• A Ukrainian arms maker says future warfare is one soldier controlling drone swarms with autonomy.
• It's tech Ukraine and some partners are working on because it gives a single soldier greater impact.
• Ark Robotics' CEO said it's "kind of a prerequisite" for any coming drone warfare.

The future of warfare will demand one soldier being able to control huge swarms of drones that can work together autonomously, a Ukrainian arms maker predicted.

Achi, the CEO of Ukrainian defense firm Ark Robotics, told Business Insider the shift from one drone per pilot to one pilot controlling many is "kind of a prerequisite to be successful in the total drone warfare that is coming to all of us."

With a one-pilot, one-drone system, the only way to scale up drone fleets is by expanding the number of operators.

"This is just not sustainable," Achi told Business Insider, using a pseudonym as a security precaution. "You can scale drone manufacturing much more than you can pilots," he added.

Ark Robotics develops autonomous robots used by over 20 Ukrainian brigades and is creating a system that enables thousands of aerial drones and ground robots, including those not manufactured by the company, to collaborate with minimal human intervention. It's working toward single operator control of many drones.

Countries around the world, from Ukraine to Western allies to rivals like Russia and China, are supercharging combat drone manufacturing. "You can have all these fancy drones," Achi said, but "what is the use of them if you can't really deploy them at scale?"

A need for drone mass

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has involved more drones than any other conflict in history, and innovation in their capabilities has been rapid. The West is paying attention, thinking about what it may need as it worries that Russia could spark a wider conflict with NATO.

Drone technology is critical for Ukraine, vastly outnumbered by Russia's significantly larger military, as it offers mass. But one drone per operator doesn't offer anywhere near the advantage that swarming could. And reducing human involvement and embracing autonomy can accelerate combat action. That's why interest in swarm technology is surging.

There is no confirmed deployment of large, fully autonomous swarms of drones that can act without significant human oversight on the battlefield, but it would be absolutely game-changing.

That kind of capability opens up "a whole world of tactics and strategies that we've not even thought of yet," James Patton Rogers, a drone expert at the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute, previously told Business Insider.

The combat system that Ark is working on, called Frontier, is still in the prototype stage and is just one example of many efforts in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government says the country is pushing for the technology, but "these systems are also just getting started," Achi said.

Ukraine demonstrates that quantity can become a kind of quality, he said, explaining that "to really get an advantage of that, you need these asymmetrical systems that allow you to work with multiple drones at the same time."

That's a lesson for the West as much as it is for Ukraine.

Western officials, defense experts, and industry insiders have cautioned that to meet Russia's style of warfare — heavily attritional, masses of drones and missiles, and intense artillery barrages — militaries need a greater volume of cheap weapons developed and produced quickly, not a limited stockpile of highly advanced systems developed over decades and produced over years.

Drone swarms are key to that kind of war.

The West is working

There's no guarantee that drones would play as significant a role in a war involving the West as they have in Ukraine — in part because Ukraine's reliance on them is tied to shortages of other weaponry and other capability disadvantages.

But many officials still warn that the West needs far more drone and counter-drone capabilities. Swarming systems are among them.

Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson told Business Insider that his country identified the need for drone swarms from watching this war and that it has rushed to produce technology to allow one soldier to autonomously control up to 100 drones. It's not clear when that could be operational. Other NATO members are working on this technology, too.

However, there is still no broad NATO-wide investment in these capabilities and no clear sense of when — or whether — they could be fielded. Across the alliance, many officials warn that lessons aren't being acted on fast enough and that production of weaponry remains too slow. It's also unclear how autonomous future systems will actually be.

Achi said the current autonomy in defense systems is "greatly overhyped," but noted that the battlefield shows autonomy is necessary and "past the point of no return."

There is acknowledgment, from industry and officials, that autonomy is needed to break past manpower limits, increase speed, and keep troops safer.

The CEO of Origin Robotics, a drone maker in NATO member Latvia that supplies Ukraine, previously told Business Insider he sees autonomy as essential to NATO’s defense, especially for the smaller member states bordering Russia.

"For a NATO country, you need a scalable solution," Agris Kipurs argued. "Autonomy, in our case, is what allows us to scale. We don't have the numbers in terms of infantry."

Achi said he wants Europe not only to learn from Ukraine and catch up to its drone leadership, but to think further ahead. He described Europe as "having the time" compared to Ukraine, which is fighting for survival.

If Europe's increased defense spending "goes to outdated technology or just wrongly copied technology, it doesn't make any sense to me," he said. "So I want to see them thinking a few steps ahead and taking lessons from the lessons."

• Carinne Meyrignac spent her maternity leave in France, where her baby played with musical books.
• She couldn't find similar products in English, so they had them made.
• She left her corporate job during her second maternity leave.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Carinne Meyrignac, founder of Cali's Books. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm French, but I absolutely love living in LA. Still, during my maternity leave, I returned to Paris to be closer to my family. There, my baby adored singing books. She was only a few months old, but they kept her engaged.

When we returned to America, I couldn't find anything similar. At the same time, I was learning all the English nursery rhymes I hadn't grown up with. I loved singing rhymes like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Patty Cake."

Many French nursery rhymes are surprisingly inappropriate. One popular rhyme translates along the lines of "I have some great tobacco, but I won't share it with you." I didn't want to sing that to my baby.

I liked how most of the English rhymes were happy and upbeat, even if they dealt with dark topics like death (as "Ring Around the Rosie" does). I decided to print music books that were fun, joyful, and distinctly American, based on the rhymes my daughter and I both loved.

I had 6,000 books printed, and other people loved them, too

I've always been someone to take action once I have an idea. I came up with the concept in October 2016, and in November, my husband and I travelled to China to meet with a printer. I've worked in Asia before, and have passable Mandarin.

The manufacturer had a minimum print run of 3,000 copies, and I wanted two titles: "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Patty Cake." We had been saving for a new-to-us used car, but instead of upgrading, I spent that money on books.

By my daughter's first birthday in March, I had 6,000 books in my garage. I figured I had presents to give for the rest of my life, but when I started showing the books to local baby stores, people loved them. I calculated how much I would have to make to quit my corporate banking job, but it wasn't financially feasible.

Later that year, my son was born. I again went to France on maternity leave, but when I returned, I found I could no longer do my job. I was awarded a settlement during mediation with my employer.

It was gratifying to have a court say that I had been treated badly. The settlement also gave me the seed money to launch a business — which was important, since I knew I had burned bridges in the niche corporate role I was in.

My husband now works for the business, too

I was able to leverage my corporate skills, like organization, to effectively grow the business. There were significant adjustments, however, such as not receiving a paycheck every month. Although my husband was still working, I felt a lot of pressure to provide for my family, so that was sometimes scary.

Between 2019 and 2021 the business revenue exploded. It was bittersweet though: my mother had just been diagnosed with cancer. Because I owned my own business, I was able to spend time in Europe with her until she died. I'm so grateful for that.

Another milestone came in 2022, when I was able to hire my husband. I don't pay him as much as his previous employer, but now the whole family has flexibility. Then, in 2023, I started paying myself.

Today, the business has published more than 50 titles, and last year we did more than $4.8 million in revenue. I appreciate the independence I have, and I'm proud to be building something tangible that I can leave to my children.

It's the last Fed meeting of the year

The Federal Reserve will announce its December interest rate decision at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday. Business Insider will be covering developments live throughout the day, including economists' insights, market moves, and what it means for your wallet.

Check back here for updates — and tune into our live Q&A with reporters this afternoon at 4 p.m. ET.

• The Morgan Library and Museum showcases JP Morgan's 119-year-old historic library.
• The museum features rare artifacts, including a Gutenberg Bible and a manuscript by Charles Dickens.
• Recent interest has grown due to exhibits on Belle da Costa and "The Personal Librarian."

JPMorgan may now have the most state-of-the-art building on Wall Street, but about 10 blocks south of the shiny, new, $3 billion fortress still sits the 119-year-old library of the bank's founder.

With all the focus on the new kid on the block, I decided to pay a visit to the classic, now known as The Morgan Library & Museum, located on Madison Avenue and 36th Street in Manhattan.

Completed in 1906, John Pierpont (JP) Morgan had the structure built to house his study and library right next to his brownstone residence. Stepping into the original structure, you're immediately transported to the Gilded Age: extravagant paintings line the ceilings of the entry rotunda, deep red wallpaper gives a solemn tone to his study, and wood bookcases display the impressive book collections.

If you're a finance nerd, you may be disappointed in the lack of Wall Street-specific history in the museum. But if you generally appreciate art and culture as much as JP Morgan apparently did, the place is a must-see.

As his wealth grew and the fortunes of the powerful families of Europe declined, Morgan amassed pieces from all over the world and from various periods of history, including artifacts from ancient civilizations in the Middle East and Europe.

One museum guide directed me to her two favorite pieces in the collection: an original Gutenberg bible and the original manuscript of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." Seeing the works up close was breathtaking.

In the study, portraits of JP Morgan and his son, Jack, overlook the room. In the corner, a vault holds the most valuable works in the collection. In the library, three stories of bookshelves wrap around the room.

The opulence of the collection is almost too much — something the museum seems to acknowledge in displaying a political cartoon depicting Morgan pulling artifacts from Europe with a giant magnet. Nevertheless, the museum is worth it if you're a history buff.

One of the museum's gift shop clerks told me that one of its biggest recent draws was an exhibit on the library's first director, Belle da Costa, who was the library's director from 1905 to 1948. A new historical fiction novel about da Costa called "The Personal Librarian" has driven interest in the museum, she said, and is one of the gift shop's top-selling items.

• Kirsten Bradford burned out after spending four to eight hours a day job hunting for over a year.
• She implemented several lifestyle changes after her son brought the burnout to her attention.
• This is the second installment of a 5-part personal essay series, The Burnout Cure.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kirsten Bradford, a 30-year-old marketing professional based in Dallas, Texas. It's been edited for length and clarity.

After losing my marketing job in 2023, I had no doubts I'd find a new one. I had just earned my master's degree and figured it would help me break into new industries. To find out how wrong I was, especially as a single parent, was scary and confusing.

Over the next year, I spent every day at home applying for jobs, only to feel exhausted and unable to do much else. I felt heavy and numb, like nothingness. I didn't realize how burned out I'd become until my 8-year-old son brought it to my attention.

I looked around at the laundry piled up, the weight I gained, and my dirty room, and realized all the ways my lifestyle was hurting me. I knew I needed to make a change for us.

Since then, I've completely changed the way I approach the job hunt, and that discipline is helping me recover from burnout and feel like a human again.

In my first year of unemployment, I spent 4 to 8 hours a day applying for jobs

When I got hired for a marketing role at a tech recruitment firm, a lot of the language they were speaking went right over my head. I decided to pursue a master's in business management from SMU Cox to close the learning gap at work. When the school program intensified, and I started pulling myself in too many directions, I was let go from work.

I graduated soon after and started applying to banking jobs, hoping to get my foot in the door. When that wasn't picking up, I figured I'd for sure be able to get a job in marketing given my experience, but nothing came from that either. I just felt so confused. It was scary to go from a full-time salary to nothing, but luckily, my son and I live with my parents rent-free.

In my first year of job searching, I applied to 278 jobs and only landed two interviews. It had me questioning my worth and wondering if something was wrong with me.

It was a really sad time, but I kept pushing through.

My energy was exhausting and my son could feel it

I realized things needed to change when my son, a chronic co-sleeper who is known to tiptoe into my room in the middle of the night, told me, "I don't want to sleep here anymore, I don't like the way it feels."

I knew it was because of me. My energy was exhausting, and he could feel it; no child should bear the weight of their parents' emotions. That's when I told myself, "If you're not going to be happy for you, you need to do it for him."

We always used to have fun together. We'd go to the park, downtown, anywhere to spend time with each other. I couldn't remember the last time we went on an adventure. I couldn't even remember the last time I worked out, cooked a proper meal, or even put on makeup.

I don't think my son recognized me, and at that moment, I didn't either, but I wasn't willing to lose my son over it. My favorite job is being a mom.

I implemented 3 immediate changes in my lifestyle to help with my burnout

The very next thing that I did was pray, and I felt God tell me "stop." I initially dismissed it, but I realized going at full speed hadn't gotten me anywhere. It was time to stop and smell the roses, and know that I gave it my best.

The first thing I did to get myself out of my rut was to go on walks, inviting my son along when he was ready. Then, I started cooking and cleaning more. I liked how it felt not being a robot whose only task was to apply to jobs.

The biggest moment of change was when my son and I started going back out again. It was back to the basics. Even if we don't have money, we're still going to have a good time. That's when I started easing back into myself.

I only apply to jobs for 90 minutes a day now

I picked up a part-time job in retail at Bath & Body Works to make some extra money. Additionally, I only give myself 90 minutes a day to apply for jobs, probably a few days a week.

That time usually includes me finding a job I want to apply for, using AI to optimize my résumé, submitting the application, and finding someone to follow up with. I find a lot of jobs from alum groups or referrals. If someone calls me back, great, but if they don't, it's OK. I can't afford to let the job market hurt my spirit anymore.

Outside of that, I follow a schedule. I wake up, take my son to school, work out, cook, and study the Bible or read another book. Right now, I'm challenging myself to read one audiobook and one physical book each week.

My discipline and spirituality are bringing me out of burnout

My spirituality has also kept me grounded during this time, and I keep myself very busy.

I'm currently looking for a hobby that'll keep me out of survival mode. I'm thinking of getting more into decorating because I get to use my hands, and it keeps my mind solving problems in a creative way. It's not easy, and it's not stressful.

I've been calling my loved ones more because I have the time, and I've been volunteering more. I've met good people there, and it makes me happy to serve.

One of the biggest things that's helping me ease out of burnout is having the discipline to stay busy and keep up with my schedule. No matter what I'm doing in a day, I treat it like it's my job.

Do you have a story to share about navigating burnout? If so, please reach out to this reporter at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com.

• AWS executive Sarah Cooper routinely crafts proposals to create new job roles and initiatives.
• Cooper uses Amazon's 6-page narrative memo and its PR/FAQ frameworks to pitch ideas.
• She wrote a proposal that led to her current role leading the AWS AI-Native team.

AWS executive Sarah Cooper has launched several companies and held roles at NASA and AWS, but she's only ever formally interviewed for three jobs.

Instead, Cooper told Business Insider that her career moves often begin with writing a proposal about the work she wants to pursue, either to a VC, a cofounder, or an executive leader, and that becomes the role she steps into.

"I have a million ideas," Cooper said. "It's a blessing and a curse."

Cooper has seen a high rate of success with her proposals. She used them to invent both her previous and current roles at AWS.

Cooper was previously the head of AWS Industry Products, where she worked closely with customers to develop industry solutions in the cloud. Now she leads the "AWS AI-Native" team, an AWS product organization that works with customers to understand how companies will evolve with AI.

Cooper said she wrote a proposal to pitch her last two roles, and she's a fan of the six-page memo, a favorite of Jeff Bezos. Instead of PowerPoint decks, Bezos often opted to start meetings by having attendees read a 6-page "narratively structured" memo silently at the start of the meeting. The founder has said he prefers memos to avoid "hiding a lot of sloppy thinking in bullet points."

These six-page memos typically describe detailed plans for a new initiative and are written using 10-point font. Bezos wrote years ago in an annual shareholder letter that "great memos are written and re-written," and can't be done in a couple of days, though the exact criteria remains more flexible.

Cooper also referenced using Amazon's classic PR/FAQ framework. The executive said she finds the format "effective at helping people quickly understand what your idea is and why it matters."

Amazon describes the framework as a means to develop ideas and initiatives that enable teams to quickly integrate feedback and promote fact-based decision-making. The press-release portion spans a few paragraphs and provides the reader with highlights of the customer experience. The FAQ section, typically five pages or less, dives into the details and also outlines the challenges of building the product or service.

Once a draft is written, the creator typically schedules a one-hour meeting with stakeholders to review the document and get feedback, the company said in a blog post about the framework.

Cooper said she's written over 14 PR/FAQs and investment narratives that have been funded, as well as many other ideas that the company didn't move forward with.

Cooper, who has been at Amazon for over nine years, says she also tries to reflect the organization's values when writing proposals. Amazon's PR/FAQ format originated from a process the company calls "Working Backwards," a method for evaluating new ideas by first defining the ideal customer experience and then reverse-engineering what the team needs to build to achieve it.

Cooper said Amazon is "customer-obsessed," so she tries to focus on that value when drafting a memo. She said she thinks less about the needs of a specific team and more broadly about customers and the best way to serve them, regardless of what's been done previously.

While Cooper has spent her career writing proposals, many never see the light of day — and those that do don't always go smoothly, she said. In her late 20s, while serving as the CTO of a company, she wrote a proposal suggesting that the business should focus limited resources on scaling the supply chain, specifically with the supply chain involved in on-mine extraction to meet demand for contracts. The company disagreed on where to invest.

"I got pushed out of one of my companies, basically, for a proposal I wrote," Cooper said.

• With the year coming to an end, gift-giving season is in full swing.
• Holidays can be crucial for maintaining the typical closet, from viral sneakers to a classic vest.
• Business Insider wants to know what employees in the finance world crave most this year.

While a big bonus or a long-awaited promotion might top Wall Street's holiday wish list, those can't exactly be found in stores or online.

Business Insider wants to know the more attainable gifts on bankers and traders wish lists this year — think the viral sneakers showing up on trading floors.

Whether it's something you're coveting yourself or a go-to item you're planning to buy in bulk for work friends, we'd love to hear it.

Your list might look different if you're a partner or an intern, and that's fine — no judgment. We just want a clear picture of what Wall Street really wants this holiday season.

Tell us more in the survey below.

• The drama over who will buy Warner Bros. Discovery overlooks viewers' shift toward YouTube and TikTok.
• Traditional studios face pressure as tech takes over entertainment and people prefer UGC platforms.
• Viewers can expect streaming prices to rise and theater releases to decline, regardless of who wins WBD.

The Warner Bros. Discovery-Paramount-Netflix drama has Hollywood in a tizzy this week — but it's missing one big thing: What about you?

Americans are deep in a new era of entertainment and are increasingly likely to get their fix on YouTube and TikTok rather than with WBD's popular franchises like Harry Potter and "Game of Thrones."

The headlines around the deal have focused on whether Netflix or Paramount's David Ellison will win in the boardroom. But the results in your living room will be due to forces that are much bigger than the companies themselves, and have changed the way we watch. Movie theater releases are down, cable TV is dying, streaming prices are likely to rise, and Hollywood's power is waning in the age of tech giants.

What the fight for Warner Bros. could mean for jobs and how you watch TV

The reason companies like Netflix and Paramount want to buy Warner Bros. is because competition in the entertainment industry is fierce, driven by the decline of cable TV and the rising popularity of small screens and tech companies.

"If Big Tech never made a move into media, there's a very good chance we wouldn't be seeing this much consolidation as we are now," said Brandon Katz, an entertainment analyst at Greenlight Analytics.

Now that Americans spend more time with the big players in entertainment like Google-owned YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon, mergers can help legacy players like Disney, Fox, and Comcast compete. It'll mean lost jobs. The combo that formed WBD led to multiple rounds of layoffs, including about 1,000 roles in mid-2024. Both Paramount and Netflix present themselves as the bigger job savers, but both promise billions in "synergies" that will likely result in cuts.

"The problem is the acquisition and pending consolidation of two media giants, not who the buyer is," said The Writers Guild of America, the union representing TV and film writers.

Additionally, deals offer companies the opportunity to consolidate their brands. WBD has already combined HBO's prestige shows with Discovery's mainstream fare to form HBO Max, and Disney has brought Hulu and ESPN+ into its streaming bundle.

It all trickles down to what you get to watch, where you watch it, and how much you have to pay. Streaming prices have been increasing while big theatrical movie releases have declined over time, and there's good reason to think those trends will continue, regardless of where Warner Bros. ends up. Industry trends for movie-going are clear, with the number of wide releases and box-office grosses still below their pre-COVID levels.

Streamer prices could increase while less stuff gets made

Whoever ends up with Warner's HBO Max will likely bundle it with their existing streamer and raise the price based on the more expansive offering, Katz said.

"Within 18 months, all consumers should expect to be paying more for these subscriptions," he said.

It's also widely expected that the combination of two of these companies will lead to less output. That's one of the main objections of Hollywood, whose livelihood depends on stuff getting made.

"This is one less entity writing checks," said Josh Rosenbaum, a producer at Waypoint Entertainment, whose credits have included Yorgos Lanthimos' Oscar-winning "The Favourite."

Paramount promised that if it wins the WBD battle, it'll release 30 movies a year in theaters, while Netflix says it'll continue to put Warner Bros. movies in theaters while favoring a quick-to-streaming strategy for its own films. The Disney and Fox merger is a cautionary tale; their combined theatrical releases have declined nearly 50% since the merger was announced in 2017.

The dinosaurs may be fighting a losing battle. People (especially younger generations) are increasingly getting their entertainment from user-generated platforms. A Hub Entertainment Research survey found that people aged 13 to 24 spend an estimated 21% of their screen time watching non-professional videos on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, compared to just 16% spent on traditional TV shows. In contrast, people aged 35 and up spend 39% of their screen time on TV shows — more than twice as much as they spend on online videos (14%).

That's put pressure on traditional players. YouTube — not any traditional Hollywood powerhouse — is the No. 1 streaming service on TVs, according to Nielsen. Netflix's engagement per user has stagnated over the past few years, despite the company's increased spending on content, while YouTube has widened its lead on TV screens, according to Bernstein research. Netflix and other leading streamers have taken steps to bring social media-first creators and video podcasters onto their platforms, but show no signs of fundamentally changing their models.

"The real threat to the media industry in general is the new formats like short form," Bernstein analyst Laurent Yoon said. Paramount is at least talking about a technology-led overhaul of how entertainment is made, which has investors intrigued. But whatever changes it makes are likely to be incremental in the near term, he said.

• Early menopause at 29 deeply impacted Claudia Zimmerman's personal life and work as a nurse manager.
• Medically induced menopause brought her years of anxiety, hot flashes, and weight gain challenges.
• Access to menopause-specific healthcare and support at work finally improved her well-being.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Claudia Zimmerman, 48, who went through medically induced early menopause at 29 while working full-time as a nurse manager. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I've been a registered nurse for almost 25 years, and I've spent the bulk of my career working in labor and delivery and at a fertility clinic. I always felt passionate about women's reproductive health due to my own experiences with endometriosis since I was a teen.

I had stage three endometriosis, a disease that happens when tissue grows outside the uterus. The pain was excruciating, and I went to multiple physicians who dismissed my symptoms as something women just go through.

This was frustrating and isolating, and it made me doubt the symptoms my body was showing me.

I had to do something to help with the pain

At 29, I was done having children, and my symptoms were escalating, so I decided to have a hysterectomy to relieve my pain once and for all. The hysterectomy removed my ovaries, uterus, and cervix, which put me into medically induced early menopause.

I knew of the general symptoms of menopause, but nothing could've prepared me for the experience I was about to undergo.

The next few years were a struggle between my body and menopause. One of the most challenging aspects was working full-time while going through it.

I was working full-time as a nurse manager at a fertility clinic

After my hysterectomy, I went back to work as an IVF nurse. I didn't become menopausal right away. I had an ovarian remnant that was producing enough estrogen to hold off menopause.

Two years after my hysterectomy, they removed this third-ish ovary, which then led to the first wave of my menopausal symptoms. I experienced increased anxiety, a bit of weight gain, and increased depression in addition to hot flashes, which I mitigated with estrogen tablets and patches.

I powered through hot flashes, even though they took a toll on me

My hot flashes were a slow build that would start with a sudden panic. I'd feel pressure in my abdomen and chest that would take my breath away.

I'd keep getting warmer and warmer to the point where my cheeks would get red, and sweat would leak out all over my body.

It didn't matter if it was snowing outside or freezing inside; for 30 seconds to up to three minutes, I'd be drenched in sweat, and my heart would race.

I was open with my coworkers about what I was going through, and that was helpful

I worked alongside many women. I would often turn to them for advice on my symptoms, and they helped me feel empowered and supported.

At work, I tried a menagerie of things to help combat my symptoms, from drinking iced water, eating straight ice, and bringing in my own fan for my desk, to taking a walk on a break while talking to my mom, who always helped me work through anxiety and fear.

I was so self-conscious about the weight gain. I started wearing larger scrubs so that I could conceal some of the changes, but there were also days when wearing scrubs wasn't an option, like when meeting new patients or traveling from office to office.

Given that my job was very patient-centric, back-to-back interactions dominated most of my day. On days when I wasn't feeling great, I knew I could share with my colleagues that I "needed a minute," and they would step in immediately to offer their support.

A lot of my coworkers and I were the same age, but our bodies were different

My coworkers and I were all in our mid-30s, yet our bodies were so different. Although they never made me feel that difference, it was hard for me to ignore.

I often had to remind myself of why I made the decision to get a hysterectomy. It was saving me from decades of severe pain, even though it was forcing me to come to terms with a new version of myself I wasn't ready for.

I was most shocked at how long my menopause journey lasted

I experienced menopause symptoms for roughly 17 years. The weight gain and hot flashes were one thing, but the anxiety continued to escalate. I was not prepared for how it seemed to overtake my life seemingly overnight.

All these changes, coupled with the pressure of my role as a mother and wife, left me feeling resentful and short-tempered. It was hard to sleep more than a few hours at night.

I tried to mask my symptoms as much as possible

I was so uncomfortable all the time because of these changes. I didn't want others to see me as weak or different, or to judge me.

Additionally, I was caring for people every day who were going through journeys far worse than my own. I had three children, and I was taking care of people who would do anything just for the ability to have one. I wanted to be strong for them.

After 10 years in this fertility practice, I transitioned into benefits management with Progyny, a fertility, family building, and women's health benefits company, as a clinical educator and patient care advocate. When I started working at this new job, just after I turned 40, everything began shifting dramatically.

My menopause symptoms reached their peak

In 2018, my body played every trick known to man on me. I was averaging about three to four hours of broken sleep a night. My diet didn't change, but I felt like I had gained 10-15 pounds overnight.

My anxiety spiked even further. I felt the brunt of it in the evening and the night.

The weight of fear, worry, guilt, and shame would overcome me, and my thoughts would race during the hours I was supposed to be relaxing and resting. To top this off, my libido vanished, and the short temper I mentioned previously turned into straight anger.

I also experienced a crippling loss. My sweet mother, who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer only a year before, succumbed to her disease. This devastation wrecked any stability I had left of my mental state.

My job had benefits that were very helpful

I was now working from home, so I no longer had to commute up to three hours round-trip to work or be in the clinic.

This also meant I didn't have to mask my symptoms from colleagues and patients, but it began affecting my family and loved ones. My "mask" that I could keep while I was a nurse fully came off.

To distract myself and shield my husband and children from the person I had become, I threw myself into work. It was the only place I felt any sense of control. My family knew how much I was suffering, and my husband was very helpful.

My new role focused on helping companies offer fertility, family building, and women's health benefits to their employees. Through my work there, I stumbled on a breakthrough.

My insurance offered me specific coverage

At my new job, I was helping develop a menopause-specific benefit. I was both shocked and elated to learn that menopause-certified clinicians were available through a new digital health platform.

I thought about how incredible it would be for women to access this type of coverage, regardless of how their menopause stories unfolded. As soon as the product went live, I made my first appointment with a menopause specialist.

I cannot describe how life-changing that appointment was for me

The nurse practitioner listened intently as I described my symptoms, as well as the misery and isolation I had felt several years prior. Every aspect of my health was carefully considered, and I received proper, focused care.

After three new medications, I was able to sleep eight hours again. I lost 25 pounds, all while maintaining balanced hormones and a balanced diet. I still have anxiety from time to time, but it no longer weighs me down. I'll spare you the details, but my libido once again exists.

The most important thing an employer can do for its female population is to acknowledge the unique healthcare challenges that women face and be proactive by offering access to this specific type of care. That, and an empathetic ear, will go a long way for the women of their organizations.

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• Surge AI CEO Edwin Chen said data labeling is much more creative than it gets credit for.
• "I think a lot about what we're doing as a lot more like raising a child," Chen recently told "Lenny's Podcast."
• Surge AI is one of the larger startups competing to help train leading AI models.

It could be easy to dismiss the work data-labeling firms do. Surge AI CEO Edwin Chen said that could stem from misunderstanding what they do.

"I think a lot of people think of data labeling as it relates to simplistic work, like labeling cat photos and drawing boundary marks around cars," Chen told Lenny Rachitsky on his "Lenny podcast."

Chen, who previously worked at Google, Twitter, and Meta, said that he's "always hated the word data labeling."

"Because it just paints this very simplistic picture when I think what we're doing is completely different," he said.

Surge AI, which Chen founded in 2020, competes in the AI data labeling space with companies like Scale AI and Mercor. Surge also has a partnership with Anthropic and also runs DataAnnotation.tech, where freelancers can sign up to get paid for training AI models. These remote workers are often referred to as "ghost workers" for their behind-the-scenes labor that is critical to AI's development.

Beyond any rote work it can entail, Chen said data labeling is a much more creative endeavor. He compared what companies like Surge do to how parents instill lifelong values in their children.

"I think a lot about what we're doing as a lot more like raising a child," he said. "You don't just feed a child information. You're teaching them values, and creativity, and what's beautiful, and these infinite subtle things about what makes somebody a good person."

In this way, Chen said, companies like Surge AI are "raising humanity's children."

Chen's view can also be seen when you navigate to Surge's website, which greets visitors with the question: "What made Hemingway, Kahlo, and von Neumann extraordinary?"

"Their life experiences: war, love, triumph, loss. The people they met, the cities they explored, the thousand choices that made them who they were," the website reads. "Data does for AI what life did for them — transforming it into intelligence that could one day prove the Riemann hypothesis, imagine new philosophies, and send rockets to the stars."

'You don't need to become someone you're not'

Chen previously worked in Big Tech at companies including Twitter, Google, and Facebook — and you might remember one of his Twitter projects.

While at the company, roughly a decade before Elon Musk would acquire it, Chen became known for making the "Pop vs. Soda" map by geo-tagging data from tweets around the US to illustrate which word users used to refer to soft drinks.

Looking back at starting Surge AI, Chen said he was surprised to find out that he never had to stop burying his head in the data.

"I thought if I started a company, I'd have to become a business person looking at financials all day, and being in meetings all day, and doing all this stuff that sounded incredibly boring, and I always hated," he told Rachitsky. "So, I think it's crazy that didn't end up being true at all."

Chen said he wishes he had known that you don't need to spend "constantly tweeting and hyping and fundraising."

"You don't need to become someone you're not," he said. "You can actually build a successful company by simply building something so good that it cuts through all that noise. And I think if I had known this was possible, I would've started even sooner."

Do you work in data labeling? Contact the reporter from a non-work email and device at bgriffiths@businessinsider.com.