Author: openjargon

• Seattle's city council is considering replacing its PayUp law for gig workers after just three months.
• Under the proposal, delivery workers would make well under the city's minimum wage, per one estimate.
• The bill has the support of companies like Uber and DoorDash.

Since January, gig delivery workers in Seattle have been reaping the benefits of a local law mandating a certain pay level. Just months later, they could see their incomes cut under proposed revisions.

PayUp, which took effect in the city in January, requires DoorDash, Uber, Instacart, Grubhub, and other delivery apps to pay independent contractors the equivalent of the city's $19.97 minimum wage — a rule that the app companies have opposed.

But CB 120775, a proposal introduced last month by Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson, would lower the minimum pay for drivers and roll back protections for workers, according to a draft of the legislation.

Under the proposal, gig workers would be paid an hourly rate of $19.97 for their time spent retrieving and delivering orders. While that seems consistent with Seattle's minimum wage for employees, the gig workers covered by the PayUp law are only paid for "active time" spent working on orders — meaning that time spent trying to claim an order is uncompensated. They're also responsible for their own costs, such as gas.

Those aspects of the job had led Seattle's city council to create a system that pays workers based on the miles they drive and the minutes they spend on the job. PayUp also demands that no offer pays less than $5.

The latest proposal would do away with that $5 minimum and the per-minute payment. Instead, gig workers would get paid 35 cents per mile — down from the current 74 cents.

It would also eliminate or cut back other protections for gig workers in the city. For example, a PayUp rule giving workers two minutes to review an order before accepting it would shrink to 45 seconds.

The bill is scheduled for a committee vote on Thursday. If it passes, the proposal could face a vote by the full Council on May 21.

'That makes a difference'

If that vote passes, the bill will result in a significant pay cut for gig workers, according to estimates released Monday by Working Washington, a group that advocated for PayUp. For example, a gig worker who spent five hours of active time and drove 32 miles would make $15.81 an hour — below the city's minimum wage — after accounting for expenses, they calculated.

Hourly pay would be even lower — $13.17 — after accounting for the time that a gig worker would likely spend on the apps just to find and claim orders, according to the study.

Justin Taylor, who has delivered and driven for multiple apps in Seattle over the last four years, said his pay has increased by $100 a week on average since PayUp went into effect — even though he's delivering fewer orders than he did before the law.

"That makes a difference," he told BI. "It allowed me to do things like install new front brakes on my car."

If the proposal before Seattle's City Council becomes law, Taylor said, he'll once again be reliant on customers' tips to cover his expenses and make money working for services like DoorDash.

The delivery companies have made it clear that they oppose the changes that took effect in January. In emails and calls to action sent to gig workers, DoorDash, Instacart, Uber, and others have claimed that there are fewer orders for gig workers to claim.

Some shoppers for Instacart have also had to drive miles out of their way to deliver orders in Seattle's suburbs as the company routed them to stores outside city limits.

Seattle City Council President Nelson did not respond to a request for an interview from Business Insider. In a hearing on the bill on April 25, Nelson said that she had worked with some of the delivery companies as well as Drive Forward, a group whose leadership includes multiple current and former employees for Uber and DoorDash, to draft the bill.

"I want to make sure that people realize this was an agreement that was forged between Drive Forward and the network companies," she told the Council.

A DoorDash spokesperson told BI: "Predictably, Working Washington's opposition to this proposal is not rooted in reality. The proposed law guarantees Dashers will earn nearly $20 per hour on delivery in addition to mileage and tips. We're grateful that Council President Nelson and Drive Forward were able to reconvene stakeholders and reach a compromise that better serves Dashers, local businesses, and consumers in Seattle."

A spokesperson for Instacart said the company "supports the pragmatic approach being taken by the new Seattle City Council as they balance the needs of workers, customers, and businesses across the city and reform the current version of PayUp legislation."

"Uber supports the complete package, and believes it will go a long way to ease the operational burdens and costs experienced by customers throughout Seattle and reduce delivery times," a spokesperson told BI.

But gig worker Taylor said he was dismayed that the delivery companies have had such a direct role in developing the bill that would replace PayUp.

"To me, it's basically saying we're allowing lobbyists to write our laws," Taylor said.

Do you deliver food, groceries, or other items as a gig worker and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com

• Kendal Lindstrom started a career-change management consultancy after struggling to change jobs.
• She shared her strategy for acing job interviews, which includes having five key questions ready.
• They focus on areas like company culture, team dynamics, and an employer's long-term plans.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kendal Lindstrom, 25, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. She runs a career-change management consulting firm called Doux and works in tech. She recently posted a TikTok about five questions she has ready for a job interview. Lindstrom said she believes asking at least some of these questions is why she's always landed a role she interviewed for. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

I started Doux because I never liked to be put in a box in terms of my career. Coming out of college, I thought, I just want to be known as the girl in fashion. I was so wrong. But I didn't know how to pivot into a new industry. It took me two years of connecting, trying, and failing. I found the framework of what Doux is now by failing.

After working in fashion, I got myself into medical sales. I then switched to tech because that's where my passions lie. It took me two years to go from fashion to medical sales. But from the day I decided I wanted to be a tech consultant, it only took me three weeks to get my offer letter.

The difference was I knew how to write my résumé. I knew how to become the candidate that they needed.

My formula is to map your résumé to the career you're going to, not the career you've been in. To get to my current job, I created a résumé that was unstoppable.

Usually, I tell my clients to reach out to the hiring manager. In this case, the hiring manager got to me within minutes of me submitting my résumé. The interview process was extensive, but, like I always tell my clients, it's about follow-ups.

I followed up three times because they had great candidates. But I needed to stay in front, and I needed to be the person they chose.

I had the drive

It's funny when I look back and talk to the executives who hired me. They're like, "You had no business being in tech. You had nothing on your résumé that told us that you would do a good job in this. But the way you presented yourself, it was a no-brainer to hire you because we knew you would get it." So, it's often more how you're presenting yourself in a professional realm rather than what you're saying to answer the questions.

I had drive, and that's what they were looking for. They were looking for someone young to grow with the company. If they wanted someone young, they weren't going to get all the experience in the software that they needed. But I was eager to learn, and however many hours outside work that took, I was willing to do it. I really drove home that it doesn't stop at 5 p.m. My job stops when my job is done.

Each day after work, I spent 30 minutes reading a training book my company had given me. Then, I tried to apply the knowledge for 30 minutes. The next day, I would get time on my boss's calendar and say, "This is what I learned yesterday. Tell me how you have seen this applied in scenarios with a client."

It took me about a year to really digest everything. It was tough, but it came down to whether I was willing to ask questions when I needed help rather than having too much pride and not asking anyone.

I've done a lot of interviews for my age because I kept my options open no matter where I was in my career. I've never wanted to be stagnant. So I have done upwards of 10 or 11 interviews, and I've never been told no because my goal was to make an employer feel like I had their best interests at heart and I wanted to be part of their company, which meant I needed to sell myself as a solution. And it's more about the questions you ask than the answers you get.

I have pretty thick skin

When I worked in medical sales — or even with some of the comments on my TikTok — so much was about my image. I was like, "What does my blonde hair have to do with the knowledge that I have?" Not that it ever hurt my feelings because I have pretty thick skin. In any industry, there will be people who would want to discredit someone's abilities because of how they look. But at the end of the day, I can use my brain to where people are like, "We need to listen to you."

Some of the comments on my TikTok have been so far off the mark. At the time of my interviews for my current job, I didn't have a website, and my social media wasn't publicly available. So, I got the job because of the things I said and the questions I asked, and not because of my appearance.

These are my five key questions:

What's the company culture like?

The first thing I tell people to ask is about company culture. That's a big one. It's such a make-it-or-break-it for enjoying your job. I wanted my audience to know that asking about it is so important because if you're miserable in your job, you're only setting yourself up to fail.

What's the lowdown on my predecessor?

The second one is, "What did the person who held this role before me do that was appreciated but not required based on the job description?" I suggest this one because I want my audience to put themselves in the role already. It's an assumptive selling tactic. I always say go into the interview and sell yourself.

I asked that question one time — "What are you going to miss most about this person?" — and the interviewer said, "Oh, they got Starbucks all the time." And I was like, "Great, I guess we'll be getting Starbucks for the office all the time."

What do my colleagues require?

The third question was, "How can I best suit the needs of my direct counterparts?" That came from wanting to understand — in the most professional way — the team you're walking into. It helps me understand and identify how I would fit into the team.

I've seen teams before where they just don't get along. But you don't know that until you sit down on the first day. And at that point, it's already too late. You're either leaving, or you've got to deal with this until you can figure out another job.

How successful is the team?

Number four is what the current state of the department is in reference to the bottom line. That has to do with asking about sales, of course, but I'm also asking, "Am I walking into a failing department? Are you expecting me to turn things around? Are you expecting me to just take the blame for something that's already failing? Or are you guys seeing numbers you've never seen before and need more people?" And, if so, "What did you do to see those numbers?"

What does the company's future look like?

My fifth question is my favorite. It's "what's the company's three-year, five-year, and 10-year plan?" I love this one because I've never walked into a job and thought, "I'm only going to be here for one year," or "I'm only doing this to collect a paycheck." I always say, "Think like the CEO." I never want to go into a job and strive to just be an associate. That's just where you start.

All you really need — or maybe have time for — is one of these questions. So many people on my TikTok said, "That is too many questions. You're so high maintenance." I was like, "Just use one of them, and they'll be blown away." Because you're starting a whole other conversation that doesn't have to do with their questions for you. These are just concepts that I hope people can take with them as they go — little nuggets — to nail these interviews.

There is a singular misery to trying your very best, after months of training, only to be crushed by a 6-year-old.

Last December, I spent a cloudy day holed up at the Mechanics' Institute, a venerable chess club in San Francisco, to play in the 22nd annual McClain Memorial Tournament. It was my first in-person chess competition, and I was full of optimism.

I faced a severe-looking child who wore a food-stained sweatshirt emblazoned with a cartoon penguin. He did not speak. He alternated between fidgeting uncontrollably and fixing me with a disconcerting death stare. He spent much of his time between moves crawling around beneath the table (an interesting psych-out technique, but not one I think I could pull off).

Early in the game, I made an amateur mistake that left me down a knight. From there it was all over, even if I didn't immediately realize it. A checkmate soon followed.

My first game had been against a middle-aged asset manager, and we'd discussed the strangeness of us adults competing against children. (He also beat me.) After an undignified lunch of Doritos and a chocolate protein shake, I managed to eke out a win against my third opponent. A tech worker in her mid-20s, she noted she was nursing a severe hangover, and she had a helpful habit of involuntarily gasping whenever she realized she'd made a mistake. At that point, I'd take whatever modicum of dignity I could salvage.

For the first three decades of my life, I'd had fleeting phases of mild interest in chess, playing the occasional game online while procrastinating or over the board with a drink. But the game's foreboding density and association with supreme intellect dissuaded me from going any deeper. Over the past few years, however, a drumbeat of fanfare and tabloid headlines about the seemingly staid game became inescapable. Like so many other people, I got chess-pilled.

Chess.com, the world's leading chess site, now regularly reports record numbers of players — it said that in February 2023 it hostedhosting more than 1 billion games a month — sporadically crashing under the weight of demand. The pandemic's enforced isolation and Netflix's smash hit "The Queen's Gambit" collectively introduced an entire generation to the game. Socialites are playing chess on "The Real Housewives of New York City." Twitch streamers and YouTubers have racked up millions of followers and ushered in a radical new culture — meme-drenched, rapid-fire, and drama-prone.

Chess has never been more popular, but its ugly side has also never been more exposed. The same characteristics that have driven its popularity online — an easy-to-understand eight-by-eight grid, a strategy without chance or luck — have also made it a cheater's paradise. Meanwhile, rampant sexism festers at chess' heart.

What the hell was happening to the game of kings? To find out, I decided I needed to get better at the game and face off against everyone I talked to.

---

In 1990, when Judit Polgár, the greatest female chess player, was emerging as a child prodigy, the world champion Gary Kasparov dismissed her as "after all, a woman."

"It all comes down to the imperfections of the feminine psyche," he said. "No woman can sustain a prolonged battle."

Sexism persists in every level of the game. In 1990, according to the US Chess Federation, only 4% of chess players were women. Today it's 14%. There are innumerable tales of how women were belittled, mistreated, harassed, and abused — from snide remarks about "losing to a girl" at a chess club to sexist comments during online play. Juliana Gallin, a graphic designer in San Francisco, told me before a game on Chess.com (she wiped the floor with me) that she had deliberately omitted any references to her gender in her online profile. Even at professional tournaments, many women say commentators and audiences sometimes fixate on their appearances and clothes rather than the quality of their chess. FIDE, the international chess body, requires anyone wishing to make a misconduct complaint to first pay a fee of 75 euros.

In 1990, only 4% of chess players were women. Today it's 14%.

In 2023, the chess world had its own #MeToo moment. It started when the grandmaster Jennifer Shahade accused Alejandro Ramírez, a grandmaster and well-connected coach, of sexual assault. A slew of further allegations against Ramírez — and claims that the US Chess Federation had failed to act — soon followed. (Ramírez has denied the allegations.)

Shahade and I played a quick game — she smothered me, picking off my pawns until my structure crumbled — and talked. Shahade told me that, in addition to the gender imbalance, part of the issue is that chess is "complex to attack because there's so many different cultures," adding that "every country might have its own policy for safe play." Beyond that, she said, "all ages play together — which mostly is a really awesome thing about the game that we love — but unfortunately for bad actors that could be an opportunity for grooming."

And there's no easier place for bad actors to take root than in chess' most popular venue: online.

---

More than anything else, the internet has transformed how chess is played and talked about. It has infused the 1,500-year-old game with modern video-game sensibilities and smack talk. Online chess can feel a world away from the carefully considered hourslong games of old; many modern players prefer "bullet chess," whose warp speed games take less than three minutes. Beyond Reddit hubs like the more pedantic r/Chess (1.1 million members) and the oddball, shitposting r/AnarchyChess (500,000), ground zero for chess' reimagining is video platforms like YouTube and Twitch. Dedicated chess influencers like Levy "GothamChess" Rozman (nearly 5 million YouTube subscribers) and the Botez sisters (1.5 million subscribers) offer guidance to amateurs like me, dissecting tournament games and diving into the nearly constant beef between chess celebs. Even grandmasters — historically cast as cerebral recluses — are getting in on the action. The five-time US champion Hikaru Nakamura (2.3 million subscribers) has become one of the most prolific streamers out there.

"You definitely can make in general a lot more from making content than what you can from playing competitive chess," said Anna Cramling, a fast-talking 21-year-old Swedish player with nearly 900,000 YouTube subscribers. After we chatted, we played a quick game; I timed out with no good moves open to me. All the time in the world wouldn't have made a difference.

The seedier side of internet culture has also wormed its way into chess. "The biggest downside to what I do is I don't always feel safe," Cramling said. Some of her followers, she says, are often "trying to get to know things about me." Poor sportsmanship abounds: Some players rage quit when they make mistakes, try to "stall" their opponents, or abort games if they don't get to play as white. Chat rooms are full of normalized abuse, often sexual or racist. Sometimes dark behavior bleeds out beyond the screen: In late 2023, Nakamura said the police had turned up at his home after someone tried to "swat" him.

But is playing online as fulfilling as playing over the board? As I explored, I kept up a steady stream of middling games on Chess.com — my Elo rating slowly rising — but wanted a more immersive experience. I decided to devote an entire day to playing bullet chess.

By hour two, the games were blurring into one another — aching hands, no time for strategy, just vibes.

In the version I played, a 1:1 time control, each player was allotted one minute total for the entire game plus one additional second per move. My first game went beautifully: excellent piece development, no big mistakes, and a neat checkmate. During game two, I started to feel a little frantic. By hour two, the games were blurring into one another — aching hands, no time for strategy, just vibes. When I took a break for a virtual doctor's appointment, I was seized with a compulsion to fill out the intake forms at blitzkrieg speed.

I had a breakthrough when I switched up the time control. Now I was playing just a flat minute per player, no additional time. Suddenly I was winning clearly lost games because I was just a bit faster on the draw. All I had to do was hide my king in the corner and make my structure just convoluted enough, and I'd win by default as my opponents timed out. It was a lightning-fast game of pattern recognition and counterstrike reflexes, and totally unconducive to improving my actual chess skills.

Eight hours later, I was 150 games down and completely exhausted. It was time to log off.

---

Out in the world, chess' resurgence has been accompanied by a wave of new clubs and events.

In April 2023, The Washington Post reported that chess was causing an "epidemic of student distraction." In Berkeley, California, a controversial unlicensed street club has become a flash point for debates about gentrification and police brutality. When I visited, I was bested by a guy who I suspected was extremely high and who got up to dance to Bill Withers between moves.

A couple months into my chess journey, I was in New York City for the week. I made a pilgrimage to the Marshall Chess Club, a 109-year-old institution in Greenwich Village.

Beneath impressionist murals of naked women, and among candles and pumping EDM, an eclectic crowd of hipsters, skaters, and the occasional dyed-in-the-wool chess nerd mingled.

Inside, rows of players sat in perfect silence as the bust of the club's founder, Frank Marshall, the American chess champion of 1909, frowned down at them. But my itch to play could not be scratched: The club was hosting a tournament that day, a nice man told me apologetically, for high-ranking players only. Even the youngest attendees would demolish me. "These aren't your normal kids," he said.

The following evening, I went to an East Village bar and found a very different scene at Club Chess. Beneath impressionist murals of naked women, and among candles and pumping EDM, an eclectic crowd of hipsters, skaters, and the occasional dyed-in-the-wool chess nerd mingled. There were no chess clocks in sight, and downstairs there was a full-on dance floor. It was standing room only. Founded in 2023 by Alexander Luke Bahta — who spent the evening swanning around, tailed by a photographer and reporter for a lifestyle blog — Club Chess has been described by The Guardian and New York magazine as the epicenter of chess' ascendance in nightlife.

I played a young Canadian mycologist in an evenly matched game that she ultimately resigned. Then came a wiry Romanian in athleisure — Elo rating 2200, extremely good — who inexorably ground me down, trapping one of my bishops and stomping through my pawn structure. Afterward I watched him play the burly security guard and checkmate him barely a dozen moves in. The bouncer "plays unconventionally," the Romanian said diplomatically.

"That guy's a monster," the bouncer told me later.

With work looming the next day, I left the party, still going strong, at about 11 p.m., feeling rejuvenated. It had been chess at its purest and most freeing — no scores or internet trash talk to be found.

---

If you've heard anything about chess in the past couple of years, it's probably been about anal beads.

In 2022, the world champion Magnus Carlsen accused the grandmaster Hans Niemann, chess' enfant terrible, of cheating in a tournament. What followed was a breathless debate (not by Carlsen) over whether Niemann had managed this with a device hidden in a particularly intimate part of his body.

The consensus among serious chess players is that the specific allegation is absurd, but paranoia about cheating pervades the game, from grandmasters playing in tournaments to amateurs whacking away at each other online. Chess.com bans 90,000-odd players every month for cheating.

I understand why. I've cheated at chess.

Years ago I periodically played online against a college buddy. He beat me, a lot. So in one or two games, purely out of curiosity, I booted up a chess engine, plugged in the moves he made, responded with the computer-determined optimal moves, and won handily. I told him promptly what I'd done. But there was also a prurient little thrill to winning, no matter how undeserved. And I'm hardly the only one who feels this way.

If you've heard anything about chess in the past couple of years, it's probably been about anal beads.

Chess is an extraordinarily easy game to cheat at. Computer programs have handily beaten human players ever since Deep Blue versus Kasparov in 1997. And there's no easy remedy. At the most basic level, there's the risk of people copying computer moves by rote, but that's relatively straightforward to detect. For more sophisticated players, cheating on a single move at the right moment is sometimes enough to give them the edge. Even just a signal — a cough, a gesture, a vibration — that their seemingly innocuous next move will actually be critical, even if they're not told what the right move is, can be enough to make a player slow down and find the pathway to the (ill-gotten) win.

Hence a constant fear of cheaters and a string of minor scandals. The former world champion Vladimir Kramnik has in recent years repeatedly cast aspersions on other high-profile players, including Nakamura. (Chess.com subsequently said it investigated "dozens of players" whose play Kramnik had questioned and found no evidence "in the vast majority of cases.") The grandmaster Fabiano Caruana said in a recent interview that he'd "bet a lot" that someone in the top 10 players had cheated at some point.

The concern can taint players' enjoyment of the game.

"It just sucks because you're trying your hardest — but it kind of doesn't matter because you're just playing god, essentially," said Dan Timbrell, a 33-year-old working in machine learning in the Netherlands. "You are pulling your heart and soul into really trying to win a game, and then you just realize it is just punching a brick wall."

---

Over four months, I played a shit ton of chess, and I learned a lot by being summarily beaten by nearly every person I talked to. But I also felt more and more burned out by the game. I found myself constantly fretting about my Elo rating. It distracted from what actually mattered: the chess.

Chess is a notoriously brutal game for the ego. If you lose, it's simply because you weren't good enough. Chess is a skill that can be learned, like any other, but that doesn't stop people online from discussing ad nauseam whether there's a correlation between chess prowess and IQ. Add internet-tracked Elo ratings, and you've got a potent recipe for an inferiority complex.

As a 27-year-old musician in New York City who got into chess after watching "The Queen's Gambit," told me: "You either make good moves or bad moves. So it's very easy to say, 'Oh my, I've made a terrible move — I'm so stupid.'"

I could relate. When I was playing online, I began gravitating toward anonymous, logged-out games — a far more relaxed affair.

Chess' problems aren't unique. But it is uniquely positioned to act as an accelerant for the internet's worst impulses: sexism, abuse, cheating, elitism, and toxic nerdery. It's a far cry from what Juliana Gallin described to me as "the stunning, breathtaking beauty and magic of chess." My most memorable chess experiences, the places where I encountered that magic, weren't online. They were playing in the crowded thrill of Club Chess in New York, or trading pieces with a buddy over a gin and tonic in a Lake Tahoe cabin, or battling it out in the cafeteria of a Russian bathhouse in San Francisco.

As I was wrapping up this story, YouTube recommended me a video by ChessPage1, a janky instructional channel. At the high levels, the robotic-sounding voice said, players need an encyclopedic knowledge of openings and theory and a grand strategy to execute. But among us mortals, people screw up in minor ways several times a game.

"If you can be the guy who just doesn't blunder and also spots the opponent's blunders," the voice said, "you can easily become a very good chess player without having to pull off some complex mastery game plan … You don't have a game plan, your opponent doesn't have a game plan, everybody is confused. But confusion means high probability of blunders, and if you don't blunder, you will crush 99% of your opponents. Congratulations, you are now enlightened and smart." They added, "Remember, whenever you feel like you need a complex strategy, just don't blunder."

It's good advice for chess, and for life. If in doubt, remember that basically no one else has it figured out either. Just try not to screw up too badly.

---

Rob Price is a senior correspondent for Business Insider and writes features and investigations about the technology industry. His Signal number is +1 650-636-6268, and his email is rprice@businessinsider.com.

• Tony Fernandes, CEO of UEGroup, managed his company from a cruise ship for 21 days.
• Fernandes experienced challenges with slow internet and communication but found workable solutions.
• Despite the hurdles, he finds value in being offline at times and plans to continue cruising.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tony Fernandes, a 60-year-old founder and CEO of UEGroup based in San Francisco, about his experience working remotely on a cruise ship. It's been edited for length and clarity.

My wife and I are in the post-kid, post-pet phase of our lives. Our kids have gone off to college and we had a beloved dog and house rabbits that have passed away. After they passed, that really opened up a window for us to travel — and we did — but extended travel is new for us.

In November, I embarked on a trip where I spent several weeks leading my company from a cruise ship with my wife. We ultimately circumnavigated the globe on two different cruises and with air travel. Leaving California, we went through Europe, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan.

It's been a cool experience. But I found that while working on the ship, you do need some discipline — especially on a 21-day cruise.

You have to create a time for work and a time for play

We didn't realize it, but when we upgraded our internet, it upgraded our drinks package. So, it turned out we could get bottles of Moët & Chandon Champagne for free.

We had a couple of lunches and dinners where we enjoyed Champagne, but we also developed a rhythm where we had work time and playtime. It wasn't rigid — but there were times when my wife, who does finance at UEGroup, and I knew we had to get things done.

Working can set you apart from people who are on vacation. That doesn't mean you can't work in your bathing suit or have a beer before you start your work, but it puts you on a slightly different footing than some of the other people on the cruise.

Expect very slow internet service

One thing I didn't realize prior to the trip was that the cruise ship had only one satellite connection shared by thousands of people. The internet was oppressively slow at times.

For our next long trip, I'm looking into getting a data satellite phone so I can put an antenna on my patio facing the right direction for the satellite. I've still got to figure it out, but there were times when it was really important for us to communicate, and we couldn't.

We're now very mistrustful of statements the cruise lines make about the quality of their internet. For example, we upgraded our Internet, but it turned out the cruise line's definition of upgrading was that we could have more than one device, not that there was any better speed or reliability. You've got to read the fine print about how they define an upgrade.

I would also recommend asking what kind of download and upload speeds to expect.

Create a backup plan for meetings and other communication challenges

Internet access can be unpredictable even with research and planning ahead, so we had backup people for important meetings back at the office. If we weren't able to show up, there was someone prepared with the slide deck. I can't say it didn't create awkward moments at times — and it is one of the downsides — but you can plan for it the best you can.

When my wife was dealing with a bank and needed to get a two-factor authentication code without working SMS, there wasn't much she could do. So, that was a challenge as well.

At some points, I was forced to go ashore and buy SIM cards to leverage local cell service, but this requires research. Depending on the country there might only be one cellphone service that works there, or you might be able to get SIM card brands that work for a larger area.

Being offline can end up being a good thing

I find it hard to be offline, but because the connectivity was so bad sometimes, it just forced it to happen. We were in the middle of nowhere, and it wasn't going to change. In a way, being offline was good because I could just tune out.

My wife and I plan to cruise more in the future and even recently bought a home in Portugal near a cruise port that we're going to commute to using cruises as much as possible.

When we did the math, taking a cruise from California to Portugal was less than two business-class air travel tickets. Plus, you get meals, entertainment, and no jet lag — it seems like the way to go.

If you live or work on a cruise ship and would like to share your story, please email mlogan@businessinsider.com.

• How much money people need in retirement isn’t one defined answer — it really depends.
• While some workers think they’ll need $1.5 million or more, many don’t have nearly that much.
• And while some retirees rely on Social Security, those benefits may not be paid in full in just 10 or so years.

What’s your magic number for retirement? Many Americans don’t know, and it’s getting even harder to calculate — especially as Social Security is poised to start reducing benefits in just about a decade.

But those who do calculate it are upping their savings. According to a press release about the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s recent 2024 Retirement Confidence Survey conducted in January with Greenwald Research and with a sample of 1,255 workers and 1,266 retirees, half “of Americans have tried to calculate how much money they will need in retirement.”

“In reaction to their calculation, 52% of workers and 44% of retirees started to save more,” the press release stated.

A third of respondents who are working and had attempted to calculate their retirement needs think they’ll need $1.5 million or more in retirement.

Similarly, an AARP Financial Security Trends Survey conducted in January showed over a quarter of people aged 50 and over think they will need to save $1 million or more to feel financially secure in retirement.

That’s quite a bit more than what workers actually have in savings.

A third of workers in the EBRI and Greenwald Research survey have less than $50,000 in savings and investments. And while they could use that for retirement, there’s always the chance they’ll have to dip into those savings for other unexpected costs.

So how can you calculate what might be right for you?

Craig Copeland, director of Wealth Benefits Research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, told Business Insider that there isn’t just one correct number for retirement savings because it depends on different factors for each individual, such as where they live and their lifestyle.

In addition, Americans looking toward retirement could see unexpected inflation like we saw in the last few years or a similarly unpredictable stock market. Finally, Social Security is facing a decline in payouts in just over a decade. It all adds up to a lot of confusion and fear about Americans’ golden years.

“That number is all over the place,” Copeland said, referring to how much people are going to need in retirement savings. “Some people use a multiple of their salary; some have suggested that you need 10 times your salary in assets. That’s sometimes where someone has a six-figure income, you’d expect to have a million dollars.”

Social Security’s uncertainty and inflation add to complications

Social Security is also a key contributor toward financial comfort in retirement. According to the survey, 88% of workers expect Social Security to be an income source in retirement, with 91% of retirees confirming that sentiment, reporting the federal benefit as one of their income sources.

Those relying on Social Security just got some new information on the fate of the program — the latest Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees report found that the program will not be able to pay out full benefits beginning in 2035, a year later than expected. While that offers a bit of breathing room for the funds and new retirees — who would start receiving 83% of the full benefits come 2035 — it could still be a major blow to workers’ prospects if Social Security goes unfunded.

“It will be devastating if people who already are facing very dire retirement prospects get less Social Security than they’re planning on. That would be devastating because, for too many people, Social Security provides the bulk of their income in retirement,” William Arnone, the CEO of the non-partisan National Academy of Social Insurance, told BI.

While people are likely going to need to rely on savings during retirement, some may also need to pick up some type of work as a retiree. Estimating how much you will need in retirement may be helpful, even long before retirement.

Copeland said people “need to be aware that that backup source isn’t always going to be there and that they need to think about making sure that they can get enough savings, that they have that buffer, because many people end up retiring before they expect to or may want to.” Copeland said that a health issue could be one of the reasons behind this earlier retirement.

Some workers think they will also have to work for pay in retirement: 75% of workers said so in the survey, including 40% who said part-time work and 24% who said seasonal or sporadic work. That’s compared to almost a third of retirees who said this, including 17% who said they have worked part time.

“Every adult in America deserves to retire with dignity and financial security,” Indira Venkateswaran, AARP senior vice president of research, said in a statement. “Yet far too many people lack access to retirement savings options and this, coupled with higher prices, is making it increasingly hard for people to choose when to retire.”

Still, the survey from EBRI and Greenwald Research found that “30% of retirees say their overall lifestyle in retirement is better than expected.” Almost half of retirees said they somewhat agree that they’re able to spend money how they want to now as a retiree, within reason.

That highlights the fact that calculating how much you’re going to actually need in retirement is complicated.

“We do see that the people that actually do a calculation become more confident and they start doing things that will get them in that direction,” Copeland said. “They’ll start saving more and they’ll start developing plans for what they’re doing. So it’s really a matter of getting people to really focus on what they need and start building a plan toward that.”

What do your retirement outlook and savings look like? Reach out to these reporters to share at mhoff@businessinsider.com, asheffey@businessinsider.com, and jkaplan@businessinsider.com.

• Karie Fugett bought a dilapidated house in Oregon to renovate and live in with her boyfriend.
• The renovations proved overwhelming and expensive, especially after Fugett became pregnant.
• She and her boyfriend moved to a family property in Alabama after the home became too burdensome.

In 2018, I fell in love with a 1200-square-foot dilapidated home. It sat on 22 acres atop a hill, hidden under overgrown bushes and trees. Ivy crept through the windows, and debris littered the yard. The kitchen and bathroom were gutted, and the smell of rats' nests was so strong I could hardly stand it. But with a little imagination, I could see its potential.

I'd discovered the listing only hours before seeing it. Affordable, buildable land in Oregon didn't stay on the market long — sometimes only a day. My boyfriend and I had been looking at properties for months and knew that if we were interested, we'd need to make an offer quickly.

We drove two hours from our home in Philomath to see it. On the way, I called the real-estate agent, who said she couldn't meet us but permitted us to hop the fence and look around.

The property was located in a town I'd never heard of with fewer than 1,000 residents

The house was less than 30 minutes from Eugene. The listing said it had a good foundation but a bad roof. It didn't have plumbing, but it did have electricity. There was a well, but they couldn't confirm whether it worked.

While I would've loved to find land with a livable home, I knew it wasn't within my budget, and I was prepared to live in a camper as we built one ourselves.

I had been sitting on some life insurance money I'd gotten after my Marine husband died of war wound complications. I'd spent the eight years since his death working toward a college degree and had spent over half of the money during that time.

At that point, I was 32 and wanted to invest what I had left in a forever home. The property was listed for $130,000. If I bought it in cash, I'd have another $25,000 for renovations. We'd probably need more money, but we planned to start there and do everything ourselves.

It was hard to see the house from the property

When we arrived, we took turns squeezing through a small gap in the fence. We walked a mile up a wooded driveway and stopped at what looked to be the house. It was difficult to tell. Blackberries had devoured the property.

I pushed into the home's front door, and it swung open. After admiring the living room, I walked up the stairs. At the end of a narrow hallway, I found a room I imagined could be turned into a writing space. One day, maybe, it could be a baby's nursery.

I knew this house would require a lot of work, but I thought I could turn it into my version of the American dream with enough determination. That night, I made an offer of $5,000 above the asking price.

Within a few hours, my offer was accepted. A few weeks later, we pulled our 25-foot camper trailer onto the land and began working.

The next two years were a whirlwind

We decided to pay a professional to put a roof on the house to prevent further water damage, but money was tight after that. We found used windows and planned to install doors ourselves. We got all the old drywall and paneling off of the walls, but we couldn't afford insulation and new drywall yet. We decided to keep the floor cement to save money.

The labor was overwhelming, especially while living in a cramped RV that didn't offer much relaxation at the end of the day. We didn't have running water for showers or baths. We had some help here and there but struggled to find reliable help we could afford.

The pandemic came, and soon after that, I became pregnant. There were so many unknowns. My boyfriend was also working a full-time job but remained determined to keep the land as the well ran dry every afternoon, as the plumbing he'd run to the kitchen busted, and as the camper grew mold.

Meanwhile, I had morning sickness now, but I still had to carry the bucket we used as a toilet down the hill, often in the rain, to dump it in the woods. I wasn't as optimistic as he was.

Another housing opportunity came to us

My boyfriend's grandmother died in the fall of 2020 when I was seven months pregnant. After she passed, her property in Alabama — 60 acres with a modest, livable home — became vacant. My boyfriend's mother said it was ours to live in if we wanted it.

At that point, we'd lived in Oregon for four years and didn't plan on leaving, but I wondered if it might be easier to have grandparents around and to have a whole house to live in rather than a camper and a distant dream, even if the location was not our preference. I wanted to do what was best for my daughter, and I was tired.

In the meantime, we decided to get an apartment in Eugene. I couldn't tolerate the camper lifestyle anymore. The apartment was an unforeseen expense that made it even more difficult to renovate our home. All work on it stopped when my daughter was born.

I reached my breaking point

One afternoon I told my boyfriend I was ready to give up on renovating the home. I wanted a flushing toilet, a kitchen to cook meals in, and space for my baby to learn to walk.

I'd come to the property hopeful after seeing other families DIY their own homes on social media, but renovating a home was one of the most difficult things I've ever attempted. I realized it's nearly impossible without a lot of money, a community of people to help, or both.

That Christmas, we flew to Alabama so I could look at his grandmother's house and decide whether I could imagine raising a family in it. A week later, my boyfriend flew back to Oregon alone to pack our things while I prepared our new home. I listed the property in Oregon, and we sold our camper.

I got lucky with the sale

The silver lining was that housing prices had skyrocketed since I'd purchased the property. It sold within half a year for $295,000, more than double what I paid for it. While it was a good investment, and I don't regret doing it, I will never take on such a huge renovation project again.

Ultimately, no matter how hard I tugged on my bootstraps, I couldn't build that American dream for myself. Instead, I'm lucky to have my boyfriend's family's generational wealth to lean on — something I don't have in my own family.

Though we're stuck in a state whose politics don't quite align with ours, we're grateful to have a home with loving grandparents nearby. We're not sure what we'll do next, but I know we won't be buying another fixer-upper.

• Apple launched its latest line of iPads on May 7, 2024.
• But an ad for the iPad Pro has been slammed online for its visuals and message.
• Artistic tools like a piano and turntable were crushed by a hydraulic press in the commercial. 

Apple sure got people to start paying attention to its latest iPads.

The tech giant unveiled its latest iPad models on May 7. But while the Cupertino-based company might have wanted people to focus on its blazing new chips and thinner form factor, some were taken aback by the product's accompanying commercial.

The minute-long ad titled "Crush!" showed various artistic tools — a turntable, a trumpet, a piano, and a collection of camera lenses — slowly crushed by a hydraulic press to make a shiny new iPad Pro.

The ad certainly made a statement, just probably not in the manner that Apple intended.

Apple CEO Tim Cook's X post of the video drew over 11,000 replies as of press time, with a large number of them panning the ad's visuals and message.

"Who thought this was a good idea??" X user Joe B. Transue wrote in his reply to Cook. "Did you hire the one person that liked the scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where the bad guy dips the animated shoe in the toon-killing bath??"

Others offered backhanded compliments to Apple, saying that the ad could be a masterpiece if it were meant to be a critique of tech giants.

"Is this intentionally a metaphor for the damage to the things of value to humanity wrought by tech bros and gen AI for profit/greed? If so, bravo!" another person told Cook.

Some felt the commercial missed the mark compared to Apple's past work. The company made waves with its "1984" Super Bowl ad when it introduced its first Macintosh computer in the 80s.

"Maybe hire Ridley Scott again next time instead," read one X post referencing the award-winning director behind the "1984" ad.

Venture capitalist and Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham went a step further with his review of the ad.

Apple's commercial, Graham said, would've been an insult to the company's late founder, Steve Jobs.

"Steve wouldn't have shipped that ad. It would have pained him too much to watch," Graham said in his reply to Cook.

Jobs, who handed the reigns to Cook before passing away in October 2011, often sought to portray Apple as lying at the intersection of arts and technology.

"It is in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough—it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing," Jobs said when he unveiled the iPad 2 in March 2011.

Representatives for Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• Tesla is facing an uphill battle in China, the world's largest auto market. 
• The EV ecosystem Tesla built may help catapult that competition to success.
• Elon Musk appears focused on reinforcing Tesla's China business.

Tesla is facing tougher years ahead in the Chinese market, and it couldn't come at a worse time for the company.

Elon Musk's automaker has enjoyed many years of favorable treatment from the Chinese government. When Tesla started building cars at the Shanghai Gigafactory in 2019, it was the first foreign automaker to wholly own its production facility.

The Chinese government also provided Tesla with loans, tax benefits, and subsidies in return for a boon to the local supply base as Tesla worked with companies to source new, lower-cost materials and components.

Creating this ecosystem around the Shanghai factory changed the way electric cars were built in the world's largest auto market and may have sown the seeds for the intense competition Musk now faces in the region.

After years of steady growth in China, Tesla's sales are slipping

Tesla sold 62,167 cars in China in April, down 18% from a year ago, according to data released Tuesday by the China Passenger Car Association.

Local rival BYD, a former battery supplier that has its own mighty hold on the EV supply chain, is now outselling Musk's company, delivering 145,576 of its lower-cost battery-electric vehicles in April.

Now Tesla has to fight with domestic competitors

China fueled Tesla's explosive growth over the past five years, making it the most valuable automaker in the world and a leading seller of electric vehicles. But in the meantime Tesla has played into China's hand, teaching its local supply base how to build better EVs and scale up to mass produce them.

Now, Tesla will have to face home-grown competitors who will benefit from the same EV ecosystem that it helped to build, potentially sowing the seeds of its own downfall in the region.

This strategy of luring an industry leader to the region with favorable treatment to spur innovation for the rest of the sector isn't new for the Chinese government.

Take Apple, for example. China provided the California tech company's iPhone manufacturer, Foxconn, with mountains of economic incentives and tax breaks. Today, a majority of Apple's most popular products are manufactured in China, putting the country at the center of the smartphone manufacturing ecosystem.

Tesla sends in reinforcements

Challenges in China couldn't come at a worse time for Tesla. Musk has tried to keep pace with BYD by lowering prices in China for the past year, but the company is running out of leeway on pricing as a global EV slowdown is finally catching up to Tesla.

Inexpensive Chinese cars are also competing with Tesla in important European and Scandinavian markets, a traditional stronghold for Musk. And while they aren't for sale in the US, BYD's Dolphin Mini goes for just $21,000 in Mexico compared to Tesla's cheapest Model 3, which is down to about $39,000 these days.

Meanwhile, in Tesla's native US market, similar price cuts are losing their luster as traditional competitors like Ford and GM are able to fall back on gas-powered profits and a newfound interest in hybrid vehicles, which Tesla doesn't build.

After his latest visit to the region, Musk appears to be sending reinforcements to the Chinese market. Tom Zhu, one of Musk's most trusted executives and the architect of Tesla's success in Shanghai, is headed back to the region as the company also looks to roll out its Full Self-Driving software.

• Southern European economies have had remarkable recoveries since the financial crisis over a decade ago.
• But a surge in real estate investment, partly due to "golden visas", has led to skyrocketing housing costs.
• Northern Europe is also facing a housing crunch, despite very different economic conditions.

Southern European economies — from Greece to Portugal — have made remarkable recoveries since the European financial crisis just over a decade ago. Tourism is booming, investors and major businesses have moved in, and lots of foreigners are relocating to the region to take advantage of new jobs and a cheaper cost of living.

But one side effect of this growth is skyrocketing housing costs. Home prices and rents have soared in cities like Lisbon and Athens, while beach towns from Spain to the Greek islands are dominated by pricey short-term rentals.

This is in part the doing of so-called "golden visas," hugely popular residency visas for foreign investors. In countries like Greece, Spain, and Portugal, most visa applicants qualify by buying residential property.

Americans make up a big portion of the foreigners flooding into Southern Europe. They're gobbling up some of the most expensive real estate in Spain. They spent more per square meter on homes in Spain than any other nationality besides Danes, The New York Times reported last year. And they purchased more Portuguese golden visas than any other nationality in 2022. Some are escaping increasingly unaffordable housing markets in the US. But they're now contributing to housing affordability issues across the Atlantic.

A surge in real estate investment has pushed home values way up, gentrifying in-demand cities, displacing longtime residents, and preventing young people from moving out of their parents' homes. Despite their booming economies, average southern Europeans still have relatively low wages and just can't compete with foreign investors, homebuyers, tourists, and remote workers.

Portugal, which has had one of the most popular and lucrative golden visas, rolled out its policy in 2012, fast-tracking visas for well-heeled foreigners, including those who transferred at least one million euros to a Portuguese bank account, purchased at least 500,000 euros in real estate, created at least 10 jobs, or donated at least 250,000 euros to certain cultural or artistic initiatives. The visa holders can travel freely in more than two dozen EU countries and are eligible for family reunification.

The visas have had a huge impact on Portuguese real estate and housing costs, João Pereira dos Santos, a researcher at the School of Economics and Finance at Queen Mary University of London, told Business Insider. The vast majority of visa holders have used a real estate purchase as their way in.

"They buy houses, so they do not invest and create jobs. And we know part of this housing is immediately put in the long-term and in the short-term rental markets," Pereira dos Santos said. "So these people that apply for the visa, they do not come to live in Portugal."

Portuguese home prices rose 19% just between 2021 and 2022. The whole market — from cheaper rentals to luxury houses — has been affected, Pereira dos Santos said. "The problem was so salient that it even appreciated houses that were deals between Portuguese buyers and sellers," he said.

Golden visas aren't all to blame. At the same time, Portugal, like the rest of sunny Southern Europe, has seen a huge surge in tourists. Many emerged from pandemic lockdowns with the travel bug — and cash to spend. Last year was "the best year in the history of tourism in Portugal," the country's Secretary of State for Tourism, Trade and Services, Nuno Fazenda, told Bloomberg. The pandemic also ushered in a wave of remote workers and retirees looking for a high quality of life in relatively affordable European countries. New digital nomad visas for foreign remote workers have also juiced demand for housing.

But as Portugal has experienced a worsening housing affordability crisis, Portuguese public opinion on golden visas has soured. Pereira dos Santos and his colleagues conducted a nationally representative survey in Portugal that found that a majority of respondents were in favor of ending the golden visa program even if it harmed the Portuguese economy to do so. Last year, the country changed the terms of its golden visa program to exclude real estate investment.

Other southern European countries are following suit, similarly pointing to skyrocketing real estate prices. Last month, Spain announced the end of its golden visa program, which was almost entirely dependent on foreign real estate investment.

Due to these measures, some of the most in-demand places in Southern Europe will likely see slower housing price growth going forward. But because these economies are still doing so well overall, real estate prices will generally continue to tick up, Holger Schmieding, the chief economist at Berenberg Bank in London, told Business Insider.

"These economies are better places to invest and create jobs for domestic and for foreign investors into the economies as a whole," Schmieding said. "With better employment prospects people feel confident to buy a house or build a house. The real estate market is largely a reflection of the economy being on a more solid footing."

Northern Europe faces its own crunch

The economies of Southern Europe are doing much better than the traditional powerhouses of northern Europe. Portugal and Spain grew more than three times as fast as Germany did in the first quarter of this year. But northern Europe is struggling with a housing crunch of its own.

The Netherlands has one of the most severe housing crises on the continent. Home prices have doubled, on average, over the last decade and now a newly-constructed home costs 16 times the average Dutch salary. Limits on building permits, a shortage of building materials and construction workers, and limited land have all contributed to the country's housing shortage.

Germany has seen a significant home price correction as it faced relatively high interest rates, an energy crisis, and new regulations requiring that homeowners switch from oil and gas heating systems to heat pumps that rely on renewable energy. That combination has helped dampen demand for homes and construction.

German housing prices are expected to start rebounding as the home heating policy becomes better understood, the European Central Bank signals it will soon cut interest rates, and wages rise faster than prices. "The German market for house prices is close to bottoming out, and the same probably holds for building permits and residential construction," Schmieding said.

France similarly saw housing costs steadily climb in recent years, but, like Germany, has seen its prices come down amid high interest rates. Schmieding also expects home prices and rents to tick back up later this year in France as long as interest rates come down.

The country is still facing housing affordability issues — a situation one prominent charity recently called "a social bomb"  — with rising homelessness and a growing waitlist for social housing. The Paris Olympic games this summer are only intensifying housing demand in the capital, including for short-term rentals, which has reduced the number of rental apartments on the market.

Despite very different economic conditions, all kinds of European countries are facing the same dilemma that's plaguing the US: a shortage of affordable homes.

• Affirm is investing heavily in AI-powered chatbots to cater to Gen Z's phone aversion.
• AI chatbots are expected to replace 20-30% of customer service agents by 2026, according to Gartner.
• Despite the potential savings and efficiency, AI customer service has seen limited adoption.

Gen Z hates talking on the phone, so companies like the $9.7 billion buy-now, pay-later giant Affirm are betting big on AI-powered chatbots.

The bots let voice-averse customers solve problems online, Affirm CEO Max Levchin said on an earnings call on Wednesday.

"We've been investing really heavily in this idea that Gen Z consumers really love chatting versus calling and they have no problem chatting with an Al, especially if the Al is intelligent," Levchin said.

Affirm uses chatbots to solve fast queries, like policy questions, and then real people take over for more complicated cases, Levchin said. The PayPal alumnus said chatbots are helping Affirm scale its customer service team.

Affirm built an AI-based assistant and tested it in the last quarter. Less than 40% of users needed to speak with a human after using the bot, Levchin wrote in a shareholder letter.

"No one has yet to lose their job to be replaced by robot at a firm, so that's not a short-term cost saving," Levchin said on Wednesday's call, adding that AI could save the company money over the next one to three years.

Tech research firm Gartner estimated last year that by 2026, AI will replace 20-30% of customer service agents.

The nascent technology is already having a big bottom-line impact for some companies.

Deb Cupp, the president of Microsoft Americas, said in a panel discussion at Davos in January that the software giant saved $100 million in its customer-service operation by implementing AI. Microsoft also sells AI-powered customer service technology.

Mihir Shukla, the CEO of Automation Anywhere, said at Davos that the company cut customer-service costs by 40% while seeing improved performance since introducing AI.

AI customer service hasn't been a panacea for all businesses, though. People tricked and hacked a car dealership's customer service AI in December, and in January, a UK mail service's bot swore at a customer.

And AI bots have not yet been widely adopted. Only 8% of customers said they used a chatbot during their most recent customer service encounter, according to a Gartner survey done from December 2022 through February 2023. Of those who used a chatbot, only a quarter said they would use that bot again in the future.