Category: Business

Can you spot the difference between an ALICE and a HENRY? Are you too much of a dingus to know your DINKs? Would you ever consider joining the FIRE movement?

These days, coverage of the US economy is chock-full of jargony acronyms and descriptors for demographic cohorts. Some have been around for years, or at least represent groups that have long been relevant. Others are brand new — and recent economic developments, as well as the influence of platforms like TikTok, help explain why certain terms have spiked in popularity lately.

Kory Kantenga, a senior economist at LinkedIn, pointed to the "Great Resignation" — which some have rebranded as the "Great Reshuffle" — as a turning point. Coined in 2021 by Anthony Klotz, then an associate professor of management at Texas A&M, the term helped open the door for a larger conversation about Americans' jobs and finances.

"The Great Reshuffle led to many of us rethinking where, how, and why we work," Kantenga said. "While many aspects of the Great Reshuffle have faded, the paradigm shift of talking more openly about work has endured. That change, along with the proliferation of viral content, has likely supported the emergence of viral workplace terms."

The terms DINK (double income, no kids), FIRE (financial independence, retire early), and HENRY (high earner, not rich yet), meanwhile, appear to have originated in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. They've been making a comeback as economic conditions have made them more relevant. DINK, for example, is used in part to highlight the financial benefits of not having children. As the costs of raising children have ballooned, the DINK lifestyle has started to resonate with couples.

It's difficult to pinpoint just how many Americans fall into each category — they're generally not officially tracked. But the terms' recent popularity suggests people want to understand how they fit into the broader economy beyond standard measurements. Together, they offer a glimpse into different groups working to get by. "I think part of why they've become popular again is because these acronyms succinctly describe various forms of financial limbo that, until relatively recently, weren't well represented in society," said Eric Anicich, an associate professor of management and organization at the USC Marshall School of Business.

Keeping track of them all is crucial to understanding how the system works, but it can get confusing. Henry, a geriatric millennial ALICE and half a POLK with his wife, Alice, feels ostracized from his DINK, DIPS, FIRE, and HENRY friends, especially since his peak boomer parents are leaving him no inheritance. What?

To make your life easier, Business Insider has compiled a glossary of terms, from the frequently used to the more exotic. Say hello to your new economic ABCs.

ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed

ALICEs are stuck in no-man's-land. Their incomes put them above the federal poverty level — $31,200 for a family of four, or $15,060 for an individual — and too far afield of the threshold to qualify for government benefits like food stamps, rental assistance, or Medicaid. But their earnings aren't high enough to shield them from financial precarity, and the rising costs of living expenses like food and housing over the past few years haven't helped.

Take Sarah, a single mother of two who works one full-time job and two part-time jobs. While she's employed, her ability to bring in enough money to support her family is a source of never-ending stress.

"Every month is a struggle to make sure all the bills are paid — there's never enough for savings," she said. "My car loan, my car insurance, rent, and food take up almost my entire paycheck." (Sarah asked to use a pseudonym to prevent identification by a prior partner she said was abusive.)

Sarah earned less than $60,000 last year across her jobs. In the past, she qualified for some government benefits like SNAP. Now she's eligible only for some rent assistance through a state program. But that, too, is uncertain: She said she was "dangerously close" to losing the aid because her income is too high.

ALICEs tend to be older or younger workers, and while they're represented across racial groups, they're more likely to be Black or Hispanic. And data from the nonprofit organization United Way, which coined the term in 2009, show that about a third of the population fell below the ALICE line in 2021. (This also includes people in poverty.)

DINK: Double Income, No Kids

Perhaps the most popular acronym of them all (and the most satisfying to say aloud) is DINK, an umbrella term for couples who are certain they'll never have kids, those who don't want kids at the moment, and those who feel their economic standing dictates whether they can have kids. There are even offshoots, like DINKWAD, which throws a dog into the mix.

The term was around in the 1980s, when the yuppie — an old-school economic nickname in its own right — dominated the culture. In a 1987 article, the Los Angeles Times used "DINK" to describe a new class of child-free baby boomers relishing their wealth. Think Big and Carrie from "Sex in the City" nursing endless martinis and stocking closets full of designer shoes.

Nowadays, DINKs are having a moment as millennials and Gen Zers increasingly opt to forgo kids amid shifting attitudes toward parenthood, economic uncertainty, the climate crisis, and rising childcare costs. And many are reaping the financial benefits.

Brenton and Mirlanda Beaufils are a married couple in their early 30s who work in real estate and property management in Dallas. The influencer couple bring home six figures each year and have no plans to give up the DINK lifestyle anytime soon. They said they were taking the time to do all the things they wouldn't be able to do if they had children.

"We have a good amount of disposable income," Mirlanda said. "Last weekend, we went to Neiman Marcus and bought ourselves some fun stuff."

DIPS and POLK: Double Income, Public School; Parents of Little Kids

BI's Katie Notopoulos coined "DIPS" and "POLKs" earlier this year, arguing that American parents are economically divided by one key factor: whether their kids are old enough for a free public education or still require expensive childcare.

Families with young kids are burdened by a childcare system that requires working parents to shell out thousands of dollars a month for day care or a nanny. But as kids age into public school, many parents finally begin to save some cash.

Paige Connell, a married mother of four children under 7, has seen the divide play out under her roof.

Connell and her husband live outside Boston. They have two kids who attend public school and two younger children who still require childcare, which costs the family about $60,000 a year.

Connell, an operations manager, and her husband, a first responder, make a "decent" salary for living in Massachusetts, she said. But they still spend 20% to 30% of their income on childcare.

She acknowledged that older kids are still expensive — hers attend camps and extracurricular activities. But childcare makes the difference. "We talk about our life in terms of what comes after childcare," Connell said. "How will we invest this money? What will this money go toward?"

FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early

Chrissy Arsenault, a 31-year-old marketing director in Colorado, has pursued a FIRE lifestyle since her mid-20s, when she and her husband learned about the movement online. Over the past several years, they've grown their combined net worth to roughly $800,000. Arsenault said their goal is to have about $2.5 million in total investments and retire in 10 to 15 years.

Generally, people who've embraced the FIRE movement are trying to grow their savings so they can achieve financial freedom and retire as early as possible — though some choose to keep working. Many FIRE advocates trace the movement's philosophy to the 1992 best-selling book "Your Money or Your Life." As many Americans struggle to save for retirement — and as Social Security's future remains precarious — the FIRE movement offers a potentially lucrative blueprint for people who crave security and control over their finances.

For Arsenault, retiring early is about having freedom at an earlier age. "Retiring at 65-plus years old just doesn't sound appealing," she said, summing up the couple's financial strategy as "spend less, make more, and invest more."

HENRY: High Earner, Not Rich Yet

A defining trait of a HENRY is their desire to no longer be a HENRY.

HENRYs are keyed into their finances and always looking to reach the next financial tier. The term seems to have originated in 2003, but today's HENRYs are typically between 27 and 42, live in metropolitan areas, and make $80,000 to $500,000, depending on where they live.

That may seem like a lot of money to the average Joe, but HENRYs often don't feel wealthy, and caution around spending and saving is common. (The precise parameters of a HENRY are difficult to define and appear to be based more on vibes than a specific tax bracket.)

Take Christopher Stroup, a 33-year-old financial advisor in Santa Monica, California, who earned roughly $130,000 last year. Stroup said he didn't feel rich. He's still paying down his student debt while trying to reach his savings goals for making a down payment on a home, starting a family, and retiring. He said he sometimes joked that he felt like he'd need to save $250,000 to buy a home or start a family — but he could pick only one.

"I wouldn't consider myself rich yet because I haven't achieved any of those goals," he said. "Versus the traditional arc of life, I feel behind financially."

HIFI: High Income, Financially Insecure

HIFI is the latest acronym to join the club. Sherwood News described it as representing people who make good money but remain financially insecure because of overspending.

HIFIs are characterized by their steep spending and obsession with items and experiences that exude luxury. Pandemic stimulus checks, online shopping, and "buy now, pay later" options have helped fuel HIFIs' spending in recent years.

But even with government checks long gone, and as inflation and the cost of living have risen, HIFIs haven't necessarily curbed their affluent spending — leaving a sharp divide between their aspirations and their financial realities.

Geriatric millennial: The oldest members of the millennial generation

If you're in your late 30s or early 40s, hearing someone use the word "geriatric" to describe you might make you want to curl into the fetal position. Don't fear — it's meant to distinguish between two groups in a relatively young generation. Millennials are generally considered to be those born between 1981 and 1996. But the youngest and oldest are in quite different life stages.

In a 2021 Medium post, Erica Dhawan defined "geriatric millennials" as millennials born in the early 1980s. Dwahan, who has spent years researching ways to encourage better collaboration in the workplace, previously told Business Insider that geriatric millennials were well suited to working with both younger and older generations.

The past two decades have been a financial roller coaster. Many geriatric millennials were in the early stages of their careers during the Great Recession, which hampered their employment and earnings. In a 2018 report, researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said they found that the wealth of millennials born in the 1980s was 34% below what was expected based on prior generations' experiences.

But in recent years, many geriatric millennials have seen their wealth surge thanks to rising home and stock prices. While some younger millennials feel boxed out of the housing market because of high prices and interest rates, elder ones are more likely to already own a home — setting themselves up for future wealth creation.

Peak boomer: Baby boomers born between 1959 and 1964

Peak boomer — a once disparaging term for someone displaying comical levels of "old person" behavior — has come to mean something new as the youngest members of America's largest generational cohort reach retirement age.

By the end of 2024, all baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — will be 60 or older. The increase in retirees is likely to be a significant burden on the US economy that could last decades. But for many in this "peak boomer" group, their biggest concern is their own financial security.

A recent study found that more than half of the 30 million peak boomers staring down retirement had $250,000 or less in assets. The analysis, which looked at Federal Reserve and University of Michigan Health and Retirement study data, suggested these people would be forced to rely primarily on Social Security income. But that program's fate is increasingly uncertain, and a reduction in benefits could leave millions of older Americans in dire straits.

Jewel Benjamin, 64, retired from her job as a Georgia law-enforcement officer in 2018 — but not by choice. An injury forced her out of the workforce at 59, much earlier than she had planned. Retiring early meant Benjamin had to wait two years before she could start drawing from Social Security.

These days, Benjamin receives Social Security benefits and money from her retirement plan each month. Those payments still leave her living "paycheck to paycheck," she said, as she deals with medical bills and other living expenses. (Many peak boomers are also considered ALICEs, underscoring the intersectionality of some of these demographic groups.)

"I am concerned about my finances down the road if costs don't get lower," she said. "My mortgage is really high. And it seems like I'm always owing taxes."

---

And beyond these groups, there are lots more ways to describe how Americans work:

• Bare-minimum Mondays: Start your workweek by doing as little work as possible!
• Career cushioning: Scared of looming layoffs? Make a backup plan while you're still employed.
• Corporate girlie: The TikTok aestheticization of clocking in for a 9-to-5.
• Greedflation: The theory that corporate America's suits are exploiting inflation to earn record profits.
• Lazy-girl jobs: Born of the antiwork movement, lazy-girl jobs are mindless, well-paying gigs for the burned-out employee.
• Overemployed: If you want to covertly pump up your finances, consider working multiple jobs.
• Productivity paranoia: Hybrid and remote work means your boss can't see what you're doing at all times. They've responded by micromanaging you even more.
• Quiet quitting (See also: grumpy staying; loud quitting): The post-pandemic death knell of hustle culture.

Erin Snodgrass is a reporter Business Insider's news team. She covers various topics, including history, education, and migration.

Jacob Zinkula is a reporter on Business Insider's economy team. He writes about a variety of subjects, including the job market, the gig economy, and remote work.

• Apple plans to offer a thinner iPhone by next year, Bloomberg reported.
• It also aims to make slimmer MacBook Pro and Apple Watch devices, per the report. 
• Some Apple devices have become heavier and bulkier in recent years. 

A thinner iPhone could be yours to buy next year.

Apple also plans to make slimmer versions of the MacBook Pro and Watch devices, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman wrote in a newsletter on Sunday.

Some of the company's devices have grown bulkier in recent years.

The iPhone 15 Pro is 0.32 inches (8.25 mm) deep, compared with 0.29 inches (7.4 mm) for the iPhone 12 Pro, per Apple's website. The smartphones have grown to accommodate better cameras, while the MacBook Pro expanded to take bigger batteries, Gurman wrote.

However, the iPad Pro revealed last month was slimmer than previous models but had the same battery capacity and desktop-level processing ability, according to the report, indicating Apple is able to slim down products without sacrificing performance.

Gurman wrote that the company wants to offer the "thinnest and lightest products" on the market.

The insight into Apple's thinking comes after it said last week that forthcoming products and services will get an AI boost.

Apple announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference it would integrate its new AI software, Apple Intelligence, into the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The AI features will roll out later this year with Apple's iOS 18 update, but will only be available to iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max users.

It's not just Apple that's seeking to give its smartphone an AI upgrade. Google unveiled new capabilities for its Pixel, Samsung, and other Android phones at its I/O conference last month.

Android chief Sameer Samat previously told Business Insider that it plans to seize the moment to "reinvent" what phones can do.

AI, in general, could transform the entire smartphone market. According to analysts at Bank Of America Securities, smartphones could be replaced by the "IntelliPhone" — devices that have AI integrated into them.

The BoA analysts predict IntelliPhones will have staple AI features, which include personal assistants, a tool to recognize objects and people, real-time translation, and content creation tools.

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

• I quit my job and then joined a dating app. 
• At first, being unemployed was exhilarating. But I started to dread it when dates asked about work.
• I had to find a way to deal with my anxiety and insecurity while dating.

On April 30, 2024, I quit my job. It was a job that barely required an ounce of creativity, a job that made me go, "Why do I need to crawl out of bed for this?" I craved change, passion, and a reason to wake up.

On May 2, 2024, I created a dating app profile that was equal parts funny, mysterious, and serious. I was ready to swipe and be swept off my feet. What I wasn't so ready for was the question, "So what do you do?"

Initially, the responses to my life choice were great. Dates would say things to me like, "Lucky you!" and "Congratulations! Having fun?"

But four weeks after I quit, I no longer felt like a free bird. I felt unemployed.

"I quit a month ago" didn't have the same impact as "I just quit my job!" The emphatic responses I'd once gotten turned into "Oh"s, followed by awkward silences.

But I kept swiping on and off, my insecurities constant, until I found someone I loved speaking to. He had more than a few green flags — and two dogs as a bonus.

And it wasn't just a stroke of luck. Before we matched, I put in the work to figure out how to date with the insecurities that cropped up along with my unemployment.

I strategized around my insecurities before dates

"What do you plan to do next?" a man asked me during our first conversation. It was a valid question. The real answer was that I wanted to chill and figure it out. But I hated how unambitious it might sound to another 27-year-old.

My insecurities snowballed and were reflected in my DMs, and I ghosted men who brought up the question.

I noticed that the complex was internal, triggered by "the question." So, before going on dates, I strategized. In person, I didn't have the option to 'leave the chat.' Plus, dates cost money, and my insecurities weren't going to be an added expense. I was going to deal with them.

First, I chose a venue that would be easy on my wallet — a local bar at happy hour. It took care of my anxiety about expenses and helped me feel a bit more in control. Then, I wondered what would make me feel more confident if a date asked me about my next steps.

I jotted down things I might want to do, like looking for freelance projects, part-time gigs, and enrolling in an online course. These things prepared me to answer the dreaded question and also prepared me more for my job search. I felt more ready to date, with my head high.

Something else hit me as I worried about being dateable without a job. The right person for me wouldn't put pressure on me to figure out my next job before I was ready. They would understand this phase.

While my next date did get it, we didn't hit it off on a romantic note. Still, I'd won against insecurities, at least in round one.

When I didn't feel interesting, I became interested

As the job market tested my patience, I had nothing significant to share with my matches except anxiety. But I realized I used to love talking about my work, and others would likely love talking about theirs, too. Since I didn't have anything new to report on the work front, I decided to start asking my dates about their professions.

For example, one of my matches ran a company that turned waste into accessories — something I knew nothing about. I asked him everything I could about his business, and he was engaged and inspired. The work discussion turned into conversations about life, and my joblessness didn't matter to either of us. Though the connection fizzled when he left for a business trip, I was back in the game, and I knew a lot about carbon footprints.

I learned that the right match will help me get over my insecurities

A few more weeks and job applications later, I started speaking to someone I really liked. He loved cooking, tennis, and sending gifs (ones that were actually funny).

Listening to him talk about his well-rounded, mindfully curated life, I realized that having a job isn't the only thing that could make me feel worthy. I could find a sidekick, a hobby, one that transforms me and becomes the source of endless conversations. After all, I didn't want our chats to end.

A week later, I enrolled in kickboxing lessons. Soon, I was starting each day by punching away my insecurities and anxiety. It was perfect.

My mental clarity was rising and so was my confidence. As I started feeling better, our conversations got better, too. One day at a time, I shared my worries about landing a good job, being unemployed forever, and running out of savings. He told me about his annoying manager. We'd brainstorm solutions for both our problems. Time flew, and I landed some interviews. He was taking revenge by beating his manager at tennis.

The swiping stopped, and we moved from messaging on the dating app to WhatsApp and FaceTime.

He's convinced a new job for me is right around the corner. In a way, his belief has diluted my insecurities. Some doubts still visit until I punch them down at kickboxing.

Two months later, my favorite thing is waking up to his "Good morning, ready to 'kick' start your day?" texts.

All the more reason to get out of bed.

• As a queer woman, I always loved going to Pride celebrations, but I worried about bringing my kids.
• My transgender wife, and I decided to bring them to a small celebration, and it was overwhelming.
• But a chance encounter with a stranger helped me put Pride into perspective. 

As a young queer woman in my 20s, I found it exhilarating to march down Fifth Avenue in New York City's Pride celebrations, joining the drumming, shouting, balloons, feathers, and sequins.

I didn't care if someone splashed their beer or bumped into me. I didn't have a care in the world at that time — probably because I wasn't a mom.

But my feelings toward Pride celebrations shifted when I considered bringing my two small kids.

I wondered if the march would be safe for my children

"I don't know. Should we do Pride with kids?" I first asked my wife, Stefanie, three years ago, which was the first year of her transition.

I wondered: What would Pride mean to our young daughters, then ages 9 and 4? Would the noise, crowds, and scantily dressed people be too much?

Pride is joyful, silly, and sexy — and also defiant and fierce. It's also important, especially to our queer family. When people shout, "We're here, we're queer," it's to claim a space for human rights. Of course, I want my young children to witness this passion — but there's certainly a lot to process.

Many of our queer friends with kids have celebrated pride for years and recommended a smaller, family-friendly Pride celebration, so we decided to join the throng in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Once there, I saw that we were hardly the only ones with a stroller. But when the marchers jostled that stroller — and its rainbow flag-waving occupant — the 9-year-old clung to my arm with fear. I wondered what we were doing. How could I be a responsible mom and also that carefree marcher I used to be?

When we bought our flags, the kids really got into the spirit of things. My youngest wanted the "all pink" one, and my older daughter picked the Progress Pride flag. My daughters were smiling — what kid doesn't love a parade? — but after a rowdy group bumped into the stroller again, I ducked into a pizzeria with the kids.

I left my wife to socialize with friends and savored the quiet moment with my kids, where I felt more like my "usual" mom self. As I cut up the little one's pizza and chatted about their favorite book series, I almost forgot about the march until the windows shook with reverberations from music on loudspeakers rolling by on trucks.

We then met someone who helped put pride into perspective

The next time I blinked, Stefanie was there with a woman shakily teetering on her arm. Stefanie's expression indicated discomfort as the woman dropped into a seat beside my younger daughter, slurring her words as she spoke of heartbreak and despair.

My heart sped up. I glanced at Stefanie. Should we get out of there? Was this woman's story going to scare the kids? Was it a terrible idea to expose them to a crying and drunken stranger?

"This pizza is really good!" my 4-year-old announced. "Can we get a balloon?"

"Of course, you can get a balloon," our visitor said kindly, even as she began weeping. My instincts told me we were safe. Seeing an adult in pain wasn't something we necessarily had to protect our kids from.

"You have a beautiful family. I would do anything to have a family like this," the mysterious stranger told us through more tears.

My daughters glanced at me. "It's OK," I said to them and also to our visitor. "It's going to be OK."

The woman's life story as a Latinx trans woman in Florida came tumbling out. She kindly declined our offer to share our lunch but gratefully refilled her water glass again and again.

My daughters might have been listening or might have just been drawing in coloring books. I don't know how much they remember about the chance encounter. When I ask them about our first Pride, they seem to only remember the after-party at a friend's apartment, where they played with a hamster named Rocky.

Even if they don't remember the day another trans woman joined our family meal, I am glad that this experience was part of our first pride as a family. It reminded me that Pride is about being there for your community — whether you're clapping for a cheerleading squad or holding someone's hands through their tears. And my kids were safe through all of it.

Pride is about strength, vulnerability, and pulling together as one big rainbow family.

• Ethan Evans became a VP at Amazon through hard work and luck but wishes he had been more strategic.
• He's now a career coach and teaches his clients to actively manage their careers to get ahead.
• His strategies include handling complex projects, building social skills, and intentional networking.

I made it to vice president at Amazon after eight years at the company despite doing a poor job managing my career. My advancement came from hard work and luck, but I had no real plan.

Formal education trains us in functional skills like law, design, and engineering, but students aren't trained in navigating corporate careers. This means we need to learn how to excel inside companies on our own.

Here are seven career-advancing strategies I now know and wish I had used sooner to actively manage my career.

1. Work on longer, bigger projects to master handling complexity

Big goals require big efforts, which in turn bring big problems. To rise in your career, you'll need to be good at navigating intricate schedules, cross-team dependencies, and other challenges of scale.

The sooner you start practicing handling complex projects, the better. Seek out complex challenges and break them down rather than sticking to "your part."

2. Work with people of all specialties — not just those in your field

Early in your career, it may be enough to be an expert in your craft, but to rise through the ranks, you need to be able to bring people together to accomplish big goals.

Most innovations require not just "makers" like engineers, scientists, or artists but also finance and sales experts, lawyers, project managers, and more. Leveling up will require you to understand how others can collaborate effectively. An expert in only one field is often viewed as a valuable resource but not an executive leader.

3. Work on large, global teams

Businesses today have complex, distributed workforces. In larger companies, most teams are global, so learn to work effectively across time zones, cultures, and with people on other teams.

At a smaller company, include partners or customers in your definition of team to practice working across organizations. The better you are at working with a variety of different people, the faster you'll progress.

4. Learn about career progression intentionally: titles, performance reviews, and promotions

When I started my first job at a small public technology startup, I didn't realize there were job levels, pay ranges, or titles beyond software engineer. I couldn't plan for a progression I didn't even understand existed.

Since even the smallest companies have career tracks and a promotion process, learning about these structures and how to navigate them will always matter. It's the difference between following a map and driving blindly.

5. Build social skills: practice influence, emotional intelligence, and public speaking

Succeeding in the workplace depends on soft skills more than the functional disciplines you learned in school. With AI poised to automate more skill-based tasks, the emphasis on interpersonal skills will likely increase. Good soft skills position you for the next step in your career through relationship building.

Strong social skills come from finding something you like and investing time in it — mentoring, teaching, working with customers, or something else.

Once you identify a human interaction you enjoy, study your own skill and watch others you admire. I learned better speaking from watching many speakers and borrowing what worked from each for my own approach.

6. Invest in relationships: network and manage up

Many strong workers avoid networking. Some may be introverts and want to avoid social interactions, while others feel that intentionally building relationships is political and disingenuous. I'm an introvert, and I used to associate networking with walking up to strangers at cocktail parties and trying to sell people life insurance policies they don't want.

Networking for your career really means getting to know your colleagues better and showing interest in them beyond the bare minimum needed to finish the project. You don't need to sell them life insurance; just be friendly and treat them as individuals rather than resources.

Your manager may have good intentions to notice your work, but they'll often miss things in their rush to handle their own to-do list. By intentionally building relationships and funneling information to your manager, you ensure your work gets the notice it deserves.

Most managers hate surprises and appreciate being kept informed. Ask your manager how they prefer to get information, such as in person, chat, or over email, and watch what they like and dislike as they interact with others. Others will likely not do this, so you'll stand out by comparison.

7. Determine what kind of culture, manager, and work sets you up for success

While it's important to build soft skills, develop relationships, and become skilled at working with all kinds of people, constantly adapting one's natural style can be exhausting.

If you're a direct person like me, you'll likely always struggle in a slow, consensus-based workplace. If you prefer extensive discussion and collaboration, you'll struggle in a culture emphasizing quick decisions and following directions.

Figure out what style works best for you, and then seek the people and places where this is a natural fit. This way, you can put your energy into your work, not into adapting to incompatible norms.

Hope is not a strategy

I left Amazon in 2020 and am now a career coach. When I speak to my clients, they often work hard and hope for a promotion, but hope is not a strategy.

I tell them they must work hard and optimize their career management to maximize success. The secret to this is treating career planning and management as just as important as the hard work they do in their jobs.

There are many hardworking, talented people in the workforce. If you want to stand out, you have to be smart and intentional about managing your career.

If I had known this when I started out, I would've gone much further, much faster.

Ethan Evans is a retired Amazon vice president with over 23 years of experience as a business executive.

• Armie Hammer made a rare appearance on a podcast on Sunday, where he talked about addiction and recovery.
• Hammer said that he thought of killing himself several times after hitting rock bottom.
• On one of those occasions, he considered swimming out to sea to end his life, he said.

Armie Hammer, once one of Hollywood's most promising actors, has been laying low since his career imploded in 2021. But this weekend, Hammer resurfaced on a YouTube show to talk about addiction and his stint in rehab, amongst other things.

Hammer was the guest on the Sunday installment of the "Painful Lessons Podcast," a show hosted by his friend and self-described "longtime Armie pal" Tyler Ramsey.

During the podcast, Hammer spoke about a time in 2021 when he was mired in scandal, during which several women accused him of sexually assaulting them. He also faced allegations of having cannibalistic fantasies. That firestorm of allegations resulted in Hammer being axed from projects and dropped by his talent agency, William Morris Endeavor.

"So, there were a lot of times where I thought, 'I can't take this anymore, like this is too much, this is more stress than a human being has ever been evolved to deal with,'" Hammer said.

Hammer then described what he said called a "half-assed suicide attempt" that he abandoned partway because he thought about his two children.

"And I hit really dark low points. There was a time where I was standing on the shore, and I just looked out at the ocean, and I thought, 'Yep, this is it,'" Hammer added.

"And I just swam out really fucking far, and I thought, 'you know what, like I'm — I'm done, like there's nothing back there for me,'" Hammer said.

During the podcast, Hammer also addressed — and once again denied — rumors that he is a cannibal. He added that he's now sober and said he went away for an extended stint in rehab, where he worked through trauma and sexual abuse he suffered as a child.

Very little is known about Hammer's life now, though in June 2023, some of his legal troubles were resolved when the Los Angeles district attorney's office decided not to prosecute him for rape, after which he posted a statement to Instagram saying that he was "very grateful."

That same month, Hammer and his ex-wife, Elizabeth Chambers, finalized their divorce. Chambers recently starred in a new docudrama, "Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise," which tracks the lives of super-rich locals on the island.

A lawyer associated with Hammer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular working hours.

• Elon Musk has been flexing his power as a political influencer in recent years.
• Whoever wins the White House could drastically impact the billionaire's businesses.
• A political strategist told BI Musk needs to "be careful" what he wishes for in the next election.

In recent years, Elon Musk appears to have gone from lightly flirting with politics to having a full-blown love affair with growing his influence in Washington.

As the presidential election inches closer and the billionaire businessman continues teasing the idea of a Trump endorsement, it's becoming clear that Musk has a lot at stake depending on who next leads the country.

While Musk hasn't publicly endorsed any candidate, Business Insider previously reported he bonded with fellow billionaires over a shared distrust of Democrats and privately discussed how best to defeat them in this year's election.

According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, Musk has also talked with the Trump campaign about taking on a potential advisory role if the former president returns to the White House.

A representative for the Trump campaign declined to comment on The Journal report but acknowledged that Silicon Valley elites like Musk have lined up to support Trump's reelection campaign.

"It has been widely reported and is demonstrated in a number of ways that many of the nation's most important leaders in technology and innovation are concerned with the damage done to their industry by Biden's failures to handle our economy and his moves to overburden innovators with government bureaucracy and unrelenting regulation," Brian Hughes, a senior advisor to the Trump campaign, told BI in a statement.

While Musk is increasingly flexing his political power, whoever wins the White House could drastically impact the billionaire and his businesses. Here's how things could shake out for Musk under a second Trump administration versus a Biden win.

Elon under Trump

Musk previously served on business advisory groups under the first Trump administration but pulled out of the role over disagreements with Trump's 2017 decision to leave the Paris climate accord.

If he were to take on a more formal role in a hypothetical second Trump term, Musk would be taking a gamble on what'd be best for his numerous multi-billion-dollar businesses, Bradley Tusk told BI.

Tusk is a venture capitalist and political strategist whose VC firm, Tusk Venture Partners, advises startups in highly regulated industries. If he were advising Musk now, Tusk said he'd tell him: "You've got to really be careful what you wish for — for a bunch of reasons."

Under Trump, Tusk said tax cuts and deregulation could lead to a boom for Tesla, X, and SpaceX — especially given Trump's prior push to develop a Space Force. This could also come with a massive increase in political cache but possibly decreased stability in the markets, which Musk relies on to maintain his wealth and power.

"There is the potential to really have a tremendous amount of influence within Trump's administration," Stacey Lee, a law and ethics professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, told BI. "And when you look at the hallmarks of what Trump really respects — he's popular, he has a management style that is more singular in its voice — these are all of the things that Trump really admires, and so does Musk."

"In that regard," she said, "they may be rather odd kindred spirits."

Elon under Biden

In a world where Biden is elected again, Musk might not have the influence he appears to crave, but Tusk said he'd have something that markets and companies rely on for strong growth: stability.

"Musk just got a $55 billion pay package approved under Joe Biden as President — right now, his life's pretty good," Tusk said. "And now we have the choice of a president who genuinely believes in clean energy and someone who actively despises it. So, for those Tesla shareholders, it's a lot better for them if Joe Biden's president. And they just gave Elon $55 billion to do what's best for the company."

However, Lee told BI that a second Biden administration would also be prone to more regulation and pro-union policies, neither of which is very attractive to Musk as a businessman.

"Biden is very traditional in terms of his policies. He is committed to raising corporate taxes," Lee said. "Under Trump, we saw them go from 35% to 21%, and now Trump is saying, 'Hey, if I get in, I'll take it down to 20.' I think that would be music to Musk's ears.'"

A second Trump term could backfire for Musk

"My initial instinct — I think everybody's — would be like, 'Oh, of course, it'd better for Musk under Trump.' But I think ultimately, it'd be much worse," Tusk said.

While Musk might be seduced by the allure of amassing even more power, Tusk said it's a double-edged sword with Trump.

Tusk said Biden doesn't think of Elon as a rival — he probably doesn't think about him at all. But with Trump, as has happened with so many of his one-time allies, his affection for Musk could suddenly flip, making the Tesla CEO a target for his ire.

"On the Trump side, Musk needs to be careful and not go headlong into this. As seductive as it might seem, it really ends badly for basically everybody," Tusk said. "And all the things that he values, the things that sort of makes him happy — the attention and relevance — are the same things that make Trump happy."

"And the one guy you can't win a head-to-head war with is the President of the United States," he added.

Musk and Biden campaign representatives did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• "House of the Dragon" season two premiered Sunday night.
• The episode has new opening credits, a Stark appearance, and one extremely brutal death.
• Daemon's decision to go over Rhaenyra's head for vengeance brings House Targaryen to the precipice of war.

House Targaryen's civil war is closer than ever after the events of the season two premiere.

"House of the Dragon" finally returned on Sunday night, two years after season one aired on HBO and became a smash hit. On season one of the "Game of Thrones" prequel, tensions rose between the Greens (those loyal to Alicent Hightower and her son Aegon II Targaryen, who backed his claim to the throne) and the Blacks (those loyal to Rhaenyra Targaryen, the king's oldest child and publicly named heir), culminating in Alicent's son Aemond killing Rhaenyra's son Lucerys Velaryon during a dragon fight.

The first episode of season two picks up shortly after that event, finding Rhaenyra seeking out the remains of her son, the Greens strategizing, and Daemon making some extremely poor decisions that push the two factions closer to all-out war.

Below, Business Insider reporters Eammon Jacobs and Palmer Haasch and senior entertainment editor Caralynn Matassa recap all the major events of the season premiere.

The opening credits were changed for season 2

Caralynn: These credits are new, right?

Eammon: Have to say I do like the embroidery style over the board game approach.

Palmer: I really like the bleeding ink. Plus it feels thematically more in line with the whole "this is a historical text" aspect of it all.

A cold (very cold) open in the North, featuring… a Stark!

Eammon: Ah, the over-the-top northern accent. As the group's own northerner, I can confirm it is dumb.

Caralynn: Is this bowl-cut kid who gets picked to go to the wall supposed to be someone? They keep cutting to him in a way that feels purposeful, and on the "even by mine own kin" line…. Are they trying to imply he's some kind of important Stark? Is this a book thing I'm not getting?

Palmer: This is a net positive intro for Cregan, at least for me. Him versus Jacaerys is a very funny juxtaposition. Jace is kind of funny (doesn't know his brother has been brutally killed by Vhagar), but Cregan is soooooo serious.

Caralynn: This whole scene feels extremely "Game of Thrones" fan servicey. "The Starks!!! 'Memba them???"

Palmer: I agree, especially having just put on season one of "Game of Thrones." Once again, the entire "Southerners don't know anything about the North" schtick! But less fun without Tyrion Lannister.

I will say though, I don't hate it — I think it's good to do a little check-in with the prophecy/greater scope of the universe before we get really into it.

Caralynn: Extremely true! A good reminder of the real stakes here, aka, ice zombies.

Rhaenys v. Daemon

Caralynn: This is my favorite scene of the first episode. I love Rhaenys being deeply unimpressed by Daemon and all his posturing.

Palmer: I appreciate that Rhaenys is one of the people who has zero desire to take Daemon's shit.

Eammon: "Meleys must gorge and rest." Mood.

Caralynn: Gotta say, it was extremely helpful editing your dragon roundup right before this, Eammon.

Palmer: I appreciate Rhaenys so much here — I don't think there's any lost love between Rhaenys and Rhaenyra, and don't believe that she's fully absolved Rhaenyra of Laenor's fake death, but she also very intimately knows what it feels like to lose the child. Especially when Daemon was tangential to both of her children's deaths.

Corlys talks to a newbie who seems important

Caralynn: This is one of those things that was tough for me with "Game of Thrones" too — where they're clearly introducing a character who's gonna be important down the line (Alyn, here) but I feel like I'm missing something as a non-book reader.

Palmer: Yes. This is a good introduction for Alyn, but reminds me of something that generally does irk me about this series — it's so difficult to keep up with characters that the show is signposting as plot relevant but we won't figure out what's going on with them for a while.

Helaena and Aegon's exchange foreshadows what will happen at the end of the episode

Palmer: Oh here we go, even worse. Arryk vs. Erryk. Which one is this?

Caralynn: Vhagar really is the most badass looking dragon.

Palmer: Yeah, Vhagar is sick. My beautiful large girl. There is nothing funnier to me though than Aegon suddenly wanting to be an involved father.

Eammon: Tom Glynn-Carney sets me on edge whenever he's around his family.

Palmer: Poor sister-wife Helaena, who seems unfairly implicated in all of this.

Caralynn: Helaena's line here about the rats was good foreshadowing for what happens later. But I think there's an even subtler moment of foreshadowing when Aegon goes to check which kid it is in the room because even he can't tell his own twins apart!

Alicole is a little icky

Palmer: Oh, this is the bit that's going to make so many people mad. Welcome to Alicole, everyone!

Caralynn: This sex scene might be the show's least sexy ever. They seem so dispassionate. Also, "we cannot again" — how many times do we think she's said this?

Palmer: When Criston and Rhaenyra have sex, he also seems surprisingly gentle and lets her get on top, which is much different from some of the other sex we've seen in this show.

It a little bit feels like Alicole is coming out of nowhere, but it was somewhat foreshadowed in season one — them suddenly having on-camera sex doesn't strike me as particularly egregious.

Eammon: Going from watching "Bridgerton" season three to this scene is the whiplash I did not expect this week.

Caralynn: The Barbenheimer of 2024, if you will.

Eammon: "House of the Bragon"? "Dragerton"? That second one sounds like a different show…

Palmer: Two very, very different series concerned with marriage, pregnancy, and lines of succession.

Rhaenyra, in mourning, needs to see her dead son for herself

Eammon: Emma D'Arcy deserves all the awards for their thousand-yard stare. They look utterly haunted.

Palmer: I loved Milly Alcock — loved! — but I am so happy that this season we really get to see Emma anchor the entire show.

This is one of my favorite moments of the entire episode — Emma is so on their game here, and it's heartbreaking to watch Rhaenyra have to pick up the pieces of Luke and Arrax's death.

We don't really see Rhaenyra break like this — even when she lost Visenya in the season one finale, I feel like. But I think the touch with Syrax also clearly feeling grief is very poignant. Bonus points to the sound engineers working on those dragon cries!

Eammon: It's the fact that Rhaenyra doesn't even have a proper body to bury. That sense of loss goes so much deeper and it's put across so well without needing to over-explain it with dialogue.

Aegon plays at being king (poorly)

Palmer: It's extremely, extremely funny to see Tyland Lannister get so irritated with a small child that he is obligated to be nothing but polite to. And Aegon is so deadly serious about it! What humiliation, though — getting talked down to by your boy king for trying to stop his child heir from bothering you.

Eammon: I know Larys is basically the new/old(?) Littlefinger, but I think Otto gets overlooked for all his scheming.

Palmer: I appreciate everyone explaining that dragons are actually essentially weapons of mass destruction to Aegon, and that they're more valuable as deterrence. But I also appreciate that his response is "My brother will simply nuke anyone who gets in our way on Vhagar."

Larys Strong act like a normal person challenge: failed.

Eammon: Well, at least he didn't make her get her feet out this time! Although it's telling that she instantly needs a bath after speaking to him.

Palmer: Aegon hearing petitions is so incredibly funny. Man has no idea what it takes to run a kingdom and just wants to please everyone.

Caralynn: This scene does a great job of showing how Aegon truly does not have any idea what he's doing. And also truly doesn't give AF.

Eammon: How many sheep does it take to feed a dragon?

Palmer: Gotta be at least three sheep. Maybe four. How many [sheep] could a dragon need, Michael? Ten?

Eammon: Aegon's never played RollerCoaster Tycoon or Farmville, and it shows.

Caralynn: Ah yes, Hugh, another THIS DUDE IS IMPORTANT long-held close-up.

Eammon: They're just hammering it home.

Palmer: You know who wields a hammer? Thor. You know who has the word Thor in their name? Vermi — [I am immediately yanked off stage]

For all of Otto's scheming, I do truly think that he just does not have game anymore. Larys is DESTROYING him. Alicent entertains Larys even though he uses her as his own personal WikiFeet, but she is sooooo done with her dad.

Alicent drives me a bit insane with this, and I know it's the point, but my god, I can't imagine that anything will go wrong with her plan to use Aegon as a puppet King when he gets tired of ruling!

Caralynn: I do think it's so interesting and effective how they keep showing Alicent and Rhaenyra as being of the same mind about this but each having no idea the other feels this way — Alicent really doesn't want all out war, and Rhaenyra needs to see her kid's charred body in order to accept it may need to happen.

Palmer: Yeah, it's unfortunate, because clearly neither of them want it. But they're in too deep!

Mysaria is revealed to be alive and Rhaenyra returns home

Palmer: Oh yes, it's our favorite ambiguously dead gossip maven, Mysaria.

Caralynn: Lady Whistleworm.

Palmer: I'm no great Mysaria fan, mostly because I feel like the show constantly deploys her to make half-hearted commentary about the common folk, but free this poor woman from Daemon.

Eammon: She's one of those, "Oh yeah, I forgot about her" characters.

Caralynn: I will say I'm curious about what they're going to do with her long-term.

Palmer: Yep, there's clearly a reason to bring her back, and I hope it's a good one!

Eammon: Can we all just take a moment to appreciate Rhaenyra's badass leather coat? I believe that's what the kids call "a look."

Palmer: She's ready to "slay." But yes, I really love the Rhaenyra leather fits.

Caralynn: The costuming on this show is always flawless.

Daemon makes an oopsie

Caralynn: And ope, here's the moment that sets this whole mess in motion. Rhaenyra: I want Aemond. Daemon: actively misunderstanding the assignment

Palmer: But this moment is so impactful — show up, say you want your half-brother killed, walk off. Rhaenyra, one episode ago in season one, would not have hit that point, and it really underscores the impact of Lucerys' death.

Caralynn: Ah, this moment of mourning with Rhaenyra and Jace — so unexpected and heartwrenching. They both do such a great job here.

Eammon: This is the bit that got me a little bit. He's trying to maintain his sense of duty as a man, when he's still just a boy himself really.

Palmer: Yeah — I feel like we so rarely get to see Rhaenyra be a mother, and Jacaerys doing his best to step up is heartbreaking. He's still a child! One who hasn't really seen battle.

I feel like we wouldn't have gotten something like that in season one — the show was always moving at such a breakneck pace that there wasn't much time actually develop the kids too much.

Eammon: Yeah, I'm pleased they're letting moments like this breathe instead of just jumping straight into "HEY, LOOK IT'S THE DRAGONS.""

Palmer: This is a series that is at its core, about the grief of mothers, and these are moments where it's really well-executed (as opposed to, say, gratuitous childbirth sequences)

Eammon: Also Ramin Djawadi's score is beautiful here.

Palmer: If I were Daemon Targaryen, personally, I would not entrust a task like this to These Guys, recommended to me by my ex-lover who hates me.

Caralynn: This is like Taskrabbit from hell. Blood and Cheese have a 4.3 rating from 3 jobs and Daemon's like "Seems fine!"

Back in King's Landing, the assassins that Daemon sent after Aemond close in

Eammon: Aemond correctly taking stock of his mom situation: "She blames me for starting this war." To be fair, mate, your dragon did make a midnight snack out of Lucerys.

Palmer: I do think it's funny because Aemond is not faultless, but he's also not particularly wrong — he does seem to have the clearest head out of the whole bunch.

Caralynn: Ewan Mitchell is great as Aemond. He has so much more insight than the others. It's interesting how he's the one to clock that Alicent still has love for Rhaenyra and it's holding her back.

Palmer: He's extremely perceptive! Criston, however, is a bitch.

Caralynn: Criston's long-held grudge is, at this point, a bit much. For him to still be this pissed that she didn't want to marry him is so unhinged. It's giving fragile male ego.

Palmer: I love Aegon and his shithead friends drinking on the Iron Throne. As the people intended!

Caralynn: They're like a bunch of frat bros.

Palmer: I was trying to think of a Westerosi frat house name but was not quick enough on the draw.

Eammon: Alpha Beta Valyria. And oh hey look, a rat. Symbolism!

Palmer: This entire Blood & Cheese bit is so silly, but not necessarily in a bad way? It's horrifying to watch these guys bumble their way into one of the worst inciting incidents of the entire war. They have no clue what they're doing. Ultimately, very effective.

Caralynn: This entire scene is so stressful, and the music is so effective.

Palmer: C'mon guys, does that child look like he has an eyepatch, or can hold his own in a fight?

Eammon: The realization about what's about to happen is just horrifying.

Palmer: Extraordinarily horrifying, and I feel like it's worse because it's Helaena, who is about as close to an innocent as we get aside from the literal children.

Caralynn: Her weakly trying to bargain with them and realizing it's pointless — Phia does phenomenal work here. You can practically see her dissociating.

Palmer: It's also so brutal that Helaena tells the truth when she points out her son — what do you even do? It just feels like the worst kind of gut reaction.

Caralynn: OK, not the vibe, but this bit with the running did make me laugh a little — she's so obviously running with a fake kid.

Palmer: I do think that these shots of her running down the hallway, limp baby aside, are very effective.

Eammon: This moment, with Helaena interrupting Alicent and Criston during sex and blowing the cover on their affair, irritated me. It's so tonally mismatched — the goofiness of getting barged in on mid-intercourse, and the brutality of what just happened.

Palmer: I have yet to truly reckon with Helaena walking in on Alicent and Cole. It feels like it muddies the moment a bit, but I can also rationalize it as this transition point where the war really, truly becomes serious.

Caralynn: It also sets the stage for an interesting tension between Alicent and Helaena because wasn't Criston, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, supposed to be, y'know… guarding them? But he was too busy getting his rocks off with her mom!

Palmer: Probably! Him or someone else on the Kingsguard who was slacking off. But it is worse to see one of the family's protectors having an affair instead of protecting!

Eammon: Although, to be fair, this is the same franchise that ended its pilot with Jaime and Cersei having sex in a tower when Bran walked in on them.

Palmer: That is…. a very fair point. It is a kind of twist on that inciting incident.

Caralynn: That's a really good point. Sex really screws everything up!! Especially like, illicit sex that these people are definitely not supposed to be having

Palmer: Yes, this is the moral we should be taking from "Game of Thrones"/"House of the Dragon": Never Have An Affair.

Caralynn: Sex: Simply not worth the trouble (i.e., multiple wars).

• "House of the Dragon" just teased a major character in its season two premiere.
• Hugh is a blacksmith who petitions King Aegon II for a payment advance. 
• But in "Fire and Blood" he plays a major role — read ahead if you want to be spoiled! 

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the season two premiere of "House of the Dragon" and the book "Fire and Blood."

"House of the Dragon" is already keeping us on our toes in season two — and the premiere briefly introduced an important figure from George R.R. Martin's book.

In the season two premiere, Aegon II Targaryen hears petitions from common folk. Unused to making difficult decisions as ruler, he's generous in granting their wishes — that is, until his Hand Otto Hightower steps in to remind him that his dragons need to eat the sheep he just granted back to a shepherd.

One of these petitioners, however, is more important than the others: Hugh the blacksmith (Kieran Bew), who asks Aegon for an advance on the smiths' payment for weapons.

If you couldn't tell by the lingering, close-up shot of Hugh's face during his introduction, here's your PSA: You should remember his face. Assuming he's the same Hugh from "Fire and Blood," the book on which "House of the Dragon" is based, we'll see much more of him down the line.

In 'Fire and Blood,' Hugh is a dragonrider

During the Dance of the Dragons, as recounted in "Fire and Blood," Rhaenyra's son Jacaerys decides to recruit potential dragonriders from the breadth of Targaryen bastards. He puts out a call for recruits, promising rewards like knighthood, lands, and glory to those who are able to successfully mount a dragon.

Not everyone was able to do so. According to "Fire and Blood," Grand Maester Munkun (one historical source) recounted that 16 men died during the trials, while tens of them were injured. Hugh, a "blacksmith's bastard" with incredible physical strength, mounted the dragon Vermithor. Others also succeeded, mounting the dragons Silverwing, Seasmoke, and Sheepstealer.

Vermithor — we know him, right?

That you do. "House of the Dragons" viewers encountered Vermithor in season one. The previous mount of King Jaehaerys, Viserys' predecessor, and was riderless after his death.

Daemon Targaryen very briefly encounters Vermithor in the season one finale when he seeks him out underneath Dragonstone. Singing a song in High Valyrian, Daemon doesn't seem to get very far with Vermithor — but he doesn't get burnt to a crisp, which is still a net win.

Vermithor isn't the biggest dragon that we've seen in "House of the Dragon" — that honor goes to Aemond's big, beautiful girl Vhagar — but he's still pretty big.

Now, if you want potential major spoilers for the show…

What happens to Hugh in the books?

The fictional history of Westeros recounts how Hugh fought in the war as a dragonrider. In one battle, Rhaenyra's forces clashed with a naval fleet from the Triarchy, with whom Otto Hightower had engineered an alliance. During the battle, Hugh and Vermithor fought alongside the dragons Silverwing, Sheepstealer, Seasmoke, their riders, Jacaerys, and his dragon Vermax.

However, Hugh and Ulf White, Silverwing's rider, defected later in the war, though their motivations were disputed in the historical record. Later in the war, he made a play for the throne himself, but was killed during a battle.

"House of the Dragon" season two airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and is streaming on Max.

• OceanGate's Titan imploded nearly a year ago, killing all 5 passengers including the company's CEO.
• The company's co-founder, Guillermo Söhnlein, told BI he thinks about the incident daily.
• The fatal implosion motivates him to continue with his exploration ventures, Söhnlein said.

OceanGate's co-founder said he thinks about the fatal Titan submersible voyage every day, and the incident pushes him to continue pursuing his vision of accessible deep-sea exploration.

Nearly one year ago, on June 18, 2023, the Titan made its final plunge in the Atlantic, where five passengers — including OceanGate's CEO Stockton Rush — ventured to the site of the Titanic wreckage.

US Coast Guard officials said the vessel experienced a "catastrophic implosion," instantly killing all passengers.

The incident captured national attention and was widely viewed as the manifestation of Rush's hubris and relentless push to explore the deep sea — even if that meant bending a few rules.

"Few of us ever have a fatal flaw, and Rush did," Arnie Weissmann, the editor-in-chief of Travel Weekly, told Business Insider last year. "He thought he was right or he wouldn't have gotten in [the submersible] and piloted it, but that was a fatal flaw."

But for Guillermo Söhnlein, who co-founded OceanGate with Rush in 2009, death is an unfortunate element of innovation that explorers can only hope to avoid.

"We always know that setbacks are almost just part of the exploration experience. It's almost in the definition of exploration," he told BI in a recent interview. "You're gonna have setbacks, and you hope that the setbacks don't include fatalities, but you know that's a possibility."

And when death does become a "setback," Söhnlein said, that's when you should push harder.

"I think in a paradoxical kind of way, that drive to keep going is amplified," he said. "And I think in large part, it's because you want to make sure that your colleagues, who lost their lives, didn't lose their lives in vain. You want their death to mean something, and you want their legacies to live on."

This sentiment is part of why Söhnlein hasn't stopped thinking about OceanGate and Rush in the year since the Titan catastrophe.

"If anything I probably think about him and the company and everything 10 times more than I did before the incident," he said.

Advances in human transportation systems

During the interview, Söhnlein did not mention regrets in those thoughts but rather a desire to achieve OceanGate's early vision to "open the oceans up to humanity."

He told BI that he sees an issue with how the only people who seem to be able to plunge into the ocean's depths are billionaires with resources to build a submersible or researchers and government agencies that have access to deep-sea vessels.

"When Stockton and I sat down and looked at the state of the world in 2009, we thought, 'That is a tragedy,'" he said. "The most important ecosystem in the entire planet is one that we can only access if we are a national government or a billionaire. And that's ridiculous."

The Titan implosion continues to be investigated today. A recent Wired report revealed more insights into Rush's push to build a low-cost submersible and how he ignored warnings from his colleagues.

People within and outside OceanGate urged Rush to conduct more tests on the Titan before taking on passengers. Last year, BI reported that OceanGate had completed over 14 expeditions and 200 dives using two submersibles.

Söhnlein said he read the Wired report but didn't want to comment because he felt he would be speculating on its contents.

He also told BI that he doesn't consider how many tests are suitable for a deep-sea submersible "because it is different for every sub, depending on the level of innovation."

When asked if he would have said anything differently to Rush before the implosion, Söhnlein again told BI that he would be speculating.

"I don't know. I'd be speculating since I wasn't at the company and I only spoke to Stockton occasionally," he said. "I didn't have access to all the information. I wasn't there day to day. I didn't see the sub being built."

A communications firm representing OceanGate wrote in a brief email to BI that "OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations."

Last year, Söhnlein told BI of his grand vision to send 1,000 people to a floating colony on Venus. He also founded Blue Marble Exploration, which he described as an "exploration-focused media company," after he left OceanGate.

In his recent interview with BI, he said that one takeaway from the Titan implosion, which he would apply to his ongoing exploration ventures, goes beyond submersibles and is relevant to the current advancements in the "human transportation system," from self-driving cars to suborbital flight.

"At some point in the technology development cycle, you have to put humans in the loop," Söhnlein said. "But if you're going to start putting humans in that transportation system, you've got to have the right level of comfort with the viability of the technology to do it as safely as possible. And I think that's just kind of a lesson learned for everybody."