• Some of Silicon Valley's biggest names are in their tech bro era.
• It wasn't always like this — many Big Tech CEOs have shed more nerdy personas from their startup days.
• Here's a look at tech's most influential executives then and now.

Mark Zuckerberg isn't the only tech CEO whose style has noticeably evolved over the years.

Other Big Tech leaders have significantly changed up their looks since starting their companies; some are nearly unrecognizable (we're looking at you, Jeff Bezos.)

Here's a look at the style transformations of some of tech's biggest names:

Jeff Bezos

Bezos founded Amazon from his garage in Bellevue, Washington, in 1994. He attributes his new look partly to working out with a celebrity personal trainer and changing his diet.

Mark Zuckerberg

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard in 2004.

Gone are the days of the Zuck who famously wore the same thing every day to save brainpower for more important decisions. Instead, Zuck can now be seen sporting graphic tees and chain necklaces.

Part of Zuckerberg's physical transformation also stems from hobbies like Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA fighting.

Michael Dell

Dell is another member of the college dropouts-turned-tech founders club.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998.

Elon Musk

The photo at left shows Musk in 1999, around the time the "PayPal mafia" was formed.

Musk has said he doesn't care for exercise and "almost never" works out, though he's credited fasting and the weight loss drug Wegovy with his appearance today.

Bill Gates

Gates and the late Paul Allen cofounded Microsoft from a garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975.

Jack Dorsey

Twitter was founded in 2006. Cofounder Dorsey has been seen with a full beard pretty regularly since departing as CEO and focusing his efforts more on cryptocurrency at Block, formerly Square.

Richard Branson

Richard Branson started the Virgin brand in 1970 with a mail order record business.

At 73 years old today, Branson's day-to-day life still features plenty of exercise, from tennis and cycling to kite-surfing.

Jack Ma

Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma disappeared from public view in 2020 after criticizing China's financial regulation system. He resurfaced in Thailand in 2022 and has been teaching as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo.

Anne Wojcicki

Anne Wojcicki founded genetic testing company 23andMe in 2006.

Whitney Wolfe Herd

Whitney Wolfe Herd founded Bumble in 2014 and stepped down as CEO last year.

Evan Spiegel

Evan Spiegel co-founded Snap, which owns services like Snapchat, in 2011.

• 12 staff members accused "The Umbrella Academy" showrunner Steve Blackman of "toxic" behavior.
• Blackman called the allegations "completely false and outrageous."
• The final season of the Netflix series arrives in August.

A showrunner on "The Umbrella Academy" has been accused by 12 staff members of "toxic" behavior, including bullying and sexism, while working on the cult Netflix show.

"The Umbrella Academy," which was released on the streamer in 2019 and has run for three seasons, follows a group of superheroes who were around the world at the same time before being raised by a mysterious billionaire.

It is adapted from the Dark Horse Comics series of the same name by the singer of the rock band My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way, which helped it garner a cult following, and Brazilian comic book artist Gabriel Ba.

The show has been fairly successful for the streaming service, with audiences watching 2.454 billion minutes in the first week following the season three premiere in 2022, Deadline reported citing Nielsen streaming rankings. Its fourth and final season arrives on Netflix on August 8.

Rolling Stone spoke to 12 writers and support staff who worked on "The Umbrella Academy" who shared their concerns about showrunner Steve Blackman. Most of them chose to remain anonymous because they were concerned their careers may be affected.

The publication also reviewed several documents and complaints regarding Blackman's conduct, which suggested that he pitted writers against each other, made inappropriate comments to staff, and attempted to take credit for other people's work.

A complaint made by the 12 staff members to the HR department of Universal Content Productions, which produces the show for Netflix, in January 2023, alleged that Blackman had a "long history of toxic, bullying, manipulative, and retaliatory behavior," Rolling Stone reported on Sunday.

One writer claimed that her contract wasn't extended in season two because she was pregnant.

"He told me he fired them because one was pregnant and didn't tell him," another writer claimed, referring to the pregnant woman and her writing partner.

Jesse McKeown, the co-showrunner of "The Umbrella Academy" season four, claimed that he butted heads with Blackman over another writer's pay.

"I always sort of carried that around thinking, 'OK, that was clear retaliation, [but] he would never do that to me.' It happened to me eventually, and a whole bunch of other people in between" he claimed.

In 2023, the Writers Guild of America went on strike for better pay and fairer conditions for the people who create our favorite TV shows and movies. Sources who spoke to Rolling Stones said the allegations surrounding Blackman suggested that showrunners themselves can contribute to tough working conditions.

Being in charge of a TV series at a time when streaming services are desperate to make the next era-defining show is no easy task, especially one as complex as "The Umbrella Academy."

But times have changed as a result of the #MeToo movement and the Hollywood strikes, meaning people feel empowered to speak out about any abuse or toxicity that they have faced in the industry.

Blackman's representatives denied the accusations in a statement to Rolling Stone, calling them "entirely untrue" and "completely absurd."

"Over six years and four seasons overseeing thousands of crew, actors, and writers, Steve Blackman led 'The Umbrella Academy' to become a beloved series with devoted fans, enthralling stories, and a dedicated team making it all possible.

"These allegations from a handful of disgruntled employees are completely false and outrageous, and in no way reflect the collaborative, respectful, and successful working environment Mr. Blackman has cultivated," they added.

Representatives for Blackman and Netflix did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

• Aaron Nichols got certified in solar installation a year ago when he was unsure of his career path.
• Now he has a marketing job for a solar company that offers flexibility and career mobility. 
• This article is part of "Trends to Bet Your Career On," a series about trending professional opportunities.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Aaron Nichols, the marketing and advocacy specialist at Exact Solar. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

My career has been the wildest ride since I got my solar-installation training just a year ago.

I started my career in education and wasn't happy with that path. So I took some time off to travel after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and supplemented my income with a door-to-door solar-sales job, which I landed through some people I met on my journey.

When I came back from traveling, I didn't know what I wanted to do for work, and I thought solar installation could be an interesting career path. I went through a six-week training program with an organization called Grid Alternatives, where I was paid a stipend based on my income level to get certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners.

I graduated in May 2023 and, after a summer job traveling to Alaska to create educational programs, started job searching in the solar industry in the fall.

Now I'm the marketing and advocacy specialist at a good-size solar-installation company, Exact Solar. To come from the world of teaching and nonprofits and — just a year later — be at this spot in my career is shocking.

My solar-installation training helped me stand out

When I started job searching in the solar industry, I applied to some installer jobs and sales-side jobs, and I started marketing myself on Upwork as a copywriting consultant to make money immediately.

Surprisingly, the consulting work picked up fast, before I was able to land a more traditional job. The fact that I had the installer certification made clients in the solar industry especially excited to work with me on the marketing side. The technical knowledge I brought benefited my work and helped me land exciting clients like SunCast Media, which runs one of the most popular industry podcasts, and Exact Solar, which eventually offered me a full-time job.

In a beautiful twist of fate, part of my job now is designing a curriculum for a workforce training program and helping promote solar installations we're putting in schools; so my teaching and nonprofit experience have ended up fitting into the puzzle of my solar career.

There are so many places you can add value. The solar industry needs everything that any other industry needs, and the growth is happening so fast. Anyone who's in finance, advertising, or any other industry and is struggling should consider applying their skills to the solar industry because it's a much-bigger world than you think.

I'm excited about the freedom and the promise of the industry

I'm deeply enjoying the flexibility this job offers me. I have a good salary, and since I work remotely, I've moved into a farmhouse on 5 acres of land with my girlfriend and built a solar system to power our cell booster. I get to live in the woods and take archery breaks in the middle of the day.

When I envision the future of my solar career, it seems like the sky's the limit. It's a very tight community, so once you know people, it's easy to get referral work if you're a contractor or start connecting with people at a high level who would be hard to reach in other industries.

It's a very financially viable career, too. It's not just hippies hugging trees and trying to save the world — there's a lot of private-industry money coming in. I really like the idea that I can make good money, work a flexible job, and feel good about my impact on the planet.

• Demand for solar jobs is growing in response to clean-energy goals and government incentives.
• Many entry-level solar jobs don't require higher education, and they offer on-the-job training.
• This article is part of "Trends to Bet Your Career On," a series about trending professional opportunities.

The solar industry has some of the fastest-growing occupations, with jobs just in solar-panel installation in the US expected to grow by 22% by 2032.

One reason is the desire to meet environmental goals. The US Department of Energy estimated in 2021 that the solar workforce could add over 1 million workers by 2035 to achieve the goal of decarbonizing the electrical grid.

To support these goals, the federal Inflation Reduction Act provides tax credits for qualifying clean-energy investments. Many states offer additional tax credits and rebates, and utility companies will sometimes cover some costs of solar installation.

Individuals are looking to cash in on these incentives and avoid rising energy costs. The market-research company Grand View Research estimated that the size of the US residential solar market size was $7.5 billion in 2023.

Corporations are getting in on the action, too: One year after the Inflation Reduction Act's passage, the White House said companies had announced more than $10 billion in solar-manufacturing investments.

Compounding this demand is a skilled-labor shortage across clean-energy sectors, including positions in installation and repair. "We're such a nascent industry that there's just not a deep pool of folks who have all of the background needed to do all of the jobs," said Kate Collardson, a senior manager of residential operations at the solar company Omnidian.

Solar jobs offer a low barrier to entry and high growth potential

However, the shortage means there are many affordable, accelerated solar training programs designed to help people get their foot in the door. For example, this year Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee added a free four-week solar-installation program to its career-training lineup. Karl Wendt, the organization's career and technical academy director, said graduates leave with the basic certifications and experience needed to be useful installers.

The mean hourly wage for solar installers in May 2023 was $25.55, which Wendt said was impressive given people can land those jobs with a high-school diploma and four weeks of training. "If you compare it to other jobs for that skill level and that time horizon, it's competitive," he said, adding that starting as an installer is a strong way to begin a green-technology career involving higher-level positions with higher compensation.

Companies are increasingly willing to hire less experienced employees and offer them on-the-job training. Martin Pochtaruk, the CEO of the solar manufacturer Heliene, told Business Insider that many of his employees appreciated advancement opportunities. "Operators that come in at an entry level have become shift supervisors within a year," he told BI.

Collardson added that people with backgrounds in areas such as marketing, engineering, and law could apply their skills to jobs at solar companies.

The solar industry can support long-term careers

While Collardson acknowledged that specific solar jobs could grow or shrink as incentives and demands change, they said they believe there will always be jobs in the solar industry for those willing to be flexible.

Collardson said they see a lot of long-term promise in their career path in operations and maintenance. "It doesn't matter how much solar we install on the planet — if the solar doesn't work, it doesn't mean anything," they said. "Operations and maintenance providers ensure that the solar is working."

Wendt argued that training in solar now would help people get a head start in an industry that will continue to gain relevance. "You get in on the ground floor of anything that's growing very rapidly, and it's always going to be beneficial," he said.

Pochtaruk said solar is far from a passing trend. "This is not stopping," he said. "This is a force that is changing the way we work, the way we power our life, and, as such, is a great employment opportunity."

• My partner and I started a non-alcoholic drink brand called (parentheses) together.
• At first, we were worried about working together, and didn't want to 'mix business with pleasure.'
• But our relationship had a strong foundation, and it has only gotten stronger.

Almost all business books will tell you not to mix business with pleasure. We're in a place as a society where folks can decide which axioms make sense for our own lives and which just didn't age well. To me, hearing "Don't start a business with your partner" sounds as outdated as "Choose a company with a good pension, and you're set for life." While pensions are a relic in the private sector, US Census data shows that 10% of American businesses are owned by couples. My husband and I are in that 10% — and we're stronger than ever.

Countless couples, friends, and family members run successful businesses together. Complications are bound to arise from all interpersonal relationship dynamics, so why not start a business with someone who knows you inside and out? Someone who understands your tendency to bite off more than you can chew or knows which activities help you relax or possess the skills and knowledge that are so complementary to yours that you decided to make them your person until death do you part. For all the aforementioned reasons, starting a business with my husband has actually strengthened our relationship.

We tried not to work together, but realized it was a great fit

Nick and I actively tried not to work together because we obviously both knew that mixing business with pleasure could be risky. But hey, starting a business is one of the riskiest adventures anyway. Go hard or go home, right? We built such a strong foundation as a couple that the possibility of anything, especially work, breaking down our bond felt overwhelming. Then we asked ourselves an important question: Who else could sell this extremely niche seaweed vinegar non-alcoholic drink we created but us? That realization gave us the courage to start a business together.

We started a non-alcoholic drink brand called (parentheses) that was born out of our own personal recovery journeys. Nick and I met in an AA meeting when we both had a few years of sobriety under our belts. Those years before we met (and after!) were filled with peer support and mental health support, unpacking why we each relied on alcohol so heavily in the past.

In addition to my personal experience, I spent years researching, studying, and interviewing people about how their relationship patterns intersect with their alcohol use while writing a book. Nick and I, like many of my subjects, dealt with the emotional upheaval and required boundary-setting that often comes from changing one's relationship with alcohol. After going through emotional hell and back, creating a marketing plan together or debating over bottle sizes just isn't that big of a deal.

Communication is key

Individually, we've learned healthy coping skills — many of which can be distilled into one word: communication. Learning how to communicate before we met each other makes us a strong couple; identifying and accommodating our individual communication styles makes us excellent business partners.

Clear communication only works when you trust the person you're communicating with. How clear can your communication be without honesty? Nick and I learned that admitting that we needed to reevaluate our relationships with booze requires a great deal of honesty with ourselves and others — a virtue we bring into the ethos of our business. That humility also taught us an even more valuable lesson: It's OK to ask for help.

We ask for help all the time, both as a couple and as business partners. Whether asking for assistance with a project or getting advice from people more established in our industry, we don't feel "weak" for knowing we can't do it all. We know which skills we each have, which skills the other has, and which skills we need to outsource or learn.

Having self-awareness about what we each bring to the table helps us work more efficiently (and happily!). Being stubborn just doesn't work. Trust us; we've tried. We often joke that Nick would rather be covered in vinegar-mother slime while making our drink, and I'd much rather make a TikTok of him covered in said slime.

The arduous work we do in our personal recovery programs teaches us to focus on what we can control. We bring this mindful life approach to running a small business, too. We can control producing our small-batch, artisanal product and creating intentional marketing plans, so that's where the bulk of our energy goes.

We can't control that we're an indie brand swimming in a sea of VC-backed brands. We also can't control who likes or dislikes our drink. There will always be drink brands with more capital and stores that don't want to sell our product. The trick to staying (relatively) sane when working with your spouse or romantic partner is finding the nuggets of controllability when life happens on life's terms. Those nuggets also lead to forming a stronger bond as a couple.

The most important aspect of running a business with a spouse or partner is knowing when to clock out to make time for life's other pleasures. There are evenings when we both feel defeated after a day filled with low sales or getting lost in bureaucratic red tape with the Department of Agriculture that makes us want to scratch our eyes out.

But we have each other, a beautiful home, and fur babies who remind us that being silly can alleviate much of life's stressors. We have our healthy, learned coping skills. And we have a nice drink to sip, reminding us why we decided to sell this thing in the first place. Running a business, especially with your partner, is one day at a time, too.

Japan is one of the leading producers of shiitake mushrooms. These mushrooms are notoriously difficult to cultivate on a commercial scale — especially when using the 1,000-year-old Japanese technique of growing them on logs. In the US, indoor-grown shiitakes sell for upwards of $8 a pound, while forest-grown shiitakes have commanded a much higher price, up to $18 a pound. The most premium shiitake mushrooms are called white flower shiitake, and the forest-grown versions can sell for over $160 a pound. White flower shiitakes have noticeable white cracks on the caps and a strong flavor, but even just a few drops of rain can ruin them. Here's why forest-grown shiitake mushrooms are so expensive.

• Jensen Huang is becoming more of a household name as Nvidia's value skyrockets amid the AI boom.
• The CEO has some unusual management practices, including having 50 direct reports and no 1-on-1s.
• Here are some of Huang's most notable tips when it comes to business leadership and management.

Nvidia overtook Apple and Microsoft separately earlier this month to briefly become the world's most valuable company.

With the AI chip company's stock skyrocketing, Huang has also seen his fame — and fortune — grow, and there are plenty of eyes on him to see how he runs one of the world's biggest companies.

Here is some of Huang's most notable advice for leading teams and managing a business.

Manage a lot of people

Huang believes a CEO should have more direct reports than anyone else in an organization. He, in fact, has more than 50 direct reports, considered an unusually high number for any manager.

"The more direct reports the CEO has, the less layers are in the company," Huang said in an interview at The New York Times DealBook Summit in 2023. "It allows us to keep information fluid, allows us to make sure that everyone is empowered by information."

Management exists "in service of all the other people that work at the company," he said in a separate interview with Stanford's Graduate School of Business earlier this year.

"I don't believe in a culture, in an environment, where the information you possess is the reason why you have power," he said.

Skip the 1:1 meetings

Huang has said he doesn't have one-on-one meetings with his many direct reports.

"Almost everything that I say, I say to everybody all at the same time," he said at Stripe Sessions 2024. "I don't really believe there's any information that I operate on that somehow only one or two people should hear about."

Give feedback publicly

In the same vein, Huang also believes in giving someone feedback in front of their peers.

"The problem I have with one-on-ones and taking feedback aside is you deprive a whole bunch of people that same learning," he said at Stripe Sessions. "Feedback is learning. For what reason are you the only person who should learn this?"

He added the learning from other people's mistakes is "the best way to learn.

"Why learn from your own mistakes? Why learn from your own embarrassment? You've got to learn from other people's embarrassment," he said.

Communicate briefly and often

Nvidia employees can expect to receive a lot of emails from their chief executive. Huang sends his staff hundreds of emails a day, many of which are only a few words long, The New Yorker reported last year.

He expects employees to keep their email communications just as concise.

One former Nvidia worker told Business Insider's Jyoti Mann that "you'd get in trouble for sending a super-long email to him."

"The idea was to nail down what you have to say, send it, and if he, or others, need more information, then it's a conversation, not another email," the former Nvidian said.

Show your work

Huang believes showing others how you reason through a problem is "empowering."

"I show people how to reason through things all the time — strategy things, how to forecast something, how to break a problem down, and you're just empowering people all over the place," he said in the Stanford Graduate School of Business interview.

He continued: "If you send me something and you want my input on it and I can be of service to you and in my review of it, share with you how I reasoned through it, I've made a contribution to you. I've made it possible to see how I reason through something."

That can lead to a lightbulb moment.

"You go, 'Oh my gosh. That's how you reason through something like this. It's not as complicated as it seems.'"

• An economist has said, "AI won't take your job, it's somebody using AI that will take your job."
• AI seems to be a positive for many workers, but some roles are more at risk of replacement.
• Experts advise skilling up and leaning into soft human skills as AI becomes embedded in work life.

You may have heard a version of the phrase, "AI won't take your job, it's somebody using AI that will take your job."

Economist Richard Baldwin said the phrase at the 2023 World Economic Forum's Growth Summit, and variations of it have been mentioned since as people discuss the potential impacts of AI.

Baldwin told BI he wasn't sure if he coined the phrase, but the message is that AI won't replace humans, but it will give those who embrace it an advantage in the workforce.

In the 12 months since Baldwin shared his perspective, interest in artificial intelligence has only increased. A recent survey by consulting firm Bain & Company found that 85% of the companies surveyed said adopting AI was a top-five priority.

As companies ramp up their AI offerings and begin restructuring their workforce, many are revisiting the question of whether AI will be a job killer or an enhancer.

While it's still the early days of AI, we asked experts to weigh in. Should you be more worried about losing your job to a human using AI or to the AI itself?

Workers already see the benefit of AI at this stage

Baldwin said that AI is like a lawn mower or a power drill — it makes your job easier but it doesn't replace the human behind it. Other experts seemed to share a similar mindset that it's not advanced enough to function without direction, and for the most part, it helps people do better at their jobs.

Jasmine Escalera, a career coach at LiveCareer said incorporating AI can help automate repetitive tasks and "free up time to focus on upskilling."

Matt Betts, a research and development lead at leadership consulting firm RHR International, says it helps create efficiency so that consultants can focus on more impactful work, like interacting with the client.

Data has shown a similar trend that AI has helped many workers produce high-quality work in a shorter amount of time.

One study by MIT and Stanford from 2023 found that access to AI increased productivity by 14% on average, with a 34% impact on new or lower-skilled workers. A Morgan Stanley report indicated that workers with multiple income streams who used generative AI to increase their productivity made 21% more on average than those who didn't.

AI may also be helping people land jobs. Career service LiveCareer surveyed 1,150 US workers in March and found that 85% of job seekers save time using AI for writing applications and 40% think AI improves their grammar, writing, and vocabulary.

The loss of some jobs is inevitable

AI has already redefined a number of roles and even if it doesn't take all jobs, it's bound to replace some.

IBM used to have 800 people working in HR and now has 60 because it was able to automate repetitive tasks, according to the company's marketing chief.

Klarna seems to be following a similar trajectory. The company said in a blog post in February that its AI assistant was doing the work of "700 full-time agents" after pumping the brakes on hiring.

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati also weighed in on the topic at a Dartmouth event on June 8 and turned heads when she said some creative jobs may disappear, but those that could be replaced by AI "shouldn't have been there in the first place."

Carl Benedikt Frey, a director of future and work at Oxford University, said that transportation and logistics are most likely to see outright automation moving forward. He also said warehousing, manufacturing, receptionists, cashiers, and translators are also roles that are moving toward automation or semi-automation.

It's a good idea to skill up

A March Goldman Sachs report found over 300 million jobs around the world could be impacted by AI. But it's impossible to predict how exactly they will change.

Career coach Escalera said the best path forward is to lean into human soft skills while skilling up and "adopting a mindset of continuous learning." For some who are hiring, AI is becoming a prerequisite.

Tripadvisor cofounder Steve Kaufer said on "The Logan Bartlett Show" that he asked candidates during interviews if they tried out new AI chatbots. He said software engineers who didn't experiment with AI tools usually didn't get the job.

"I just don't understand it," Kaufer said. "And I probably don't want to work with that individual."

CEO of global event company Empire Entertainment, J.B. Miller, said it's an "essential new skill set," especially in an industry that involves improvising. He said it cuts down time and helps with generating ideas for set designs and talent sourcing. He asks all new hires what AI tools they use.

"There's no world where I could employ somebody who's like, I don't know how to use Excel or I don't know how to navigate the internet or do an internet search or something online like that," Miller said.

"I think that the same is true of some of these basic, AI tools," he added.

• Estonia could resist a Russian attack for two weeks before NATO support arrives, a top commander said.
• The Baltic states have ramped up their defense amid fears Russia's aggression could turn on them.
• Estonia shares a border with Russia. In 2024, its defense spending will be more than 3% of its GDP.

Estonia could resist a Russian attack for two weeks before NATO support came in, a top Estonian commander said.

The NATO country, which shares a land border with Russia, "would be able to resist an invasion for a couple of weeks," Colonel Mati Tikerpuu, the chief of one of Estonia's two army brigades, told El País.

He said this would be "long enough until allied reinforcements arrive."

Estonia, which has a population of just 1.4 million, says its defense spending in 2024 will be more than 3% of GDP — far beyond most NATO countries' contributions — amid deteriorating relations with Russia and alarm at the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

As a proportion of GDP, Estonia has also given Ukraine more military aid than any other country.

At the same time, American, British and French troops are a frequent presence at the training base Tikerpuu spoke from, some 10 miles from the border with Russia, the Spanish outlet reported — a sign of NATO's boosted approach to the region.

In an interview in February, Tikerpuu told ERR, Estonia's national broadcaster, that "nothing can be excluded" when it comes to preparing for a possible Russian attack.

The war in Ukraine has given Estonia something of a preview, which has helped it prepare its own forces' priorities, he told the outlet.

Drones and artillery would be central to any conflict, he said, noting that Russia still favors massed "meat wave" attacks over the expense of using its high-precision weapons.

Despite ramped-up military spending, Estonia's armed forces are limited; its army has no main battle tanks, and its single operational military air base, near Tallinn, has no combat aircraft.

In 2022, its defense department announced the purchase of six US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher systems, to be delivered this year.

A recent Estonian intelligence report estimated that Russia plans to station almost 40,000 troops near the border over the coming years, El País reported.

That figure dwarfs Estonia's own active-duty force of 4,200 troops — although it has just under 40,000 trained reservists, a product of the country's conscription policy.

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told Business Insider last year of her concern that Russia is "the most direct threat to European security right now."

In March, the US approved a $228 million defense aid package for Estonia and its neighbors Lithuania and Latvia, aimed at fast-tracking military infrastructure.

In February, the former Soviet states agreed to build a new bunker defense line along their collective 1,000-mile border with Russia, with reserve forces readied to deploy additional defenses such as mines and "dragon's teeth" anti-tank pyramids at short notice.

Estonia is also part of a six-country coalition building a "drone wall" protecting their borders, although few details of this have emerged.

The countries have warned of impending Russian hybrid attacks, attacks that disrupt but fall short of overt military action.

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

Welcome back! "The Bear," everyone's favorite kitchen dramedy, is back for its third season. We figured out how much the characters would actually get paid working at a restaurant in Chicago.

In today's big story, we're looking at how people are secretly outsourcing parts of their jobs, but job promotions are harder to get than ever.

What's on deck:

• Markets: The boring, under-the-radar stocks set to benefit from the AI boom.
• Tech: An expert explains how a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would impact the world's chip supply.
• Business: Coach bags have made a comeback. But can it last?

But first, strange times.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

Bizarro workplace

Let's be honest: Work has gotten really weird.

The workplace has been in a constant state of change since the onset of the pandemic. There was the great resignation and quiet quitting. Super commuters and the overemployed.

But now the workplace has reached its most (or least) evolved form: People paying others to do their job for them.

The use of "shadow stand-ins" — someone you outsource parts or all of your job to, unbeknownst to your employer — is on the rise, writes Business Insider's Rob Price.

Remote work, global social networks, and ubiquitous software tools mean workers can easily find low-paid helpers, often in India and Pakistan, to do their grunt work. Facebook and Telegram are home to thriving marketplaces for hiring this hidden labor.

Workers hiring shadow stand-ins can be unqualified for their jobs, overwhelmed, greedy, or just lazy. And they often have, shall we say, less-than-ideal views of their employers.

"For-profit corporations are government-sanctioned psychopaths, existing only to predatorily and parasitically earn profit," one disciple told Rob. "Corporations are owed no moral obligation whatsoever."

The irony is the shadow stand-in ecosystem operates similarly to the companies these outsourcers so despise. Shadow stand-ins are typically paid a fraction of the salary earned by the actual employee. One employee also described to Rob struggling to deal with a shadow stand-in's sub-par work and eventually "firing" them.

Meanwhile, the people who are doing all the work themselves are having a tough time getting any recognition.

The percentage of promotions being handed out continues to shrink as companies keep their belts tight amid high interest rates and uncertain economic conditions, writes BI's Aki Ito.

And don't bank on this just being part of a broader workplace cycle. Hard lessons were learned in 2023 when companies issued wave after wave of layoffs. They now seem desperate to avoid ballooning back up in size and salaries.

If promotions are out of the question, changing jobs has always been the best way to get a big salary bump.

But that's proving difficult too, as the hiring of high-salaried employees has slowed considerably. And even if you do find a job posting, there's a good chance it could be fake.

Ultimately, you're left working with colleagues who might not be working at all or are secretly on vacation. You and your boss probably don't trust each other, and you don't have work friends to commiserate with.

Oh, and don't forget the overarching fear of your job being replaced by AI at a moment's notice.

Like I said, work has gotten really weird.

News brief

Your Monday headline catchup

A quick recap of the top news from over the weekend:

• Biden's family is telling him to stay in the race even as calls to exit grow.
• The far-right has taken another step toward power in France's elections.
• Robert Kraft donates $1 million to Yeshiva University to help Jewish transfer students after axing support for Columbia University.
• Biden aide told top donors their cash would go to Harris if he quits: report.
• Boeing is buying Spirit Aero — which makes the door plug that flew off the Alaska Airlines flight — in a $4.7 billion deal.

3 things in markets

1. These boomers are all smiles in retirement. Plenty of Americans are worried about stretching their savings at the end of their life, but these boomers are sitting pretty. As the owners of rare pensions and with real estate and stock portfolios that have greatly appreciated over the years, it's the golden age of retirement.
2. No flash, but worth your cash. Construction, utility, and electrical companies in the data-center landscape are poised to be big winners from the AI boom. Traditionally viewed as a defensive and boring sector, data centers will play a key role in powering the AI models set to transform the world over the next decade.
3. Some retail traders won't stop betting on GameStop. After Roaring Kitty broke his silence last month, interest in GameStop stock has been revived. With its latest rally, many traders can't ignore the allure of striking it rich on the meme stock, they told BI, even after losing it big the first time around.

3 things in tech

1. Looking to integrate AI in your business? These consultants might be able to help. The generative AI boom has made businesses eager to implement the tech, but unsure where to begin. Here's what Bain, McKinsey, and others are telling clients.
2. What will happen to AI progress if China invades Taiwan? Major AI chip designers depend on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to make crucial components. But TSMC's location puts AI — and its future — in a tricky geopolitical position. BI spoke with "Chip War" author Chris Miller, who warns about what might happen to the world's chip supply in the event of an invasion.
3. Inside Netflix's two-CEO strategy. Netflix is the rare company with two CEOs, Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos. It's a risky setup — but so far it seems to be working. Peters explained how the big decisions get made.

3 things in business

1. How Coach turned its flop era into a slay. Though the designer's once-coveted handbags fell out of fashion in the 2010s, Coach's post-pandemic renaissance has been swift and fruitful. It's largely thanks to the brand's resonance with Gen Z.
2. Why your local pharmacy may be closing. Corner drugstores across the country are shuttering, with major retailers Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid shutting down hundreds of stores. A string of short- and long-term challenges are contributing to their contraction.
3. The weird, wild world of the US housing market. Real estate is defying an Econ-101 principle: the law of supply and demand. Demand is at a four-month low, supply is at a four-year high, and prices are at unprecedented heights. "It's a real head-scratcher," economist David Rosenberg said.

In other news

• The tricks psychics use to part us from our money tell us a lot about America's spending habits.
• 11 VC firms funding the next phase of the creator economy, from AI-powered tools to e-commerce startups.
• Ultra-high-net-worth investors are betting on 2 key sectors right now, and both can be purchased as ETFs, according to a global family office.
• Why ESPN's sports-betting app is falling behind — and how it could make a comeback.
• How Glossier's viral perfume saved the brand from the millennial dustbin.

What's happening today

• Supreme Court is expected to rule on Donald Trump's immunity from criminal prosecution for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
• Wimbledon begins.

The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Grace Lett, associate editor, in Chicago. Annie Smith, associate producer, in London. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.