palestinians and more than 1,600 Israelis have been killed — most of them civilians.
• The war created a devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza with close to two million Palestinians who were displaced and tens of thousands of buildings destroyed — making the Gaza strip close to uninhabitable.

Driving the news: The ceasefire was supposed to begin at 8:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET) on Sunday.

• But after Hamas failed to submit a list of the three hostages it is going to release on Sunday, Israel announced the ceasefire will not come into force.
• Hamas claimed the delay was due to technical reasons, mainly the security situation on the ground.
• Israeli jets conducted several air strikes in Gaza on Sunday morning local time with at least 8 Palestinians killed.
• Hamas finally submitted the list around 10:30 a.m. local time, and the ceasefire began 45 minutes later.

Catch up quick: The ceasefire deal was signed in Doha earlier this week after months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas with Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. mediation.

• The deal also includes the release of 33 Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the release of 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including about 275 prisoners who have been convicted of murdering Israelis.
• The hostage and prisoners release is expected to begin on Sunday 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET). Three Israeli women and 90 Palestinian women and teenagers are supposed to be released.

The latest: On Saturday, ahead of the ceasefire, the Israeli Defense Forces started redeploying some forces in Gaza — moving them outside of the enclave or east towards the buffer zone on the Gaza-Israel border.

• On Sunday morning, even before the ceasefire started, Palestinian civilians started moving back to northern Gaza and to the city of Rafah in the southern tip of the enclave.
• Hamas armed militants and Hamas police started moving into to the streets after months of going underground in fear of Israeli strikes.

The big picture: The conflict in Gaza spread into a regional war engulfing Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, the West Bank and Yemen. But fighting has stopped or appears to be stopping soon on each front.

• The ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, signed last November, isolated Hamas and was one of the factors that pushed the group to agree to the hostage deal in Gaza.
• The Israeli strike on Iran in late October deterred the Iranians from further retaliating and led the Shia militias in Iraq to stop their attacks on Israel.
• The collapse of the Assad regime in Syria led to the departure of Iranian forces from the country and closed that front.
• The last active front in the war, which is in Yemen, is also about to close as the Houthi rebels announced they will suspend their attack against Israel as a result of the Gaza ceasefire.

Zoom in: According to the agreement, 33 hostages will be released in the first phase of the deal, including women, children, men over the age of 50 and men under the age of 50 who are wounded or sick. Israel's assessment is that most of those 33 hostages are alive.

• The hostages will be released gradually throughout the first phase of the agreement, beginning on the first day of the six-week ceasefire in Gaza.

During the first phase, Israeli Defense Forces will also gradually withdraw to a buffer zone in Gaza, near the border with Israel. The IDF will leave the Netzarim corridor in the center of the Gaza Strip and most of the Philadelphi corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt.

• Palestinians will also be allowed to return to northern Gaza. Those who walk won't go through security checks but vehicles will be checked by Qatari and Egyptian officials to ensure no heavy weapons are transferred to Gaza.

More than 700 Palestinian prisoners will also be released, including about 275 who are accused of murdering Israelis and are serving life sentences. More than 1,000 other Palestinians from Gaza who were detained by the IDF during the war but didn't participate in the Oct. 7 attack will also be released.

• Starting today, the first day of the ceasefire, 600 aid trucks, including 50 fuel trucks, will enter Gaza every day. In addition, 200,000 tents and 60,000 mobile homes will be delivered for displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
• The agreement stipulates that Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. will serve as guarantors for the implementation of the agreement.

On the 16th day of the ceasefire, Israel and Hamas will begin negotiations on the second phase of the agreement, which is supposed to include the release of the remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.