Author: openjargon

• Addy Osmani is a senior Google engineer and shared his top career tips after 12 years at the firm.
• He emphasizes lifelong learning, collaboration, communication, and strategic thinking.
• Osmani has gained 175,000 LinkedIn followers by sharing his tips on careers and technology.

Addy Osmani, a senior Google engineer, recently celebrated his 12th anniversary at the search giant and used the occasion to share his top career tips in a blog post.

His first lesson is not to pretend to have all the answers and to instead embrace lifelong learning. Osmani does this by writing about the new things he's learned to identify gaps in his understanding.

The approach seems to be working — regularly writing and posting online has earned him more than 175,000 followers on LinkedIn.

Collaboration

Another tip is to encourage collaboration between teams and other departments. For some, remote work has reduced the ability to collaborate with colleagues and even been blamed for stifling innovation. To engage people remotely, some career experts suggest hosting video meetings where people need to keep their cameras on and taking small steps like remembering people's birthdays and celebrating promotions.

Mentoring

Mentoring and being mentored were both valuable experiences for Osmani. Having a mentor can be a huge help to boost self-confidence, and to help with career guidance — whether that's a promotion, different duties, more challenges, or even a career change.

Osmani also encourages people to start by sharing the manta: "First do it, then do it right, then do it better." Rather than staring at a blank page, he encourages people to get something down, then work on refining and improving it.

Communication

Communication is another of his tips. Even in technical roles like engineering, he says you need to be able to use your communication skills to share your ideas, establish trust, and let non-technical management understand your decision-making. One CEO previously told Business Insider that communication was the most important skill that employees lacked.

But even if you struggle to make conversation, a Harvard researcher has a 10-second trick for becoming a better communicator: come up with three topics to discuss in advance of any social occasion to take the pressure off.

Think strategically

Osmani warns against having tunnel vision. Instead, he encourages people to think strategically about the context in which they're operating. That means not getting too caught up in your own bubble, thinking about a long-term plan, and making trade-offs.

It also means focusing on what you can control rather than getting bogged down in details that can lead to anxiety and frustration. Job anxiety has particularly affected Gen Z, the generation in the early stages of their careers.

"Anxious teams, as has been well documented, can be less likely to take risks, to innovate, and have low psychological safety," Morra Aarons-Mele, the author of "The Anxious Achiever," previously told BI.

Well-being

That leads to Osmani's final tip: invest in your well-being. Anxiety at work can be a key reason for burnout. It can have drastic consequences: one HR VP previously told BI that burnout got so bad that she ended up being taken out of the office on a stretcher.

For Osmani, intentional self-care and renewal is as vital for high performance at work as technical skill. Spending time in nature, meditation, therapy, and crucially, learning to say "no" at work can all be ways of improving your well-being.

• Ukraine can go back on the offensive, but it will require more troops and equipment.
• A RAND expert believes Ukraine can build a strike force capable of a decisive offensive.
• Right now, Ukraine's biggest problem isn't lack of manpower, but lack of equipment.

With 14 to 21 well-equipped brigades, Ukraine could eject Russian forces from all Ukrainian territory, according to an American expert.

The question is whether Ukraine can find the manpower, and whether Ukraine's allies are willing to spend the money to arm them properly. Yet what is remarkable is that despite Ukraine being outnumbered and outgunned by Russia, Kyiv still has a genuine chance of winning the war.

"What has really kind of disturbed me is that we're two and a half years into this war, and no one's put forth a potential theory of victory yet," Michael Bohnert, a defense analyst at the RAND Corp. think tank, told Business Insider.

Using data from a variety of sources, Bohnert has calculated the financial costs of Ukrainian victory, or at least for munitions. Ukraine's Western allies like the US and members of the EU would have to spend $54 billion to $72 billion per year to manufacture enough missiles and artillery shells to enable Ukraine to go on the offensive again.

For this potential formula for Ukrainian victory, there are two prerequisites. One is Ukraine amassing a sufficiently powerful ground combat force that can defeat the estimated 500,000 Russian troops in Ukraine. Past history isn't promising. An ill-prepared Ukrainian counteroffensive in summer 2023 sputtered amid Russian minefields and inexperienced Ukrainian troops struggling to master newly arrived Western combat vehicles.

However, Bohnert points to a 2015 RAND study of the US Army that suggests Ukraine could recapture its territory. As part of that study, researchers analyzed how big a force NATO would need to dislodge a Russian force that had invaded the Baltic States, and was entrenched on Balkan territory.

"We estimate that an additional 14 brigades and their accompanying enablers will be needed, with perhaps six brigades and 86,000 total soldiers coming from the United States, and eight brigades and a similar number of troops from U.S. NATO allies, along with supporting air and sea forces," the 2015 study concluded.

With Russian forces solidly dug in behind minefields and fortifications across eastern and southern Ukraine, that Baltic scenario bears similarities to the situation that Ukraine faces today. Or at least "close enough for ROM [rough order of magnitude] estimation," Bohnert said.  

However, amassing 21 brigades of roughly 4,000 soldiers each — and training and equipping them to NATO standards — won't be easy. For now, Ukraine is struggling to contain Russian offensives that have achieved small but symbolic gains in the north and south of the country.

"To put this in perspective, 21 brigades is something like 50 to 60 percent of the active-duty US Army," Bohnert said. "Or, basically you would have to take the equivalent of the UK, German or French armies, train them and give them 100 percent of all the kit they need."

Despite fears that Ukraine is running out of manpower — which has spurred a new law to allow prison inmates to be conscripted — Bohnert believes Ukraine can find the personnel for a strike force capable of launching a decisive offensive. "If they were to rotate forces over about a two-year time frame, combined with the new conscription they're pushing, they probably could get enough brigades converted," Bohnert said.

Right now, Ukraine's biggest problem isn't lack of manpower, but lack of equipment. "Most of their battalions are still not fully equipped," said Bohnert. "NATO needs to give what they've promised and be willing to make sure that all their existing forces get supplied to at least some minimal level."

This brings up the other vital question: How many munitions does Ukraine need? While tanks and drones have been useful in the war, the most devastating weapons have been artillery and long-range guided rockets. However, these weapons devour a huge amount of howitzer shells or scarce missiles.

Russia is sending in 25,000 to 30,000 new troops per month, according to Bohnert. Which means that Ukraine must inflict more than 30,000 casualties per month — or about 1,000 casualties per day — to erode Russian strength. In 2024, Ukraine has been inflicting 800 to 1,000 casualties per day, despite being "munition-starved," Bohnert said. Given sufficient quantities of munitions, Ukraine could inflict enough losses to decisively attrit Russian forces that have already sustained an estimated 500,000 casualties.

But demand for munitions also depends on what kind of war Ukraine chooses to wage. Bohnert estimated munitions costs for two scenarios: one where Ukraine remains on the defensive, and the other where it goes on the offensive.

He started with a 2023 Estonian Ministry of Defense plan that laid out a roadmap for Ukraine to defeat Russia. "This war can be won within the next three years or less, by adjusting and increasing the Euro-Atlantic community's military production output and assistance to Ukraine, and imposing the perspective of an intolerable level of attrition on Russia," the Estonians stated.

The Estonians estimated that Ukraine would need a constant stream of munitions. This includes 2.4 million artillery shells, 4,800 air defense missiles capable of protecting cities from Russian missiles, and 8,760 guided bombardment rockets per year. Even this doesn't cover all the items Ukraine would need, such as air defense weapons for the front-line troops, Bohnert noted.

Bohnert factored in data on combat operations and munitions usage from RAND studies dating back to the 1990s, which examined conflicts such as Desert Storm. Overall, Bohnert estimated that $20 billion to $35 billion per year would be needed if Ukraine merely stays on the defensive, and $54 billion to $72 billion per year if it goes on the offensive. And still these figures are incomplete. "This is not including training, sustainment or equipment, which easily could be 50% or double that price," said Bohnert. "It's a lot of money, but actually about the same that the US spent on Iraq and Afghanistan for 15 years straight."

Despite depletion of Western stockpiles and struggles — especially in Europe — to boost arms production, Bohnert believes that NATO can meet Ukraine's needs. The US, for example, aims to produce 14,000 GMLRS rockets in 2025, and it can produce up to 700 cruise missiles per year. America and NATO together manufacture about 4,600 anti-aircraft missiles per year. And what Ukraine's allies can't manufacture themselves, they might be able to acquire from other nations around the world.

"It's not that this is impossible to do," Bohnert said. "It is very feasible. It's just going to take money."

Ample Ukrainian ammunition stockpiles would partly alleviate Ukraine's manpower crunch. "You're basically substituting metal for people," Bohnert said. "But there will have to be a pretty big increase in Western donations."

Inevitably, there will be a divergence between what Ukraine needs and what it will get. For example, US arms production may be diverted to the Pacific to face China, other American allies such as Israel also need weapons, and the US and European public may balk at the price tag. It's also unrealistic to expect that Russia will passively await a Ukrainian buildup. The recent appointment of economist Andrei Belousov as minister of defense suggests that Putin intends to mobilize his nation's resources for a long war.

Nonetheless, it is revealing that despite being outnumbered and outgunned by Russia, there remains serious belief that Ukraine could win a military victory. The question is how to accomplish it.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

At age 36, Jace Mattinson is already over retirement. Four years ago, he sold his lumber company for seven figures, and he had enough saved that he never needed to work again.

He said that was an enticing idea after five "extremely tough" years of owning a business. During that time, he was away from his home in Austin a few nights a week and hustling to run the 135-year-old company he'd acquired. After selling the company, he needed a long break from anything laborious.

"I was golfing three, four times a week. I was going to the lake. I was doing all my hobbies that I really cared about and enjoyed, ones that for the greater part of a decade I didn't have as much time to do," Mattinson told Business Insider.

But after eight months, he decided retirement was not nearly as fulfilling as he'd imagined. He returned to a job in lumber distribution and revived his financial podcast. He said he wanted to continue to model a good work ethic for his kids.

Mattinson has all the trappings of someone in the FIRE movement. The acronym, which stands for financial independence, retire early, was coined in the 1990s in the book "Your Money or Your Life" and popularized on blogs like Mr. Money Mustache and the investment site Motley Fool. The idea was to work hard, ideally with multiple income streams, live a life of austerity, invest prudently, and build a big enough nest egg to walk away from work well before the average retirement age of 64.

But millennials, including Mattinson, who finds himself happiest when he has a balance of work and leisure, said they're not as interested in early retirement — and are creating their own versions of life after work.

Millennials often want the FI without the RE

Devotees of the FIRE movement often save or invest the majority of their income. Some take on extra jobs or delay major life milestones like marriage or having kids.

It's an exclusive club, and many hungry millennials are eager to join it. ChooseFI's Facebook group has over 108,000 members, while the r/financialindependence subreddit has 2.2 million members. But for some FIRE wannabes, the "FI" part of the equation is the biggest focus, and the "RE" half seems to be less of a foregone conclusion.

A popular rule of thumb among this group is the "4% rule," which says you should aim to save 25 times your annual expenses so you can withdraw 4% of your funds each year after you quit working. Some FIRE participants told BI that their target savings goal is between $1.5 million and $2.5 million, though many are working toward more for even greater security.

To be sure, early retirees are a small slice of the population. According to Business Insider's analysis of American retirees, just 2.2% are 50 or younger. Less than 1% are below age 35. Just 0.75% of all Americans over 18 and under 50 are retired. Still, many BI spoke with retire unofficially or partially retire, taking on less responsibility at a company or moving to a lower-stakes position.

BI spoke to a dozen millennials who have achieved or are on track to achieve financial independence. While some have retired and told BI they're enjoying it, most feel retirement is pointless and still want to build their careers or give back to their communities.

"The thing I have noticed shift most is the emphasis on FI and less on RE," Scott Rieckens, the executive producer of the film "Playing With FIRE," said. "I think it's awesome to see, as it signals that financial independence is the key motive, which it is, and that work and purpose are actually really important. Retiring early to nothing is a bad idea."

Brad Barrett, the host of the "ChooseFI" podcast, said "vanishingly few" people with the wherewithal to reach financial independence are retiring early. To him, reaching financial independence allows someone to live the life they want, but retiring early signifies turning away from everything you've worked toward.

For many, financial freedom goes beyond quitting a job you don't like. Some said it's the ability to spend on travel or leisure without much stress — which has become even more important after the pandemic's peak. Others said it helps them lead a life of purpose, whether that means educating people on a podcast or leading charity efforts.

The problem with retirement seems to be that people want to add value to their communities and within their own lives — and they believe work is the way to do that. As Bill Schaninger, a speaker, author, and thought leader on the future of work, found in research he conducted with Naina Dhingra for McKinsey, 70% of people who were surveyed said they define their purpose through work.

"Many people figured out one of the things that I get a lot of validation from is being clever, solving problems, participating, and working on something bigger than me," Schaninger told BI.

COVID-19 may have amplified this, he added. "The fragility of our condition, I think, was brought home in a way that maybe many of us had taken for granted," he said. "And so now it's like, 'Well, if I'm going to do this, it has to matter.'"

The millennial version of early retirement

Mitch, 37, said he is about to quit his high-stress job and take a mini-retirement — he has a 22-stop national parks trip planned this summer.

The Minnesota resident and vice president of a building-maintenance company, who asked that only his first name be used because of an ongoing job transition, has a net worth of about $2 million but said he's only planning to take a few months off before returning to the workforce in a lower-stress position. All the sources BI spoke with provided documentation of their net worth.

Mitch said he stumbled into the online personal-finance community in his early 30s, which inspired him and his wife to increase their savings to at least 75% of their income by avoiding spending on luxury items. He said even his high savings won't affect his decision to quit working.

"I think a lot of traditional retirees lack purpose — they take a year or two of retirement and hate it because they do whatever and lose purpose," Mitch said. "The ones that volunteer, continue to coach and consult, or do whatever it is to sharpen their brain and really have a purpose tend to be some of the happiest retirees."

Brian Luebben, a financially independent millennial, described having a panic attack shortly after he hit FI and quit his sales job.

"If you have anxiety, financial freedom is not going to solve it," he said. "If you have depression, financial freedom is not going to solve it. Be careful of the mountaintop moments. When you become a millionaire, when you become financially free, when you do all this stuff, no mariachi band follows you around and performs."

He argued that achieving financial independence and hitting a specific number is "the simplest part." After all, there's a playbook for wealth-building strategies like investing in real estate or building an e-commerce business.

"The most difficult part is figuring out what you do when you have nothing to do all day," he said. "What do you choose to work on?"

Luebben, who hosts a podcast and runs the entrepreneur resource The Action Academy to help other people achieve financial freedom, said people should think through four core questions before they're even close to achieving financial independence: "What does the perfect day look like? What does the perfect week look like? Who was with you? And where?"

Going through that exercise can help ensure that your identity doesn't become wrapped up in achieving FIRE, which is something that Grant Sabatier, who took a year and a half off from work after achieving financial independence, struggled with.

"I defined myself by the pursuit of financial independence," Sabatier, the author of "Financial Freedom," said. "Then, once I reached it, it was like, now I no longer had to do that thing, so what am I going to do? I encourage people on the path to do that inner work. Don't delay figuring out what you really want, why you're pursuing financial independence, and what you want to do after."

Balancing work and fun

Instead of a traditional retirement, many financially independent millennials are finding a balance between work and leisure that works for them.

For Sabina Horrocks, 41, becoming a millionaire was "quite boring." She and her husband worked in six-figure managerial positions, recently achieving a net worth of about $2 million, then had a daughter in 2021. They "plowed money into investments early on," kept daily expenditures low, and purchased rental properties they eventually sold.

She quit her sales operations job but has no intention of stopping work. She's a stay-at-home mom and plans to continue her blog The Moneyaires; she'd also like to become a financial coach or planner.

Blogging and coaching were common post-FI pursuits among the would-be early retirees BI spoke to. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, 34, runs the blog Making Sense of Cents, and over the past decade, she and her husband have lived mostly in an RV or a sailboat.

By 2017, their blog, advertising sales, and a course they created called Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing had generated nearly $1.2 million in revenue. By 2018, they had achieved financial independence. After years of 100-hour workweeks, she now spends 10 hours a week on her business, which generates $600,000 a year.

"I'm able to travel whenever I want. I can work whenever I want. Nothing's really dependent on my work hours," she said. "My plan is pretty much to continue doing this while I like it and continue to make a little bit more money and save as much as I can."

Lauren and Steven Keys, who quit their full-time jobs in their 20s, have a similar outlook.

Steven does freelance work for his former employer but spends much of his time on an online-tutoring service called CramBetter that he cofounded in 2023. Lauren has one social-media client she works with a couple of hours a month. They also run a financial-independence blog, Trip of a Lifestyle, and earn rental income from a fully paid-off investment property.

"There's this misconception about early retirement that you'll never make another penny ever again and just sit on the beach all day for the rest of your life," Steven said. "We're never going to stop making any money whatsoever."

Are you part of the FIRE movement or living by some of its principles? Reach out these reporters at kelkins@businessinsider.com or nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

• Middle-income Americans aren't living middle-class lifestyles.
• Research indicates that middle-income earners spend more like lower-income workers.
• The share of middle-income Americans is shrinking, with increased polarization between income tiers.

The American dream goes something like this: You pull yourself up by your bootstraps, get a solid job with benefits, buy a house, start a family, and coast comfortably toward retirement in the country's robust middle class.

While many might think middle-income Americans would be living this dream, they're not. Instead, they're living more like their lower-income peers, struggling to make ends meet and worried about losing it all.

New research from Claire Tassin, a retail and e-commerce analyst at business intelligence company Morning Consult, found that middle-income consumers' behavior is more similar to their lower-income counterparts than more affluent Americans.

"As shoppers are still battling heightened prices and inflationary pressure, middle-income consumer sentiment tracks much closer to lower income," Tassin said. "Rather than mirroring the top bracket, they're mirroring the lower bracket."

Tassin analyzed consumer behavior among Americans making under $50,000, those making between $50,000 and $100,000 — what Morning Consult deems middle-income — and those making over $100,000. While middle-income consumers might prioritize the same financial goals or beliefs as their higher-earning counterparts — like believing that planning for the future is important — they're spending and living a lot more like they're lower-income, and the gap with the affluent is getting wider.

For instance, according to Tassin, middle-income earners report that they'd be willing to pay more for a higher-quality product — but that's not what's happening.

In reality, middle- and lower-income shoppers are "nearly identical" in reporting that they tend toward the less-expensive option when buying something.

Indeed, while many Americans might be plugging away at work, that doesn't mean they're staying afloat. An increasing share of American adults — around 29% — are considered ALICE: asset-limited, income-constrained, but employed. While they're earning consistent paychecks, they're struggling to make ends meet — but still make too much to receive assistance.

It all speaks to the ever-moving goalposts of what it takes to achieve a middle-class lifestyle in America. As the hallmarks of that dream become more out of reach, middle-income earners don't feel like they've made it.

Take Amanda, a millennial in Texas. She's been able to buy a house, have her student loans forgiven, and make over $100,000 annually. This position should, by many measures, make her feel secure.

"I know that I'm doing a lot better than other people my age, but there's still a lot of anxiety that if there's another pandemic, if anything crazy happens, if we lose our jobs, how do we pay the bills?" Amanda previously told BI.

The middle class is more of a club than an income bracket

The ranks of middle-income earners have been shrinking, according to the Pew Research Center.

Rakesh Kochhar, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center, told BI that the share of people living in a middle-income household — earning somewhere between two-thirds and double the median income for a family of their size, per Pew's definition— has dropped over the last five decades, hitting 50% in 2010 and down from around 60% in 1970. That's held true since then, according to Kochhar, with a slightly higher share of that missing 10% moving into the upper-income tier.

"We now have more inequality or more polarization with more people living either at the upper income tier or the lower income tier and fewer in the middle. So moving to the extremes," Kochhar said.

Many who have moved into the high-income category, however, suffer from money dysmorphia. A solid chunk of millionaires consider themselves middle class, despite accounting for just over 12% of American families. While they can certainly afford middle-class markers like homeownership, education, and family more than their lower-income peers, they might also be reluctant to leave the identity of being middle-class behind.

"It's more a club that most Americans want to be part of regardless of their actual circumstances. And there's good reasons," Lawrence R. Samuel, the author of the book "The American Middle Class: A Cultural History," told Business Insider. The myth of the middle-class and the belief that you can work your way up in a fundamentally democratic way is very American, he said.

Samuel said that for some, it is almost unpatriotic to admit that you're wealthy. In a time when blue-collar work holds a particular cache and union approval — if not participation — is at a record high, holding on to the facsimile of the middle class might even be a point of pride.

"Being middle class is almost like classless. There's strong connotations associated with being underclass or poor, and with being rich — it almost violates our equalitarian creed," Samuel said. As he puts it, we like the "big fat middle" in the US, where we're all close to being the same. Clinging to at least the mirage of the middle class might be important to upholding more core American ideals.

"If we admit that we're very class-based — which we really are — that reveals the uncomfortable truth that we're not as democratic as we like to pretend to be, which is the heart and soul of this country," he said. "If we're not truly democracy, then what are we? That's the whole justification for creating this country."

Are you middle-income but don't feel middle-class? Contact this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.

• Bridesmaids spend an average of $1,900 being part of a bridal party, according to The Knot.
• A 2019 study found a third of bridal party members went into debt to cover related expenses.
• One bridesmaid told The Cut she is spending $3,200 on her friend's wedding this summer.

It's not unheard of these days for a wedding to cost as much as a down payment on a home — but what about the people attending or standing up in the nuptials?

A study by The Knot found that wedding guests in 2023 spent an average of $580 to attend a wedding, while a 2019 study found a third of people who were part of a bridal party went into debt to cover all the related expenses.

According to data compiled by The Knot, the average amount spent on being a bridesmaid was $1,900, which included the costs of a bridal shower gift, the bachelorette party, the bridesmaid dress, wedding gift, and hair and makeup.

Three bridesmaids who say they are going into debt just to be part of their friends' weddings shared their stories with The Cut this week.

Deena, a 28-year-old manager at a nonprofit, told the outlet she's expecting to spend $3,200 to be a bridesmaid at the destination wedding of a college friend whose family is wealthy.

"I'm drowning aside from this wedding, too — I have $19,000 of other debt from student loans and credit cards and medical bills. If I spent everything that Ally wanted me to, I'd probably have to move," she said, referring to the bride.

Deena told The Cut the expenses included a $550 bridesmaid dress, $1,200 hotel stay, and flights that are unlikely to cost less than $380 — and that was just for the wedding.

When she learned the bachelorette party would be another $750 just for her share in the rental home, she told the organizer she couldn't afford it.

"Finally, we worked out a plan where I'm paying in increments. And everyone is treating me like a charity case who's also a bad friend and making everything difficult," she told The Cut.

Deena said she's getting shamed for not being able to afford everything, and that another bridesmaid even asked her, "What if you give up takeout for a month?"

The other two bridesmaid stories shared with the outlet were just as jarring. One said she spent $2,000 and put it on her credit card. The other said her total expenses for being in a friend's wedding were $6,000, or about 10% of her take-home pay.

"How much to spend on your own wedding is your business, of course," Charlotte Cowles, the financial advice columnist at The Cut, wrote. "But before you rope your dearest friends into your vision, maybe take a moment to consider what they can afford."

• Google Pay is a digital payment platform that uses your credit and debit cards to make purchases.
• You can use Google Pay with the Google Pay or Google Wallet app.
• Google Pay is safe, due to tokenized transactions and your phone's passcode and facial or touch ID.

Google Pay is Google's digital payment service that you can use to make mobile payments using your phone, watch or tablet. It's connected to your Google account and lets you securely use your existing credit cards to pay for purchases at stores or online. 

And while Google Pay is the name of the payment platform, you have a choice of which app you want to use to actually make mobile payments — Google Pay or Google Wallet. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced Google Pay's redesign in 2020, saying the app made it "simpler to pay securely, organize finances, save money + more."

Here's everything you need to know about using Google Pay.   

Getting started with Google Pay

To get started with Google Pay, you need to install either the Google Pay or Google Wallet app. Android users should choose Google Wallet; it offers a lot of additional features, such as the ability to store ID cards, loyalty cards, event tickets and passes, transit cards, and more. Not unlike Apple Wallet on iOS devices, it's a convenient way to store almost anything you'd carry in a traditional wallet right within your mobile device. 

Google Pay, on the other hand, is focused exclusively on letting you make mobile payments. The Google Pay app is being discontinued on June 4, 2024, so you should probably just go directly to the more useful Google Wallet. That said, Google Wallet isn't yet available for iOS users. So for now, if you have an iPhone, you need to stick with the Google Pay app.

How to use Google Pay

After installing Google Pay or Google Wallet, you need to log into your Google account and then add one or more payment methods, like a credit or debit card. 

Once you've added at least one card to your Google Pay account, you can make mobile payments in stores. At the store's checkout, look for signs that the terminal accepts Google Pay or tap-to-pay credit cards. Then unlock your phone, hold it near the payment symbol, and wait for the confirmation that the payment has been made — you don't even have to start the app.  

If you have more than one payment method set up in Google Wallet, you can choose which one to use at checkout. To do that, start the app when you reach the checkout and swipe through the cards until you reach the one you want to use. Then hold the phone to the payment terminal as usual to complete the transaction. 

You can also use Google Pay to scan barcodes and QR codes — the app uses Google lens, and you can use it to look up price information or make an online payment.

You can also allow people to search and find you in Google Pay to pay you — and you, in turn, can search for people or businesses with a Google Business Profile.

Google Pay is free

The good news is that Google Pay is free to use. The Google Pay and Google Wallet apps are free to download, and there's no subscription or service fee to use the service to make mobile payments. 

Of course, that doesn't mean that purchases you make with Google Pay are completely free. Google Pay lets you make payments through your credit cards, debit cards, and bank accounts, so if you would ordinarily pay interest or a fee when using a card, you'll still pay that fee when using it through Google Pay. You simply won't pay anything additional for the privilege of using Google Pay.

Google Pay is safe

Surprisingly, Google Pay is safer and more secure than using a credit card, and for a number of reasons. First and foremost: Google Pay purchases are tokenized, which means that the service sends your credit information using a unique code for each purchase. If the information could be intercepted, it would not be useful to a thief or hacker, because your credit card information isn't present. 

Perhaps even more important, though, is the physical security that Google Pay offers. If your actual credit card is lost or stolen, it can potentially be used to make purchases, at least until you notify the credit company and cancel the card. But when using Google Pay on your phone, your credit card information is protected behind a passcode or biometrics like facial recognition. 

The pros and cons of using Google Pay

One advantage of Google Pay is that it's integrated with a number of other popular Google products. For instance, Google Flights offers a price guarantee where Google will pay you the difference if the price of your flight drops after you book it — you just have to have a Google Pay account.

The bottom line is that there are both pros and cons to using Google Pay. Not only is Google Pay a safe and secure payment system, but it's broadly compatible with many retail stores — just look for the Google Pay or tap-to-pay symbol at checkout. And via the Google Wallet app, Google Pay does a lot more, letting you store transit cards and boarding passes, loyalty cards, and more all in one place. 

Even so, there are some disadvantages to Google Pay as well. As pervasive as Google Pay is at retailers, especially in large cities, it's far from ubiquitous. Especially in smaller locales and at independent stores, you might have trouble using Google Pay to make purchases. That means you still need to carry a physical credit card, at least as a backup, which can defeat the purpose of using Google Pay to begin with. 

With the forthcoming end of the Google Pay app, Google is also leaving Apple users out in the cold. That means Google Pay could be an Android-only service starting in June 2024, unless Google releases a Google Wallet app for the iPhone. 

• Grace Sun, a 16-year-old from Kentucky, won $75,000 for her research on biomedical devices.
• She took home the top prize at the ISEF — the "granddaddy of all science fairs."
• Her work on organic electronic devices aims to make medical implants safer and more effective.

Grace Sun can't drive yet. Unlike many 16-year-olds, getting her license hasn't been her top priority. Instead, she's been busy working on a project to revolutionize biomedicine.

The high schooler from Lexington, Kentucky, developed a new technique to improve organic electronic devices. The technology could someday make medical implants significantly more compatible with human bodies and far less invasive. It could also lead to new early-diagnosis tools for a wide variety of diseases.

On Friday she won $75,000 for her research.

"They called my name. I thought they got the wrong person. I was like, is there another Grace up here?" Sun told Business Insider backstage at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) awards ceremony.

Her hands were trembling and a huge smile beamed across her face. Just minutes before, rainbow confetti had exploded behind her on stage in front of hundreds of her peers, while lights flashed and peppy music boomed over the audience. She suddenly held a trophy in her hands.

"I'm in disbelief because of how good everyone else is," she said.

Despite the exhilaration, though, Sun easily slipped into a calm and authoritative demeanor to explain her research, which focused on organic electrochemical transistors, or OECTs.

"They have performance issues right now," she said of the devices. "They have instability in the body. You don't want some sort of implanted bioelectronic to degrade in your body."

But OECTs have huge potential. Compared to other devices made of silicon, they're soft and flexible. That makes them a better fit for heart and brain implants.

"They're so much more accurate, their speed is higher, their performance is higher because they consider signals in the body that previous electronics haven't considered. They're also safe because they're made of organic materials," she said.

She hopes that her work improving their performance can be a first step to commercializing them and getting them into wide use, within the next two decades.

Sun won the Olympics of science fairs

ISEF is the world's biggest pre-college STEM competition, run by the Society for Science. It's like the Olympics of science or the "grandaddy of all science fairs," said judging chair Christopher Gould.

Nearly 2,000 students spent the week in Los Angeles attending talks, mingling, and defending their research to judges. The event doled out $9 million in awards this year — its largest purse yet. But Sun took home the biggest sum with the $75,000 George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award.

"This was our number one project, without a shadow of a doubt," Ian Jandrell, a judging co-chair for the materials science category at ISEF, told BI about Sun's research. He oversaw hours of discussion among the materials-science judges.

"It was crystal clear that that room was convinced that this was a significant project and worthy of consideration for a very top award because of the contribution that was made," he said.

Research at ISEF is not peer-reviewed, so it's not held to the standard that studies published in journals like Nature or JAMA must meet. Instead, ISEF encourages students to learn about the scientific process by doing it themselves and defending their work.

Jandrell said the judges were impressed by "the sophistication and the diligence" of Sun's research and her ability to explain it and respond to questions on the spot.

"It's the whole package," he added.

Long days in a university lab

Sun has been working on her project for over six months. It took long hours, and much of it needed to be done in a lab at the University of Kentucky. The devices she worked on were tiny, small enough to fit on your thumb.

For a few weeks, she left school three hours early to work in a lab for another five hours. Luckily, her teachers were understanding about why she needed extensions on some of her assignments.

Sun engineered a new technique to improve the devices' performance and take them closer to commercial use. In the research that snagged the five-figure award, Sun tried "doping" the OECTs — introducing chemical impurities to see how they affected the device's electrical properties — with a series of organic salts.

She found that one salt, called tetrabutylammonium chloride, was especially effective because it improved the device's amplification abilities, sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratio, and switching speed.

These qualities are important because they improve overall performance, which could one day help create biomedical devices capable of detecting early hints of disease in your body's biochemical makeup.

The salt that Sun tested improved amplification performance by 97% and switching speed by 77%, Sun found. "These are significant numbers," Jandrell said.

Sensitive OECTs could detect proteins or nucleic acids that correspond with the disease long before traditional symptoms appear. Sun imagines OECTs embedded in clothing to monitor swea or used to accurately test blood-alcohol levels before you drive.

Eventually, OECTs could lead to new technologies that replace invasive implants like pacemakers.

As for Sun, she sees a future for herself in chemical engineering to help improve medicine.

"Hopefully I can make some sort of commercializable breakthrough, like what I'm trying to do now with these devices," Sun said. "If possible, I do want to start a business so that I can get them into the real world in industries to impact more people directly."

• Commercial ships have diverted from the Red Sea over the Houthi missile threats. 
• The Houthis showed in late April they can strike ships in the Indian Ocean.
• "By disrupting shipping, the Houthis can impose costs on the global economy," a naval expert said.

Houthi militants showed in late April that they can expand their war on international shipping far beyond the Red Sea.

The container ship MSC Orion came under a drone attack on the night of April 26 as it was steaming in the Indian Ocean southeast of the Horn of Africa, the continent's eastern-most tip. The attack only caused minor damage and did not harm any crew. But the distance involved was unprecedented.

The Houthis have wreaked havoc against international shipping in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and exploding drones, and threatened in March they could menace ships that avoided this route by going around Africa's southern Cape of Good Hope, a much longer and more expensive voyage.

"The Houthis have drones that can travel more than 1,000 nautical miles, such as the Shahed series of propellor-driven drones," Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and expert on naval operations, told Business Insider. "Their ballistic missiles have ranges of more than 600 [nautical miles]."

The long-range attack on the Orion appears to have been a one-off but is still unprecedented, an expert on drone warfare said.

"The attack was different in the fact it was achieved over a greater distance than previous attacks on international shipping," James Patton Rogers, the executive director of the Cornell Tech Policy Institute, told Business Insider. "This shows advances in range, command and control, and accuracy, all of which are occurring despite US-UK efforts to degrade the group."

Rogers believes the Houthis may have used a long-range Shehab drone in the attack.

"Until now, the Shehab drones have proven vulnerable to air defense and unreliable," Rogers said. "As such, if Shehab drones were used in the strikes, which the video evidence appears to show, then it would mark an increase in the reliability and destructive precision of these drone systems."

He noted that the Shehab's reported range of 990 miles puts it "well within range" of international shipping. The US and EU have stood up naval task forces to guard ships in the Red Sea, but merchant ships far outside of these air defense umbrellas have no defense against an attack drone.

"Yet these are not the only systems available to the so-called' axis of resistance' groups," Rogers said. "The Samad (1500km/932 miles) and potentially the Shahed (2000km) family of drones all have the range to strike these targets."

Searching and targeting ships in international waters is also another escalation from the group's attacks near the Red Sea. The Houthis are most likely exploiting the self-reporting of merchant ships to target them.

"The Houthis appear to be using AIS (Automatic Identification System) data to geolocate their targets and use GPS to guide their drone to the approximate area," Clark said. "Reportedly, drones like the Shahed series have anti-radiation seekers they can use to drive into emitting targets like air defense radars."

The Orion stopped transmitting its AIS after the April 26 attack, likely to prevent the Houthis from tracking the ship for a second strike. Clark also believes ships like the Orion may opt for "going dark" for segments of their voyage to avoid being tracked. Ships smuggling Russian oil have done this since the start of the current Ukraine war in 2022.

There are some ways these ships can evade such attacks or, if necessary, physically fend them off.

"They could turn off their AIS and radar, which would make them hard to find in the open ocean of the Eastern Mediterranean," Clark said. "Once they enter the Red Sea, though, ships can be tracked by spotters ashore or on boats or using mobile Houthi radars ashore. In that case, shotguns or high-power microwave counter-drone weapons would be needed."

Ships may opt for alternative or longer routes to avoid these attacks, and while this may reduce the number of attacks, that would also have a disruptive impact on shipping of the kind the Houthis would welcome.

"The easiest, although more expensive, way to address this threat is to avoid it," Clark said. "Unfortunately, that is what the Houthis want. By disrupting shipping, the Houthis can impose costs on the global economy and put pressure on Israel."

US forces targeting the Houthis in February encountered an undersea drone for the first time and successfully struck it.

"There are few details about the Houthi's underwater drone capacity, but what there is suggests the drones are slow-moving and more useful against stationary targets, ships vulnerable in dock," Rogers said. "Nevertheless, with the rate of Houthi advances, and increases in speed, control, and maneuverability in-transit, international shipping could soon prove vulnerable."

Clark doesn't see undersea drones posing much of a threat to ships on the high seas.

"Undersea drones are really only a threat in narrow waters like the Red Sea where the range to shore is short," Clark said. "Undersea drones can only travel a few knots and therefore cannot catch up to a cargo ship. The drone has to intercept the target, which requires knowing where the target is going, such as in a narrow waterway."

Rogers believes the broader implications of the Orion attack are already clear.

"Violent non-state groups are not only able to strike shipping hundreds of miles from shore, but they are able to pass this technology on to other groups allied with the cause or willing to pay a price," Rogers said.

"In essence, we have reached a stage where the proliferation of this capacity is uncontrolled and unchecked, potentially bringing international shipping and global supply chains under increased threat globally."