• Victoria Dobbie plans to leave her dream job at TikTok so she can travel the world.
• Knowing she has decades of work ahead of her, Dobbie doesn't want to miss out on adventures.
• This is the fourth installment of a four-part personal essay series, Quitting Without Regret.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Victoria Dobbie, 30, who works in ad sales at TikTok and lives in Munich. She has given notice that she plans to leave her job in December, so she can travel the world for at least six months. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

My decision to quit my job and go traveling came from a realization that, most probably, we're all going to be working until we're 65, 70. I never took a gap year, as is commonly done in Europe, because I was so ambitious. I wanted to get out of uni, do my first internship, and first grad program.

I'm now 30. I'm single. I don't have kids, and I don't have a mortgage. The idea of having to work for the next 30, potentially 40 years, without a longer break is somewhat daunting. So, I thought, "Why don't I take off six months, maybe a year, if finances allow, to do something I've always wanted to do?"

Two ex-colleagues did that before me. I remember thinking, "Risky, but so damn cool." Work is important, and earning money is important, but isn't living, as well?

My situation is probably quite unique in that most people take a sabbatical or a career break when they're either burned out or they're frustrated in their jobs. I'm in a fortunate position where I've had my dream job for the last four years, and TikTok has treated me very well.

I have loved my colleagues and my bosses and feel very valued. So that makes it potentially even crazier because a lot of people haven't found what they want to do, or haven't got their dream job, particularly with the job market being challenging. I don't know if this is just blind confidence in my abilities to get a job later.

An emotional decision

I've been thinking about it for at least a year, if not longer. I gave my notice around August. In Germany, notice periods are quite a bit longer than elsewhere. I wanted to spend Christmas with my family in London, and then the plan is to go off in January.

I'm selling my furniture — most everything worldly that I own. Then, I'm moving back to my parents' at the age of 30, which was definitely not on my bingo card when I was a child.

The realization that I'm going to be leaving the country that I've called home for the past seven years is quite sobering and emotional. I moved to Germany after I graduated. Basically, I've become an adult here. Giving up my apartment, my friendship group, and a job I've identified with very closely is painful. It's like a breakup in some ways.

Finances were a big thing for me. How was I going to get the money together to take six months off and have an emergency fund? I've had to give up a part of what I would have put down on a house or an apartment to do this. I sold off some of my investment fund just to have it in the bank.

A 30-year-old barista

I've lived in a few different places. I've spent time in Brazil, I did a semester in Italy, and then in Germany. So, I've had to go through that experience a few times of having to say goodbye to a place. Probably because of that, it's given me the confidence to know that better things are to come. Maybe I'll find a place I fall in love with and stay there. I'm open to the opportunities.

My first destination is New Zealand — going as far away as possible. I'm a big hiker, and there is a lot of hiking to do there. I've got an idea of maybe going to Australia, Southeast Asia, and maybe to Japan and Nepal. I want to do very adventure-y things like surfing, horseback riding, climbing, and mountaineering. I'll base the countries on the activities that I want to do.

I'm thinking about doing some freelance consultant work while on the road. The idea is not to be a digital nomad. I want to actually be enjoying my time. But if I can have some money coming in, that would be good.

If it's not successful, I might not be able to continue traveling for a whole year. I could dip into my savings, but that might be painful. I'll probably start looking for jobs after three or four months. Maybe I should be more scared than I am. I might be a 30-year-old barista, and that's absolutely fine. I worked as a waitress all through high school and university and loved it.

Rose-tinted glasses

I think traveling will be quite an adjustment for me, because I've never not had a goal. I've always had an exam coming up, or I have to go back to work. I think it might take me a while mentally to adjust to not being productive all the time.

I think there will come a point where I will look back with sort of these rose-tinted glasses on my time at TikTok. The amazing times I had, the business travel I did, and the colleagues I got on so well with.

I just felt compelled by this realization that we don't have forever on this planet to go out there. I'm in a privileged position to be able to do this, but this is something that I'll take to my deathbed. If it means giving up my dream job, then it means giving up my dream job.

Do you have a story to share about your career? Contact this reporter at tparadis@businessinsider.com.

• I've been on dozens of trips with my kid and have never liked the cheap souvenirs they ask for.
• Now I put that money toward something way more memorable: local cooking classes.
• The unique classes offer wonderful experiences and provide us with recipes to make back home.

I've traveled to dozens of countries with my children and criss-crossed the United States, taking them along for the ride. I like to think that photos and our memories are the only mementos we need to commemorate our trips. However, my kids disagree.

Despite my best efforts, we picked up a lot of junk during our early trips. We came home with stuffed animals that my kids promptly tossed in a pile and never thought about again. We bought an endless number of keychains that fell off my children's backpacks within days and novelty t-shirts emblazoned with UK flags or seashells from the Bahamas that my kids absolutely had to have, but found embarrassing to wear once we returned home.

I was tired of spending money on souvenirs that made my children, ever so briefly, happy in the moment but ultimately created clutter and stress. Eventually, I found a solution. Now, there is one souvenir I look forward to getting on every trip that takes up no space in my suitcase: a recipe for a favorite local dish.

Reining in our souvenir purchases left us with more time and money for experiences

At first, my kids were disappointed when I started saying "no" to their requests for souvenirs. To my children's dismay, many snow globes and miniature replicas of iconic buildings like the Eiffel Tower were left behind on store shelves.

Slowly, my children came to accept that we would no longer buy these trinkets, and we stopped lingering at the gift shop at every attraction we visited. The time and money we saved allowed us to focus more on experiences while traveling.

My family discovered a love of cooking classes

Although I had nixed cheap souvenirs, I still wanted my kids to have something to help them remember their trip, besides photos. I decided to lean into experiences. I wanted them to have something that would bring them back to adventures together in ways plastic trinkets never could. One of the new experiences we tried was cooking classes abroad.

I am, admittedly, not the best in the kitchen. However, my children love to cook and will gladly whip up a batch of cookies or baked pasta with minimal supervision. When we went to Rome, my pizza-obsessed son wanted nothing more than to take a class to learn how to make authentic pies in the very country where his favorite food was invented.

I wasn't sure my kids would have the stamina to make it through the class. However, they did great and we had a lot of fun. We learned more than I expected about Italian cooking and culture, and enjoyed eating our freshly baked homemade pizza after the class was over.

Even better, we left with a great recipe for authentic Neapolitan pizza, which turned out to be our favorite souvenir of all time. Now, my kids ask to take a cooking class wherever we go.

The recipes we collect from cooking classes are our favorite souvenirs

Since our first cooking class in Rome, we have taken classes in Petra, Jordan, and Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan. Each time, we spend a few hours with a local chef learning about life in the area we are visiting and its food traditions.

We always get great tips about local hidden gems and the best restaurants that don't make the guidebooks. Plus, there is always a delicious meal we made with our own hands at the end.

The classes are often in unique locations

In Tokyo, my children and I wandered down alleys until we found the small kitchen marked by a red lantern, where we had our class. We laughed as we stomped on the dough we had kneaded to perfection, flattening it enough to roll into noodles. My son took it as a point of pride that he was selected to assemble the final bowls of ramen.

In Kyoto, we visited a chef's home to learn how to prepare all the ingredients that go into a traditional bento box. My children poked fun at my inability to cut my sushi rolls into evenly spaced pieces, yet again proving their superiority in the kitchen.

In Petra, we visited a local restaurant to learn how to prepare a feast of Jordanian specialties, including salads and traditional lentil and rice dishes.

The cooking classes we take aren't only fun and educational, they are also the source of our favorite and most used souvenirs. At the end of each cooking class, we walk away with recipes for the dishes we cooked, from ramen to falafel. These recipes have become more than instructions for assembling dinner. They are memories we can literally feel and taste, ones that can take us back, instantly, to some of our favorite times, and they are far more valuable than any t-shirt.

• E-commerce entrepreneurs are using live selling platforms to grow their businesses.
• Live selling requires minimal equipment. Many top sellers got started with their phones.
• The key to retaining viewers is engaging with them and building an online community.

E-commerce entrepreneurs are experimenting with app-based live selling — the new-age QVC, if you will — and some of them, through charisma, charm, and an ability to connect with buyers in real time, are moving heaps of product.

You don't need a lot of money or equipment to hop on the trend. Most live sellers Business Insider spoke with started streaming from their home offices or basements with an iPhone.

However, you do need to tap into your extroversion.

"You've got to talk to people," said Clinton Benninghoff, who started streaming on the auction-based platform Whatnot in 2024. His gift of gab made up for a lack of understanding of nearly everything in the live selling space.

"I had no idea what I was doing. That first day, I think I was live for like 20 minutes. I sold a putter, and everybody in my stream was actually telling me how to stream."

He's been working at a Midland-based golf apparel and equipment store, Golf Headquarters, since 2011. Going live on Whatnot has "drastically changed our business," he said. According to a screenshot of his seller dashboard, The GHQ Crew has brought in more than $1 million in 2025 from Whatnot.

Benninghoff and other top sellers explained how any e-commerce entrepreneur can incorporate live selling into their sales strategy in two steps.

1. Start with what you already have and put in sweat equity

Since the stakes are relatively low, don't overthink the production quality. Sign up for Whatnot, TikTok Shop, Palmstreet, or any other live selling platform — note that you'll have to apply to sell, and different platforms may have different seller criteria — and commit to learning as you go.

"Everything doesn't have to be perfect," said Casey Wehr, who started selling sports cards out of his home office with his two sons in late 2023. "The time we said, 'let's do it,' to the time that we turned on the first show was probably a week."

Over the last two years, their store, Krunk Cards, has generated millions in sales, and Wehr has hired a team of five, including one employee whose sole responsibility is to procure inventory.

Don't expect to make millions right away. Val Zapata, who turned her sneaker-collecting hobby into a seven-figure business through live selling, described her first Whatnot show as "mayhem."

"I made like 50 bucks. I was probably negative after the boxes," she added.

The more you go live, the more opportunities you have to make sales and the better you'll get at engaging with viewers.

Initially, Zapata hosted daily shows from her childhood home, where she was living at the time, for multiple hours at a time.

"I would wake up so fried from eight or nine hours of really high-intense energy, because we bring the show," said Zapata, whose setup consisted of an iPad and a $15 desk ring light. Her backdrop was a couple of racks of sneakers.

2. Engage with your viewers and build a community

Your product is important. That's e-commerce 101.

"You want to make sure that you have the inventory that generates the excitement and demand for viewers to want to bid," said Wehr, who carefully follows the trends in the sports card industry and pays attention to which athletes are performing well.

But a good product can only get you so far in the live selling space.

"To have a big viewership and a big community, you've got to engage with those people," said Benninghoff. "You've got to make them feel like they are family — not just a person buying items from you."

Benninghoff has found success by simply being the same person on camera as he is in real life.

"The biggest thing I've learned is to just be myself," he said. "Because people respect you if you're transparent and honest with them."

• Thrive Capital partner Philip Clark said that AI is augmenting engineering jobs — not substituting them.
• Clark said that he couldn't think of one company he'd invested in that "laid off engineers because of these tools."
• "You can actually make everyone the 10x or proverbial 100x engineer in a really exciting way," he said on "Sourcery."

AI code editors are radically changing the job of a software engineer — but not eliminating jobs entirely, a Thrive Capital investor says.

Philip Clark has witnessed the rise of vibe coding tools firsthand. At Thrive Capital, he's worked on the firm's investments in OpenAI — which debuted its Codex AI coding tool in May — as well as Cursor. In September, Clark was promoted to partner.

Clark was optimistic about the future of engineering jobs during a recent interview on the "Sourcery" podcast.

"I'm an investor in a lot of companies that use AI tools," he said. "I cannot think — especially on the coding side and engineering side — of a single one that has laid off engineers because of these tools."

Clark said that companies in his investment portfolio might be able to "grow without adding quite as much headcount," but that job elimination was not happening.

"Will there be some turnover in economic centers?" he said. "Of course, there always is. But it's actually been much more of an augmenting technology than a substituting technology."

There has yet to be substantive data about AI-related engineering cuts. Hiring appears to be down — software engineer job postings on Indeed recently hit a five-year low — but it's challenging to pinpoint the exact cause.

Gen Z may be the most worried about these AI tools. 62% of college seniors familiar with them told Handshake that they were worried about their job prospects. Some Gen Z engineers have faced fewer entry-level openings and less training when they start their jobs.

AI tools also have their advantages, including productivity gains and unlocked opportunities.

"You can actually make everyone the 10x or proverbial 100x engineer in a really exciting way," Clark said.

The "100x engineer" — as in, a 10x multiple of an engineer who is already ten times more productive than the average engineer — is a new term among tech circles. Surge CEO Edwin Chen said that AI tools were creating 100x engineers, which helped build the "$1 billion single-person company."

Clark remained optimistic that AI would replace menial work. He listed some areas of research that, because of AI gains, humans could more meaningfully pursue: oncology, sustainable mining, and space habitation.

"The beauty of AI is that we're going to be able to reallocate a bunch of human brainpower, firepower, creativity to these most important problems," he said.

That brainpower can move away from work that is "not the highest marginal use of humanity's creative and intelligence potential."

• Non-surgical cosmetic procedures or 'tweakments' are growing in popularity.
• Sonal Chavda-Sitaram, a pharmacist with a Ph.D, said she would only do one type of tweakement.
• Microneedling is FDA-approved for treating acne scars and lessening wrinkles.

From CO2 laser skin resurfacing to platelet-rich plasma therapy, there are countless "tweakments" that promise to make your skin look flawless.

But Sonal Chavda-Sitaram, a pharmacist with a Ph.D in topical and transdermal drug delivery, told Business Insider there's one she recommends above the rest: microneedling.

For the uninitiated, tweakements are non-surgical cosmetic procedures, like fillers or laser treatments. The number performed worldwide grew by nearly 2 million between 2017 and 2020. The number of dermal filler procedures and body procedures is expected to hit 23 million and 14.6 million, respectively, by the end of 2025, according to Allergan Aesthetics, one of the leading providers of Botox.

Chavda-Sitaram, 43, who believes the most important part of skincare is leading a healthy lifestyle, said: "There are lots of new trendy procedures, but for me, microneedling is probably the one that I find is most effective and makes sense in terms of the science behind what you're doing. "

She has had microneedling twice, but would do it more often if she had the time.

Microneedling stimulates collagen production

Microneedling involves puncturing the skin with tiny needles to make micro-injuries. When the body responds by healing the holes, it produces collagen, the primary building block of skin that we naturally make less of as we age. This can lead to smoother, tighter-looking, and more even-toned skin.

The skin barrier, the outermost layer that keeps toxins and bacteria out of the body, is very good at its job, Chavda-Sitaram said. So most skincare products don't reach the deeper layers. But, by creating "micro-channels" in the dermis, which lies beneath the skin barrier, products can be absorbed more deeply, she said.

Microneedling is generally considered safe and effective, and has been cleared by the FDA for use as a treatment to improve the appearance of facial acne scars, wrinkles, and abdominal scars in people aged 22 and above. The skin might be red, swollen, and feel tight or dry after treatment, but this usually resolves itself within a few days.

Chavda-Sitaram tried microneedling in preparation for a big event, but depending on your goals, you might need multiple sessions over weeks or months to see results.

An inside-out approach

Facial treatments can be incredibly effective, Chavda-Sitaram said, but they work best when the skin is already optimized from within. Eating a balanced diet, getting enough sleep and exercise, as well as managing stress, are all important for skin health.

"When you undertake these invasive procedures, you're essentially damaging your tissue and then waiting for it to heal and rebuild," she said. "If your skin doesn't have the necessary building blocks, these treatments are just going to be very expensive and not as effective."

"I'm not anti-procedure at all, but I am pro-foundation," Chavda-Sitaram said.

• "Learning with Lyrics" is a surprise hit on Reels and TikTok.
• It features AI-generated songs about how things are made.
• A 21-year-old college student in California created the account, which uses Taylor Swift-sounding songs.

Have you ever wondered why manhole covers are round instead of square? Or who invented the steamroller? Or why giant steel coils are transported on their sides instead of flat?

Sure, you can do a simple Google search to find out. But what you really might need is a video set to an AI-generated song that sounds like Taylor Swift if she went through a messy breakup with construction equipment.

This is Learning with Lyrics, which has an Instagram account with 900,000 followers and a TikTok account with 548,000 followers. I kept coming across these videos, so I did some investigating: I was surprised to find that a 21-year-old marketing major at California State University in Long Beach was behind the account.

It's an illustration of what someone with an idea and access to off-the-shelf AI tools can make these days. It's pretty fascinating.

"I've always been someone who's curious about stuff," Cashen Tomlinson told me about his inspiration for starting the channels, which launched in September. Tomlinson said he loved videos about how things were made, and came up with the idea to make some of his own, setting them to songs.

Tomlinson comes up with the ideas for the subjects of the videos: like how vending machines detect fake coins, how Post-it Notes work, or what causes airplane contrails. Then, he gets to work — with AI at his side.

"I use AI to generate a detailed research brief on the topic at hand, then I personally verify everything to ensure my facts are 100% correct," he said.

Then, that's where the catchy songs come in. He instructs Google's Gemini to create a rough draft of the lyrics. "The real work during the lyrics creation is the polish, where I rewrite all the hooks, simplify or reword complex terms, reduce wordiness and increase clarity, ensure the outro is memorable, etc.," he said.

Tomlinson then uses the AI music generator tool Suno to produce a song — often the same melody for different videos, with the sound of an AI-generated female vocalist.

For the visuals, he uses a mix of stock footage, his own custom animations, and video clips he generates with AI tools like Veo or Sora.

And yes, the girl in the profile image for the @LearningwithLyrics social accounts is also AI-generated.

Tomlinson told me it usually takes him two or three hours to make the song, and about 5 hours total for each video. So far, he says he's made a few thousand dollars through the TikTok creator rewards program, which was thrilling for a college kid.

While it may seem, at first glance, that these videos are aimed at children, Tomlinson says his main audience is 25-to 35-year-olds.

The comment sections show a devotion to the catchy songs. Some samples: "This is my favorite Taylor Swift song" (of course, it's not her), and "How do I download this to my phone and listen to it on repeat forever?"

It's hard to describe exactly what's so fun about these videos. Sure, they're catchy, and "How it's made" videos have always had an appeal. But there's something about the AI voice that takes it to a level where you can't totally tell if it's ironic or not.

Tomlinson doesn't think of this as brainrot, however. "I think the reason you might call it [brainrot] is because it's so captivating and you can't really look away from it," he said. "But I think it's kind of good that these videos are something you can't look away from, because it's something that's actually teaching you something interesting."

• Navier is developing hydrofoil boats with the hopes of revolutionizing transportation.
• Founder Sampriti Bhattacharyya's work at MIT inspired her focus on maritime.
• Navier's energy-efficient vessels target commercial and military markets.

Some imagined we'd have flying cars by 2025. Sampriti Bhattacharyya is betting that vision will be closer to the water. Bhattacharyya's Bay Area startup, Navier, is building hybrid-electric boats that glide above the water, vessels that she believes could not only change commercial transportation, but also military use.

"Why don't we have boats at scale that are, like, Uber on the water?" she said in an interview with Business Insider. "If you can move things on the water at the cost, speed, and convenience of land and air, you can build large networks of transportation."

Bhattacharyya's interest in maritime — which she sees as a "trillion dollar opportunity" — stemmed from her PhD at MIT, where she worked on underwater drones.

Unlike standard boats, Navier's hybrid-electric vessels, which the company constructs end-to—end, have underwater wings that lift the hull out of the water. Bhattacharyya says the hydrofoiling technique consumes 90% less energy than its traditional gas counterpart and creates a stable glide even in the choppiest of conditions, eliminating seasickness. And her company's hybrid-electric boats are ten times cheaper to operate, she added.

'Build machines to understand the universe'

Born and raised in India, Bhattacharyya first immigrated to the US at around 20 years old for an internship at Fermilab, the particle physics research lab outside Chicago. There, she discovered her interest in building " machines to understand the universe, mostly, and, you know — the planets, the universe, and all of that."

Bhattacharyya was then awarded a Department of Energy scholarship and a master's in aerospace engineering from Ohio State University. While completing her degree, she interned at NASA, where she worked on flight-control algorithms and contributed to research on a subcritical nuclear reactor. That work earned her a spot in MIT's mechanical engineering PhD program, where Bhattacharyya "started actually working on not designing reactors, but on robots for monitoring boiling water reactors," she said.

Her academic focus shifted in 2014, when Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared. "That was a turning point," she said. "How can we not find an airplane?"

During her PhD, she began building some of the first stealth underwater drones — systems capable of ocean mapping, reconnaissance, pipeline inspection, and other critical functions, Bhattacharyya said.

The work also sparked a key question: "Why do you have to push water if you can glide above?"

'A high-speed boat that goes from Redwood City to Berkeley'

In late October, Navier announced three hybrid-electric boats, all of which the company builds end-to-end: 30-foot, 80-foot, and 120-foot vessels. The company says each will last for thousands of nautical miles on a single charge, since Navier believes gliding above the water increases its boats' fuel efficiency.

"Why don't we have a high-speed boat that goes from Redwood City to Berkeley?" she asked, adding that on one of her boats, "It will take you 20 minutes, rather than one and a half hours."

The startup isn't alone in its pursuit of more efficient vessels: Vessev, a startup based in New Zealand, and Candela, based in Stockholm, also make hydrofoil, electric boats.

Navier's announcement unveiling its bigger boats comes as top military brass have signaled a strong desire to procure tech from startups. Navier already works with the Navy and Defense Department, Bhattacharyya said, which adds Navier to the ever-growing list of dual-use startups — or ones that work with both commercial and government clients.

"You need vessels with a long range because you want to be in the Red Sea, in the South China Sea, and go long distances and have less fueling time," she added.

Bhattacharyya is vivified by her company's defense applications: "I came from pretty much nothing," she said. "To be able to do and build something that can fundamentally change how people will interact with the world is a huge blessing."

• Google marketing VP Adrienne Lofton spoke with Business Insider about the market for AI devices.
• Lofton says that some AI devices are advancing faster than consumer demand.
• She shared how her team internally uses Google's AI for their devices marketing strategy.

Before joining Google, Adrienne Lofton, Google's global vice president of marketing for Pixel and other devices, confessed to being a "lifelong" iPhone user.

Now, while the search giant's Pixel phone has a long way to catch up to Apple's iPhone, Lofton says it may stand a chance of becoming the AI device.

In October, I interviewed Lofton, who was really understanding when I reached for my iPhone to take notes during our chat. She talked about how her team uses Google AI products to shave months off the company's marketing strategy and how she thinks about positioning AI capabilities to consumers.

We also talked about new products like the Friend pendant, how ready the market is for AI, and what convinced her to make the switch to Pixel.

This Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.

Business Insider: Can you speak to Google's marketing considerations for presenting its AI tools against the backdrop of organizations questioning the costs and productivity gains from using AI?

Adrienne Lofton: On the consumer side, one of the things we talk about from a Gemini perspective is the fact that it is easily integrated into our Google Suite, which we think is our biggest differentiator.

We always lean into the ability to supercharge productivity as well as creativity, and being able to do that 10-fold if you compare it to the competitors in the marketplace, because we have an integrated stack.

So, you can use Gemini in Gmail, in Photos, and all the apps you already know and love, and the other piece that we talk a lot about for the consumer is that Gemini is just a more intuitive product that's easier to use.

Every competitor right now is screaming generative AI from the mountaintops. If you look at consumer data, not enterprise data, 50% of consumers are adopting, while 50% remain quite skeptical.

What we continue to push on is making sure there's a clear consumer benefit that you can see and trial exactly what it can do for you.

Given all the innovation happening within Pixel, from its camera to Gemini integrations, what do you make of new AI-first devices like the Friend pendant, which offer a new form-function beyond a phone, laptop, or tablet? Or the yet-to-come "family of devices" OpenAI has mentioned?

A consumer wants to communicate, and so I do think there's something interesting about our industry leaping 10 steps ahead of where our consumer is. In all of the research that we're seeing, back to that 50% adopting, 50% rejecting is because, in some ways, the industry is forcing AI into consumers' hands.

With Pixel, we're running on a Google stack; it is our tensor chip that enables our software and our AI to perform better and faster. But that is not how we're telling the story, and consumers are not yet asking any brand for it.

What we want to do is stay at the forefront to ensure that customers know, for example, if they're using Camera Coach, that it is actually powered by our Gemini model. All Camera Coach does for you is help you take a better shot. So, we're not overindexing on the AI story of what powers Camera Coach, but we are making sure consumers know that our technology allows you to do things easier, faster, and better.

We also know that people are buying devices for these top five reasons: hardware, form factor, brand, price, and the operating system. If we don't overdeliver on those particular specs that's driving the buy, then AI will be meaningless.

So it's what's inside that counts!

Exactly! And it's been an interesting education with the consumer, because if you start to look at their recall, what comes back for Google Pixel, every time is, "man, that camera's cool."

But, inside that camera is Auto Best Take, which allows you to add someone else to a photo and even crop that person into the photo. That's Gemini-powered. We're not talking about the power of Gemini; we're talking about everybody deserves to be in the photo; you don't just have to take a selfie.

The way we think about hardware, software, and AI as a stack is critically important. Not necessarily leading with an AI conversation, but what it does for you.

How are you fighting to keep exploring big non-AI ideas when Google is so focused on AI?

With the devices team, it is a very interesting proposition that we offer as the only hardware division inside Google, which is a software-first company.

Within Google Pixel, and I would include FitBit in that as well as our home devices, we remind ourselves that the reason for being for our products in today's consumer mindset is the hardware, the software, battery life, and the basic fundamentals of what it takes to drive a best-in-class device.

It takes about a year to make a phone, and that phone is going to hit a shelf no matter what, and so we harness the right AI features and stories that we want to bring into our devices. It's quite a magical process, but making sure that we never forget that these things are two parts equally important, versus software and AI always leading, you've got to have beautiful hardware. You cannot miss a beat.

To go in a different direction, the race to secure top talent is reaching new heights; you've seen the multimillion-dollar pay packages. What is most important when recruiting for AI talent?

What you're seeing from Google is we're getting the best talent in the world bar none across every subfunctional area of expertise, whether we're talking engineers, product management, product marketing, all the way through to creativity, And first of all, before the AI race, the qualifications that it takes to get into Google, the bar is extreemly high, so that has not changed.

In marketing, we seek curious, AI-first thinkers. By AI-first, I mean the way of making has completely broken itself and rebuilt itself overnight.

You would write a brief on paper, you would storyboard an idea and a concept, and you would then go shoot a mock to make sure it actually works. Right now, if you have a thought of a brief, you could put that into Gemini Live. It will triangulate that brief with the insights we're seeing in the social sphere, what we're hearing from YouTube, and what we're seeing from our insights team.

I always write a brief, and I ask, "What would a cynical consumer say?" and it tells me a story that I might not have thought about. What's interesting about the kind of talent we need is that it has to be a curious talent that isn't afraid of AI, but instead harnesses it to create better outputs and outcomes for the organization.

We're using Veo 3, our own product, to shoot every concept before we go to market. We literally have shaved 15 weeks off the go-to-market process because we know how to harness our own Google tools. But we have people on our side of the fence that actually want to lean in, and you know, there's a lot of trial, there's a lot of error, a lot of teaching the model on how we want to think about the world.

However, this is a once-in-a-generation moment where we are shaping the future tools.

What else should people know about your team at Pixel?

The Google Pixel team is extremely bullish and excited to bring our new products to market.

Whether it's through creativity, products like Nano Banana — that broke the App Store because it's been so well-received — all the way through to everyday productivity tools, we're seeing our consumers lean in and understand how to harness our devices in ways they cannot with our competitors.

As I always tell our team, as a challenger, we are the underdog in this game, but it's the best place to be in order to punch above our weight, show consumers what's possible.

It's not lost on me that I'm taking notes on this interview on an iPhone, but maybe next time it will be a Pixel!

It's OK! If it had been a Pixel, it would have intuitively picked up what was coming next. It's funny; before I came to Google, I was a lifetime Apple user. Marketers normally are.

When you come in and then switch OSs over to Pixel, you first notice the camera and the video quality. You're also a content creator, so you will want a Pixel.

That whole agentic space we're headed into is always best done on a premium Android device, and most specifically, I'd say within a Pixel.

• Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to over 11 years in prison for defrauding investors.
• Prison records show the ex-CEO has had nearly three years shaved off her sentence.
• Holmes' projected prison release date is now December 30, 2031.

Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has had roughly three years shaved off her prison sentence for defrauding investors in her failed blood-testing startup, Business Insider has learned.

Holmes reported to a cushy minimum-security women's prison camp in Texas on May 30, 2023, after the former CEO was sentenced in 2022 to 11 years and three months behind bars.

Now online records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons show Holmes' projected release date to be December 30, 2031. That means if nothing changes, Holmes would be set free two years and eight months early.

Attorneys for Holmes did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, nor did the BOP.

A BOP spokesperson has previously told Business Insider that release dates are calculated by considering projected "good conduct time." Qualified inmates are eligible to earn 54 days of good conduct time for each year of their sentence, according to the BOP.

In January 2022, following a nearly four-month trial, Holmes was convicted of four federal counts of conspiracy and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to dupe investors in Theranos out of hundreds of millions.

Holmes had repeatedly claimed that her now-defunct Silicon Valley biotech startup, once valued at $9 billion, had developed a revolutionary blood analyzer capable of testing for hundreds of diseases and conditions using only a few drops of blood from a finger.

Earlier this year, a US appeals court upheld Holmes' conviction, as well as the fraud conviction of her ex-boyfriend and Theranos' former president, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani.

BOP records show that Balwani, who was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison, also has had his sentence reduced by almost three years. Balwani's projected release date is now April 21, 2033, according to those records.

His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While Balwani is incarcerated at a minimum-security prison camp in California, Holmes is spending her time at Federal Prison Camp Bryan — a facility about 100 miles from Houston, where she grew up — alongside Ghislaine Maxwell and former "Real Housewives" star Jen Shah.

Holmes told People magazine earlier this year in her first interview from behind bars that her prison routine includes waking up just after 5 a.m., having fruit for breakfast, and working out for 40 minutes.

"I truly did not think I would ever be convicted or found guilty," she told the magazine at the time, adding, "I refused to plead guilty to crimes I did not commit. Theranos failed. But failure is not fraud."

The public downfall of Theranos began in 2015 after a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed the firm was using third-party blood-testing machines because its own couldn't provide accurate results.

Meanwhile, Holmes' X account has been consistently posting, sometimes cryptic, messages in recent months.

"Never left. Just was silenced," read an August post.

It's unclear who is behind the account.

When a woman in her 80s rang up my $2 bottle of water at a grocery store in San Francisco, she couldn't have known I was right in the middle of a work project that had already changed my life.

The two-minute exchange at the cash register came in the middle of a yearlong reporting effort. I had wanted to find out why so many people 80 and older work long past retirement age.

Along the way, I found out a lot about myself, too.

That day at the grocery store, other customers waited impatiently behind me, so our conversation was brief. She told me she was working because costs everywhere were rising so quickly. As I walked out the door, she said something that stuck with me. It only strengthened my resolve to keep writing:

No one ever wants to know about us, she said.

I did. And over the past year, I've written more than a dozen feature stories for my "80-over-80" series for Business Insider. It became apparent during my reporting that older people were accustomed to being ignored — by employers, by their families, and by researchers. So many wanted to tell their stories that the project outgrew its name: I've spoken to nearly 200 of America's over-80 workers.

They're part of a group that's the fastest-growing segment of the labor force: Americans 75 and older are twice as likely to be in the workforce now as they were in the early 1990s, and the trend is expected to continue growing as pensions weaken and Social Security is projected to be depleted. As of 2023, nearly 550,000 people were working into their 80s and beyond, according to our analysis of Census data — more than 4% of the population over 80.

As a 24-year-old journalist wanting to cover these older workers, I heard, "You won't understand" or "You're too young." The more I wrote, the more people I found who would speak candidly — because someone was finally listening.

The people who shared their stories and expertise trusted a reporter two years out of college. They discussed their finances, anxieties, health conditions, and life outlooks. The conversations made me rethink how I speak about aging. I found myself trying to learn more about the older people I encounter daily, and I've called out friends who used ageist language or shared myths about older Americans.

Many of the older people I spoke with described themselves as hardworking and dedicated despite health challenges, and they wished they were more respected for their contributions.

For the 80-over-80 series, I:

• Spoke with workers in 44 states across dozens of professions and verified their employment and financial details.
• Met workers in person in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.
• Interviewed 75 members of Congress, professors, researchers, doctors, lawyers, and anti-ageism advocates.
• Verified details with over 50 family members, friends, and colleagues of sources I interviewed.
• Read through hundreds of Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports, hundreds of pages of age discrimination and workplace compensation lawsuits, and dozens of studies on aging at work.
• Contacted more than 70 companies about their policies and initiatives and dug through hundreds of earnings calls and SEC filings.
• Analyzed thousands of rows of Census Bureau data to pinpoint professions, financial situations, and geographies of these workers.
• Featured 28 original photographs of these workers and highlighted four of them in a short documentary.

I'll soon travel to Japan for more than a week with friends, where I'll be eager to compare the stories of older Japanese workers to those of their counterparts in the US.

The aging US workforce is something that economy-watchers say we need to be studying, especially since 57% of labor force growth is expected to come from workers 65 and older through 2032, according to Pew Research Center.

"I believe that the most extraordinary new territory in human civilization is not AI or climate, which are very serious issues," said Ken Dychtwald, cofounder of the think tank Age Wave. "It's global aging. It's the frontier."

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Rethinking the goal of retiring at 65

Before covering older Americans, I focused on the FIRE movement (financial independence, retire early). People I spoke to had saved enough to retire or pivot from a 9-to-5 in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.

For the 80-over-80 project, I expected to hear overwhelming regret and bitterness from those working decades past retirement age. I found the opposite.

Nearly 550,000 Americans in the Silent Generation, born between 1928 and 1945, are still working, according to my analysis of Census Bureau data. They're concentrated in education, construction, religious services, real estate, and law, but thousands also work as retail salespeople, truck drivers, personal care aides, and janitors. Women, who are more likely to work past 80, told me their husbands had been the breadwinners but didn't live long enough to support them forever.

The reasons for working were as diverse as the people. I interviewed people worth millions of dollars on the same day I talked to people with six-figure debt — some whose savings were wiped out by the 2008 financial crisis, faced a painful divorce, or had unexpected medical bills. I interviewed people who loved working, and people who wept about their fading dream of retirement.

People largely fell into two groups: seniors who needed to work to pay the bills (who made up the majority of my interviews), and those who worked simply because they liked to.

"I'm working because I have to. I don't want to," said Rebecca Reed, 87, who earns $12 an hour as a church secretary in New Orleans and as an editorial assistant. "I'm the only one still working in my family."

While most said Social Security helps, it's primarily a supplement, since cost-of-living adjustments haven't kept up with inflation for major budget items like housing and healthcare. In addition, the Silent Generation was caught in the middle of the generational shift away from lifelong monthly pension checks to self-guided retirement instruments like 401(k)s, putting more of the financial planning responsibility on them.

The overwhelming majority of workers I talked to weren't working solely for the money. Many found retirement overrated and described their passion for continuing to work, learn, and contribute to society. Some recalled friends who retired and died months later.

"I hear people who retire and they're busier than they've ever been because they're volunteering at levels and with causes that their full-time job did not allow them to, or they're returning to part-time work in a field that they missed," said Josh Andrews, advice director at USAA, a financial services company for members of the military, veterans, and their families.

"I'm still full of energy. I'm still very much on my game," said Alan Patricof, 91, who cofounded the venture capital fund Primetime Partners, investing in companies serving older adults. "I still have my memory. I still have my faculties."

For comedian D'yan Forest, 91, work has been crucial to avoid cognitive decline and stay connected with different generations, especially while battling cancer and heart issues.

"Every day I'm memorizing new lines, talking to new people, answering new questions, and working with young people all over the world," Forest said. "At heart, I'm still a teacher, so I'd like to educate people, make them laugh, and make comedy."

Many of the people I spoke to struggled to find work, and they blamed their age. Although the US has made progress in combating ageism, it persists in many forms. According to a 2024 AARP study, 60% of workers age 50 and older believe they have experienced or seen age discrimination at work. One 81-year-old told me they still work in retail to "laugh in the face of ageism."

Many employers fall for stereotypes that older workers "have lower work performance than younger employees, which is not true; and they are less motivated to do good work, which, not surprisingly, is also not true," said Cort Rudolph, a psychology professor at Wayne State University.

RJ Tate, 81, said she rarely gets judged for her age but said living out her later years requires extra planning. Tate is an elementary school supervisor in California, earning $22 an hour to supplement her $1,900 monthly Social Security.

"After all my years of not looking at my checkbook and stressing, I finally had myself on a budget," Tate said. "Still, it's so fulfilling and rewarding, mentally and physically, to be out with all age groups. Life does not have to stop in your 60s and 70s."

Studies show that work contributes to positive short- and long-term health outcomes: prolonged mental acuity, stronger mental health, or improved physical performance. Some studies also show that higher-intensity labor and stress contribute to physical and cognitive decline or riskier health habits.

Harriet Newman Cohen, 92, works full-time as a partner at her family and matrimonial law firm. In her career, she represented Andrew Cuomo, Tom Brady, and the former wives of Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Working with younger talent and constantly having goals to work toward has motivated her to keep going.

"I do have to continue to work because I believe it's my obligation to take care of my family," Cohen said. "I want to be able to leave substantial amounts of money for them, and I want them to be able to enjoy the good things in life."

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A growing need to accommodate older workers

During interviews, many workers asked me about the economy. I'd mention that, as the country ages more rapidly, workplaces may look a bit older, and it may not be as shocking to see 80-year-old truck drivers.

"Sounds like there will be a lot more people like us soon," one worker said.

The oldest baby boomers are about to hit 80. The number of Americans 65 and older is expected to grow to 82 million by 2050 from 61 million in 2024. Innovations in regenerative medicine, pharmaceuticals, and AI-powered cancer screenings have contributed to longevity, with life expectancy for women now at 81 and men at 76, according to 2023 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This demographic shift coincides with a resource crunch. Nonpartisan government projections say that Social Security's reserves may begin depleting by 2034, potentially reducing benefits by about 20%. Some Medicare and Medicaid programs have been or are at risk of being cut. A frozen job market and higher-than-desired inflation add to the challenges for older Americans. Some estimates show that an aging workforce may contribute to a fall in GDP per capita.

Despite higher minimum wages in 30 states, the federal minimum wage has been at $7.25 since 2009. Older workers who cannot find higher-paying roles may work jobs that don't allow them to live comfortably. Research shows employment rises among lower-wage older workers when the minimum wage increases.

The immigration crackdown may also impact how Americans age. Over a quarter of direct care workers are immigrants, compared to about 17% of the US labor force.

The US faces a growing caregiver shortage. There are about 63 million caregivers in the US, about 53 million unpaid, including spouses.

Lastly, because many workers in their 80s are healthy enough to live independently, they often financially support their children or grandchildren, said Emily Wiemers, a professor of aging at Syracuse University.

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The power of intergenerational connections

In August, I was invited into the home of anti-ageism advocate Ashton Applewhite, whom I interviewed for the series. Surrounded by a dozen people who work in the aging space, I sipped wine as we discussed what aging means, how age fuels stereotypes, and why intergenerational connections are essential to better understanding each other and ourselves.

"A common myth about older workers is they should get out of the way to make room for younger workers," said Applewhite, adding that there is little evidence that the growth of older workers would negatively impact employment opportunities for younger people.

Donna Davis, 84, who runs a children's entertainment company, said hosting events for hundreds of children and watching them grow up and have their own children has kept her mind strong and brought her joy.

"I think I'm going to be here for another 10 years," Davis said, adding she wishes she had saved more earlier in life.

Business Insider reached out to over 70 companies about their aging-related initiatives and heard back from about a dozen. They emphasized the importance of rewarding longtime employees, fostering intergenerational connections, and providing medical resources for older workers. Labor economists, workplace consultants, and management professors said that companies have been accelerating their efforts to support older workers, but have much to do.

Experts proposed examples of workplace solutions that could remove some of these barriers, including:

• Mentorship in both directions. Reverse mentoring, in which younger employees lead meetings or workshops, can bridge generational gaps.
• Tailoring job expectations to certain people's physical abilities.
• More part-time roles or hybrid arrangements for older employees.
• Age-blind resources or hotlines for asking technology questions.
• Hiring initiatives for people in their 50s and above.
• Benefits that account for common medical conditions for older workers and prevention.

Some workers long for more intergenerational connections outside the office. Researchers working to develop so-called age-friendly communities, such as Emily Greenfield, director of the Hub for Aging Collaboration at Rutgers University, told Business Insider they hope to create neighborhoods or community centers to support an aging population through housing, transit, and community designs that can better integrate older workers.

I've found myself seeking more connections to people of all ages and demographics as I've reported this series. Reporting on people three to four times my age also helped me better prepare for my future.

Because many regretted not saving enough earlier in life, I now put aside much of my paycheck for my savings, 401(k), and portfolio, while trying not to sacrifice my quality of life. Many regretted not being more ambitious and settling for whichever job they could find. Others said they should've networked more to get ahead. I have taken their advice to heart.

While some who work out of financial necessity view themselves as cautionary tales, others have few regrets. Some said they live in the moment, prioritize family over long-term security, and stress little about financial milestones. While I'm more cautious, parts of their philosophy will stick with me.

These stories sparked an excitement for my future that I hadn't unlocked. I had been conditioned to want to buy a house by 30, get married by 35, and retire by 65. The stories of the older workers I interviewed calmed me down about my future planning and reminded me that life isn't a race.

Many of those still working do it because of circumstances outside of their control. A health issue, a difficult family situation, a broken marriage, or a layoff could all happen to me. I'm glad I've internalized this now to maybe help avoid disappointment later.

I'm sure many people like me who are first embarking on their careers can learn from these older workers. As a few said, it'll never be too late to start over.

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