• A version of this story originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter.
• Sign up for the weekly BI Tech Memo newsletter here.

How much would you pay for a single AI killer app?

Hedge fund honcho Sam Leffell has views. I got to know Sam while researching ChatGPT's predictive abilities. He uses that leading AI tool constantly for work and in his personal life.

He also tried Google's Gemini earlier this year and became obsessed with a Gmail feature called Polish that uses AI to improve any email with at least 12 words in it. You just press Alt+H on Windows PCs, or Option+H on Macs, and Gemini swoops into action. (That's polish, the shining process, not Polish the language).

Sam said this was the most useful Gemini feature. "Writing emails now takes a fraction of the time it used to," he said. "I still make picky edits, but it's a lot quicker and better."

Here's the wrinkle: He turned off his Gemini paid subscription after a while because, anecdotally for him, it was not as good as ChatGPT. Then, the Polish feature from his Gmail suddenly disappeared. Unacceptable!

"That surprised me," Sam said. "So now I'm paying Google a certain amount each month, just to have this button to polish all my emails. That's how valuable this is."

The first paid tier of Gemini is $20 a month. That's a lot for one feature.

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

• The Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery deal would be one of the biggest ever in the media industry.
• WBD CEO David Zaslav told employees not to worry in a town hall on Friday afternoon.
• "Netflix is an exceptional company" with "a great, sustainable future," Zaslav said.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav presented an upbeat take on the company's new mega-merger with Netflix during a Friday all-hands with employees.

"This is a big day for Warner Bros.," Zaslav said at a company global town hall, a recording of which was obtained by Business Insider.

Netflix plans to buy the Warner Bros. studio and streaming assets in an industry-shaking $72 billion deal, the companies announced on Friday. WBD's TV networks like CNN and TNT will be part of a spinoff in mid-2026, as the media conglomerate had originally planned.

WBD's town hall on Friday afternoon at 1:30 pm ET seemed designed to answer employees' questions and assuage any fears about the Netflix deal. Zaslav also sent a memo to staffers, several of whom told BI they were worried about their job security as the company undergoes another major deal. That's especially true because Netflix has its own top-tier tech that could render some of WBD's obsolete.

"The intention is, they want to keep most people," Zaslav said of Netflix on the call.

WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, who will lead Discovery Global after it's spun off from the main company, said on the call that while the WBD as the world knows it will come to an end, he's excited for the future.

"It's an emotional day, I think, for all of us," Wiedenfels said.

What WBD execs said about the split, bidding war, and sale

Early on the call, Zaslav acknowledged that WBD and its employees had gone through a slew of changes since he engineered a merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2021.

"In the end, we've gotten a lot more right than we've gotten wrong," Zaslav said.

The WBD CEO reiterated that the company had planned to split itself before Paramount expressed its interest with an unsolicited offer. As a public company, Zaslav explained that it was executives' duties to get the best possible offer.

"Our No. 1 focus is to drive shareholder value," Zaslav said.

As Netflix, Paramount Skydance, and Comcast put forth offers, Zaslav said that the bidding war got noisy.

"It was more public than we would have liked," Zaslav said of the bidding process.

WBD employees should be flattered by the interest from Netflix and other companies, Zaslav said.

"They wanted to figure out how to get into business with all of you," Zaslav said of WBD's suitors. He also said there may be more noise ahead, so "put your seatbelts on."

In the end, WBD executives told employees that they took the best offer on the table.

"Netflix is an exceptional company," Zaslav said. "I think it has a great, sustainable future."

As Netflix incorporates HBO Max content, Zaslav said that "more people will be getting nourished" by HBO and Warner Bros. content.

Netflix execs also explained their views on the deal

After announcing its blockbuster deal on Friday, Netflix also moved to answer questions from Wall Street analysts, investors, employees, movie-theater owners, and government regulators.

Here's what Greg Peters, the Netflix co-CEO, said about the deal on a call with analysts: "This acquisition will allow us to significantly expand our production capacity in the United States and keep investing in original content over the long term. That means more opportunities for creative talent; it means more jobs created across the entire entertainment industry."

This story is developing and will be updated.

• A version of this story originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter.
• Sign up for the weekly BI Tech Memo newsletter here.

OpenAI spread itself too thin, and CEO Sam Altman knows it.

His "Code Red" to employees this week marks a reset: Focus on improving ChatGPT, and pause lower-priority initiatives. The most striking pause is advertising. Why delay such a lucrative opportunity at a moment when OpenAI's finances face intense scrutiny?

Because in tech, nothing matters more than users.

Google built its Search empire on this principle. Every query and click fed a feedback loop: user behavior informed ranking systems, which improved results, which attracted more users. Over time, that loop became an impenetrable moat. Competing with it has proven nearly impossible.

ChatGPT occupies a similar position for AI assistants. Nearly a billion people now interact with it weekly, giving OpenAI an unmatched new window into human intent, curiosity, and decision-making. Each prompt and reply can be fed back into model training, evaluations, and reinforcement learning to strengthen what is arguably the world's most powerful AI feedback loop.

Altman's Code Red aims to protect that advantage. If ChatGPT becomes more useful, people will use it more, which strengthens the loop, which improves the product again — a compounding cycle that could make ChatGPT as unassailable in AI answers as Google is in search.

But that dominance is no longer assured. Google's Gemini 3 rollout has lured new users. If ChatGPT's quality slips or feels cluttered, defecting to Google becomes easier. Introducing ads now risks exactly that. Even mildly irritated users could view ads as one annoyance too many.

For now, OpenAI is betting on new model releases to reaccelerate ChatGPT's growth. Ads can wait, but not forever. Generative AI is expensive to run, more so than Search or social networks. OpenAI has already committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure to serve ChatGPT at a global scale. At some point, those bills will force the company to monetize more aggressively.

If OpenAI manages to build even half of Google's Search ads business in an AI-native form, it could generate roughly $50 billion in annual profit. That's one way to fund its colossal ambitions.

But that future depends on the strength of today's feedback loop. For now, the priority is clear: make ChatGPT undeniably better, pull more users in, and keep the flywheel spinning. Ads can come later. User growth can't wait.

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

• I've been a server at a winery for years, so I've seen guests make their fair share of mistakes.
• For example, I often find that guests don't want to expand their horizons during a tasting.
• Additionally, some customers don't realize they should tip the staff in a tasting room.

As a server, I've always thought of wine tastings as opportunities to share my love for the beverage with others.

But after working at a winery for over seven years, I've seen almost everything, from wannabe wine sommeliers to guests who think a tasting is an excuse to get drunk with a view.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes customers make at tastings.

Refusing to try certain wines

One of the most common mistakes I've noticed is that people assume they know exactly what a wine will taste like based on its name or varietal.

I've had guests turn their noses up when I say "riesling" and immediately declare that they don't like sweet wines. In reality, not all rieslings are sweet — some are incredibly dry, with crisp acidity and minerality.

That's why I encourage guests to taste wine like it's their first time trying it. You might think you know what you'll like, but sometimes the name of the wine doesn't tell the whole story.

In my opinion, the best part of a wine tasting is discovering something unexpected that charms your taste buds.

Acting unruly when in a large group

Managing the expectations of large groups who come in for bachelorette parties, birthdays, or other celebrations can be challenging.

From what I've seen, the tasting-room staff have good reason to run and hide in the kitchen if someone walks in wearing a "bride" sash. Don't get me wrong — I love a good chance to day drink, but sometimes guests arrive expecting to do what they see in the movies.

They envision wine tastings as an opportunity to slam rosé and run through the vines, but an intimate tasting room isn't the space for that. It's a refined experience, focusing on savoring the wine and enjoying the setting.

I always recommend reserving a private tasting room for larger parties or calling ahead to establish proper expectations so everyone can enjoy the experience without stepping on any toes.

Not tipping the staff after a tasting

Many guests forget or don't realize that tipping is customary in a winery's tasting room. The setting is a bit more relaxed than at a restaurant, so some people often don't associate the tasting room with tipping.

However, the tasting-room staff work hard to make your experience enjoyable, and many of us rely on tips.

Tipping might not be required, but it's a small gesture that goes a long way in acknowledging a server's effort to make each tasting special.

• A critical system failed as a fighter jet was landing on an aircraft carrier earlier this year.
• The $60 million F/A-18 fell off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman and into the Red Sea.
• A new Navy investigation shows how the landing unraveled in a matter of moments.

As the fighter jet landed on the aircraft carrier, a critical piece of the landing system blew apart, shot across the machinery room, slammed into equipment a sailor had been sitting at only moments earlier, and then hit the deck spinning “like the Tasmanian devil.”

"Something bad just happened," a sailor in the room said as he raced to get help. The other sailor who narrowly avoided catastrophe suffered a minor injury and had their headset ripped off in the incident.

One of the arresting gear cables — the tensioned wires that US Navy fighter jets hook onto during landings at sea — had broken as the crucial machinery that absorbs the landing plane's force came apart beneath the flight deck. The failure destabilized the F/A-18 Super Hornet that had just touched down.

Asymmetric forces threw the aircraft off-center. With no chance of regaining flight, the aviators ejected as it shot off the deck and into the sea. It all unfolded in a matter of seconds.

A new Navy investigation into the disastrous landing, reviewed by Business Insider prior to its release on Thursday, highlights how quickly routine carrier operations can go terribly wrong.

The May 6 incident, which injured two naval aviators, marked the second Super Hornet loss in a matter of days — and the third overall for the carrier USS Harry S. Truman's Middle East deployment.

The command investigation into the costly mishap details how one of the carrier's arresting cables failed to stop the fighter jet, which left a trail of sparks and flames as it flipped off the flight deck and into the Red Sea.

Rear Adm. Sean Bailey, commander of the Navy's Carrier Strike Group 8, led by the Truman, said in the investigation that the loss of the $60 million fighter jet was "entirely preventable."

A rough landing

The Truman and its strike group spent months in the Red Sea leading Navy combat operations against the Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group in Yemen that had been attacking important Middle East shipping lanes.

Flight operations were running at a higher tempo, with the carrier launching and recovering aircraft dozens of times a day.

For aircraft recoveries, Nimitz-class carriers like the Truman typically have four arresting cables tensioned across the flight deck to catch the tailhook of a landing plane and decelerate it instantly.

On May 6, as the two-seater F/A-18F was landing that night, everything looked normal right up until the jet hooked the arresting cable.

Arresting gear sailors heard what sounded like an explosion, parts were flying around the machinery space, and on deck, sparks were shooting out of the jet, followed by flames.

It was dark, and the air boss overseeing the flight operations and landing signal officers, unaware that the cable had parted, thought the fighter's engine had ingested foreign object debris.

The aircraft was leaning left as it moved down the landing zone. "POWER!" the lead LSO called. "ROTATE, CLIMB!" The fighter jet was traveling too fast to stop, but not fast enough to take off. A back-up LSO realized the aircraft wasn't climbing and made the call.

"EJECT, EJECT, EJECT!" the officer called out.

The aircraft rolled and then knife-edged at 90 degrees. Moments later, it plunged into the Red Sea.

The "man overboard" call went out a minute after the plane first touched the deck. Sailors on the flight deck didn't see any parachutes deploy after their cockpit ejection amid the disarray, but a few minutes later, they saw the two aviators illuminate their flashlights in the water around 100 yards away.

Twenty minutes later, a rescue helicopter and swimmers arrived on scene to recover them. The aviators suffered minor injuries.

The 'critical point of failure'

The command investigation blamed the mishap on a mix of factors, including the ship's high operational tempo, understaffing, and errors by the arresting gear operator, who ensures the system is ready to counteract the landing aircraft's momentum.

According to the investigation, "the primary contributor in the chain of events that led to the mishap" was inadequate maintenance on the sheave damper crosshead and clevis pin, components of the arresting gear system.

The root cause, the investigation report said, was "the material failure of the clevis pin." The pin lacked a washer, a small part that helps keep the system in place. That maintenance oversight ended with a jet in the water and two aviators overboard.

It's possible this mechanism had been loosening for some time before the mishap, the investigation said. A missing washer could allow the pin in the arresting gear to work loose and shear off, ultimately causing internal parts in the gear to come apart under and the arresting cable to break.

Sailors across the board were poorly trained, the investigation determined, and a maintenance support sailor who was supposed to inspect the arresting cable and its mechanisms hadn't thoroughly done so.

Vice Adm. John Gumbleton, acting head of Fleet Forces Command, wrote in a letter attached to the investigation that Truman's leadership across all levels "allowed the air department's aircraft launch and recovery equipment maintenance program standards to decline, ultimately leading to a critical point of failure."

The May 6 incident was the fourth major mishap that the Truman and the rest of its strike group suffered during the monthslong Middle East combat deployment.

In December, the cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down one of the Truman's F/A-18s. A few months later, in February, the carrier collided with a commercial vessel. And in April, just over a week before the arresting cable incident, a fighter jet and a tow tractor fell overboard as the carrier made a hard turn to evade incoming Houthi missile fire.

• Netflix has grown into the world's largest streaming service with more than 300 million subscribers worldwide.
• It's come out on top in the streaming wars, and now plans to acquire Warner Bros. in a $72 billion deal.
• Here's a look at Netflix's rise and what's next.

In the last two decades, Netflix has grown from a DVD company to the winner of the streaming wars — and now a major Hollywood acquirer.

Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded Netflix in 1997, launching its DVD rental business the following year. Netflix's video streaming service debuted a decade later in 2007.

The rise of Netflix prompted competitors like Disney, Comcast, and more to launch their own rival services, kicking off the streaming wars. Netflix has remained dominant — and plans to grow larger still, striking a deal to acquire HBO Max and a slew of major film and TV franchises as part of a $72 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Here's how Netflix rose into a Hollywood behemoth.

1997: Netflix is founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph.

Netflix was founded after Reed Hastings was charged a $40 late fee for an overdue rental from Blockbuster.

Blockbuster closed in 2014, while Netflix remains atop the entertainment industry.

1998: Netflix launches a DVD-by-mail rental service and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos offers to buy the company later that year.

In his book "That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea," Randolph wrote that he and Hastings met with Bezos in 1998, who offered them "probably something between $14 million and $16 million," Randolph wrote. They turned down the offer.

1999: Netflix begins offering a subscription-based model, in which customers could choose movies to rent-by-mail for a monthly fee.

Netflix gained 239,000 subscribers in its first year, according to Inc.

2002: Netflix goes public. Randolph exits the company soon after.

"As you get older, if you're lucky, you realize two things: what you like, but also what you're good at," Randolph told Forbes in 2019 on why he left Netflix. "The answer to both of them [for me] is early-stage companies. I like the chaos. I like the fact that you're working on hundreds of things at once."

2007: Netflix launches a video streaming service, free for its already-existing DVD-rental subscribers.

Netflix ended 2006 with over 6 million subscribers for its DVD-rental service.

The company's stock dropped 6% with the announcement. But Hastings, who was CEO at the time, said that he had "gotten used to" reservations.

2012: Netflix debuts "Lilyhammer," its first original series.

The show was originally broadcast in Norway, but Netflix acquired the rights. It laid the foundation for Netflix's binge-release model and its surge in original programming, including expanding into international markets.

"This was the first time we streamed a show across multiple countries and languages … and it worked," Netflix's current co-CEO Ted Sarandos wrote in a blog post in February 2022.

2013: Netflix ramps up its original programming.

"House of Cards" and "Orange Is the New Black" are quickly become smash hits for Netflix, gaining critical acclaim and Emmys recognition.

2015: Netflix releases its first original feature film, "Beasts of No Nation."

The Cary Joji Fukunaga film, which was shot in Ghana, was the first of its kind to be released only on Netflix.

2017: Netflix surpasses 100 million subscribers.

Netflix hit 100 million subscribers 10 years after it launched its streaming service.

2018: Netflix wins its first feature-film Oscar: best documentary feature for "Icarus."

Later in 2018, Netflix releases "Roma," which becomes the streamer's first best-picture nominee the following year.

Netflix has yet to nab the Oscars' top prize, though, despite elaborate campaign spending. Apple TV+ won best picture for "CODA," becoming the first streaming platform to do so.

2020: Netflix names Ted Sarandos, its creative chief, as co-CEO with Hastings

Ted Sarandos and Reed Hastings have known each other since 1999. (You can read about how Sarandos nailed his original job interview with the company here.)

January, 2021: Netflix announces that it surpassed 200 million subscribers.

It took Netflix ten years to get its first 100 million subscribers — and under four years to double it.

September 2021: Netflix wins more Emmys than any network or streaming service for the first time.

Netflix nabbed best-series wins for the first time with "The Crown" (drama) and "The Queen's Gambit" (limited series).

October 2021: Netflix faces its most public controversy yet, after some employees speak out against Dave Chappelle's Netflix special, "The Closer," in which he makes comments many criticized as transphobic.

Chappelle said in the special that "gender is a fact" and defended "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, who came under fire for past transphobic comments.

Sarandos defended Chappelle in a memo to employees, saying in part: "Chappelle is one of the most popular stand-up comedians today, and we have a long standing deal with him. His last special, 'Sticks & Stones,' also controversial, is our most watched, stickiest, and most award winning stand-up special to date."

Netflix trans employees planned a walkout in response to the special and Sarandos' comments.

November 2021: Netflix launches its first video games around the world.

Netflix's video games launch was free as part of a user's subscription.

April 2022: Netflix reports that it lost subscribers for the first time in a decade in the first quarter of 2022.

Aside from the economic strains of the coronavirus pandemic, Netflix blamed the subscriber loss partly on password sharing. It said that it estimated that an additional 100 million people use Netflix with a shared password. 

It also acknowledged increased competition. New streaming services like Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, and more entered the space on top of already existing rivals like Hulu and Prime Video.

April 2022: Hastings confirms that an ad-supported tier is coming to Netflix.

Hastings confirmed during Netflix's April 2022 earnings call that the company plans to roll out an ad-supported plan — something it has pushed back against in the past — as the streaming service faced slowing revenue growth and lost subscribers.

Other streamers have, like HBO Max and Paramount+, have embraced ads. Disney+, Netflix's biggest rival, has also launched an ad-supported option.

July 2022: Netflix loses subscribers for the second quarter in a row, a first for the company.

In Q2 2022, Netflix said it lost 970,000 subscribers, a sign of company's struggles that further underscored why it was introducing an ad-based plan and cracking down on password sharing. 

November 2022: Netflix officially launches its ad-supported plan.

When the ad program launched, the streamer said it was nearly sold out of inventory.

December 2022: Netflix ended 2022 strong, breaking Q4 targets.

The end of 2022 represented a bit of a bounce back for Netflix, as the entertainment company outpaced subscriber growth for the quarter by around 3.1 million, adding 7.66 new subscribers despite its own estimates of 4.5 million.

In total the streaming giant amassed 230.75 million subscribers by the end of 2022.

Netflix noted that after a decade into making original content, it was "past the most cash-intensive phase of this buildout."

January 2023: Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings steps down as co-CEO and is replaced by Greg Peters, who was serving as COO.

Reed Hastings spent 26 years leading Netflix, ushering it through an IPO and the growth of its streaming options.

April 2023: Netflix announces its final red envelope DVDs will be shipped out in September 2023.

Netflix announced it would end its DVD-rental services on September 29, 2023. It marked the end of a 25-year chapter for the business, which became known for its red envelopes.

January 2024: Subscriptions soar amid password crackdown as Netflix pushes into live sports.

Netflix began cracking down on password sharing in 2023, a move that – along with offering a cheaper, ad-supported subscription tier – helped it add new subscribers and deliver blowout earnings throughout 2024, quarter after quarter.

Netflix made a costly push into live sports content with a $5 billion deal for a weekly WWE show in the US, and to air other one-off pro wrestling events globally. The content will start rolling out in early 2025.

Netflix's former firm chief Scott Stuber also left the company in January 2024. He was later replaced by Dan Lin, who has reportedly sought to implement a new strategy that shifts away from big-budget action films fronted by marquee stars.

November 2024: Netflix shares stellar growth stats for ad-supported subscriptions — and pushes further into live sports.

In November 2024, Netflix's ad business turned two years old. It announced it had 70 million ad-supported subscribers — up from 40 million the previous May — and said that more than half of new sign-ups were for ad-supported plans in countries where the option is available.

Netflix made another massive foray into live sports content in November, streaming a highly anticipated boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, which drew a record-breaking 65 million concurrent viewers globally though the stream was beset by technical difficulties.

Netflix also streamed its first-ever NFL game on Christmas Day, following a previously announced pact with the NFL to carry holiday games through 2026. The spectacle featured Beyoncé performing at halftime as the Houston Texans faced off against the Baltimore Ravens.

January 2025: Netflix raises the price of its standard plan to $17.99 a month.

Netflix announced a price hike in mid-January, raising its standard plan to $17.99 a month, up from $15.50. The premium plan with 4K video, which was previously $23 a month, rose to $25.

The company also lifted its ad-supported tier from $7 to $8 a month.

Netflix last raised its prices in October 2023. The move was aligned with similar increases at YouTube TV and Disney.

May 2025: Netflix updates its homepage design for the first time in a decade.

In an effort to cut down decision fatigue, Netflix refreshed its homepage design for the first time in a decade.

The new homepage promoted live events, used AI search, and enabled viewers to find what they wanted more quickly, executives said in a blog post and presentation previewing the changes.

The change also included a vertical video feed with clips of Netflix shows that can be tapped to watch immediately.

August 2025: "K-Pop Demon Hunters" is a smash success — and gets a theatrical run.

Netflix's animated musical "K-Pop Demon Hunters" became its biggest movie ever.

The Netflix original, produced by Sony Animation, generated 236 million views in just 65 days. Analysts said that the movie provided a path for Netflix to compete with Disney in the family animation market.

While the streamer has been hesitant about theatrical releases, Netflix put "K-Pop Demon Hunters" in theaters for a sing-along experience.

October 2025: Netflix makes its official move into video podcasting with a Spotify partnership

For much of 2025, Netflix teased a push into video podcasting. The streamer once courted "Call Her Daddy" host Alex Cooper. Then, it struck a deal.

Netflix announced a partnership with Spotify in October, which would bring video versions of Spotify-owned The Ringer and Spotify Studios podcasts to the platform. These included "The Bill Simmons Podcast," "The Rewatchables," and "Conspiracy Theories."

The podcasts will be available on Netflix in early 2026, per the deal, and will be removed from YouTube.

November 2025: The first Netflix House opens outside of Philadelphia.

Netflix doesn't have a theme park like Disney, but it does have a permanent installation at the King of Prussia mall.

The first-ever Netflix House opened in November outside Philadelphia. The location reimagined Netflix hits like "Wednesday" and "One Piece" into hands-on activities.

More locations are set to open in Texas and Las Vegas.

December 2025: Netflix agrees to buy Warner Bros. for $72 billion.

In a deal widely expected to shake up Hollywood, Netflix agreed to buy the studio and streaming businesses of Warner Bros. Discovery in a $72 billion deal. It is Netflix's biggest acquisition in history.

In the deal, Netflix is planning to buy HBO Max and the top-performing Warner Bros. studio, but not WBD's TV networks like CNN, TNT, and TBS.

Netflix competed against Paramount Skydance and Comcast for the acquisition.

"People across WBD have navigated extraordinary change over the last three years, while building a company with real creative, journalistic, and commercial strength," WBD CEO David Zaslav wrote in a memo to staff about the deal. "That deserves to be acknowledged plainly."

• I've enjoyed my stints on the East Coast, so I expected to feel right at home in Washington, DC.
• The culture felt too work-oriented, though, and it was hard to access nature without a car.
• I moved to San Diego in 2022, and this city has turned out to be the perfect place for my lifestyle.

After living abroad for a few years in Italy and Nepal, I was excited to move to Washington, DC, for graduate school.

Although I never dreamed of living in DC specifically, I'd enjoyed attending college on the East Coast, so I expected to love the city.

I imagined running down the National Mall next to cherry blossom trees, exploring museums, and discussing foreign affairs at cultural events on Embassy Row.

Unfortunately, the reality of life in DC didn't match what I imagined.

After three years, I moved to San Diego, a city I'd never pictured myself living in, and was surprised to find that it felt like home.

Living in Washington, DC, wasn't what I expected

There were things I loved about Washington, DC — the historic brownstones, cobblestone street-filled neighborhoods, and gorgeous views of the Potomac River — but all in all, the city wasn't what I expected.

As much as I loved exploring local trails, the summer months were hot and humid. I wished I could dip my toes in the ocean to cool down, but the Atlantic Ocean beaches were all hours away. The humidity triggered my allergies, too.

Often, when I went to happy hours and met new people, I felt like work was the most common topic of conversation, which I didn't like. I missed the relaxed energy and casual happy-hour conversations that I'd experienced living abroad.

Still, I tried to make the city my home, exploring new neighborhoods, restaurants, and music venues. As a graduate student, though, I had a limited budget for new experiences, and I just wasn't clicking with DC.

Finally, for the sake of my happiness, I left the city in 2020.

After living in a few other cities, I moved to San Diego and fell in love with it

After Washington, DC, I lived in multiple cities searching for my dream home, but none were the perfect fit.

Eventually, I moved to San Diego to see if it could be right for me. I'd previously visited the city several times during my stint in Long Beach, California — its beaches and relaxed vibe kept drawing me in.

After renting in a few different San Diego neighborhoods, I finally settled on North Park, which seemed to have the perfect mix of city life and access to nature.

With a population of around 1.3 million (compared to DC's 700,000), San Diego feels like a true metropolis — but one with a relaxed, casual vibe.

The best part of living here is the sheer amount of things to do and see, from beaches to concerts to comedy performances. I can walk to dozens of breweries, restaurants, and coffee shops. When I search for new hiking spots, dozens of nearby options pop up.

Thanks to my city's idyllic weather, which lingers around the 70s Fahrenheit year-round, I'm active all the time. Just a short drive away, I can snorkel with leopard sharks at La Jolla Cove, hike at Mission Trails Regional Park, or take long runs at Lake Miramar.

I love looking up at the palm trees while I swim backstroke at one of the city's many outdoor public pools, and running past the museums in Balboa Park as the sun sets.

I enjoy San Diego's relaxed culture, too. I don't feel pressured to dress up for happy hours, and conversations with colleagues meander from work to hobbies to camping to weekend trips.

On work days, I often take breaks to spend time outside.

After 4 years in San Diego, I'm so happy I moved here

Four years later, I'm still in North Park and haven't looked back.

This is the longest I've lived anywhere since graduating from college, and I'm so happy I moved here.

Though I enjoy returning to DC to visit graduate school friends and explore museums, I can't imagine ever living there again.

San Diego still surprises me. Even now, I discover restaurants and music venues in neighborhoods where I didn't expect to find anything new.

I don't believe in the idea of a forever home, but San Diego is perfect for my lifestyle right now.