• I cooked jasmine rice in an Instant Pot, on the stovetop, in the microwave, and in the oven.
• Rice I made with a stove and a pressure cooker turned out great, but it got gummy in the microwave.
• The oven-cooked rice turned out to be my favorite — it was a fluffy and flavorful delight.

I love rice and have been cooking it regularly for all of my adult life.

It's a perfect staple to serve alongside salmon or steak, stir-fry with veggies and tofu, or mix into soups and stews.

Many swear by making it with a rice cooker, but I don't have one, and I was curious to see which other appliance in my home could produce the best results.

So, I tried cooking rice four different ways: in an Instant Pot, on the stovetop, in the microwave, and in the oven.

For each method, I prepared a cup of jasmine rice with an equal blend of vegetable broth and water, along with a small amount of olive oil.

Here's how these different ways of cooking rice stacked up in terms of ease, timing, and, of course, taste and texture.

Pressure-cooked rice is hands-off.

First, I measured out a cup of rice, which I then rinsed well under tepid water. Next, I added ½ cup of broth, ½ cup of water, and a bit of olive oil to a lightly sprayed Instant Pot pressure cooker.

Then, I secured the lid and pressed the "rice" button. And that's it — that's the beauty of this device. It's so easy to use.

After a brief period of pressurization, the rice cooked for all of 12 minutes, then the appliance beeped, indicating it was rice time.

This still feels like a reliable way to quickly cook the grain.

My pressure-cooked rice was plenty flavorful and had a soft, though not quite fluffy texture. All of the grains of rice were cooked through.

The process was so easy, and I have no big complaints about the taste or texture of the rice. This has been my go-to method for cooking rice for several years.

The stovetop rice required a bit more effort.

The stovetop was my go-to way of cooking rice before I got an Instant Pot.

For this method, I measured and rinsed a single cup of rice, then added it to a medium-sized saucepan with a cup of water, a cup of broth, and 1 teaspoon of oil.

I placed the pan on the stove over a medium-high heat. As soon as the rice came to a boil, I reduced the heat to a low simmer and covered the saucepan with a lid.

I kept an eye on the rice, turning up the heat slightly when the simmer dropped to just a few bubbles every few seconds, then easing the heat back off again once the bulk of the liquid seemed to have been absorbed or cooked off.

Once I could see little pockets of air between the rice grains, which typically takes between 15 and 20 minutes, I cut the heat and let the rice sit, covered, for another five minutes.

Then, I fluffed the rice with a fork and took some bites.

I actually liked this better than the pressure-cooker rice.

This was, to my surprise, better than the pressure-cooked rice.

Before this experiment, the two had been more or less interchangeable to me. Now that I had eaten each rice side by side, I could definitely tell the difference in the taste and texture.

The stovetop rice was truly plump with a nice flavor, and there wasn't even much of it caked to the bottom of the pan. This method took a little longer than the pressure cooker, but the resulting rice was slightly tastier and fluffier.

This is a great way to cook rice as long as you have the proper grain-to-liquid measurements and keep a close eye on your pot. With this method, it can be easy to accidentally overcook rice.

I wasn't excited about trying to make rice in the microwave.

Before cooking rice in a microwave, I cross-referenced at least a half-dozen recipes I found online, so I'm confident my approach was decent. But the outcome? I can hardly describe it as such.

I rinsed the rice, combined it with 1 ¾ cups of my water-broth blend, and added the olive oil to a microwave-safe glass container.

Next, I partially secured the container's lid — not too tightly, as I didn't want it to explode — and popped the rice in the microwave on full power for five minutes.

Then, I microwaved it for another 15 minutes on half power and let it rest for an additional five minutes before retrieving it.

I won't be using this appliance for rice again.

I had low expectations, but I was still disappointed.

The microwaved rice was clumpy and dried out, except for the largest gobs, which were gummy and unevenly cooked.

Only a generous dose of a sauce and further cooking in a frying pan could have made this rice tasty. I took three or four bites and then composted the rest.

The oven was the dark horse of the taste test.

The thing about oven-cooked rice is that you need to start with boiling water — or a water/broth blend, in my case. So, you'll probably also need a stovetop or electric kettle.

Once I preheated my oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, I rinsed the rice and brought a cup of water and a cup of broth up to a full boil on my stovetop.

Next, I greased a 2-quart glass baking dish and added the rice and oil to it. Then, I carefully poured 1 ¾ cups of my boiling liquid over the rice.

Finally, I quickly covered the dish with aluminum foil and popped it into my heated oven. I pulled the baking dish out after 25 minutes and let it sit, still covered, for five minutes.

I'm amazed by how good the oven rice was.

I pulled back the foil to reveal the best rice I have ever made.

It was evenly cooked, and each grain was fluffy and full of flavor. The oven-cooked rice had taken on the taste of the broth and had a faint, yet pleasant, roasted flavor.

Plus, other than having to boil liquids, this cooking method was fairly hands-off. I was able to pop my dish in the oven and work on other tasks.

I may have found a new favorite appliance for cooking rice.

I had my wife do a blind taste test of all four versions of the rice, which I'd carefully timed to be ready at the same time. She agreed that the oven-cooked rice was the best on all fronts.

I had never thought to cook rice in the oven, but I'll consider doing it every time going forward, provided I have enough time on my hands.

This experiment also had me second-guessing my switch from stovetop to Instant Pot, but the convenience of the latter is still so hard to beat.

When I'm in a rush, the pressure cooker will still be my go-to for preparing rice, but on more relaxed days, into the oven it goes.

Click to check out the other appliances we've put head-to-head so far.

• Destinations around the world are feeling the pinch of overtourism.
• Fodor's travel guide's annual "No List" highlights destinations to rethink visiting in 2026.
• Destinations like Antarctica, the Canary Islands, and Montmartre are facing tourism pressures.

The travel bucket list, or a catalog of places you must go, has long been a thing, but with the rise in global tourism — and subsequent strains of overtourism — there's increasing talk about where not to go.

International tourist arrivals increased 5% globally in the first half of 2025 compared to the same time period a year prior, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Fodor's, a long-standing travel guide company, compiles an annual list of places that travelers should reconsider visiting due to the potential negative impacts of rising tourism.

The recently released "No List," which outlines eight places that travelers should rethink visiting in 2026, includes a far-flung continent, a United States national park, and some popular city destinations.

Fodor's says the list is not a call for a total boycott but instead meant to "highlight destinations where tourism is placing unsustainable pressures on the land and local communities." Conversely, Fodor's also compiles an annual "Go List," with the latest edition highlighting 26 of the best places to visit next year.

Here are the eight destinations that made the "No List" for 2026.

Antarctica

While Antarctica, one of the most remote places on the planet, isn't overrun with tourists in the same sense that Venice is, the continent may be welcoming more visitors than it can responsibly accommodate, according to Fodor's.

The number of tourists visiting Antarctica increased tenfold between 1992 and 2020, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The group says travel to Antarctica has a high carbon footprint and can damage sites visited by travelers as well as disturb wildlife.

The IUCN and other conservation groups have called for additional measures to protect Antarctica's wildlife and ecosystem as tourism increases.

The Canary Islands

Spain's Canary Islands draw millions of tourists every year, prompting local concerns about crowding and traffic, rising housing costs, and environmental impacts.

There have been multiple protests against overtourism on the Canary Islands in recent years, with thousands of people taking to the streets with signs that read things like "Canaries have a limit."

Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park in Montana was one of the most visited national parks in 2024, with more than 3.2 million visitors.

In 2020, the park instituted a timed reservation system during the busy summer months to handle the increase in visitors, but concerns remain around increased traffic and congestion, higher risks of wildlife disturbance, and a rise in carbon emissions and threats to air quality.

Isola Sacra

Isola Sacra, located southwest of Rome, is a historic coastal community in Italy home to some ancient Roman ruins.

Italian officials have approved a plan for a new port that will allow large cruise ships to dock in the town. The plan has been controversial among locals of Isola Sacra, with community groups protesting the development, citing potential harm to local ecosystems.

Local authorities have said the port will bring employment to the community and that the plan includes measures to protect the environment.

The Jungfrau Region in Switzerland

The Jungfrau Region in Switzerland is a major attraction for visitors to the Alps, with its alpine lakes and dramatic peaks.

But the region is struggling to manage its tourism boom while protecting the natural environment and quality of life for the area's locals, according to Fodor's.

Mexico City

Mexico City has been a booming tourism destination in recent years, leading to concerns about rising housing costs and cultural loss in the city center.

Demonstrators gathered in Mexico City in August to protest tourism, gentrification, rent hikes, and the rise in short-term rentals.

Mombasa

Kenya has seen a notable rise in tourism since the pandemic, with cruise ships bringing an influx of visitors to cities like Mombasa.

The historic Kenyan city is already experiencing the impacts of rising tourism, with some cultural sites overrun by visitors, leading to congested roads, overcrowding, and littered beaches, Fodor's said.

Mohamed Osman, minister for Tourism, Culture, and Trade in Mombasa County, told Fodor's that measures are currently being developed to address concerns with overtourism.

Montmartre

Montmartre, a picturesque Paris neighborhood popular with visitors, has experienced overtourism impacts like rising prices and the displacement of locals.

Residents have protested against the "Disneyfication" of Montmartre, as the French newspaper Le Monde reported, citing a decline in stores catering to locals and lines of tourists trying to capitalize on a good photo op.

• We live about 1,000 miles from my in-laws and don't see them often.
• My two kids, 6 and 8, still have close relationships with their grandparents.
• They talk regularly over FaceTime and make the most of the visits we do have.

Most mornings, my 6-year-old is the first one awake; we chat while I get coffee, and I ask if he wants to call his Meme — my mother-in-law, and his grandmother. This is one of the only times of the day he can catch her, so if he's up early enough, he almost always takes the opportunity.

He eats his oatmeal and FaceTimes her until she arrives at work or is needed by an employee. Then it's time for him to call Pops, who arrives at work slightly later in the morning. More often than not, he's on his commute and chats during his drive.

My 8-year-old prefers to sleep in and is continually grumpy that he doesn't get the same talking time with breakfast.

They do the same after school or in the evenings, depending on schedules. They love to take their grandparents around the house or out in the yard while they play. No doubt they are dizzy with the poor camera work. The boys share about their day, including what they had for lunch or what they played during recess. They show what they've been working on in the backyard.

They don't live close by, so these phone calls are important

If Meme and Pops can't answer or pick up, I hear about it. We don't see them in person often, and this time is precious. Although we are in the same time zone, we are in north-central Kansas, and they are in southern Mississippi — about 1,000 miles away. Driving takes 16 hours; by plane, it's four and a half.

These regular calls allow my kids to have close relationships with their grandparents. A few times a year, the boys also get gifts in the mail — a box of goodies my in-laws have purchased over the last few months. Occasionally, I'll also get a Venmo from Meme, saying to take the boys for ice cream or let them pick a treat. There is a dual excitement of first spending the money and then getting to tell her and Pops about it afterward.

Meanwhile, my husband and I both call them fairly frequently as well. He's an avid FaceTime user, while I prefer to chat on the phone while I fold laundry or do dishes. I send pictures almost daily, giving updates of what the boys have been up to that day. Last week, I sent pictures of our son's artwork and journal entries for school, a headband my youngest son made, and photos from "Dude's Day," when my husband and our boys dressed up to go out for lunch.

We don't see them in person often but we make the most of it when we do

Planning our visits is a constant juggling of budgets and schedules. Due to limited PTO and money, we aren't able to visit often. We've flown previously but prefer the freedom of driving because we can stop and eat along the way, and it's easier to take all our luggage; however, driving does take more time, so we have to factor that in when considering a trip.

This summer, we met up in Branson, Missouri, which is about halfway between our respective homes. It was great for everyone — plenty of family time, and larger digs, as we split the cost. Plus, we had Meme and Pops as built-in babysitters. And yes, the boys got super spoiled the entire time — they said it was the best trip ever, over and over again.

This Christmas, we'll make the 16-hour drive to their home. It's the first time we'll be making the trip in two years, and my kids (and husband) have been counting down for six months. There's a running list of where we will go, restaurants to visit, and dishes that need to be tried. There have also been a few in-depth conversations about how Santa will know how to find them.

Last year, they flew to us for the week of Christmas. We picked them up in Kansas City, where we spent a few nights exploring before heading to our house.

We never get to spend enough time in person, but at these stages in our lives, it's what we are able to make work. Thankfully, with technology, we can communicate regularly, even when we can't be together in person.

• My mother and I weren't close when I was a kid because I thought she was too strict.
• Now she's 90, and I've learned to forgive and accept her.
• With this new phase of our relationship, I'm cherishing the small moments together.

I grew up in Guyana, where cultural norms set the tone for my mother's parenting and led to plenty of friction in my teen and young adult years — friction that needed time and perspective to soften.

Back then, the rule was simple: children were to be seen and not heard. That didn't sit well with me. I came out of the womb a free spirit who prized autonomy and wanted an empowered voice. Clashes were inevitable. My orientation was incompatible with what I saw as heavy-handed, authoritarian parenting.

Fortunately, reason and time eased my anger. What I couldn't see then was that Mom was doing her best to parent from the only framework she knew — from her own lived experience.

Now that Mom is 90, my days with her feel like borrowed time I don't dare take for granted. I find myself more aware, wanting to slow time down, eager to savor and absorb everything.

I've found grace in forgiveness

As I matured and became exposed to travel, literature, and new ways of seeing people and their choices, I began to understand how cultural conditioning and limited education had shaped Mom. She had simply imitated what had been modeled for her.

My own education and exposure helped me look past my early judgments and see how profoundly environment shapes behavior. Mom had lived within strictly paternalistic rhythms, armed with only a fifth-grade education.

That realization softened me. What used to be disappointment became a gentler understanding. I saw that in her place, I might have made the same choices. This thought alone lifted something heavy. It gave me space to replace resentment with compassion and finally see my mother fully without holding the examples she repeated against her.

I now hold onto our rituals

Mom lives with me now, and we've developed rituals that are deeply satisfying and sustaining.

We have a nightly date to watch "Jeopardy." We also make time to share warm plates of delicious curry and rice or my famed mac and cheese. I also enjoy revisiting old recipes that prompt me to call on Mom for guidance.

It seems I taste the history in every bite, as I remember all the meals she once stretched to feed us when there was little to go around.

We also connect over music now. Our long drives through winding country roads — with Bob Marley or Marc Anthony's "Si Te Vas" playing — are gifts I get to unwrap twice: once in the moment and again later, as a memory.

A few months ago, my mom and I saw singer Lauren Daigle in concert — an experience Mom still talks about with delight. I won't soon forget it either.

I'm holding onto these last moments with my mother

I often wake up to the sound of my mother praying out loud. It's the sweetest alarm clock I could ever ask for. I cherish these moments, knowing there will come a day when I'd give anything to hear such a sound.

So I'm savoring it all greedily: the shared moments, the music, the quiet companionship, the chance to rub lotion on her feet or massage arthritic shoulders when the pain is overwhelming, the gratitude for my ability to outgrow old resentments and take a more expansive and empathetic view of our lives.

After everything we've gone through, it feels like a wondrous miracle to simply love my mother and be loved by her — freely and without reservations.

• Since OpenAI shook Google awake, the search giant has made a big turnaround.
• Google has spent three years reshaping itself and leaning into its advantages over rivals.
• Existential questions about the future of the web linger, however.

It made for an irresistible narrative.

The large, slow incumbent — in this case, Google — was caught flat-footed by a more nimble upstart by the name of OpenAI. It was the type of story Silicon Valley built its legend on.

In Sundar Pichai's first letter to shareholders in 2016 after becoming CEO, he said Google would shift to an "AI-first world." Yet, in late 2022, a relatively unknown company suddenly pulled the rug from under Google's feet. ChatGPT was an overnight sensation, and Google, which had long seen itself as the leader in AI, appeared to be lagging behind.

In the years since, the search giant has acted fast to turn things around. It quickly reshaped key parts of its business internally and made an aggressive push to inject generative AI into its core products.

Its latest AI model, Gemini 3, launched this month to dazzling reviews. Crucially, Gemini 3 launched within Search — Google's most prized business — on day one, a strong signal that after three years the company had gotten its ducks in a row.

However, there are big questions that Google is still grappling with as it rebuilds its image in the age of AI. OpenAI's first-mover advantage meant that ChatGPT has become the "Kleenex" of AI — the name that everyone associates with it — and it will be tough for Google to change that.

There are also more existential questions. Chiefly, how can Google preserve a healthy web ecosystem once AI has eaten the internet? To keep pace with rivals, Google is reimagining search not as a directory, but a conversation that removes the hassle of scrolling and clicking. What that means for the future of the internet is a lingering question. Still, Google's business may not only survive its self-disruption, but thrive.

"It has the users, and as long as it continues to rush out new products, no one can match its distribution tentacles," a former Google executive said. "They will come out as winners no matter the scenario."

Google told Business Insider in a statement, "We've been through platform shifts before, and every time it's been an expansionary moment for Google and for Search. We move quickly, innovate, and create new opportunities for our products, partners, and users — and that's what we're doing with AI."

Gemini rising

Did Google see it coming? That depends on who you ask.

When OpenAI's ChatGPT rolled out, Googlers experienced a mix of frustration and relief. Some employees had worked on similar projects that had never made it outside Google's walls, and seeing a much smaller competitor take the glory was frustrating. Others saw it as the starting pistol in the AI race and the green light for Google to finally unleash its own AI on the world.

Google has never lacked brains or technology. Employees at DeepMind, an AI research lab within Google's parent company, had been toying with large language models by the time ChatGPT appeared, but leaders worried that releasing a chatbot prone to bias or errors would spark backlash.

"It was not intended as a public thing yet," a former DeepMind employee who worked on Google's own LLM technology said. "We saw shortcomings and saw it start to be interesting, but it was unclear how to get it to be completely useful."

What surprised some leaders inside the company — and where Google ultimately miscalculated, insiders say — was that users largely didn't seem to care about ChatGPT's shortcomings.

Inside DeepMind, teams scrambled to launch their answer to ChatGPT, a chatbot named Sparrow, which would have had more safety guardrails than ChatGPT, according to people who worked on it. That project soon died once Google merged DeepMind with its internal AI lab Brain, and the company then put all its focus on Gemini.

At the same time, Google made an internal push to infuse generative AI into all its most crucial products, including Search, YouTube, and Android. It launched multiple iterations of the Gemini chatbot, the latest of which is Gemini 3.

Searching for Google's future

Over the past three years, Google has made disrupting itself look fairly easy. The company just reported its first $100 billion quarter. Its cloud business, which has long been second-fiddle to Amazon's and Microsoft's, is whirring into overdrive. Its specialized AI chips, for years an internal and slow-moving effort, are suddenly seeing blockbuster demand from companies vying for more computing power.

Current and former employees say Google's greatest advantage is that it owns the full technology stack needed to meet the AI boom. It offers numerous products, including Gemini, Search, and Maps, which are already used by billions of people. It has a fleet of researchers building frontier AI models. And it has a cloud infrastructure that is not just powering all these internal efforts, but that its biggest competitors are paying to use.

Search, however, remains Google's core business and the boat it spent decades trying not to rock. When cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google, it had no clear business model beyond building a world-beating search engine, but the founders were eventually swayed into putting ads into search results. It became one of the most scalable businesses ever imagined in the digital era, and to this day, it continues to provide the largest chunk of Google's revenue.

Now, Google must figure out whether AI Overviews — its generated summaries that give users instant answers to their questions — and the more dramatic reimagining of search in AI Mode have as much juice when it comes to search advertising.

Google can't afford to stand still. Industry analysts at EMARKETER, Business Insider's sister company, predict Google's share of the search ads market will drop below 50% for the first time next year (a revision to their earlier prediction that it would happen in 2025). By the end of 2026, EMARKETER predicts Google will have a 48.9% share.

EMARKETER senior forecast analyst Oscar Orozco said that the sustained high performance of Google's search business suggests advertiser caution around AI Overviews has been "overblown" by the market.

"However, this does remain a long-term threat for their search business, and we believe as LLMs monetize their search capabilities, Google will continue to lose share, albeit at a slower rate than we had expected at this same time last year," he said.

Google is reshaping the web as we know it

Google, at least publicly, doesn't appear to be worried.

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Google Search boss Liz Reid said that while changes to search resulted in reduced traffic to some websites, the overall number of search queries was increasing because Google made it easier for people to get to answers, either through AI Overviews or tools like Lens.

"The increase in searches sort of compensates for the impact on ads clicks such that we end up roughly at the same point," Reid said. She also made a point that chatbots can't replace products users are looking to buy, hinting at a top priority for Google: transactional searches that are more likely to produce ad revenue for the platform.

Even that is changing for Google. The search funnel — the time between someone beginning to research a product to hitting "buy" — is shrinking, as generative AI gets people to what they want sooner.

Google has begun to show the world how it's adapting to protect its core moneymaker. However, it's unclear what the generative AI boom means for the long-term health of the web, and how it will impact websites that supply information as opposed to products.

Google says that its new AI search features can help users find more relevant content, and that queries continue to grow year-over-year. Yet many publishers already see search traffic declining, and there are growing anxieties that even if overall searches go up with AI summaries, they will not translate into website clicks.

A recent Pew Research study based on the search history of 900 users concluded that when an AI Overview appeared, users clicked a traditional link 8% of the time, compared to 15% when an AI summary didn't appear. Google said the research was flawed and not representative of overall search traffic.

Lily Ray, vice president of SEO research firm Amsive, said that a shift to an AI-first Google would make it harder for publishers and content creators who build much of the web to make money. If people stop publishing, where will Google get the information it needs to construct its AI Overviews?

"I'm not sure how they plan to solve that; their current excuses are not cutting it," she said.

One idea she suggested is that Google and other AI companies that build large language models pay commissions to the sites they train on or reference, as an incentive for them to keep creating.

She's not alone in feeling something needs to shift.

"The business model of the web can't survive unless there's some change," Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said in an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations earlier this year. Prince, whose business acts as a gateway between websites and the internet, has called AI answerbots an "existential threat" to the internet.

"If content creators can't derive value from what they're doing, then they're not going to create original content," Prince said.

• The largest hedge funds are competing to attract and retain top talent and outperform their peers.
• Business Insider has spoken with elite hedge funds to get a peek into their recruiting processes.
• From internships to high-paying tech jobs, here's what we know about their hiring practices.

The battle for talent in the hedge fund world is fiercer than ever — and it cuts across all levels and positions.

With six-figure starting salaries, intense work environments, and the chance to work alongside some of the industry's top investors, these roles are among the most competitive in finance.

Internships can pay over $5,000 a week. Salaries for entry-level analysts and software engineers are often in the six-figure range. Portfolio managers with winning strategies can take home tens of millions.

Business Insider has interviewed recruiters and investors at top hedge fund managers like Citadel, Millennium, and Point72 about how they attract and evaluate talent, and what advice they'd give to anyone hoping to break in.

Here's everything we know about getting a job at a large hedge fund.

Internships

Years ago, the opaque and secretive world of hedge funds might not have been an obvious career choice for most college graduates on their path to Wall Street. However, these investing behemoths are now investing in getting young, diverse wunderkinder, especially mathletes, familiar with their brands as early as high school.

Internships are another talent pipeline for some of the biggest multi-strategy hedge funds, which employ armies of traders and engineers. Programs can be uber-competitive and harder to get into than many top Ivy League schools.

Citadel's summer internship program, for example, has become increasingly competitive. This year, the hedge fund accepted around 300 interns to spend 11 weeks at Griffin's hedge fund or his market maker, working with stock-pickers, quants, engineers, and more. The firm told BI that there were more than 108,000 applicants for the programs, with an acceptance rate of roughly 0.4%.

• Here's how to land a spot at Citadel's summer internship
• Citadel's associate program is a separate internship that puts rising college seniors on track to land a full-time investing role at the $66 billion fund.

$25 billion hedge fund Balyasny runs a contest that serves as an early application pool for the firm's internship program.

• Two Balyasny summer interns told us how they landed full-time roles.

We also spoke to Point72 and D.E. Shaw about what they looked for in interns and how to stand out for a potential job offer down the line.

• Point72's summer internship is a precursor to the hedge fund's Academy, a 10-month training program for college graduates and early-career professionals looking to become investment analysts.
• A D.E. Shaw internship could land a dream gig at the secretive hedge fund.

Analyst and investment training programs

In the past, hedge funds acquired investment talent from investment banks. Increasingly, however, the industry's top players are recruiting college students through intensive training programs that can lead to jobs straight out of college.

Creating a pipeline of portfolio managers has been an increasingly popular strategy for hedge funds locked in an increasingly expensive battle for top talent.

• How to get accepted into Point72's ultra-elite analyst training program, whose acceptance rate is less than 1%
• Inside Point72's PM incubator LaunchPoint, where Steve Cohen is known to grill up-and-comers who think they're ready for the big time
• Inside Balyasny's Anthem training program, where aspiring portfolio managers are handed hundreds of millions of dollars to prove they can cut it
• Behind the training programs at Balyasny, which is looking to get ahead in the war for investment talent

Tech jobs and training programs

Hedge funds have long been competing with the finance industry and top tech companies for top technologists. Engineers and algorithm developers are key to helping researchers, data scientists, and traders develop cutting-edge investment strategies and platforms. Quant shop D.E. Shaw also has a unique approach to finding talent.

• Inside Citadel's exclusive engineering program that's helped the hedge fund snap up talent from Google and Goldman Sachs
• Here's how to get a tech job at Millennium, from the programming language to know to the interview questions to prep for

Inside Man Group's popular training program for non-tech employees that teaches them skills to automate tasks and reduce errors in their work

A rundown of some of the gatekeepers to know

The "business development" role is one of the most important at hedge funds, as it specializes in scouting and evaluating investment hires. Knowing these in-house talent scouts and external recruiters is crucial.

• The rise of the hedge-fund talent whisperers
• The talent brokers of quant trading: The headhunters at the forefront of Wall Street's systematic-trading and data-science hiring frenzy
• Try our searchable database of more than 350 Wall Street headhunters to find your dream job in private equity, investment banking, or hedge funds

Advice and insight on working at top firms

Here's a look at how some firms find and vet new employees, what skills and qualities they're looking for …

• Why quant giant D.E. Shaw seeks out academics, doctors, and veterans to work at the hedge fund
• Citadel portfolio manager explains how he rose in the ranks of the hedge fund and what he looks for in a new hire
• Inside the 5-hour psychological interview that can make or break your career at Citadel, Blackstone, and other finance titans

• Inside the spycraft hedge funds use to vet multimillion-dollar traders, which is edging into murky legal territory

• This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. People often talk about the Great Wealth Transfer, where trillions of dollars will be passed down from Baby Boomers to the next generation. Our elders are also giving us a whole lot of junk.

On the agenda today:

• From homebuilding to trucking, these parts of America's economy are already in deep trouble.
• This small-town sheriff's feats inspired Hollywood movies and made him a legend. What if it was all a lie?
• Bill Ackman's pickup line is awkward — but he's onto something.
• Microsoft is going to "rethink" the company's business for the AI era, internal memo shows.

But first: Can I have your attention?

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Business Insider's app here.

This week's dispatch

More than a résumé

In today's tight job market, the traditional résumé-and-cover-letter playbook for finding work just won't cut it anymore.

We've written a lot about the "Great Freeze" — companies and employees staying put with few large-scale layoffs, but also little hiring. Employers' reluctance to add staff means job seekers have to get creative in their job search.

In the past week, Business Insider wrote about two people and the lengths they went to secure their dream opportunities.

My colleague Tess Martinelli interviewed a guy who, in his second-to-last semester of college, sent his future boss 50 cents through Venmo along with a link to his résumé. Not the most conventional way to get noticed, but it worked.

"I felt regret the moment I sent the message, but it ultimately launched my film career," said Darshan Patel, a 28-year-old film and marketing professional in Brooklyn, New York. "It taught me that you have to do something unique to get attention in this job market."

The second example is Felix Wallis, a 23-year-old research engineer for an AI startup. Right after graduating from college, he bypassed traditional applications and focused on one startup whose product he had used and liked.

He coded a fix for its interface and posted it publicly in the company's Facebook group. That got him noticed and ultimately led to a summer internship.

"You can't fake interest or passion — and proving you have them is, in my experience, the best way to get hired," Wallis told my colleague Joshua Nelken-Zitser.

For job seekers, the takeaway here isn't simply to do something weird to get a job. Instead, both people showed genuine and deliberate interest in their roles. They were bold enough to do something memorable to stand out from the pack.

Did you get hired using a unique hack, strategy, or tactic? Business Insider wants to hear from people who've cracked the job market with a bold or unconventional approach. Please fill out this quick form.

Are we already in a recession?

The US economy seems OK on the surface. GDP growth has been north of 3% for the last two quarters, and conditions in the labor market appear to be gradually cooling. A broad view of the economy can overlook the significant developments unfolding beneath the surface.

Major employers in industries like homebuilding and restaurants are looking shaky, offering ominous signs about the direction of the overall economy, Neil Dutta, head of economics at Renaissance Macro Research, writes for BI.

The seven deadly signs for the US economy.

A bullet, a legend, and a lie

In the early morning of August 12, 1967, in Adamsville, Tennessee, Sheriff Buford Pusser said his wife, Pauline Pusser, was fatally shot while on a police call with him. Buford, who had a bullet wound on his jaw, said the assailants peeled off.

Buford's survival became an instant fascination. Books and songs were written, and the "Walking Tall" movie franchise gave him the Hollywood hero treatment. But questions swirled if someone else killed Pauline. When her body was exhumed in February 2024, one question remained: Could it have all been a lie?

Shattering a legend.

May I meet you?

When Bill Ackman tweeted his dating advice — using the opener, "May I meet you?" — he was both mocked and praised. While the line itself is awkward, the implicit advice about confidence is worth heeding.

BI's Katie Notopoulos studied pickup artists and compared their approaches to Ackman's. She thinks the pros would agree: Have the courage to start a conversation.

Experts in rizz.

Microsoft scraps its playbook

There's a new AI advisor in town at Microsoft. CEO Satya Nadella has tapped Rolf Harms to "rethink the economics of AI," according to a memo obtained by BI's Ashley Stewart.

Harms is the author of a 2010 white paper that forced a cultural reckoning on Microsoft's cloud computing. Nadella said in his memo that the company needs an AI reset, just as it did with cloud.

Thinking about rethinking.

This week's quote:

"You should've seen the memes that are on the internet. Have you guys seen some of them? We're basically holding the planet together — and it's not untrue."

— Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the chip giant being in a no-win situation amid AI bubble chatter in an all-hands meeting Business Insider listened to.

How military name tapes are made

The AAFES Name Tape Plant in Fort Knox manufactures nearly every name tag worn by service members across the US Armed Forces. With only 17 employees, the plant produces up to 3,000 name tapes each day, and as many as 60,000 a month.

More of this week's top reads:

• A "2008 global financial crisis" hoodie that costs $180 is sold out.
• Blackstone's HR chief opens up about the evening that tragedy struck the firm's headquarters.
• Navy secretary says it's hard to get workers to want to build warships if they get paid what they might make at Buc-ee's or Amazon.
• Jeffrey Epstein's accountant of 22 years raised alarm bells at JPMorgan. Now Congress wants answers.
• Exclusive: Sam Altman's eye-scanning Orb startup told workers not to care about anything outside work.
• Rich people have trillions of dollars they want to give to hedge funds.
• Meta just solved this annoying problem with Slack after we complained about it.

The BI Today team: Steve Russolillo, chief news editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.

• Tom Russo says resilience is vital, debt is dangerous, and investing is both a young and old person's game.
• The veteran fund manager warned against excessive gambling and ruled out retiring anytime soon.
• Young investors might have more energy, but older ones can be more patient and disciplined, Russo said.

Veteran investor Tom Russo says children need to build resilience, debt can be devastating, and older people have some advantages when it comes to beating the market.

Russo is the managing member of Gardner Russo & Quinn, an investment firm with a $9.3 billion US stock portfolio as of September 30, per its latest 13F filing.

The father of two told Business Insider that teaching resilience to kids starts with letting them fall on the playground, so they can learn to get back up and keep going.

They have to experience pain and discomfort as "those moments happen all the time in life," he said. "The greatest lessons are learned when trying to work yourself out of something that doesn't go well. And the worst thing to do is to avoid those from happening when they naturally would."

Asked how young people can get ahead at a time when AI threatens to take jobs and many feel priced out of the lives they want, Russo cited Warren Buffett's warnings about credit-card debt as a "chain across your back" that gets tighter and tighter until it chokes you. Russo added that "buy now, pay later" options pose a fresh threat, as they tempt people into spending money they don't have.

Russo also cautioned against gambling too much, saying it's a "loser's game to begin with" and "probably isn't going to develop your thinking and wisdom and reason."

The market veteran, who turned 70 this year, ruled out retiring anytime soon. While young investors might have more time and energy to travel and dig deeper into prospective investments, older ones "develop judgment, and you're a little less impetuous, and a little more patient, and probably a little bit more asleep," he quipped.

Russo is far from the first investor to continue working past retirement age. Buffett, 95, will step down as Berkshire Hathaway's CEO before the new year, but intends to continue writing Thanksgiving letters to his shareholders and remain involved in the company as its chairman.

• Slack cofounder Stewart Butterfield said that employees should have a "perpetual desire to improve."
• He shared a story from 2014 on "Lenny's Podcast," where he called an early version of Slack "terrible" in an interview.
• Employees printed out the interview quote and pasted it on the office walls the next day — but Butterfield stands by it.

For Slack cofounder Stewart Butterfield, embarrassment can be a useful and motivating tool.

Butterfield led Slack, which is now owned by Salesforce, from 2009 to 2023 as CEO. In 2014, he gave an interview where he called the early product "terrible." Employees responded by putting posters up around the office, he said on "Lenny's Podcast" — but he stands by it.

"I try to instill this into the rest of the team, but certainly I feel that what we have right now is just a giant piece of shit," he told the MIT Technology Review in 2014. "Like, it's just terrible, and we should be humiliated that we offer this to the public. Not everyone finds that motivational, though."

On the podcast, Butterfield described the aftermath.

"I came into the office the next day and people had printed out on 40 pieces of 8.5-by-11 paper that quote and pasted it up on the wall," he said.

Butterfield defended what he had said in the 2014 interview: "To me, that was like: you should be embarrassed by it. It should be a perpetual desire to improve. You should never be like, 'Oh, this is great.'"

He could be proud of "individual pieces," Butterfield said, but in the aggregate, leaders should only see the "almost limitless opportunities to improve."

Butterfield gave two examples of the endless search for improvements.

First, he pointed to Toyota's principle of "kaizen," or continuous improvement. The philosophy ensures "maximum quality, the elimination of waste, and improvements in efficiency," per Toyota's UK magazine.

Second, he pointed to Bridgewater founder and billionaire investor Ray Dalio. Michael Jordan's ski instructor once told Dalio that he "reveled in his mistakes" and saw them as "little puzzles that, when you solve them, give you a gem."

How to be critical — and when — is an art that all leaders approach differently. Netflix's CTO said that the company uses "continuous, timely, candid feedback."

Meta CFO Susan Li said that Mark Zuckerberg has refined his ability to give feedback over the years. Now, he's "world-class," Li said.

On the podcast, Butterfield said that "trying to be critical" and "trying to find improvements" can be helpful tools.

"Not always, not with every person," he said. "But most of the time, with most people, you can get them to the point where that really direct criticism is actually motivational."

Butterfield would go on to lead Slack to become one of the most popular workplace messaging platforms in the world, eventually selling it to Salesforce for $27.7 billion.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Donna Morris, the Chief People Officer at Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm the Chief People Officer at Walmart, and my work is one of my biggest passions.

Over time, I have become very intentional about how I structure my time. I've navigated busy days for years, so very little truly derails me.

If something unexpected comes up, I try to take a moment and move forward. There is truth to the analogy: "I would rather look like a swan on the surface, even if my feet are flapping under the water."

Here's a day in my life:

I wake up to U2's "Beautiful Day"

My alarm goes off at 6:05 a.m. every day to U2's "Beautiful Day." I like U2, and I like to start every day thinking it's going to be a great one. If I have a meeting, it's set even earlier.

My problem is, I hit the snooze button once or twice. It is not good if I hit it three times, which means I won't be up until around 6:30.

I'm online as soon as I get out of bed

The enemy might be that I have two phones. I have a personal device and a work device. By the time I've gotten up out of bed, I have already looked at both to see if anything was urgent from the night before.

It can become the enemy when I become distracted and lose focus. I try to be disciplined about setting both aside at times and frankly shutting down all screens, but I am a work in progress.

I plan my outfits in advance

I'm pretty organized. The night before work, sometimes even as early as Sunday night, I'll figure out what I'm going to wear during the week.

I know there are certain individuals who probably wear the exact same thing, but I'm not one of those people.

If I'm going out to a store or a club, I'm going to wear denim of some sort, probably a T-shirt and a jacket, and always my Walmart badge and running shoes or really comfortable sneakers. That's different from how I dress when I come into our office, where I'll probably be a bit more formal.

I listen to CNN's podcast and the 'Today' show while getting ready

Male leaders can probably get ready in 15 minutes. They can probably get up, wash their hair, and away they go. Female leaders take longer to get ready. So, rightly or wrongly, it takes me longer to get ready, and it depends on whether it's a wash-your-hair day or not.

I do my own hair every other day. I've never been the type to not do that. I budget about 45 minutes to an hour to get ready in the morning.

As I get ready, I listen to the "CNN 5 Things" podcast, and I always have the "Today" show on, because I also want to hear about what's happening there.

It takes me five minutes to get to the office

I'm not sure it even takes me five minutes to get to the office. That was very deliberate. I try to arrive at the office between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m., and then I start my day.

I have back-to-back meetings starting at 8:35 a.m.

My day is typically spent meeting great associates — whether they work for us or might be interested in working for us — as well as leaders.

During a typical day, I have a back-to-back schedule, and my meetings tend to start at five minutes past the half hour. My first meeting of the day is at 8:35 a.m., unless I'm meeting with some of my peers who start earlier.

I've never tried coffee or tea — but I drink Diet Coke every day

When I was five years old, I burned my mouth so badly that I was afraid to drink anything hot for years. I've just never been a hot drink type of girl, I guess.

I try to limit myself to two Diet Cokes a day, although every once in a while, I sneak in a third. I typically don't drink it before 10 a.m.

I don't have big meals during the day

I don't have big meals in the morning or at lunch, but I am a believer in having something in the morning.

I was on a routine of doing overnight oats in the morning, and then I'd have two hard-boiled eggs every lunch. But I recently received feedback that I should do my protein in the morning and overnight oats at noon.

I stay at the office until 6:30 p.m.

I tend to stay at the office and work until around 6 or 6:30 p.m., when there are fewer people around and I can have some quiet time.

Then I go home, and if I'm really fortunate, my husband is home. He's a fantastic cook, so I benefit when he's in Bentonville with me. When he's not with me, it means I need to be more organized, because I have to cook for myself.

I have fantastic cookbooks because buying cookbooks is something I'm passionate about. However, I'm not as good at cooking, so I end up on the same rinse-and-repeat meal plan.

My evening routine includes work, calling my father, and getting ready for the next day

I call my father almost every night. He lives in Canada.

During the evening, I also go down the social rabbit hole and spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, as well as other social channels.

I travel a lot

My schedule looks largely the same when I'm traveling. If I'm traveling domestically, it usually involves visiting Walmart stores or Sam's Clubs.

Sometimes we announce them, and sometimes we don't. Unannounced visits are sometimes the most valuable because you can really see in real time how the facility works and how people interact.

I check out the ability for our associates to learn. I see if there's a private room where moms can nurse. It really gives us a good sense of our work environment for our associates, and those days are great days.