Author: openjargon

• Kreskin J. Torres, a Lyft driver, has traveled across all 50 states, documenting his dining experiences.
• Torres is working on a book, an app called Rideshare Foodies, and is organizing a national potluck.
• He said gig driving is just temporary and has helped him achieve his larger goals.

Kreskin J. Torres, 35, has eaten his way through all 50 states — including Alaska and Hawaii. His ticket to doing so? Driving for Uber and Lyft.

The Army veteran and Baltimore native has documented his dining on his blog Rideshare Foodie. After seven years, he's learned the most profitable times of day to drive, the best locations to find riders in each city and the optimal strategies for maximizing tips.

"You just got to work smarter, not harder," Torres said. "From my experience, I've been in every state, so I know how every city works now."

At the same time, he's been able to pursue his foodie passions. Torres is now working on a book called "Taste of the States," his recommendations app called Rideshare Foodies, and planning a series of events to honor dishes from various states and their history.

While driving for ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft can be a flexible way to earn money for people like Torres who have more than one hustle, it can also be a recipe for burnout. Among the dozens of drivers Business Insider has spoken with over the past few months, many are already dreaming of what's next — starting a business or finding new modes of employment.

And that's Torres' main career advice for those considering it. After all, he's not planning to do the job forever, as he hopes to transition away, though it helped him jump-start new paths for his future.

"Do not make this the end all be all," Torres said, noting how Uber and Lyft have threatened to pull out of Minneapolis. "When it started, it was advertised as a gig, a side hustle."

Traveling the country as a gig driver

As a veteran, he said this job has been relatively stress-free and helpful for not feeling lonely, a similar sentiment he's heard from veterans with PTSD.

"I enjoy meeting and connecting with different people and getting to see different places," Torres said.

He decided to spend his next few years on the road using driving to fund his adventures and to meet locals who could point him to the best restaurants and experiences.

"The great thing is you get to learn about different cities and how everything operates," Torres said.

He moved to San Antonio, though he works mainly around the more-profitable Austin area, and has explored the South and Southeast.

While he doesn't make much money from his blog, he said driving has allowed him to try everything from Navajo tacos in Arizona to biscuits in chocolate gravy in Arkansas to huckleberry swirls in Montana. Driving has led him to some of his favorite restaurants like I693 Red Zone Grill in Jackson, Mississippi; Strawberry's BBQ in Holcomb, Missouri; and Rice & Roll by Xing Xing in Wichita.

Learning the most profitable places and times to drive

Torres noticed he would get more profitable rides driving around suburbs, airports, and sports stadiums, locations coveted by drivers as they get more tips and sometimes elevated fares.

He learned New Year's will always be profitable, though rides slow down around February before picking up in mid-March. It's led him to be more methodical about the types of rides to take, as well as planning when to save more of his earnings and when to splurge a little on food and travel.

"After seven years, I'm a lot more experienced. It depends on the time of the season, so I usually can do a lot more business in college towns," Torres said. "I would visit a city, see what they're known for, a little history behind it."

Torres was making enough to comfortably travel the country, though he's always been careful since he said passengers are sometimes confused by his out-of-state license plate. He also faced a permanent deactivation from Uber last year over a dispute over the color of his car.

He doesn't have a wife or kids, nor does he have an apartment, as he mainly lives out of his car to save money. He acknowledges that growing competition on the road and lower earnings could put a greater dent in savings for people with families or permanent residences.

Torres has transitioned to driving full-time for Lyft, and he typically is online for 12 hours a day but only actively drives five to six hours in between waiting around airports.

He said he's increasingly put himself in his passengers' shoes to determine the best places and times to drive — he likely won't put in the effort to drive during rain, and he's more likely to do later trips around concert venues or bars.

To continue supporting his travels, he said he sometimes does airport rides at 3 or 4 a.m., as well as rides between 6:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. during the morning rush. He also said being online around noon is fruitful for corporate workers, while 3 p.m. is right when schools let out. He usually tries not to drive around evening rush hours but sometimes resumes later at night.

He also devotes more time to driving between Wednesday and Sunday, when rides are more frequent, whether for "whiskey Wednesdays" or Friday afternoon happy hours. This is also when he can best network with passengers and hear their stories, as he said he occasionally gets to drive famous people.

Torres said drivers should consider this a short-term opportunity while working toward long-term goals. As he eases off the app, he has his eyes set on more international travel in the coming months. He's also investing more time in his food app, a local recommendation tool that functions like a Facebook group in which people ask questions about, for example, the best bartender in the area or where to go for particular dishes. It has launched on Android and set to be released on Apple by the summer.

"The most positivity that you can get out of it, do whatever you can and get the most out of it," Torres said. "The next few months will probably be my last time doing this because I'm focusing on other things, so I always had a plan for the things I was going to do."

Are you a ride-hailing driver who's struggling to pay bills or has had recent success? Have you recently pivoted to a new career from driving? Reach out to nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

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• A millennial earned roughly $225,000 secretly working two full-time remote jobs. 
• He used the extra money to buy a truck, start an Airbnb, and grow his savings. 
• But several factors led him to ultimately decide that "the juice wasn't worth the squeeze."

In 2022, Luke was making six figures annually working remotely as an e-commerce professional based in the South.

But he had a lot of downtime — and he's "not good with having a lot of downtime," the 37-year-old told Business Insider.

"I just figured I'd find a second role that paid well enough but wasn't overly demanding," said Luke, whose identity is known to BI but he asked to use a pseudonym due to his fear of professional repercussions.

Roughly three months later, he was secretly working two full-time remote jobs and earning about $225,000 a year in combined income. He said he used the extra money to make a down payment on a truck, start an Airbnb, and pad his savings.

But earlier this year, after roughly 13 months of being "overemployed," Luke quit his second job. While he considered carrying on, he said five factors were working against him: an upcoming promotion in his first role, a difficult boss, the recent birth of his first child, higher taxes, and a return-to-office mandate.

Over the past year, Business Insider has spoken with more than a dozen job jugglers who used their six-figure earnings to pay off debt, plan for an early retirement, and afford expensive vacations and weight-loss drugs. While some employers may be OK with their workers taking on a second job, doing so without approval could have repercussions if a worker is caught.

While working multiple full-time jobs can be very lucrative, fierce competition for remote roles has made this unattainable for many people. What's more, return-to-office mandates and burnout can make job juggling unsustainable.

Luke shared how he tried to keep both jobs going as long as he could — and why he ultimately decided to give one up.

Juggling both jobs felt manageable and worthwhile — until it didn't

Luke's overemployment journey was a bit of a roller coaster.

Before he found a second job that stuck, he said he started one that only lasted about a week before his employment was terminated. Luke wasn't sure if his job juggling had been exposed or if the company just changed its mind — he never found out.

When Luke started his more successful job juggling stint, it wasn't too difficult to manage both jobs. He said he only worked between 40 and 50 hours a week between the two roles and didn't have much trouble avoiding double-booking his calendars.

But he said the boss at his second job often left him frustrated.

"I hate my boss with a passion," he told Business Insider before he quit.

Over the past year, both work and home responsibilities made job juggling even more difficult. At his primary job, he said an upcoming promotion forced him to take on a bigger workload and put in longer hours. At home, he and his wife welcomed their first kid.

At the same time, the extra income from his second job — which paid about $80,000 a year — wasn't boosting his finances quite as much as he initially expected. That's because it slotted him into an income bracket with higher tax rates.

"Of the money I made from the second job, a third of it, I had to basically hold back just for taxes," he said.

"The juice wasn't worth the squeeze"

Earlier this year, Luke faced perhaps the biggest challenge in his overemployed journey: His primary job was switching its policy from fully remote to hybrid by the middle of 2024 — which would require him to come into the office a few days a week.

For many job jugglers, a return-to-office mandate would be the nail in the coffin — at least for their existing working arrangement. But Luke tried to figure out how to keep both jobs going.

On the days he had to work on-site, he could use his personal office to juggle both jobs without anyone peeking over his shoulder, he said. His main concern was that his employer would notice that someone from a different company was using the internet connection.

However, after weighing the challenges the hybrid policy would present, in addition to the other downsides of job juggling, Luke ultimately decided that "the juice wasn't worth the squeeze." His second job would have to go.

But he didn't immediately hand in his two-week notice. That's because he thought he could get a few easy paychecks first.

Luke said his company typically went through a multi-step process before parting ways with poor-performing employees, so it'd be possible to string out the process for at least a month.

But he soon decided this strategy wasn't worth the extra income either — and called it quits.

"I'm not going to try and juggle both jobs," he said in March. "I thought about it, but with the new baby and a promotion coming, it's just too much."

Are you working multiple remote jobs at the same time and willing to provide details about your pay and schedule? If so, reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.

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• A UK couple found a trove of 17th-century coins during a home renovation.
• The collection includes Elizabeth I silver shillings and Charles I gold coins.
• More evidence that a home might be hiding an amazing and valuable secret.

A UK couple's home renovation project turned into a profitable venture when they discovered a $43,000 treasure trove under their kitchen floor.

Robert and Betty Fooks were renovating their farmhouse in southern England when they found a valuable collection of 17th-century coins concealed beneath their kitchen.

Fooks' South Poorton Farm is a 17th-century cottage located in a small hamlet in West Dorset.

The couple purchased the long house in 2019 and removed the modern concrete floor during their extensive renovation.

The coins were discovered while digging down two feet to expand the downstairs area.

The discovery is the latest in historic and valuable discoveries made accidentally in people's backyards, basements, underfloors, behind walls, and in attics, and evidence that your home could be hiding an amazing secret.

Betty Fooks, an NHS health visitor, told the Guardian: "It is a 400-year-old house, so there was lots of work to do. We were taking all the floors and ceilings out and took it back to its stone walls.

"One evening, my husband was digging with a pick ax when he called to say they've found something. He put all the coins in a bucket. If we hadn't lowered the floor, they would still be hidden there," she said.

The collection was handed to the British Museum for identification and cleaning.

Dukes Auctioneers said on its website that the British Museum believes the coins were deposited on one occasion around 1642-4. The English Civil War began around this time, and the area around Poorton experienced much conflict.

The "Poorton coin hoard" comprising 1,000 coins is now set to go under the hammer on April 23 at Duke's Auctioneers.

The collection, which includes Elizabeth I silver shillings, Charles I gold unite coins, James I silver sixpence coins, and more, has an estimated value of £35,000, or $43,600.

Business Insider contacted Duke's Auctioneers for comment.

Spectacular discoveries

In 2019, a similar discovery was made by another couple in England.

A hoard of 264 coins English gold coins from 1610-1727 was unearthed by an unnamed couple digging up their kitchen floor.

The trove was believed to have been once owned by a family of traders who made their fortunes in Baltic trading.

The collection sold at auction in 2022 for £754,000, or $842,330.

Small and easy to hide, coins feature in many of the secret troves unsuspecting homeowners have stumbled upon. Other lost artifacts have ranged from first editions of superhero comics to rare vintage cars.

But one of the most spectacular discoveries was an Italian Renaissance 16th-century masterpiece hidden under an old matress in an attic in France in 2014.

The "Judith Beheading Holofernes," believed to be a canvas by Caravaggio, was later sold for $170 million.

The unnamed family who shared the astonishing windfall speculated that work may have been spirited out of Italy by an ancestor who fought in Napoleon's army in the early 19th century, reports say.

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• Russia is recruiting female convicts to boost its military forces, a Ukrainian intelligence spokesperson said.
• Moscow wants to recruit the convicts to auxiliary and combat roles, the Kyiv Post reported.
• More than 100,000 convicts from Russian penal colonies have reportedly been conscripted to fight in Ukraine.

Russia is recruiting female convicts to bolster its war effort in Ukraine, the Kyiv Post reported, citing a Ukrainian intelligence spokesperson.

The women are promised financial incentives and the prospect of freedom in exchange for their service, the report said.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence service (HUR), told the Kyiv Post: "We are not only talking about auxiliary units, but combat units as well if needed."

The role of women in the war has expanded rapidly since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The fate of many of the Russian female convicts recruited is bleak, however, with only a few making it back alive, Yusov claimed.

"Most of the women prisoners recruited by Russia have been killed or returned with serious injuries," he said.

The practice of offering convicts freedom in exchange for military service in Ukraine began under Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late founder of the mercenary Wagner Group.

More than 100,000 convicts from Russian penal colonies have been conscripted to fight in Ukraine so far, Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian human rights activist who runs the prisoners' rights group Gulagu.net, told Newsweek in December.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, has defended Russia's use of prisoners in the war, saying that they "atone with blood for crimes on the battlefield, in assault brigades, under bullets, under shells."

In January, the UK Ministry of Defence reported that Russia was on course to lose 500,000 troops by the end of 2024 after turning its forces into a "low quality, high quantity mass army."

Business Insider contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.

"War doesn't care whether you are a man or a woman"

Ukrainian women have been joining the military in significant numbers since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Ukraine's Ministry of Defense reported a more than 40% increase in female soldiers in its forces between 2021 and 2023, with around 43,000 women serving in military roles as of October 2023.

The BBC reported in August 2023 that 5,000 women were serving on the front lines.

"A war doesn't care whether you are a man or a woman. When a missile hits a house, it doesn't care if there are women, men, children – everyone dies," Sniper Evgenya Emerald told the BBC.

"And it's the same on the front line — if you can be effective and you're a woman, why wouldn't you defend your country, your people?"

Ukraine's defense ministry opened up more combat positions to women in 2016 and again in 2018, meaning they could serve in roles such as infantry or snipers, CNBC previously reported.

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• Helen Chandler-Wilde's belongings had been packed up into storage while she stayed with her parents after a break-up. 
• But then she got a call that a fire at the unit had destroyed everything she owned. 
• Losing everything was hard, she told BI. But it reframed her thinking about how much you really need to be happy. 

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Helen Chandler-Wilde about what it was like to lose all of her possessions in a fire. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I only heard about the fire a few days after it happened.

I was 25 at the time and living with my parents for a few months following a breakup. All my belongings had been packed into storage while I looked for somewhere new to live.

I had thought that the worst-case scenario would be mice eating a couple of my books.

But on New Year's Eve, a fire started at the storage company. Everything burned down.

When my parents sat me down at the kitchen table and told me the news, I genuinely thought it was a joke.

I cried all night long, and then I just felt really, really angry that I had lost everything.

My birth certificate, all of my books, jewelry, my bed, my dining table, kitchenware, blankets, and curtains had all been in there. All I had left was a suitcase of clothes.

Those items had felt like a part of my identity —something I could rely on to show other people and myself who I was.

Losing them made me question, "Am I really this kind of person if I don't have all of that stuff to prove it? "

There was also this purple cardboard box filled with sentimental bits of paper: cards, letters, tickets from gigs, and photos of my university sports team. Those little things connected me to other people.

That's the one thing I wish I could have saved.

The first things I replaced

You don't realize how expensive everything you own is until something like this happens. I was completely overwhelmed by the financial cost of replacing my furniture.

I was earning peanuts at the time and only got £2,000 ($2,500) of insurance even though it was worth far more.

A friend of a friend gave me a bed, a mattress, and a sofa, which was invaluable. Then I just headed to the secondhand store across the road from my apartment and had to buy basically everything in there.

I bought a dining table, plates and crockery, some rickety chairs, and a mirror — turns out you really need one for getting dressed in the morning before work!

There was no time to browse; I just needed to have the bare necessities that I could afford.

Having stuff doesn't make you happier

The fire has reframed my way of thinking.

I definitely have less now than I did before. That's partly because I feel like my belongings could go at any point, so I don't trust owning stuff anymore.

But truthfully, I can't even remember some of the belongings that were in the storage unit, which shows how they didn't actually benefit me.

I have learned not to get attached to physical objects. Beyond the basics, the vast majority of stuff doesn't actually make you happier. Now I prefer spending money on going out for dinner with friends.

There are also advantages to not having so many things. It's easy to keep clean, and there's less stress associated with it.

A dangerous cycle of thinking

It's really tricky for me now to have conversations with friends about shopping because their ideas are so different. I find it challenging when people say, " Oh, I really need this."

I always say, "Okay, you might want it, but you definitely don't need it."

Our generation spends more time alone and looking at ads, and that has an impact on how we see the world. It's become a default state to look at what others have and want it yourself. People browse constantly on Instagram or social media and convince themselves that they won't be happy unless they buy certain things.

And that's not true at all. Your life will be perfectly fine.

It's a loop you can get stuck in, but as soon as you stop browsing, you stop wanting stuff.

Obviously, there are people who don't have everything they need, and that's completely different.

Work out what you need

I'm not judgmental at all about how much people own, and I'm not a minimalist myself.

But what I think is important is to work out what you need for yourself, not copy what everyone else has. Reconsider how much you buy and why you buy what you do.

It's about selecting the things that actually have value in your life and are worth the space in your home.

For me, memories make you who you are. So, I have lots of pictures on the walls of my house; it's cozy and creates a sense of space. And, though I definitely do still keep those sentimental things, I have tried to pare them back a bit because anything can become sentimental if you let it. Having one amazing picture of your best friend's wedding is enough.

If you focus on the good things, you understand that you most likely already have everything you already need.

Helen Chandler-Wilde's book "Lost & Found" was published in March.

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• Google fired more than two dozen employees after they took part in sit-ins at company offices.
• It's a reminder that the phrase "bring your whole self to work" can come with limits.
• Leaders and employees need to discuss what's appropriate in the workplace.

So much for bringing your whole self to work.

Many workplace experts will tell you that sharing too much about your personal life on the job has never been a great idea. But in the years since the gauzy "whole self" notion became something of an HR cliché, the idea has frayed even further.

That's what some Googlers found out after the company fired more than two dozen of them recently for taking part in sit-ins at company offices in California and New York. It seems increasingly clear that now, in a year when nearly half of humanity is expected to vote in national elections, it might be extra risky to hoist your political stripes at your 9-to-5.

"When managers and leaders say, 'Bring your whole self to work,' they're leaving out the terms and conditions," Megan Reitz, coauthor of the book "Speak Out, Listen Up," told Business Insider.

"Really, they're saying, 'Bring your whole selves to work, as long as we can cope with what you have to say, and please keep within the realms of the rules of the game in this organization, and don't be too disruptive, and for God's sake, don't be an activist,'" she quipped.

It's easy to see how this all got a bit muddled. Ping pong tables. Group yoga. Tech founders wearing activewear during the day on Silicon Valley campuses. Even before the pandemic, there was a movement toward showing more of what makes us us while on the job.

We've brought our dogs, our unique design sense, and, apparently, our appetite for half a can of sardines. (Sorry, office fridge.)

The pandemic blurred boundaries even further. From the early days, when anyone who could was working from home, we all got used to "meeting" their cats, spouses, or kids. There's been a certain normalization of peeking behind the curtains at your coworkers' non-office lives, which is only exacerbated by a firm shift to hybrid work.

But one thing has seemingly changed back to the olden days — and that's that even the most "woke"-seeming companies don't want you to bring your political views to work. At all.

The Google workers who protested the company's $1.2 billion cloud-computing contract with the government of Israel certainly found out that there might be quite a lot of nuance to what's acceptable, even for a company that has encouraged people to bring their whole selves to the job.

The event spurred CEO Sundar Pichai to admonish employees against dragging political debates into the office.

"This is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics," he wrote this week. It was part of a broader memo about a corporate reshuffling meant to help the company accelerate its progress on artificial intelligence.

Of course, there's a difference between talking politics and staging a protest that disrupts work. Yet Google's decision and a recent political dustup at NPR following a longtime staffer's criticism of the nonprofit news organization are a reminder that while Doc Martens and midriff-revealing crop tops might cut it at the office these days, baring your politics might not.

'Bring your whole professional self'

The whole-self idea grew in popularity in the 2010s, Ella Washington, a professor of practice at Georgetown University, told BI. Yet it has to be within reason — and fit within what's acceptable at an organization, she said.

"It is said in a way that is supposed to encourage authenticity, but the reality is in most workplaces, you can't bring your whole self. You can likely bring your whole professional self," she said.

Washington said business leaders need to communicate what's acceptable, and workers need to weigh whether an organization's stated values align with theirs.

"When it comes to business, it shouldn't be just based on our personal politics. And I know that's difficult for people to say because it's like, 'OK, wait. I can bring my whole self to work, but I can't talk about politics,'" she said.

This is where nuance comes into play: Political talk at work can be necessary.

"When it is connected to the work that we do, we absolutely need to have those conversations," Washington said.

Deciding what's political

Still, Reitz noted that people don't always agree on what's political. Perhaps, she said, it's a conversation about race that one person sees as being fraught and another person views as essential for discussing in the context of work.

Regarding work, "There is no clarity on what politics means. So any conversation — about whether it's in or out — is already extremely problematic," Reitz said.

"Leaders are saying, 'Bring your whole selves to work — speak up.' And then a few people are kind of going, 'Oh, OK. Thank you very much for that invitation. Let's talk about climate. Let's talk about race. Let's talk about modern slavery. Let's talk about the war. Let's talk about abortion rights,'" Reitz said. But then some leaders say, "'Oh, I didn't really mean that.'"

Both Reitz and Washington said having discussions at work shouldn't mean the actual business of the organization gets put on hold.

Reitz also appeared to concur with Washington that business leaders and employees need to discuss the types of conversations appropriate for the workplace.

It might not be easy. "That means that we're prepared to make mistakes. We're prepared to have fallout. We're prepared not to please everybody," Reitz said.

But, "if you have an environment where you can't tolerate diverse opinions and views without the whole thing exploding, then your problem is bigger than politics," she said.

When companies don't engage with issues and then someone gets squashed for raising something that management deems out of bounds, the rank and file can become distrustful of the idea of bringing one's whole self to the job, Reitz said, adding, "All that does is breed even more cynicism."

However, Washington said workers have to remember what bosses are often really after.

"They don't want to walk back 'bring your whole self to work,' but the reality is that they don't actually mean bring your entire self, including your worst self, and your mean self, and your cranky self," she said. "They don't need those things."

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• My husband and I homeschool our son, which allows us to travel. 
• In addition to his homeschooling curriculum, he has attended schools in different countries. 
• We've noticed differences — and similarities — between the schools he attended in Europe and the US.

My son has been homeschooled, essentially, his whole academic life. Because of this, we're able to travel multiple times each month without worrying about him missing school. I am a writer and my husband is a film and TV composer as well as an investor, which also makes this possible.

Not only can we take my son's work with us, but he has also been able to experience schooling in various countries by joining classrooms and homeschool groups throughout our travels. His curriculum is based in the United States, but integrating local schools helps him learn different languages, culture, and of course, make friends.

Because we have spent extended periods of time in Portugal, the Netherlands, and Italy, we have been able to experience how a few schools in these places approach education more intimately. While we've experienced some similarities across the schools he's attended, like classroom size and curriculum structure, we also noticed distinct differences in approach.

School was low-stress in the Netherlands

Where we lived in the Netherlands, children as young as four years old often happily walked themselves to school. The school my son attended in the Netherlands was run like a well-oiled machine, yet they still maintained a playful and innocent atmosphere.

The school administrators were strict about timeliness — I often witnessed that if students arrived even one minute late, they were considered late, with no exceptions. However, discipline for kids was simply a stern talking-to from teachers. Teachers told us that if children had issues with each other, they were expected to sort it amongst themselves, while the adults observed from a distance.

Friends who had kids at other schools in the Netherlands confirmed that this focus on independent conflict resolution with minimal adult intervention was common. Play was the central focus of the day for children until they were about seven years old. The primary focus during those early years was on children learning to coexist with one another rather than academics.

Learning to swim was also a significant focus in the early years in the Netherlands and considered more critical than learning to read by many locals we spoke with. Once compulsory, now only some schools integrate swim classes into the curriculum. Given the numerous canals everywhere, this emphasis is understandable.

Children at my son's school spent a large portion of their day outdoors, regardless of the weather, which parents said was typical. The Dutch often say, "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." At school, my son assisted in preparing daily vegan meals, and occasionally brought home crafts to do.

Friends who had older kids in the Netherlands told me that the homework increased once they hit middle school, where there was more of an emphasis on academics. I truly appreciated this low-stress setting we encountered during our son's primary school years.

We saw more emphasis on collaboration than individual performance in Portugal

In Portugal, there was an emphasis on projects that children completed together to enhance their collaboration skills, and praise was often based on the collaboration itself rather than individual performance.

We noticed that children rarely had packed schedules filled with extracurricular activities like in the US, and often stayed up very late at night with their families, based on our own observations and talking to Portuguese parents.

While I adored the genuinely "crunchy" vibe of the schools my son attended and the kindness of the teachers, I believed our son would benefit from more structure and consistency in his routine. So, for a time, we supplemented even more than our usual load of schoolwork at home to provide more academic consistency during his short stint at a Portuguese school and eventually transitioned to only homeschooling again and met with a homeschool group for field trips.

We noticed less encouragement of competition in Italy than in the US

At the school my son goes to in Italy, it was immediately evident that food and dining is treated as an important part of the school day. Students are given a proper dining experience with formal table settings. The primary schools get a full two-hour break in the middle of the day including lunch and free time, known as riposo, lending to a much longer school day overall.

Football (soccer) is also taken seriously, so most schools we visited have specialized schedules specifically for children who play and perhaps want to pursue it as a career. Participation in the arts, football, and music is encouraged, but football is by far the most popular activity at our school and in our region.

As for the emphasis on the curriculum, so far, it seems far less rigid than in the US. Cognitive and social skills appear to be the primary objectives, rather than a heavy focus on testing. There is almost no encouragement of competition that we witnessed, as collaboration seems to be the focus until middle school.

My son is not yet in middle school, but from what I've heard both in preliminary conversations with schools, open days, and from Facebook groups with other expat parents, it sounds like middle school takes a more rigorous academic approach across Europe. For example, some countries, like Italy, expect children to know their primary focus of study by the time they enter high school, and then are placed in a specialized school program geared towards that interest area. Middle school seems to help form this decision by focusing on more specific subjects like robotics, engineering and anatomy, as they are already expected to know how to work together.

The unifying theme we observed throughout the schools in Europe that our son has attended, regardless of the country, was to allow children to be children and let the serious learning come later. At almost all the schools my son attended or toured, more importance was placed on children's ability to coexist together, work on projects and tasks collaboratively, than on core subjects like math, science, and history in those early years.

Each country had something we cherished and something we had to learn to adjust to. Overall, compared to our group homeschooling experience in the US, I would say that the primary schools in the European cities we joined were far less stressful. The academics seemed to get prioritized more as the kids got older. This makes me really appreciate how the lower grades focused on collaboration and coexistence.

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• Gig delivery workers say store staff can make shopping for apps like Instacart much tougher.
• Employees at supermarkets and Walmart stores often ignore gig workers — or berate them.
• It's part of the job customers usually don't see, but one that can affect orders, shoppers say.

Most days, a driver for Walmart's Spark delivery service in California says he has to show his receipts from the orders he shops to a store employee as he heads through the exit. It's a practice Walmart has instituted for Spark drivers at some stores to reduce theft.

But before he even gets there, a manager usually steps in first to ask for the receipt. "In my mind, I'm like, 'Sure, but also, why are you asking me that?'" the driver told Business Insider. "Why are you asking me to show that I am not stealing items when I'm going to be asked the same thing once I leave the store by the person at the door?"

The pressure is already on for gig delivery workers for services like Spark, Instacart, and DoorDash, who've got to get to a store, find exactly what customers ordered, and deliver it on time in hopes of getting a good tip. Many didn't expect there'd be another group of people they have to deal with: The store's employees.

Several gig workers that BI spoke with said that cooperating — or fighting — with store workers is a regular part of their job as independent contractors.

One Instacart shopper who delivered from grocery stores in Portland, Oregon, last year told BI in February that employees at some stores would regularly follow him around as soon as they figured out that he was shopping for an order for the app.

The store managers he confronted about the problem would tell him that they were trying to prevent theft — or simply tell him not to come back to the store, he said. "No matter what I would say, the very first thing that they would say is, 'Oh, you're Instacart,'" the shopper said.

An Instacart spokesperson directed BI toward the company's community guidelines, which apply to shoppers as well as store workers. Among the guidelines is a request to "treat others the way you want to be treated."

The company treats "any reports of violations of these guidelines very seriously," the spokesperson said. Shoppers can report issues to Instacart's support team.

For Spark workers who go into a Walmart store, things can be even worse — ironic, some say, given Spark is owned and operated by Walmart. One former Spark driver in Montana told BI that store associates regularly ignored him when he needed help.

Once, while he was waiting in line at a Walmart electronics department for some printer ink for a Spark order, an associate who recognized him simply moved on to the customer behind, saying: "This motherf*cker can wait."

Other Spark drivers have said that associates have threatened to get their accounts deactivated when they push back on mistreatment.

"It's very clear to the Walmart associates that I'm not a fellow employee, but it's also clear that I'm not a customer," the Spark worker said. "That puts me in this weird gray area where they don't have to help me because I don't work with them, and they don't have to be nice to me either because I'm not a customer."

"We were founded as a values-driven company that is grounded in the four core values of Respect, Service, Excellence, and Integrity," a Walmart spokesperson told BI. "Walmart associates are expected to operate based on these values and put fairness, equity, justice, and integrity at the heart of everything we do."

The spokesperson added that Spark drivers who feel that they haven't been treated this way should contact Walmart's ethics complaint line.

Conflict between gig workers and store employees isn't new. Early in the pandemic, Amazon's gig-worker shoppers became more common at Whole Foods locations, sometimes drawing ire from store employees.

Gig delivery workers have had to contend with a range of challenges over the last few years, from falling pay rates to greater competition for orders.

And store employees aren't the only ones giving gig workers a hard time. One Instacart shopper in Illinois told BI that they've had multiple customers claim that items are missing from orders — even when the shopper has taken photographs of the orders on the customers' doorstep to verify delivery.

Usually, Instacart assumes that the customer is right, the shopper said. That leaves shoppers with negative feedback and low ratings on their record — though this is something that Instacart told BI doesn't affect the order offers that shoppers see in the future.

But the Illinois shopper is skeptical of that explanation, telling BI that her husband, who also delivers for Instacart, often sees offers that she never gets. "Whatever rating they gave you, the one star they gave you, plus their negative feedback that they left stays on your account for a year," the shopper 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

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• David Maughan, 32, moved from Richmond, Virginia, to Oakland Park, Florida, last year.
• As a progressive, Maughan said he was nervous about Florida's culture war politics.
• But he's found Floridians to be accepting and welcoming, especially in the LGBTQ+ community.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with David Maughan, a 32-year-old human resource analyst who moved from Richmond, Virginia, to Oakland Park, Florida, in August 2023 to be closer to his boyfriend. He shared his thoughts about living in the Sunshine State with Business Insider.

David: My Florida story started in 2020 when I met a guy named Brandon. We met online, like a lot of relationships nowadays, especially during early COVID. He lived in South Florida.

I was born and raised in Central Pennsylvania but had been living in Richmond, Virginia, since I was about 25.

Brandon and I dated casually for a couple of months and then became official. We were long-distance, going back and forth between Virginia and Florida for about three years. We knew we wanted to be together in the same place, so it became a question of which one of us would move. I work remotely, so it was easier for me to make the move.

I had a lot of concerns about moving to Florida

First of all, it was a big move away from my entire support system. I'm part of the LGBTQ+ community and that was something I felt was really strong in Richmond.

Thinking about starting over and making new friends in your 30s is daunting. I knew I would be with my boyfriend, and I had met a lot of his friends, so there would be a built-in friendship circle to some extent, but I still wanted to make my own friends.

But my top two concerns were the state politics and the weather. Many of my Richmond friends understood the first but didn't get my concerns about the weather. Everyone says the weather in Florida is great, but they don't realize that Florida is hot hot. In the summer, it's 90 to 95 degrees every day. It's exhausting. You don't want to go outside. Some people love that. But for me, it was a huge concern.

The other primary concern I had was politics. I consider myself a progressive and a Democrat. I call myself a pragmatic progressive. In Richmond, I had been very involved in volunteering for local Democratic campaigns. It's more than just a hobby for me; it's something I'm really passionate about.

Everyone in progressive circles looks at Florida in horror because of what the governor, state legislature, and state Supreme Court do. They've pushed really far-right policies, from gerrymandering congressional districts to passing a six-week abortion ban. These are not acceptable policies to me.

My boyfriend and I had a lot of conversations about those concerns before the move. He has a little saying: Florida is trash, but it's my trash. And I understand, he's lived here a long time.

I made the move in August 2023.

I moved to Oakland Park, which is a suburb of Fort Lauderdale. Oakland Park is small population-wise, but the surrounding Broward County has almost 2 million people. So, it's a much bigger metro area than I was used to.

Overall, it's a comfortable place to live. But it's been a bit of a mixed bag for me so far. I love the community I've been able to find here. I found an LGBTQ+ adult sports league to participate in, and the nightlife nearby is good.

I think part of why it's been so easy to make friends is that a lot of people are also transplants. I haven't gotten any criticism from native Floridians about moving here. They've been welcoming.

But in terms of the downsides, Florida has a really car-centric design, which makes it uncomfortable to get around any other way. There are six-lane roads with traffic flying down them. There are signs that say bikes can share the road, but you'd have to be insane to do that. Even biking to the beach is difficult. I think I've only been to the beach three times in eight months.

I'm still getting used to Florida's topography. Richmond is a place with hills and rivers. But here, it's obviously flat as can be. There are a lot of single-family homes, low-rise apartments, and strip malls. A lot of the neighborhoods don't have good sidewalks, which was surprising to me.

I can't complain too much about the weather because I moved here in August when it started to cool off. The fall and winter have been nice. But we'll see how my first full summer goes.

Florida has dug into waging culture wars

Florida's elected leaders are pretty far-right. But I don't think the people of Florida are as far-right. That's an important difference. A lot of the races here are really close. And when you look at some of the ballot referendums that get put on the ballot in Florida, they are often for very progressive issues like reforming felon disenfranchisement.

I've tried to get involved with politics at the local level, where I feel I can make an impact. I got plugged into a group called Broward Young Democrats.

The area where I live is pretty accepting of the LGBTQ+ community for the most part. Wilton Manors, the town right next to Oakland Park is known as a "gay mecca." At the local level, there's a strong, supportive community.

But while I haven't experienced any direct harassment, and I don't fear for my safety, it is certainly concerning to think about what Florida might try to do down the road. If they're trying to ban transgender medical care today, what's to stop them from trying to pass discriminatory laws against all gay people tomorrow?

The cost of living is way higher in Florida

The biggest example is my rent. I had a one-bedroom apartment in Richmond that was 700 square feet, and I paid $1,400 a month, which at the time felt kind of expensive.

But here, I have a one-bedroom apartment that's about 800 square feet and it runs me $2,400 a month. It's a full thousand dollars more for an almost identical apartment.

Car insurance is also more expensive here. I pay double what I paid in Richmond. I had to reorient a lot of things in my budget when I moved here. I had to cancel some services, and I adjusted my retirement savings.

My apartment here is really nice, though. I decided I wanted to make sure I was happy with my living space, knowing the concerns I had about the state. Because if I was unhappy with the state politics and I had an apartment I hated, I would have been really miserable.

Florida is the right choice for me right now

Living here has obviously been great for my relationship with Brandon. We've been able to deepen our relationship and build a life together. That's the number one benefit, and it's been amazing.

But when I think longer-term, I don't see myself living here for the rest of my life. It's been a topic of conversation between us because I don't see myself buying property here, mainly because of the climate risk with hurricanes and flooding.

I'd like to buy property somewhere else, maybe in DC or Philly, somewhere more North. Then we could maybe rent an apartment or a condo down here and become snowbirds because I don't know if I'll able to be able to pull Brandon away from Florida entirely. He's got roots here.

And I always tell people: Love will make you do crazy things.

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• Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates is one of the US's top landowners, with 275,000 acres across the US.
• While most of that is farmland, he owns homes in Washington, California, Florida, and Montana.
• Here's a look at his real estate portfolio, which he spent $150 million and three decades building.

Ten years ago, in an interview with The Telegraph, Bill Gates discussed his goal of giving away his fortune — which was worth $65 billion then and sits at $129 billion today.

"I'm certainly well taken care of in terms of food and clothes," he said. "Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point."

He didn't mention, though, the proverbial roof over his head. Or, in Gates' case, roofs.

As one of the richest people in the world for decades, the Microsoft cofounder has built up an impressive real estate portfolio. With 275,000 acres across the United States, he's the country's 42nd biggest landowner, according to the Land Report.

The vast majority of that — about 242,00 acres — is farmland, with the most acreage in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Arizona, per the Land Report.

"I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs," Gates said in a Reddit Ask Me Anything last year. "There isn't some grand scheme involved — in fact, all these decisions are made by a professional investment team."

But he also owns dozens of properties across Washington, California, Florida, and Montana that are for his personal use.

Over three decades, he and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, spent more than $150 million on their current real estate portfolio. Following their 2021 divorce, a number of the properties were transferred from one trust to another — so it's hard to discern who owns exactly what, as all of their trusts are linked to the same Seattle bank.

Here's a look at Gates' many homes, along with details about transfers around the Gates divorce. Neither Gates nor French Gates responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.

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