Tag: News

• Peter Thiel said he only lets his kids use screens for 1.5 hours a week.
• There is a growing push by US officials to regulate the use of social media among children.
• Other tech CEOs, like Evan Spiegel and Sundar Pichai, also limit their children's screen time.

Social media for thee, but not for me. Or my kids, says Peter Thiel.

During a conversation with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on Thursday, Thiel, the cofounder of PayPal and the first outside investor in Facebook, revealed that he doesn't like his kids spending too much time in front of screens during the week.

Sorkin asked Thiel about the recent announcement from US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy that his office would push for labels on social media platforms warning about the dangers they pose to children's health. Meta, Facebook's parent company, is also facing a lawsuit from 33 states that says Facebook and Instagram harm young people's mental health.

Thiel said it's "too easy" to turn Big Tech into a scapegoat for "all our problems." Still, he said there is an "interesting critique one could make" about the fact that many social media executives limit screen time for their kids.

Thiel said he allows his own children just an hour and a half of screen time a week. Thiel's children are young — 3 and 5 years old — so such a limit seems reasonable. But children are using the internet at increasingly younger ages, prompting concern about raising a generation of "iPad kids."

Thiel isn't the first tech leader to admit that they strictly limit their children's screen time. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said he also limits his 8-year-old's screen time to one and a half hours a week.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai previously said he didn't give his middle-school-aged son a cellphone and that all televisions in his home are locked with an "activation energy" that makes watching TV not easily accessible.

• Hybrids are more popular than ever.
• Regular hybrids are a better deal than plug-ins right now.
• Even if you pay an initial upcharge, a hybrid can save you money in the long run.

Hybrids are having a moment as demand for electric vehicles cools.

These vehicles — which come in plug-in varieties or with hybrid engines that don't need to be charged at all — offer an attractive compromise for a new, more practical green car shopper that is dominating the market.

These shoppers are turning to bridge technologies like hybrids and plug-in hybrids, reviving a segment once thought by some to be a relic of the pre-Tesla automotive industry.

The high demand for hybrids dispels a misconception about electric vehicles: that interested buyers don't exist.

Recent studies have proven that shoppers are very interested in switching to a more environmentally friendly vehicle — they're just more likely to consider a partially battery-powered car over a pure electric vehicle.

The industry is adjusting accordingly. GM is reversing its plans to skip hybrid models in North America, while rival Ford is leaning more heavily on its existing hybrid lineup.

Tesla's Elon Musk is even blaming the current hybrid craze for his company's softer sales in the first quarter, calling out an industry-wide prioritization of hybrids for cutting into EV sales.

But if you're heading to the lot in search of a partially battery-powered car, you should know that not all hybrids are created equal.

A regular hybrid is a better deal than a plug-in right now

Regular hybrids tend to be cheaper than their plug-in counterparts.

The average price paid for a regular hybrid is around $41,000, compared to around $56,000 for plug-ins. For comparison, the average fully electric vehicle sold for $56,648 in May, according to Cox Automotive.

Shoppers who are turning to hybrids after ruling out a fully electric car often live in areas with limited access to charging, creating the same issue of finding places to fuel a plug-in hybrid.

The sticker price for a hybrid is much easier for the average consumer to swallow, but even if you're paying an upcharge from a gas-powered car, you can end up making that money back.

A study from Consumer Reports in late 2023 found that these cars, on average, end up saving drivers $5 in fuel savings for every $1 spent in increased purchase price.

In addition to fuel savings, hybrids also offer maintenance benefits similar to that of an electric car, which requires less frequent maintenance than an internal combustion engine, Consumer Reports found.

On average, hybrids studied by Consumer Reports cost $2,785 to maintain over a 10-year period, compared to $2,320 for a battery-electric car.

These numbers are adding up for car shoppers, too. Hybrid sales have been on the rise since the start of the year, bolstering brands like Toyota and Ford, which have heavily incorporated these cars into their current lineup.

• Companies are increasingly offering fertility benefits to employees, and not just in tech.
• Progyny CEO Pete Anevski said fertility benefits are especially attractive to millennials right now.
• Benefits like IVF, egg freezing, and more can help attract top talent.

Getting access to fertility benefits through your employer used to feel like a luxury reserved for workers at major tech companies. Not anymore.

More and more companies from many different industries are offering fertility benefits to their employees. Benefit plans vary but can include coverage for infertility treatments, egg and sperm freezing, adoption, and surrogacy, among others.

"This is no longer nice to have. This is a must-have," Pete Anevski, the CEO of fertility benefits provider Progyny, told Business Insider of fertility benefits, adding that he thinks it's only a matter of time before different industries will realize they need to offer them too.

When Progyny launched in 2016, many of its early clients were indeed tech companies, primarily on the West Coast. But today they serve more than 460 companies across over 45 different industries. Some of their clients include Microsoft and Google, but also Nike and MassMutual.

"The good news is today it's no longer industry-specific," Anevski said, adding, "It was at the beginning."

Megan Garner, a spokesperson for Carrot, another fertility benefits provider, said their 1,000-plus clients span just about every industry: financial and legal services, automotive, manufacturing, retail, food and beverage, tech, entertainment, sports, and more.

Fertility benefits plans range widely and can include many different treatments and services that could be partially or fully covered by the employer, depending on the plan. Many companies offer fertility benefits by partnering with providers like Progyny and Carrot, which offer customizable plans.

Garner said some Carrot customers choose to cover $5,000 in fertility care for an employee over their entire time with the company, while others will cover over $80,000.

Some of the best fertility coverage offered by Progyny can include things like unlimited rounds of IVF treatments or $40,000 or more to go toward surrogacy, according to Anevski.

Regardless of plan details, the trend lines are clear: the number of companies offering fertility benefits to their employees rises every year, and many companies that already offer them continue to expand their coverage. As of 2022, 54% of US employers with 20,000 workers or more offered fertility benefits for IVF treatments, Fortune reported, citing benefits consultant Mercer.

Offering great fertility benefits is one way companies can compete for top talent, especially millennials and younger professionals. A recent HR Brew/Harris Poll found that, overall, 63% of respondents thought companies should offer fertility benefits to employees. That number was 73% for Gen Z and millennials.

The poll found that the number of respondents who reported that their employer offered fertility benefits doubled from December 2022, when it was 6%, to March 2024, when it was 12%.

Garner said they found that 90% of people who get fertility benefits through Carrot said they are more likely to remain at their company because of their Carrot plan.

Millennial workers make up the lion's share of the workforce

Anevski said fertility benefits are especially important as they are currently being utilized by millennial workers, who make up the largest share of the workforce today and are having children later in life than the generations before them.

"The societal trend of everybody waiting long and longer to have a baby is real," he said.

As women have become less likely to have children under 30, more women are having children well into their 30s or 40s, which has, in turn, increased demand for fertility treatments and benefits.

Anevski said many of its clients also add to the benefits they offer employees each year, adding that over the past two years, more than 20% of its client base has expanded benefits in some way.

"The opposite also isn't happening," he said. "Even though the last two years were a tougher macroeconomic environment, nobody cuts the benefit back."

One aspect that's becoming more common for companies to offer is egg freezing.

"Fertility preservation, when people are waiting longer and longer to have a baby, is really important," Anevski said. "If you think about it, it's preventative medicine."

Anevski expects the number of businesses and industries offering fertility benefits will only increase, especially as top talent comes to expect it as part of a desirable job.

At this point, he thinks it's just a matter of timing as to when companies will offer them, not if.

• China could take control of Taiwan without even launching an invasion, a think tank report says.
• The report says that China could use a "quarantine" of Taiwan to exert control over the island.
• The report comes amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan.  

China could take control of Taiwan without ever having to invade, a prominent think tank has said.

China has long seen Taiwan as a breakaway province destined to come under Chinese control, but Taiwan views itself as distinct from the mainland, with its own government and constitution and a staunchly pro-independence president.

While China has not ruled out using force to take control of Taiwan, it may be able to exert its power over the island without resorting to military means, according to a report by the Washington DC-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

China could initiate a full or partial "gray zone" quarantine of Taiwan using its coast guard and other law enforcement agencies to restrict access to the island's ports, per the report.

This would not completely seal off the island from the world, but it would "assert China's control over Taiwan by setting the terms for traffic in and out of the island," the report says.

"A key goal is to compel countries and companies to comply with China's terms. If foreign actors largely comply with the quarantine, it strengthens China's narrative that it has control over Taiwan and undermines Taipei's sovereignty claims," it adds.

How a quarantine could play out

The China Coast Guard and China's Maritime Safety Administration would likely lead a quarantine, patrolling the waters around the island and intercepting any vessel that might breach the quarantine's terms.

They could be supported by other air, naval, cyber, missile, and other forces "to intimidate Taiwan, deter outside intervention, and provide crucial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance," the report says.

It follows another report that was published last month by experts from the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War, which looked at the idea of a potential Chinese "coercion campaign" that would also fall short of an invasion but would still bring Taiwan under Beijing's control.

China has already begun carrying out certain elements of such a campaign, launching increasing military exercises around the island.

The report also noted that while the US must still prepare for a potential invasion of Taiwan, the possibility of a coercion campaign represented a "significant gap in US strategic thought."

However, Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, told CNN: "Historical evidence shows that even severe blockades have limited coercive value, and a limited quarantine might result in a rally around the flag effect."

Why a quarantine could suit China

A quarantine might appeal to China for several reasons, the CSIS report says.

Firstly, unlike an invasion or blockade, the latter of which the CSIS defines as a "military-led campaign to significantly curtail the flow of traffic into Taiwan," a quarantine "would not be seen as an act of war."

"It is also more reversible and would not require closing off the Taiwan Strait," the report adds.

Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the US is obliged to ensure that Taiwan with the means to defend itself — but there is no stipulation on whether US forces would be sent in the event of an invasion. Despite this, President Joe Biden said in 2022 that US forces would defend Taiwan should China invade.

However, a "law enforcement-led gray zone operation" would complicate any third-party intervention, per the CSIS report.

Tensions between China and Taiwan are increasing by the day

Relations between Taiwan and China remain on a knife edge.

At a conference in Singapore earlier this month, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said that the idea of peaceful "reunification" with Taiwan was being "eroded" by Taiwanese separatists and external forces.

"We will take resolute actions to curb Taiwan independence and make sure such a plot never succeeds," he said.

In April last year, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said that Taiwan was at the "core" of China's interests, according to a press statement, adding: "If anyone expects China to compromise and concede on the Taiwan question, they are having a pipe dream and would shoot themselves in the foot."

Beijing has also continued to launch military exercises around the island.

Last month, China began the two-day exercise "Joint Sword" around Taiwan, carrying out "joint sea-air combat readiness patrols, joint seizure of comprehensive battlefield control, and joint precision strikes on key targets," per Chinese state media.

The training included mock strikes by fighter jets and drills with a number of naval vessels.

Further large-scale drills occurred in April 2023 and August 2022.

China's armed forces have been able to "essentially start mounting an increased tempo of these large-scale drills that have a lot of the makings of a blockade," Tom Shugart, a former US Navy officer and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank, previously told BI.

He added that the recent May exercises showed that China's fleet was "very well suited" for a blockade or quarantine of Taiwan.

• Marta Magarelli moved to Florida from Brazil when she was 24. 
• She started as a housekeeper before working her way up to running households with teams of staff.
• She now works in Palm Beach, where homeowners pay high salaries for the best housekeepers.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Marta Magarelli, 60, a housekeeper in Palm Beach, where housekeepers are in high demand. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified her employment.

I left Brazil when I was 24 in 1987 and moved to America. I was meant to attend school in Florida for just a few months to learn English, but I fell in love with the man who became my husband, and we settled in Florida together.

I began working as a housekeeper across several houses — cleaning, washing, and cooking.

I'm a perfectionist, which makes me good at what I do. It's helped me earn the trust of the homeowners, or, as we refer to them in the industry, "principals," and foster close relationships with them.

I gradually worked up to cleaning bigger and grander houses in South Florida, getting jobs through recommendations and newspaper ads. Now, I work as the executive housekeeper for a family in Palm Beach, earning far more than I ever imagined.

Becoming an executive housekeeper

Housekeepers are on their feet a lot. Once I had young children, I was too tired to keep jumping between different houses.

In 2009, I moved to working in a more senior role for just one new household. The principals were seeking an executive housekeeper, so I stepped up. Even though I hadn't had experience as an executive housekeeper before, I never let that stop me from taking on a new challenge. You can always learn on the job.

Many principals want one person who can do a bunch of different roles rather than six different staff. That's why executive housekeeping attracts higher salaries — you wear many hats.

Beyond the responsibilities of a normal housekeeper, the executive has to be able to drive, cook, help with kids and animals, and support a personal assistant or a house manager. On top of cleaning, organizing, turning laundry, and ironing.

I worked at that first household for nine years. You get close to the principals, so it's hard to leave. But you need new challenges as you approach 10 years with a household. I like to push myself and not get too comfortable.

I dreamt of becoming a chef, so I attended culinary school. I returned to working in private homes as a chef in my next household, but after a few years, the daily stress of cooking set in. It was too much for me, and I missed having variety in my working day.

I returned to executive housekeeping with my new culinary skills and stayed in that household for six years.

The day-to-day routine of an executive housekeeper

I started at this household just a year ago. The family has young kids and pets, and they always love to travel, which presents new challenges.

The day starts around 9 a.m. We'll usually run through the week's schedule if the principal is home. But ideally, the job of an executive housekeeper is to make sure the principal doesn't have to think about the house: everything is clean and organized when they arrive home.

The most important part of this job is making the principals' lives easy. They pay for the luxury of an executive housekeeper to have a relaxed life.

I'll clear the breakfast kitchen, make the beds, and pick up the laundry. Two additional housekeepers come in twice a week to help with the cleaning so I can go grocery shopping and collect dry cleaning.

I stop by their other properties to check that the pantry and fridge are stocked and everything is running smoothly.

I spend lots of time with the principals' dogs — whether walking them or just general pampering.

My day ends around 6 or 7 p.m.; the good thing about this job is that when it's done, it's done. I can clock off, go to my local church, and spend the evening at home with my husband.

Less staff means less drama and more traveling

I work with a small team in this current household — just me and two housekeepers.

The number of employees in these Palm Beach homes can easily rack up. I've worked in households with 13 people, resulting in more drama.

Principals may want a housekeeper, driver, chef, sous chef, and additional housekeepers for each house floor. The last house I worked at even had a housekeeper specifically to arrange the principal's closet.

As an executive housekeeper, you manage all the staff and their opinions. In a small team, you have more roles, but I prefer getting on with things on my own rather than dealing with the drama.

One difference between this job and my previous roles is the travel. I go wherever they go. The trips aren't long trips, usually a week or so, but they're frequent — my favorite is traveling to upstate New York.

You have to be ready to travel at short notice. I have my passport to hand and my bags packed. I've not had to travel immediately, but you're paid a high salary to be prepared.

The market for housekeepers in Palm Beach has changed a lot in recent years

Palm Beach is a very expensive ZIP code. It's a beautiful place with fancy stores and restaurants.

I've been in Palm Beach for over 10 years, and the market for housekeepers has completely flipped since COVID-19.

We used to have fewer jobs and more workers. It's now the opposite because many people moved to Florida after the pandemic. You can feel the influx in South Florida: more traffic, new construction sites, and more people crowding the streets.

Principals are now younger post-pandemic. People in their 40s — younger families with younger kids — who want one all-encompassing household staff.

That shift has brought more housekeepers to the area, but it's caused a wave of unprofessionalism. Housekeepers attracted to the high salaries but lacking the proper experience don't last long.

People are desperate for good executive housekeepers, and principals are willing to pay higher salaries for peace of mind.

The relationships make housekeeping so rewarding

I've always been very close to the people I work with, and my relationships are why I've been so happy doing this job for so long.

You form strong connections with people, and seeing your work help others is so satisfying. Even after I leave a household, I stay in touch with principals. They send me birthday cards, and we check in on one another.

I didn't come into this industry thinking I'd earn this kind of salary with these benefits. For me, it was always about finding a job where I could interact with people every day.

• Big Tech companies like OpenAI, Meta, and Google are in an epic race for data to train AI.
• Ali Golshan, CEO of Gretel, believes synthetic data is a better alternative to public data.
• He says synthetic data supports privacy, reduces biases, and enhances AI model accuracy.

The global AI arms race has unleashed a war for data.

Companies at the forefront of the technology, like OpenAI, Meta, and Google, are scouring the internet and troves of books, podcasts, and videos searching for data to train their models.

Some industry leaders, however, worry this kind of "land grab" for publicly available data isn't the right approach, especially since it puts companies at risk of copyright lawsuits. Instead, they're calling for companies to train their models on synthetic data.

Synthetic data is artificially generated rather than collected from the real world. It can be generated by machine learning algorithms with little more than a seed of original data.

Business Insider chatted with Ali Golshan, CEO and cofounder of Gretel, who one might call an evangelist for synthetic data. Gretel allows companies to experiment and build with synthetic data. It is working with major players in the healthcare space, such as genomics company Illumina, consulting firms like Ernst & Young, and consumer companies like Riot Games.

Golshan says synthetic data is a safer and more private alternative to "messy" public data, and that it can shepherd most companies into the next era of generative AI development.

The following conversation has been edited for clarity.

Why is synthetic data better than raw public data?

Raw data is just that: raw. It's often filled with holes, inconsistencies, and biases from the processes used to capture, label, and leverage it. Synthetic data, on the other hand, allows us to fill those gaps, expand into areas that can't be captured in the wild, and intentionally design the data needed for specific applications.

This level of control, with humans in the loop designing and refining the data, is crucial for pushing GenAI to new heights in a responsible, transparent, and secure manner. Synthetic data enables us to create datasets that are more comprehensive, balanced, and tailored to specific AI training needs, which leads to more accurate and reliable models.

Great, are there any cons to synthetic data?

Where synthetic data isn't very good is at the end of the day, if you have no data or clarity, you can't just have it create perfect data for you just, so you can experiment endlessly. So there is that scope that needs to be created.

Ultimately, the other part of it is that synthetic data is very good at privacy if you have enough data. So, if you have only a few hundred records and want ultimate privacy, that comes at a huge cost to utility and accuracy because the data is very limited. So, when it comes to absolutely zero data and wanting a domain-specific task or having very limited data and wanting great privacy and accuracy, those are just incompatible with the approaches.

What are the challenges of using public data?

Public data presents several challenges, especially for specialized use cases in healthcare. Imagine trying to train an AI model for predicting COVID-19 outcomes using only publicly available case count data — you'd be missing crucial specifics like patient comorbidities, treatment protocols, and detailed clinical progression. This lack of comprehensive data severely limits the model's effectiveness and reliability.

Adding to this challenge is the growing regulatory pressure against data collection practices. The Federal Trade Commission and other regulatory bodies are increasingly pushing back against web scraping and unauthorized data access — and rightly so. As AI becomes more powerful, the risk of re-identifying individuals from supposedly anonymized data is higher than ever.

There's also the critical issue of data freshness across all industries. In today's fast-paced business environment, organizations need real-time data to remain competitive and train models that respond rapidly to changing market conditions, consumer behaviors, and emerging trends. Public domain data often lags by weeks, months, or even years, making it less valuable for cutting-edge AI applications that require up-to-the-minute insights.

What do you think about companies like Meta and OpenAI that are willing to risk copyright lawsuits to get access to public data?

The era of 'move fast and break things' is over, especially in the age of GenAI, where there's too much at stake to operate in such a flippant manner. We're advocating for an approach that leads with privacy. By prioritizing privacy from the start and embedding it into the customers' AI products and services — by design — you get faster, more sustainable, and defensible AI development. That's what our partners and, ultimately, their customers want. In this sense, privacy is a catalyst for GenAI innovation.

This privacy-first approach is why partners like Google, AWS, EY, and Databricks work with us. They know that current methods are unsustainable and the future of AI will be driven by consensual, licensed data and thoughtful data-driven design, not by grasping at every bit of public data available. It's about creating a foundation of trust with your users and stakeholders, which is crucial for long-term success in AI development.

Companies are scrambling to build models that unlock insights from proprietary data. Where does synthetic data fit into that equation?

By some estimates, companies use only 1-10% of the data they collect. The rest is stored and siloed so that few can even access or experiment with it. This creates additional costs and data breach risks with no return value. Now, imagine if a company could safely open access to that remaining 90% of data. Cross-functional teams could collaborate and experiment with it to extract value without creating additional privacy or security risks. That level of knowledge sharing would be a huge boon for innovation.

It's like we're moving from the parable of the blind men trying to describe an elephant to each other. Each only has a grasp and understanding of the part they can touch; the rest is a black box. Providing an entire organization with shared access to the 'crown jewels' and the opportunity to surface new insights from that data would be a paradigm shift in how companies and products are built. This is what people mean when they speak of 'democratizing' data.

There are already ways of training smaller models with a fraction of the data we may have once used that yield great results. Where are we headed regarding the amount of data we need for training generative AI?

The idea of throwing the kitchen sink, in terms of data, to train a large language model is part of the problem and reflects the old 'move fast and break things' mentality. It's a land grab by companies with the means to do that, while AI regulations are still being hashed out.

Now that the dust is settling, people are realizing that the future lies in smaller, more specialized models targeted to very specific tasks and orchestrating the actions of these models through an agentic, systematic approach. This specialized model approach provides more transparency and removes much of the 'black box' nature of AI models since you're designing the models from the ground up, piece by piece.

It's also where regulation is heading. After all, how else will companies adhere to 'risk-based' regulations if we can't even quantify AI risks for each task we apply them to?

This shift toward more focused, efficient models aligns perfectly with differential privacy and synthetic data. We can generate precisely the data needed for these narrow AI models, ensuring high performance without the ethical and practical issues of massive data collection. It's about smart, targeted development rather than the brute-force approach companies have taken.

• TV producers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato created "Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles" almost 20 years ago. 
• It launched a genre of shows following the professional pressure and personal tensions of real-estate brokers' lives. 
• Bailey and Barbato break down the appeal of the genre as their latest show, "Owning Manhattan" with star broker Ryan Serhant premieres.

One Los Angeles real-estate agent might single-handedly be responsible for launching two decades of reality television.

In 1994, producers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato landed in Los Angeles from New York City and needed a place to live. Friends recommended agent Debby Berg and they were immediately enamored. Berg had a larger-than-life personality, drove "an enormous gold Mercedes," and was so small she had to sit on the Yellow Pages phone book to see over the dashboard, Bailey and Barbato told Business Insider.

"Every time you got in her car, you were kind of taking your life in your own hands," said Bailey.

Together, the trio cruised around LA and Berg found them a four-bedroom Hollywood Hills home she described as "Brigadoon," the magical Scottish village from the 1954 movie.

But the process sparked an idea: Real-estate brokers might be stars who are just as big as the homes they sell.

Bailey and Barbato went on to produce "Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles," which followed the lives of agents selling luxury properties in neighborhoods like Brentwood and Beverly Hills. By season 6 in 2013, episodes were averaging over 1 million viewers. As the years passed, agents like Tracy Tutor and the Altman brothers became nationally known personalities with massive social media followings.

Bravo launched spinoffs in New York, Miami, and San Francisco, and streaming giant Netflix made its own version with shows like "Selling Sunset," "Selling the OC," and "Buying Beverly Hills."

Now Bailey and Barbato are launching another real estate show — "Owning Manhattan," premiering June 28 on Netflix — with one of their "Million Dollar Listing New York" stars: Ryan Serhant.

Serhant, now 39, leveraged his television career into a massive social media following, with over 2 million followers on Instagram. According to his website, he's closed $8 billion in sales to date and opened his own brokerage.

The pair also produce "RuPaul's Drag Race," which, over 16 seasons, has won 29 Primetime Emmys and minted dozens of drag superstars. They told Business Insider they believe in the star power of agents and say there are marked similarities between the worlds of drag and real estate.

"Brokers are kind of like drag queens," said Barbato. "They're self-made. They're putting on a show for you."

It's no mistake that many agents in Los Angeles and New York are former actors themselves, he added.

Once, the pair were touring Gore Vidal's Los Angeles home during an open house, and a dead rat appeared in the pool. Without missing a beat, they recalled, the agent told everyone attending it was a "sign of good luck."

"That's a born entertainer," said Bailey.

Real estate was not an easy sell to TV executives at first

Early on, Bailey and Barbato said, real-estate agents were not obvious television gold.

They said the biggest obstacle was convincing network executives that among the details of dealmaking was a storyline audiences could follow.

Closure became a big obstacle. In real estate, deals fall through all the time, and interested parties back out at the last second. Agents could lose a client for any number of reasons, or a seller may decide to stay put after all. The producing pair has learned to trust the process and follow more storylines than might actually make the air.

"You have to be willing to follow a story that might not end how you want it to," said Barbato. For "Owning Manhattan," the duo said they filmed 20 different sales listings represented by Serhant and his fellow brokers, but only seven resulted in deals.

Audiences naturally want to peek behind the curtains to see how others live, and sometimes it's best to let the brokers work their magic and sell the home's fantasy, they said.

In the first episode of "Owning Manhattan," Serhant shows off a listing atop the world's tallest residence, the three-story penthouse at Central Park Tower, asking $195 million. Standing on the tallest terrace in New York City, he tells another agent that one billionaire who toured the space had a very specific question.

"If I put a ping-pong table here, would it be the tallest ping-ping table in the world?" Serhant recalled the billionaire asking.

The producers like to focus on the business drama

Though brokers' big personalities may make fascinating draws, the producers say they like to focus on business, not interpersonal conflicts.

"We're really interested in the transactional element, not leaning on soap," said Barbato.

In "Owning Manhattan," viewers get a firsthand glimpse of Serhant selling in real time as he attempts to close a deal for the tallest residence in the world.

"You're not just buying luxury, you're buying scale," he says in the first episode of the show, highlighting the windows he adds are among the largest single-pane pieces of glass in the world and emphasizing that the trophy property sits "higher than helicopters" and their usual flight path.

Serhant then brags about his "buydar," his ability to sniff out when a buyer is serious. Standing above the clouds, he points to another luxury building below, explaining to the agent that its penthouse just closed at $22,000 per square foot. With the Central Park Tower pad asking just $14,000 per square foot, it's practically a steal, he argues in the show.

Viewers will follow Serhant in "Owning Manhattan" as he attempts to make his namesake brokerage firm the No. 1 firm in New York. They're already "the greatest real estate brokerage in the history of the known universe," he says to the camera with a wink.

The audience will have to wait to find out if that's true.

When in doubt, the producers have learned to let the houses themselves tell the story.

"Inside these properties is a map of the human mind," Bailey said.

• A tourism ad for Oslo, Norway has taken the internet by storm.
• VisitOSLO's marketing manager worried the ad's "self-irony" wouldn't translate to global audiences.
• Richie Karaburun, a hospitality and tourism professor, said the ad's authenticity is key to its success. 

Don't visit Oslo. That's what the city's new tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign declares.

VisitOSLO, the official marketing agency for Norway's capitol, debuted the ad last week. The video follows a 31-year-old resident named Halfdan, played by Bendik Aunan, who doesn't understand why anyone would want to visit Oslo.

"I mean, is it even a city?" he asks.

Halfdan takes audiences on a tour of Oslo while remaining thoroughly unimpressed by the city's walkability, quality of service, accessibility, and gorgeous landscapes.

Despite Halfdan's lukewarm feelings about his hometown, the ad has quickly amassed millions of views and sent Oslo to the top of travelers' bucket lists. Some people have praised the ad's dry and somewhat self-deprecating humor on social media.

Anne-Signe Fagereng, the agency's marketing manager, said in a press release that they knew using "typical Norwegian self-irony" would be risky, especially in a global market.

"Oslo has in recent years emerged as a truly exciting destination but is probably still a well-kept secret for many," she said.

She added: "The inspiration for the ad is Oslo's position as an underdog as far as city break destinations go – both in Europe and in the Nordics. However, Oslo has been through an incredibly positive transformation over the last few decades, so it's time our confidence in our capital catches up with reality."

VisitOslo's risk is exactly why it's resonating with audiences

Richie Karaburun, a clinical associate professor at NYU's Center of Hospitality and Tourism, said the ad's success lies in its authenticity and storytelling.

Unlike other tourism ads that show sun-kissed beaches and flashy attractions, VisitOslo's video prioritized the city's understated local charms with witty humor. Instead of unnamed glossy models, audiences meet Halfdan and his reluctant attitude.

"You need to create an emotional connection between your visitors and your destination. That resonates," he said.

Karaburun, who visited Oslo with his family last summer, added that travelers are craving that emotional connection when they book vacations. Some travelers have begun shunning traditional tourist traps for smaller, less crowded destinations that offer a glimpse into local communities.

Oslo could thrive with this type of traveler. The ad suggested so when Halfdan compares Oslo to Paris, Istanbul, and New York City.

"I think it is going to have a huge impact on Oslo's branding," Karaburun said of the ad. "Hopefully, it will impact the numbers because, at the end, it's all about the increased visitation numbers."

Karaburun said that if Oslo continues to attract travelers with unique ads, the city could emerge as a coveted destination.

"If they keep on doing these very creative destination marketing ads, I think they're on the right path to being well known like Istanbul, Paris, and New York."

• The Embraer Phenom 300E is the most flown aircraft in the US.
• Plus, it's the best-selling light jet of the past 12 years.
• See inside the compact aircraft that has a best-in-class speed of Mach 0.80.

The most flown aircraft in the US is not only a private jet, but a light jet just 51 feet long.

I went inside an Embraer Phenom 300E at the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition in Geneva in May, and had a look around.

It was a tight squeeze since the cabin is less than five feet tall, but this makes sense when you know the jet is designed for shorter journeys.

The $10 million plane leads the light-jet sector — being the best seller for the past 12 years. That's largely because it's the fastest and has the furthest range at around 2,300 miles.

Plus, it only requires one pilot to fly, reducing operational costs for customers.

At the end of May, I visited Geneva to attend EBACE — Europe's largest business aviation conference.

The aircraft on display varied hugely, from four-seat turboprops to a fully customized Boeing 737 Max worth over $100 million.

One of the more understated planes on display was the Embraer Phenom 300E, the newest version of the most flown aircraft in the US.

Last August, the planemaker announced that the Phenom 300 logged over two million flight hours, overtaking the similarly-sized Cessna Citation Excel.

A light jet powered by Pratt & Whitney PW500 engines, it has a range of around 2,300 miles.

That's just far enough to cross the US coast-to-coast.

The Phenom 300 has also been the best-selling light jet for the last 12 years.

I had to duck my head to fit inside the cabin, which is 4 feet and 11 inches tall, since it's designed for shorter trips.

The inside was indeed snug, but there was still space for a two-person divan in the galley …

… As well as a small area for refreshments.

The cockpit has two seats, but the 300E requires only one pilot. In fact, it's the fastest and longest-range single-pilot jet on the market.

Its top speed is Mach 0.80 — equivalent to 534 mph at 35,000 feet. By comparison, an Airbus A320neo usually cruises at Mach 0.78, or 520 mph.

The 8 best 'personal' private jets that only require one pilot to fly

It also uses fly-by-wire technology, which Embraer initially developed for its military aircraft.

Instead of mechanical flight controls, fly-by-wire uses computer-controlled systems to process the pilots' input. That also means better fuel efficiency as there are fewer parts and lighter wires.

Concorde was the first commercial jet to use fly-by-wire until the Airbus A320, which proved to be a pivotal chapter in the competition between Airbus and Boeing.

The cabin is configured with six seats.

If you look closely you can see me in the mirror, hunched over quite uncomfortably. But again, since it's a light jet, there isn't usually much need to walk around the cabin.

The four seats in the front have tables that pop out from the side, next to the vase of flowers.

While the rear seats don't have a table, there's at least a drink holder and good legroom.

In the aft, there's a compact bathroom, where the toilet can also be used as a seat.

Some of the larger jets I've seen, like the Gulfstream G700, don't have a window in the bathroom, so that's a nice luxury perk.

Qatar Airways has received the world's first $81 million Gulfstream G700 private jet as it caters to elite customers — take a look inside

The Phenom 300E might be a smaller jet, but for many customers that's all it needs to be. It's easy to see why it's proved popular thanks to its technical specs.

In some ways, that also sums up Embraer's commercial airliners. It's the third main player behind Boeing and Airbus, but doesn't compete directly since its narrowbody jets are smaller.

The E175 and E195 are four-abreast regional jets, versus the six-abreast of a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320.

Last month, Embraer denied a report from The Wall Street Journal that it was planning to build a new narrowbody jet to compete directly with the two, amid Boeing's ongoing crisis.

"Embraer certainly has the capability to develop a new narrowbody aircraft. However, we have a young and very successful portfolio of products developed in recent years, and we are really focused on selling those products and making Embraer bigger and stronger," a spokesperson said.

• I love traveling and enjoy taking solo trips to reconnect with who I am outside being a mom.
• Every year, I take a trip by myself and always come back to my family feeling refreshed.
• Though I sometimes feel guilty for spending the time and money, it's so worth it.

I grew up moving often, rarely attending the same school for a full year, and learning to find my way around new places every few months. For better or worse, this shaped how I approached life as an adult, making me more open to new places, people, and experiences throughout my life.

One result of this openness is a love of travel — I've visited 40 of the 50 United States and 25 countries (and counting). Traveling is a core part of who I am, and while I love the ability to travel with my family, it's also a priority for me to take a trip once a year by myself or with friends to stay connected to the person I was before having kids.

I started traveling alone early in life

In my early 20s, I was offered a severance package when my company merged with another and laid off much of the staff, including me. With no strong ties to the city I lived in at the time and no real love for the work, I decided to take the money, buy a one-way ticket to Europe, and see how long I could make it last.

I stayed in Europe for six months, traveling by train anywhere I wanted to go on a whim. I drank the best whiskey sour of my life in a back-alley bar in Krakow, learned about the drum-and-bass scene in Berlin from a Parisian hostel mate, watched a fútbol match in San Sebastian with locals, and learned to snowboard from an Australian trio of plumbers in Chamonix.

The trip changed my view of traveling alone. No longer was it scary or unattainable. Instead, it was full of magical surprises and kind people — strangers who became fast friends. It was joyful and enthralling, and I loved it.

Learning to travel as a parent and partner

About a decade later, after my love of solo travel was well-established, I met and married my husband, and then I became a parent. One of the things my now-husband quickly learned about me was that I wanted to continue traveling alone occasionally, and he has always supported me in this. So, I still take an annual solo trip these days.

While it's hard to leave my family behind, it's also hard to say no to things that feed my soul. Like many parts of parenting, traveling solo is a push-pull in two directions for me. I want to explore the world, and I also want to soak up every moment I can with my family.

So, I have some rules about when and how I travel. I never take trips when I know or suspect something big might happen, like an important school event or one of my kids taking their first step soon. I usually plan trips that last three to four days, but never more than seven. (For now, anyway, as the kids get older, that might change.) And I'm always available for Facetime at some point during the day.

But I also always make time for the trip.

Solo trips refresh me and help me maintain my identity

At some point, I'll become an empty nester. When that time comes, I don't want to have forgotten who I am outside "mom," and my annual solo trip helps me remember who that is. They offer an opportunity to explore what I'm interested in and what it feels like to think about what I want to do with my "one wild and precious life."

From learning to build my first campfire in the Rocky Mountains to learning the history of the Alhambra in Spain, each trip I've been privileged to take has taught me something new about myself and the world. While I sometimes feel slightly guilty about taking time for myself and spending money on a solo trip — even if they aren't necessarily luxury destinations — at the end of each one, I'm grateful for the reminder of who I am as my own person. Not a wife, not a mother, not an employee. Just a person living in this amazing world with limited time to explore it on my own terms.

As a woman and a mother, I know it isn't always easy to make or take time for ourselves. But after two decades of traveling alone, I can promise you it's always worth it.