Mondays are all about financial adviser-related links here at Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s links including a look at... PodcastsBrendan Frazier talks with Deirdre Van Nest about communicating with clients in an emotionally-compelling way. (wiredplanning.com)Daniel Crosby talks with Emily Koochel about defining and seeking financial wellness. (standarddeviationspod.com)BanksThe combined UBS-CS will be a money management giant. (barrons.com)The FDIC is planning to sell SVB Private separately from the rest of the bank. (reuters.com)Practice managementWhy scale in the RIA space is increasingly important. (citywire.com)Adviser technologies are becoming commoditized. What comes next? (kitces.com)RIAs are increasingly pushing back against SEC charges. (citywire.com)RetirementSpending in retirement is a dynamic process. (blogs.cfainstitute.org)Retirees have a lot of locked up home equity. (investmentnews.com)As people get older, their estimate of Social Security benefits get more accurate. (papers.ssrn.com)The bizAltruist is buying Shareholders Service Group, a brokerage and custodial services platform. (thinkadvisor.com)Lisa Shidler, "Farther is hoping the logic of creating a one-umbrella, one-brand RIA with a plethora of choice will draw good advisors and their clients' assets." (riabiz.com)AdvisersSantiago Burridge, "You can’t have a relationship with a portfolio or an algorithm." (advisorperspectives.com)A talk with James Traylor, president and co-founder of Rivent Partners, about how the firms works with families with disability issues. (investmentnews.com)What it's like to make a mid-career shift to financial planning. (marknewfield.substack.com)Advisers need to be able to help clients with cash management. (financial-planning.com)Adviser outreach should have a specific purpose. (advisorperspectives.com)A shocking number of people don't have a will or estate plan. (thinkadvisor.com).....»»

Points and miles travel advisors offer consultations to teach clients about maximizing hotel points and airline miles earned for travel. Leigh Rowan is founder of Savanti TravelLeigh Rowan People seek expert help with points and miles because the amount of customer deals is daunting. Experts agreed that a passion for everything involving points and miles is key in the industry. It's key to be a people person and to build credibility as an expert. Max Do's career as a miles and points expert started as a hobby, stemming from a trip his now-wife took around the world."I saved up miles and points for two years and earned an epic three-week vacation — flying business class and staying at luxury hotels," said Do, a miles and points educator.After that trip, he was excited about what he had learned and created an Instagram account to share his knowledge. After gaining more than 430,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube during the pandemic, he quit his job to work full-time as a credit card miles and points expert.He made money from sponsored posts, credit card affiliate links, and offering consultations.   What are credit card points travel awards?Travel advisors like Do offer consultations to teach clients about maximizing hotel points and airline miles earned for travel."The main draw is that you can earn points and miles using your everyday spend. You can buy groceries, pay for gas, utilities, and bills, all while earning points that can eventually lead to discounted travel or luxury experiences," said Do.Why hire a credit card points travel advisor?There's a demand for help with points and miles because the details can be vast and daunting for customers."There are tons of reward programs and quite a learning curve. By hiring an advisor, you can leverage an expert's knowledge, so you don't have to weed through all the blogs and podcasts," said Erik Paquet, director of marketing of AwardWallet.Erik Paquet is director of marketing of AwardWallet.Erik PaquetThe price for their services varies. For individual consultations, Dave Grossman, founder of MilesTalk, charges $175 for 45 minutes. "My consulting is meant to teach you to fish, not just give you a fish," he said. Grossman also creates consulting plans for CFOs of small businesses to maximize credit card points — this service can run into thousands of dollars.Dave Grossman is the founder of MilesTalk.Dave GrossmanDo charges $90 for 30-minute consultations and Award Wallet just launched Award Travel 1-On-1 at a rate of $100 for 30 minutes. Savanti Travel works with small to medium businesses on points and miles travel redemption strategies, and uses a subscription model on a minimum retainer of about $3,000 bucks a month.  How to get started?Experts agreed that the key is a passion for everything involving points and miles, and a willingness to invest time learning the ins and outs of loyalty programs.  "When I started in the early 2000s, I would read hundreds and hundreds of pages of FlyerTalk threads," said Grossman."I'm the type who likes to win games, and loyalty programs are similar; it feels like winning the lottery when you earn a difficult-to-book flight. The people that are really into miles and point love the challenge. I just went down the rabbit hole, and I never climbed out. It's an oddly fulfilling career."Much information is accessible for free online on blogs, podcasts, and social media, including Facebook groups like Award Travel 101®.After that, it's essential to bMax Do is a miles and points educator.Max Douild credibility. "Without having a blog, Instagram, or Tiktok, I don't think you could just hang out a shingle and announce that you do points consulting," said Grossman. "It's not a bad idea to work for a company like The Points Guy to gain experience. Also, freelance writing for major publications would give you that leg up to start."It's also essential to be a people person."It starts with the duty of care, really loving and being passionate about people and taking care of them and helping them achieve their dreams, visions, or goals," said Leigh Rowan, founder of Savanti Travel."Talented people are working in this industry, committed to helping people achieve wonderful trips and creating sound strategies to take care of clients," said Rowan. "It's not purely transactional; it's asking clients, 'how I can help you achieve your goals, ' and the bonus is to make money along the way."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

I used to be a freelance writer. Now I'm a prompt engineer helping optimize generative-AI tech. Here's what I've learned. Anna Bernstein is a prompt engineer at Copy.ai.Courtesy of Anna Bernstein Anna Bernstein is a prompt engineer at Copy.ai, which makes AI tools to generate posts and emails. Her job is to write prompts to train the bot to generate high-quality, accurate writing.  Here are three tips on how to write prompts to get the best outcomes from AI.  This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Anna Berstein, a 29-year-old prompt engineer at the generative-AI firm Copy.ai based in New York. The following has been edited for length and clarity.When I was a freelance writer and historical-research assistant, I spent a lot of my time scrolling through microfiche in libraries. Now I'm a prompt engineer helping to optimize the most cutting-edge technology in the world.My journey into prompt engineering began in the summer of 2021, when I met a guy at a jazz bar who, at the time, worked for Copy.ai, which makes an AI tool that can generate copy for blogs, sales emails, and social-media posts.He mentioned that Copy.ai — run on OpenAI's GPT-3 language model — was having some trouble with the quality of its outputs and asked if I wanted to take a stab at being a prompt person. I didn't like the stress of freelancing — plus, it seemed fascinating — so I said yes, even though I was an English major and had no background in tech.Soon after, I got offered a one-month contract to work on executing different types of tone. At first, I barely knew what I was doing. But then the founder explained that prompting is kind of like writing a spell: If you say the spell slightly wrong, a slightly wrong thing could happen — and vice versa. Taking his advice, I managed to come up with a solution for better tone adherence, which led to a full-time job offer at the company. Since then, the scope of my job has grown. I now help improve existing tools and create new ones with the goal of getting the AI to spit out the best responses for users. In practice, I spend my days writing text-based prompts, which I can't reveal due to my NDA, that I feed into the back end of the AI tools so they can do things such generate a blog post that is high quality, grammatically correct, and factually accurate. I do this by designing the text around a user's request. In very simplified terms, a user types something like, "Write a product description about a pair of sneakers," which I receive on the back end. It's my job, then, to write prompts that can get that query to generate the best output through:Instruction, or "Write a product description about this."Example-following, or "Here are some good product descriptions, write one like this about this."In addition to the pure prompt-engineering part of my job, I also advise on how the models behave, why they might behave the way they do, which model to use, whether we can make a specific tool, and what approach we should take to do that. I love the "mad scientist" part of the job where I'm able to come up with a dumb idea for a prompt and see it actually work. As a poet, the role also feeds into my obsessive nature with approaching language. It's a really strange intersection of my literary background and analytical thinking. The job, however, is unpredictable. New language models come out all the time, which means I'm always having to readjust my prompts. The work itself can be tedious. There are days when I'm obsessively changing and testing a single prompt for hours — sometimes even weeks on end —  just so I can get them to work. At the same time, its exciting to not know what's coming next. Aside from people at parties not understanding my job, one of the big misconceptions I've noticed around AI is the idea that it is sentient when it's not. When it tries to talk about being an AI, we freak out because we see so many of our fears reflected in what it's saying. But that's because it's trained on our fears informed by scary, sci-fi depictions of AI.While writing good prompts is easy to pick up, it's difficult to master. Getting the AI to do what you want it to do takes trial and error, and with time, I've picked up weird strategies along the way; some of my prompts are really wild in structure.Here are some tips that can help you develop better prompts:1. Use a thesaurusDon't give up on a concept just because your first wording didn't get the result you want. Often, the right word or phrasing can unlock what you're doing.2. Pay attention to your verbsIf you want the AI to fully understand your request, make sure your prompt includes a verb that clearly expresses your intent. For instance, "Rewrite this to be shorter," is more powerful than, "Condense this."3. ChatGPT is great at intent, so use thatIntroduce what you're trying to do clearly from the beginning, and play around with wording, tense, and approach. You can try, "Today, we're going to write an XYZ," or, "We're trying to write an XYZ and we'd like your input." Putting an umbrella of intent over what you're doing is always useful, and playing around with different ways to do that can make a big difference.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

MarketsBen Carlson, "History is chock-full of panics, crises, crashes, ups, downs and the unexpected." (awealthofcommonsense.com)Surprises shouldn't be surprising. (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com)Energy stocks are now struggling. (allstarcharts.com)CompaniesGrowth in spending on SaaS services is slowing. (tomtunguz.com)Why Berkshire Hathaway's ($BRK.A) proxy statement is so short. (rationalwalk.com)How Covid changed retail (and restaurants). (axios.com)Work From HomeDon't let work from home prevent you from being active. (nytimes.com)WFH is helping March Madness viewership. (frontofficesports.com)Remote work is allowing workers to duck out in the afternoon to hit the links. (nytimes.com)WorkMore companies are removing college degree requirements for jobs. (vox.com)Pricey child care is keeping many parents out of the work force. (wsj.com)The U.S. is facing a structural deficit of workers in the trades. (axios.com)These apprenticeships are luring applicants away from four-year colleges. (wsj.com)Librarians are getting dragged into the culture wars. (msn.com)PolicyJust how 'great' was the 'Great Recession'? (bloomberg.com)Red states are in full-blow revolt against their Blue metro areas. (fivethirtyeight.com)The pandemic gave us all a taste of car-free streets. (washingtonpost.com)Alex Jones is doing all he can to not pay Sandy Hook families. (nytimes.com)Medicare Advantage plan decisions are being made using AI. (statnews.com)A majority of U.S. gun deaths are due to suicide. (theconversation.com)GlobalThere's no guarantee that Ukrainian children will ever return. (theconversation.com)Why the Anglosphere has much less dense housing. (wsj.com)EconomyAre bank failures actually helping the Fed crush inflation? (tker.co)The economic schedule for the coming week. (calculatedriskblog.com)Earlier on Abnormal ReturnsTop clicks last week on the site. (abnormalreturns.com)Why seemingly impossible things happen all the time. (abnormalreturns.com)What you missed in our Saturday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)Don’t waste your emotional capital investing out of spite. (abnormalreturns.com)Are you a financial adviser looking for some out-of-the-box thinking? Then check out our weekly e-mail newsletter. (newsletter.abnormalreturns.com)Mixed mediaYouTube creators continue to take share from the entertainment industry. (ben-evans.com)So much of what we see online is profit-driven junk. (seths.blog)Why you should reduce your news consumption. (artofmanliness.com).....»»

Is The US Funding An Experiment In Digital Control In Ukraine? Authored by Marie Hawthorne via The Organic Prepper blog, Fighting between Russia and Ukraine has been going on for a little over a year now, ending the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men and displacing millions.  Ukraine’s Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, invited Western arms manufacturers to test their newest weapons against Russians in 2022. And indeed, all kinds of weaponry have been flowing into Ukraine.  It is truly a testing ground. So, this begs the question, is anything else getting tested there?  The Ukrainian government seems pretty willing to use its own citizens as guinea pigs, and the American government seems pretty willing to foot the bill.  Are American tax dollars going to any other interesting projects? Here’s what the US is funding in Ukraine. Yes, actually.  Volodymyr Zelensky became president of Ukraine in May 2019, and almost immediately he introduced his idea of a “country in a smartphone.” In early September 2019, Ukraine launched its Ministry of Digital Transformation, headed by a World Economic Forum participant, Mykhailo Fedorov  According to Federov, the goal of this new government department was to streamline government services, making it easier to apply for driver’s licenses, passports, and so on.  Ukraine has long held the reputation as Europe’s most corrupt country, and young politicians like Federov want to take advantage of new technology to make changes. So, in early February 2020, the Ukrainian government launched its Diia app for smartphones.  Developed by volunteers from EPAM Systems, Diia has been touted as a way to streamline government services.  By 2021 it had allowed Ukraine to become the first European nation to accord digital passports and one of the first to issue digital drivers’ licenses.  Federov reported in 2021 that about one-fourth of the Ukrainian population was using it, and it was gaining in popularity.  As of January 2023, about half the adult Ukrainian population was using it. There is a positive side to streamlining government services.  Diia has allowed Ukrainians to easily start new businesses, making all the required government paperwork easily available.  I can see this being helpful for young entrepreneurs. However, negative consequences became readily apparent, too. Within a year of its launch, millions of Ukrainians found that their personal data, such as driver’s licenses, social media information, and banking information, were being traded online.  There’s always been the risk of losing your wallet and your driver’s license, but with everything online, the risks of fraud and identity theft increase astronomically. Early on in his presidency, Zelensky talked about streamlining the voting process via the app.  Aside from the fact that experts have never agreed about the safety of online voting, by July 2022, Zelensky had banned political opposition parties and shut down media companies with alternative views. Having one central app that controls everyone’s important documents makes it far easier for any ruling party to maintain its power. Controlling elections is only the beginning.  Diia launched in February 2020, and by March 2020, Diia was helping the Ukrainian government enforce its lockdown policies, as discussed in the recent report by Redacted. The Redacted report shows portions of various WEF summits and at 2:06 has a clip of a WEF paper saying, “This digital identity determines what products, services, and information we can access—or conversely, what is closed off to us.”  Diia (and other digital identity products) have been marketed as a convenience, but don’t be fooled.  Developers of this technology have seen their potential as a control mechanism from the beginning. The Redacted report also shows clips of Federov speaking at the 2021 WEF summit, and at 5:40 he openly admits that the pandemic allowed the Ukrainian government to speed up Ukraine’s digital transformation.  “The pandemic has accelerated our progress,” says Federov.  “People are really now demanding digital online services.  People have no choice but to trust technology.” The Redacted report traces Diia’s transformation from a convenient service to a military tool.  At 6:39, they discuss an interview in Wired with Anton Melnyk, an adviser in Ukraine’s Ministry for Digital Transformation.  In March 2022, Dr. Melnyk stated, “We have restructured the Ministry of Digital Transformation into a clear military organization.” Wartime features in an app Shortly after the Russian invasion, Diia added all kinds of new wartime features.  Ukrainians can report Russian troop movements through Diia’s chatbot, eVorog (eEnemy).  Ukrainians can receive government payments even if they’re displaced.  But Diia doesn’t stop there. Diia encourages citizens to snitch on their neighbors.  The wartime features allow any citizen to anonymously accuse any other citizen of being a Russian collaborator.  Stalin’s rule in the Soviet Union demonstrated how wrong this can go.  Ukrainians hate Stalin, and rightfully so.  But using cutting-edge technology to encourage the exact same kind of community-destroying snitching is a page right out of his playbook.  Between the snitching and its one official, government-approved news station, Diia is rapidly becoming Stalin in a smartphone. Here’s why Americans should care. In case you’re wondering why we should care about the ins and outs of Ukrainian bureaucracy, there are two big reasons worth paying attention to this.  The first is that Americans have been paying for much of the technical development.  The second is that the “government in a smartphone” concept is rapidly spreading around the world. USAID has been supporting Ukraine’s digital transformation since 2016.  The volunteers that developed Diia were Ukrainians working with EPAM Systems, a software engineering company based in Pennsylvania.  And EPAM Systems may be a private company, but USAID isn’t. It’s taxpayer-funded. After the Russian invasion, USAID donated another $8.5 million to Ukraine to help develop Diia’s wartime features.  USAID director Samantha Power spoke at the World Economic Forum in 2023, touting Diia’s success.  She and Federov both talked about the huge successes and discussed sharing Diia’s model with other countries.  Incidentally, Samantha Power is married to Cass Sunstein, the author of Nudge and a number of other books that some might consider pro-social-manipulation. Power has stated that USAID intends to look for leaders in developing nations that have been running on anti-corruption platforms and sharing Diia-like technology with them to help modernize their countries.  She specifically cited Zambia, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. In January, Estonia announced that they would begin trial runs of their mRiik app, modeled after Ukraine’s Diia. And, of course, all of this sounds very loving and charitable. However, it’s impossible to ignore the financial incentives. The digital shift in America The U.S. got a giant shove online when lockdowns were enforced in 2020 and 2021.  The U.S.’s “digital transformation,” even though it was only partial, still made already-wealthy tech companies even wealthier. Even though billionaire wealth can fluctuate pretty dramatically, by the end of 2022, American billionaires were still 50% richer than pre-pandemic. Lovers of free-market economics will point out that increased technological ability is a rising wave that lifts everyone.  That can be true, but ask yourself, are most people you know 50% richer than before the pandemic?  Probably not.  Our lives have been getting pushed online over the past few years.  Some people profited, but the quality of life of the average citizen decreased. Combine the shift to a digital world with the reconstruction after wartime destruction, and you see huge opportunities for profit.  It’s estimated that rebuilding Ukraine, so far, will cost over $1 trillion.  Zelensky and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink have already come to an agreement about managing the rebuilding of Ukraine.  USAID may be charitable, but BlackRock isn’t.  Ukraine is in the process of being destroyed and being rebuilt.  This is going to be hugely profitable for certain people, and Big Tech seems to be intent on getting their slice of the pie. This kind of thing isn’t new.  Brigadier General Smedley Butler, combat veteran and Medal of Honor recipient, wrote War Is a Racket back in the 1930s.  The book is full of examples of industries generating huge wartime profits in conflicts a hundred years ago.  War profiteering isn’t new. It isn’t a conspiracy. It’s human nature. There’s no reason not to think that the same powerful Big Tech figures will not continue to push the expansion of their businesses by pushing life around the world online, with or without violent conflict. Will we all be pushed into government-by-smartphone? Maybe some emerging markets will be helped by Diia-like apps.  But what about countries that already had reasonably safe and secure government services?  Will functional governments be pushed onto a smartphone? It’s likely, though not imminent.  The Improving Digital Identity Act of 2021 is in Congress right now. There are a few versions of it under review. The Senate version actually states that the government cannot require digital identity for any kind of transaction. Americans are still, on average, relatively concerned about privacy and the concentration of power.  The many concerns surrounding Centralized Bank Digital Currencies apply to digital identification, as well.  The OP ran an article last month discussing the total loss of anonymity that will occur when CBDCs become implemented. And there are other, less discussed applications.  Look at geofencing.  A federal district judge just issued a first-ever “geofencing” warrant for anyone in the vicinity of the Capitol on January 6.  This gave police the authority to search the cell phone data of every American whose coordinates happened to be in the area, regardless of whether or not they had anything to do with the shenanigans at the Capitol. Imagine if they could pull your driver’s license or freeze your bank account, too.  Right now, that’s not possible. With all of your important documents linked to something like Diia, it could be. Here’s how it could unfold. I don’t think we will all be forced onto something like Diia in the space of a year, but I think we’re at the beginning of a certain chain of events.  Digital IDs begin to be offered as a convenience, they become popular, they begin to be preferred by businesses and governments, and we eventually lose the option of physical IDs.  And, of course, some kind of crisis (climate change, another pandemic, a hot war) could speed this up more quickly, as happened in Ukraine. The tools to implement a CBDC linked to a digital identity are already out there.  Look at China’s social credit system.  It’s technically possible for us, too. It sounds crazy, but conspiracy theorists have been proven correct so consistently lately I don’t think skepticism regarding these new, profitable technologies is unreasonable. How to retain our privacy We need to remember that life’s about more than convenience.  It’s about the freedom to try new things, some of which will fail spectacularly and some of which will lead to resounding successes.  That combination of failure and success is what leads to the deeper insights that make most of us into interesting people.  If we continue to trade privacy for convenience, we may find we don’t have much freedom left, either. If we want to retain some measure of privacy and control over our own lives, if we want to avoid the techno-prison currently being constructed for us, if Americans don’t want our own “Stalin in a smartphone,” we need to avoid feeding the digital beast.  Yes, it’s hard, and no, it’s not going to be realistic for 99.9% of us to live completely offline.  But we can keep our friendships and purchases offline as much as possible.  We can drag our feet when it comes to getting the newest smart gadgets.  Perhaps most importantly, those of us with teenagers and young adults can spend time explaining our privacy concerns to the younger generation, so they try to live life offline, as well. The digital prison is being constructed, but it’s by no means done yet.  Grand plans like “government in a smartphone” always fall apart at some point.  The problems with Diia are obvious to anyone paying attention.  If enough of us can postpone moving everything online, hopefully, this impetus will collapse on its own. Tyler Durden Sun, 03/19/2023 - 07:00.....»»

I used to be a freelance writer. Now I'm a prompt engineer helping optimize generative AI tech. Here's what I've learned. Anna Bernstein is a prompt engineer at Copy.ai.Courtesy of Anna Bernstein Anna Bernstein is a prompt engineer at Copy.ai, which makes AI tools to generate blog posts and emails. Her job is to write prompts to train the bot to generate high quality, accurate writing.  Here are three tips on how to write prompts to get the best outcomes from AI.  This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Anna Berstein, a 29-year-old prompt engineer at the generative AI firm Copy.ai based in New York. The following has been edited for length and clarity.When I was a freelance writer and historical research assistant, I spent a lot of my time scrolling through microfiche in libraries. Now I'm a prompt engineer helping to optimize the most cutting edge technology in the world.My journey into prompt engineering began in the summer of 2021, when I met a guy at a jazz bar who, at the time, worked for Copy.ai, which makes an AI tool that can generate copy for blogs, sales emails, and social media posts.He mentioned that Copy.ai — run on OpenAI's GPT-3 language model — was having some trouble with the quality of its outputs and asked if I wanted to take a stab at being a prompt person. I didn't like the stress of freelancing — plus it seemed fascinating — so I said yes, even though I was an English major and had zero background in tech.Soon after, I got offered a one-month contract to work on executing different types of tone. At first, I barely knew what I was doing. But then the founder explained that prompting is kind of like writing a spell: If you say the spell slightly wrong, a slightly wrong thing could happen — and vice versa. Taking his advice, I managed to come up with a solution for better tone adherence, which led to a full-time job offer at the company. Since then, the scope of my job has grown. I now help improve existing tools and create new ones with the goal of getting the AI to spit out the best responses for users. In practice, I spend my days writing text-based prompts — which I can't reveal due to my NDA — that I feed into the backend of the AI tools so they can do things like generate a blog post that is high quality, grammatically correct, and accurate. I do this by designing the text around a user's request. In very simplified terms, a user types something like "Write a product description about a pair of sneakers" which I receive on the backend. It's my job, then, to write prompts that can get that query to generate the best output through:Instruction, or "Write a product description about this"Example-following, or "Here are some good product descriptions, write one like this about this"In addition to the pure prompt-engineering part of my job, I also advise on how the models behave, why they might behave the way they do, which model to use, whether we can make a specific tool or not, and what approach we should take to do that. I love the "mad scientist" part of the job where I'm able to come up with a really dumb idea for a prompt, and see it actually work. As a poet, the role also feeds into my obsessive nature with approaching language. It's a really strange intersection of my literary background and analytical thinking. The job, however, is unpredictable. New language models come out all the time, which means I'm always having to readjust my prompts. The work itself can be tedious. There are days when I'm obsessively changing and testing a single prompt for hours — sometimes even weeks on end —  just so I can get them to work. At the same time, its exciting to not know what's coming next. Aside from people at parties not understanding my job, one of the big misconceptions I've noticed around AI is the idea that it is sentient, when it's not. When it tries to talk about being an AI, we freak out, because we see so many of our fears reflected in what it's saying. But that's because it's trained on our fears informed by scary, sci-fi like depictions of AI.While writing good prompts is easy to pick up, it's actually difficult to master. Getting the AI to do what you want it to do takes trial and error, and with time, I've picked up weird strategies along the way; some of my prompts are really wild in structure.Here are some tips that can help you develop better prompts:1. Utilize a thesaurus. Don't give up on a concept just because your first wording didn't get the result you want. Oftentimes, the right word or phrasing can unlock what you're doing.2. Pay attention to your verbs. If you want the AI to fully understand your request, make sure your prompt includes a verb that clearly expresses your intent. For instance, "Rewrite this to be shorter" is more powerful than "Condense this."3. ChatGPT is great at intent, so use that. Introduce what you're trying to do clearly from the beginning, and play around with wording, tense, and approach. You can try "Today, we're going to write an XYZ" or "We're trying to write an XYZ and we'd like your input." Putting an umbrella of intent over what you're doing is always useful, and playing around with different ways to do that can make a big difference.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Grant Sabatier, 38, became a millionaire after the Great Financial Crisis. He says the key to wealth goes well beyond market timing. Grant Sabatier, the author of "Financial Freedom."Courtesy of Grant Sabatier Grant Sabatier, 38, became a self-made millionaire in five years. He hustled, cut expenses, and benefitted from one of the strongest bull markets in history. Sabatier says that economic uncertainty has created an "incredible opportunity to invest," but that there's more to building wealth than timing the market. In 2010, Grant Sabatier had less than $5 to his name. But just five years later, at age 30, he had accumulated a nest egg of $1.25 million which allowed him to retire early — and go on to author the book "Financial Freedom", the blog "Millennial Money", and co-found BankBonus.com.Sabatier, who is now 38 years old, said that he saw his wealth grow in part because he was lucky enough to invest during the stock market's surge over the past decade-plus."I was the beneficiary of one of the greatest bull markets in history," he told Insider.But he says buying the dip at the right time isn't all it takes to build wealth, and that it should be supplemented with lifestyle changes and side hustles that increase your income. Sabatier says that he's seen many people "obsess about cutting back" on spending and make cuts that are "unsustainable and make them unhappy" — that's among the reasons he recommends people focus more of their energies on boosting their earnings."There's a limit to how much you can cut back, but not a limit to how much money you can make," he said. "I wish more people focused on the upside, rather than mitigating the downside."Since fears of a recession spiked last year, some investors have begun preparing to capitalize on the next market downturn and become "recession millionaires." While the economy and the stock market don't always rise and fall in tandem, historically, a struggling economy has provided investors with opportunities to buy stocks on the cheap.When Sabatier began investing in 2010, the US economy had already emerged from the Great Recession, and the stock market had recovered some of its losses. But the S&P 500 was still well below its 2007 peak, and Sabatier was able to ride the market wave over the next decade. From March 2009 to March 2020, the S&P 500 gained over 400% — the longest bull market run in US history.While Sabatier recognizes the major role the stock market's surge played in his personal wealth building, he ultimately attributes his financial success to the steps he took to make additional money and cut expenses over a decade ago. That's because in order to have any chance at capitalizing on a down market and generating big returns down the road, he says one has to have the money to invest in the first place.Sabatier says growing one's skills, negotiating a higher salary, starting a side business, and reading books about investing or entrepreneurship are good ways people can put themselves on a path to earning additional income.In addition to his $50,000 digital-marketing job, Sabatier took on side hustles that included building websites, flipping domain names, pet-sitting, selling concert tickets, and flipping vintage mopeds. This helped him increase his income to well over six figures per year."If you want to reach financial independence as quickly as possible, you're going to need to up your side hustle game," Sabatier told Insider last year.In his mid-20s, Sabatier said that he put roughly 80% of his earnings into index funds — and he recommends that young Americans invest "as much as you can now.""You'll come out ahead over the next 10, 20, and 30-plus years," he said, adding that, "the best time to start investing was yesterday. The second best time is today."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

On Saturdays we catch up with the non-finance related items that we didn’t get to earlier in the week. You can check... EnergyWhy it makes sense to float solar panels in reservoirs. (wired.com)How data center heat could be used to heat swimming pools. (theverge.com)EnvironmentThe EPA is set to limit 'forever chemicals' in drinking water. (npr.org)Debunking the 'natural' explanations for rising global temperatures. (arstechnica.com)Why so many of Canada's tornadoes go unseen. (nytimes.com)California ski resorts are seeing snow up to their ski lifts. (washingtonpost.com)Conditions are changing so quickly that forests can't keep up. (npr.org)Americans are increasingly choosing cremation over burial. Composting comes next. (economist.com)Why doesn't the U.S. recycle batteries? (reasonstobecheerful.world)AnimalsDid you know lions prowled North America for millennia before going extinct? (hakaimagazine.com)The Maine Lobstermen's Association is suing the Monterey Bay Aquarium for defamation. (npr.org)How eating invasive Asian carp could help keep their populations in check. (wired.com)What genetics tell us about the domestication of the donkey. (nytimes.com)SquidSquid thrive in warmer water, and the oceans are getting warmer. (bloomberg.com)Squid fishing is booming and largely unregulated. (newscientist.com)Do we really want 'squid farms'? (bbc.com)TechnologyDoes Tim Cook really want to launch a new risky product line before he leaves Apple ($AAPL)? (daringfireball.net)Passwords are flawed and these company policies make them worse. (wsj.com)Uno is a new entrant to the password game. (insidehook.com)3-D printing is thriving in these industries. (theguardian.com)BehaviorKetamine Wellness Centers has abruptly shuttered. (statnews.com)Teen mental health issues started before the introduction of the smartphone. (biblioracle.substack.com)The evidence for seasonal depression is weaker than you think. (msn.com)Just how stable are personalities over time? (psyche.co)Six things to increase your attention span including 'the downside of interruptions.' (bakadesuyo.com)How to show up for someone in crisis. (tim.blog)CovidSome evidence puts SARS-CoV-2 in raccoon dogs in the Wuhan wet market in January 2020. (nytimes.com)Don't kid yourself. There is plenty we still don't know about Covid-19. (wsj.com)Paxlovid is headed toward full FDA approval. (cnn.com)What we know, and don't, about long Covid. (vox.com)How to prepare for the next pandemic including a 'CDC reset.' (nytimes.com)Pandemics end when people stop paying attention. (fastcompany.com)PharmaceuticalsThe FDA has approved a new nasal spray as a rapid treatment for migraine pain in adults. (cnn.com)Novo Nordisk ($NVO) has cut prices for insulin. (biopharmadive.com)Sanofi-Aventis ($SNY) is also capping insulin prices. (cnn.com)Statin takers now have an alternative. (npr.org)HealthWhy finding causality in health data is challenging. (parentdata.org)Research shows 'watchful waiting' is a proven approach to prostate cancer. (statnews.com)Is saliva the future of cancer detection? (knowablemagazine.org)Why it doesn't make sense to treat a mild fever. (sciencedaily.com)The norovirus is nasty and hard to avoid. (scientificamerican.com)FoodWeight Watchers ($WW) is shifting its focus as it closes locations and embraces obesity drugs. (axios.com)Americans are losing interest in the Instant Pot. (wsj.com)More evidence in favor of the Mediterranean diet. (fatherly.com)Don't think that being a pescetarian is cost-free. (vox.com)America has a sandwich problem. (wsj.com)EntertainmentCable news viewers are shifting their viewing from evenings to afternoons. (nytimes.com)Movie theaters are redesigning their seating and offerings to attract moviegoers. (axios.com)SportsThe NBA is looking for big jumps in their new media rights deals. (theinformation.com)Why reaching the Champions League is so important for EPL franchises. (sportico.com)Joe Pompliano talks with DraftKings ($DKNG) CEO Jason Robins. (huddleup.substack.com)Like the NFL, MLB takes a dim view of its retirees. (humbledollar.com)Earlier on Abnormal ReturnsWhat you missed in our Friday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)Podcast links: third places. (abnormalreturns.com)Don’t waste your emotional capital investing out of spite. (abnormalreturns.com)Are you a financial adviser looking for some out-of-the-box thinking? Then check out our weekly e-mail newsletter. (newsletter.abnormalreturns.com)Mixed mediaHow GPT-4 is an upgrade over ChatGPT. (nytimes.com)Why we will still value human made art. (wired.com)On the 25th anniversary of kottke.org. (kottke.org).....»»

The celebrity-backed chain sells Nashville-style hot chicken tenders in seven spice levels. It opened its first store in Washington DC in early March. The grease-stained receipts show the spice level of each tender.Nancy Luna/Insider Dave's Hot Chicken was named the fastest-growing chain in the US last year. In 2023, the chain is on track to launch up to 75 locations. It opened its first store in Washington DC in March.  The chain, backed by celebrities Drake and Samuel L. Jackson, sells Nashville-style hot chicken tenders and sliders, as well as crinkle-cut fries and macaroni and cheese.  I tried all spice levels, except the Reaper, seasoned with the hottest chili in the world. Those who dare try the palate-scorching Reaper must sign a waiver.  About 100,000 risk-takers have signed the chain's waiver.  In 2022, Dave's Hot Chicken was named the fastest growing chain in the US.Nancy Luna/InsiderThe concept was founded in 2017 by stand-up comedian Arman Oganesyan, Dave Kopushyan and brothers Tommy and Gary Rubenyan. The first location was a pop-up restaurant set up in a parking lot in East Hollywood, California.The founders promoted the pop-up on Instagram.Dave's Hot ChickenThe founders loved fried chicken, so they decided on a Nashville-style hot chicken concept. Dave Kopushyan, who previously worked as a sous chef at celebrity chef Thomas Keller's Bouchon, developed the recipes.Dave Kopushyan, dressed in a red apron, worked in fine dining.Dave's Hot ChickenThe Nashville-style hot chicken chain began its fast ascent in 2021. It started the year with seven locations.A Dave's Hot Chicken in Anaheim, California.Nancy Luna/InsiderThe chain finished 2021 with 40 stores. Sales grew by 262% to $79.6 million. In 2022, the fast-casual brand opened 62 restaurants, including its first location in Manhattan.Dave's Hot ChickenSource: TechnomicIn early March 2023, Dave's opened its first location in Washington DC.Dave's Hot Chicken opened its first store in Washington DC in early March.Dave's Hot ChickenDave's Hot Chicken keeps its menu simple. It sells chicken tenders with soft white bread, or in a slider. Sides include fries, cheese fries, macaroni and cheese, kale slaw, sodas, and milkshakes.Nancy Luna/InsiderThe chain offers seven heat options - no spice, lite mild, mild, medium, hot, extra hot, and Reaper. Medium is the most popular choice.Nancy Luna/InsiderThe hottest level is made with the Carolina Reaper pepper, which is the hottest pepper in the world. On the Scoville scale, the Reaper average is 1,641,183 heat units.Dave's Hot ChickenSource: Guinness World RecordsI visited a Dave's Hot Chicken in Anaheim, California. The Los Angeles Angels and Anaheim Ducks play nearby. My intention was to try all spice levels...Insider reporter Nancy Luna tries Dave’s Hot Chicken in Anaheim, California.Nancy Luna/Insider...but, I chickened out on the palate-scorching Reaper after learning I'd have to sign a "eat at your own risk" liability waiver.  "Yes, it's that hot" and could cause harm or "even death," the waiver states.A portion of the waiver states, eating the Reaper can cause harm, including, "but not limited to, bodily injury, property damage, emotional distress, or even death."Nancy Luna/InsiderStill, Americans are obsessing over spicy hot fried chicken. Between 2019 and 2022, there's been a 52% increase in searches for hot chicken on Yelp.Yelp said the top 5 states with the highest searches for hot chicken are Tennessee, California, Texas, Nevada, and Kentucky.Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for NYCWFFSource: YelpAccording to DoorDash, there are an estimated 2,900 brands on its app selling Nashville hot chicken or fried spicy chicken items on menus across 28,200 stores in the US.ScreenshotDave's Hot Chicken went from a local hangout to a destination phenomenon in May 2017 after a rave review by popular Eater blog editor Farley Elliott. The headline: "East Hollywood's Late Night Hot Chicken Stand Might Blow Your Mind."ScreenshotIn 2018, the founders opened their first brick-and-mortar location in Los Angeles.Dave's Hot ChickenVeteran restaurateur Bill Phelps, the co-founder of Wetzel's Pretzels, discovered the chain in 2018. Phelps invested and became the CEO that same year.Bill PhelpsPhoto by Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesPhelps knows a thing or two about hot brands. He was an early investor in Blaze Pizza. The build-your-own pizza chain is backed by LeBron James and was one of the fastest-growing restaurants in the US in 2017.LeBron JamesScreenshot via Blaze Pizza/YouTubeSource: Nation's Restaurant NewsCelebrity investors helped drive the early success of Dave's Hot Chicken. Backers include Michael Strahan, Samuel L. Jackson, Maria Shriver, Drake, and Boston Red Sox owner Tom Werner.Michael StrahanGetty ImagesLos Angeles street artists Splatter Haus and Dehmq create the art at each restaurant. The restaurant's decor pays homage to the pop-up's graffiti surroundings.Nancy Luna/InsiderEach location also pays tribute to the local community. In Anaheim, California, the chain's rubber chicken mascot "Dave" is shown as a Los Angeles Angels baseball player and a Ducks hockey player.Nancy Luna/InsiderThe Anaheim restaurant promotes its late-night hours with a neon sign. Select locations sell beer, wine, and hard seltzers.Nancy Luna/InsiderOrdering at Dave's is easy, especially if you want to try different spice levels. The two-item combo allows you to pick two heat options. I sampled in ascending order, starting with no spice, lite mild, mild, and medium.Nancy Luna/InsiderThe no-spice tender looks like a jumbo version of a Raising Cane's tender, which I previously considered big and juicy...Nancy Luna/Insider...so I decided to compare the two. There was no comparison. Dave's tenders are much bigger and juicer than the strips at Raising Cane's, shown right.Dave's Hot Chicken, left, is much bigger than Raising Cane's, right.Nancy Luna/InsiderDave's Hot Chicken comes with its proprietary dipping sauce. It is tangy and tasty, but not as addictive as the sauce at Raising Cane's.Nancy Luna/InsiderAs you go up in spice levels, the breading's red hues grow deeper. The cashier told me she can "smell" the heat levels as each meal is served.Nancy Luna/InsiderI like spice, but not the kind that destroys my palate. I found I could handle the medium heat. One bite of the hot and extra hot tenders was enough for me. The no-spice and lite mild versions are a safe bet for children or those leery of too much heat.Dave's didn't go for burning throats in the early days. Initially, they had two spice levels: mild and hot.Nancy Luna/InsiderI passed on the Reaper, but I met a heat-loving foodie named Adam Cali, left, during my visit. He and his friend Marcus Vega both work at Angel Stadium, across the street from Dave's. Cali previously tried the Reaper.Dave's key demographic are males, ages 15 to 35.Nancy Luna/Insider  Cali is among over 100,000 risk-takers who have signed the Reaper waiver. He told me it caused him to consume "lots" of water over 15-20 minutes. Once was enough. His go-to heat levels are now medium and hot.Dave's Hot ChickenDave's labels the spice levels so there's no mistaking what you are biting into. Meals are made to order. The average check is $21.The grease-stained receipts show the spice level of each tender.Nancy Luna/InsiderMake sure you dip the tender in either Dave's sauce or honey. Dave's provides extra packets of honey or sauce for free.Nancy Luna/InsiderThe single tender cost $4.69. It comes with a slice of soft white bread, a traditional presentation at hot chicken joints in Nashville.Nancy Luna/InsiderI tried the chocolate shake, which was not very chocolatey. But the ice-cold shake does acts as a nice palate cleanser as you move up in spice levels.Nancy Luna/InsiderI'm a big fan of crinkle-cut fries, but these were a bit soggy. I like my fries to be super crispy. The thick-cut dill pickles, on the other hand, were crunchy and tangy.Nancy Luna/InsiderThe sides at Dave's are underwhelming but I'm not a big fan of macaroni and cheese and kale slaw. The slaw works best with the slider, and the very cheesy mac dish is a solid choice for children.Nancy Luna/InsiderI did enjoy the cheese-slathered fries. Make sure you drizzle the fries in Dave's sauce.Nancy Luna/InsiderOverall, I preferred the sliders over the tenders. For spice-leery hot chicken novices, I would recommend ordering the lite mild or mild.Insider reporter Nancy Luna tries Dave’s Hot ChickenNancy Luna/InsiderThe soft spongy potato buns layered with the spicy tender, crinkle-cut pickles, slaw, and Dave's sauce provide a more complex bite.Dave's Hot Chicken uses the same bun supplier, Martin's, as Shake Shack.Nancy Luna/InsiderI loved the restaurant's head-spinning artwork because it tells a story about the brand. This wall, shown, explains how the cofounders cobbled together $900 for the East Hollywood pop-up, which paid for tables and fryers.Nancy Luna/InsiderThe first pop-up made $40 on opening day. Today, the average Dave's Hot Chicken restaurant generates about $3.4 million in annual sales. By comparison, McDonald's restaurants average $4 million in annual sales.Dave's Hot Chicken fans gobble their food at the original parking lot pop-up.Dave's Hot ChickenSource: Technomic and InsiderThis year, Dave's Hot Chicken is on track to open 70 to 75 locations in major markets in the US and Canada, including Washington, DC, Toronto, Brooklyn, Miami, Philadelphia, and Boston. The chain plans to add 700 restaurants over the next 10 years.Dave's Hot ChickenOverall, the jumbo tenders and the graffiti wall murals are the showstoppers at Dave's. The chain's made-to-order foods are prepared with high-quality ingredients. It reminds me of the early days of Shake Shack, one of the best better burger chains in the US. I expect Dave's to grow its fan base as it builds its hot fried chicken empire around the US.Nancy Luna/InsiderRead the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Carmakers are expanding their color schemes to include more subdued shades inspired by nature to meet growing demand for subdued, non-flashy hues. Rivian launched its "Earth Tones" palette in 2022, inspired by "greens from Pacific Northwest forests" and "reds and oranges from Colorado hills and canyons."Rivian Earthy, muted shades are becoming increasingly popular among car buyers, according to the LA Times.  Brands from Jaguar and Rivian to Jeep have recently launched new subdued, matte palettes.  The colors are a marked departure from the metallic, shiny paint used on many traditional cars.  Gone are the days of gleaming, metallic cars that shimmer in the sunlight — nowadays, car buyers are seeking out new rides in subdued earth tones.The muted cars are suddenly popping up everywhere, lining freeways and parking lots in unassuming shades of gray, black, brown, tan, and green. According to the Los Angeles Times, the trend first hit the streets in 2013 when Audi debuted its popular Nardo Gray hue, but it's accelerated in recent years as demand for the colors grows.Now, carmakers from Jaguar to Jeep have broadened their color schemes to include these matte shades, enticing car buyers with nature-themed hues like "Red Canyon" and "Glacier White" — shades within Rivian's "Earth Tones" palette launched in February 2022. "What we might also refer to as 'flat,' matte finishes don't shine like traditional car finishes," Kelley Blue Book wrote in a 2022 blog describing the trend. "The term 'stealth' comes to mind when we see a car in matte gray or matte black. 'Hot' pops into our heads when the matte finish is in another color."But be warned – the buzzy shades aren't cheap. The hues typically are available only for select cars, often luxury models and sports cars, and can mean upcharges of anywhere from $400 to $10,000, according to the Los Angeles Times......»»

Homebuyers believe personal notes with grand promises and cool fonts will win them a house. They work, but they're more problematic than you'd think. iStock; Robyn Phelps/Insider Some home bidders write personal letters to sellers to win their favor and get their dream house. Buyers may feel "love letters" help them win bidding wars, but they also pose big problems. Buyers can lie, sellers may unconsciously discriminate, and brokers could get in legal trouble. When Lauren Byington and husband, Warren, listed their home outside San Antonio, Texas, for sale in 2020, she was relieved when they quickly received three offers close to the full asking price of $975,000. One prospective buyer, though, included a letter with her bid that described how she hoped to raise her family in the house. Moved by the note, dubbed a "love letter" in real-estate parlance, Byington decided to sell the house to her.What the letter left out: The bidder was going through a divorce, which ultimately resulted in her loan preapproval being rescinded. Byington was disappointed that the buyer intentionally omitted a major issue with financing, telling Insider she wished she had evaluated each bid by the numbers and not been swayed by a letter."She loved the house, but also said she loved it for her children," Byington said. "She really sold me." Over the past 10 years, as the housing market has grown ever more competitive, buyers have turned letters into a powerful tool to persuade sellers to pick them. Though there's no data on the prevalence or effectiveness of these personalized notes, their use spiked when low mortgage rates drove a homebuying spree between 2020 and 2022, and frantic buyers seized upon any way to stand out in bidding wars. Now, even as home prices cool, buyers continue to find themselves pitted against one another, particularly for affordable homes in desirable areas. But these letters are as problematic as they are ubiquitous, according to real-estate agents, lawyers, buyers, and sellers. Sharing information about a buyer's race, marital status, and other personal details can create a situation where a seller consciously (or unconsciously) makes a decision to sell to someone based on bias. There's potential for seller discrimination and, crucially, violations of federal laws around fair housing. A smaller but still meaningful risk is that buyers can stretch the truth in order to score a home, and elderly or otherwise vulnerable sellers might be too easily manipulated by pulled heartstrings rather than impartial bids. Brokers representing a seller accused of declining a buyer offer due to bias could even find themselves in legal trouble. The problems loom so large that many real-estate brokers — including Byington, who has since become a licensed real-estate agent in Texas — advise against writing love letters at all. (The country's biggest professional association of real-estate agents, the 1.5 million-member National Association of Realtors, also discourages the practice.) Byington said that she will even make her buyer clients sign a waiver that frees her from any connection with the letter if a buyer insists on including one in an offer."So much of your buyers' behaviors translate on to you, to your work, and to your professional sphere," she said. "I can't really get behind whatever emotions or facts they're going to divulge." The irresistible temptation of love letters Buyers, scrambling for a sense of control and power in what can feel like a frustrating process, truly believe love letters work — and are thrilled to share their successes.Take Elizabeth Scire, who carefully crafted a short note to convince the sellers of a pink house two doors down from her mom's property in North Carolina to choose her. She told them she had nicknamed it The Barbie House as a child because of its hue.Elizabeth Scire's "Barbie House" love letter to the seller.Elizabeth Scire"I formatted it with a typewriter font like it's more personal, and used some pink with the actual Barbie font. I put the quote, 'Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices,'" she said. "They had an investor offer for $25,000 above and they went with ours because of the letter."She got the house, moved in last May, and has even put a "Barbie House" sign out front.Indeed, the love letter has become such a widely accepted part of successfully buying real estate that entrepreneurs see it as an opportunity to make some extra cash. Many Etsy sellers hawk colorful templates, priced anywhere from $2 for a single PDF to $45 for a bundle, that homebuyers can use when submitting an offer. A West Coast-based designer told Insider that managing his Etsy shop as a side hustle brings in steady revenue. He said his $10 templates' aesthetically pleasing and professional appearance is just one more way for buyers to show a seller that they're putting thought and care into their offer.The feedback has been "overwhelmingly positive," added the shop's owner, who asked that his name not be used because of privacy concerns, told Insider. "Customers have said that the home-offer-letter templates have made a huge difference in the homebuying process for them."A few of the homebuyer love-letter templates available for sale on Etsy.EtsyLove letters risk discrimination Deeply personal and emotionally written love letters, however, open sellers and their agents up to legal risks. In a 2020 blog post, the National Association of Realtors said love letters would be more accurately described as "liability letters."The NAR's official position is that sharing details in a letter that reveal familial and marriage status, religion, and gender orientation — groups of people known as protected classes — could sway a seller in one direction or another. Refusing to sell to someone for one of these reasons — or even picking one bidder because of empathy for their circumstances — could violate the Fair Housing Act. The crux is that a homeowner should be impartial when selling their house.The California Association of Realtors, which boasts a membership of over 200,000 real-estate agents, issued guidelines in 2020 on how to handle these letters and the potential risks that they pose. While it's not illegal to write them or share with a seller, it is illegal to treat buyers differently based on bias for or against protected classes or characteristics.Chantay Bridges, a Los Angeles-based realtor, told Insider that agents can get in big trouble, too, if the sellers they represent are accused of discrimination."People litigate for just about anything here in California," she said. "We started seeing a spike in complaints, and then they try to drag real-estate agents into it."In September 2021, Oregon became the first state to enact a law that banned the practice of writing or sharing real-estate love letters during the homebuying process. But in May 2022, a judge ruled that the law violated the constitutional right to freedom of speech and struck down the ban. The official organization of Oregon Realtors maintains that buyers and sellers should still refrain from the practice.The letters prey on emotion and vulnerabilityLove letters may contain little white lies from buyers and can be emotionally manipulative, especially when it comes to vulnerable or elderly sellers.Ilan and Sarah Harel put in an over-ask offer on a house in Pleasant Valley, New York, Natasha Solo-Lyons, a former Insider reporter, wrote in 2021. The Harels sent a letter to the sellers, expressing their love for the house and its on-site chicken coop. They even sent a photo of themselves inside the house, writing that they "couldn't wait to raise all their children and chickens" there.Here's the thing: The couple wanted neither children nor chickens. When the house was safely theirs, they sold the coop on Craigslist.Ilan and Sarah Harel's home in Pleasant Valley, New York.Ilan Harel PhotographySome tales are even humorous. In July 2022, the Twitter user @LeslieHunts bemoaned losing a house to a couple whose dog "wrote" a letter to the sellers. (The user didn't respond to a request to elaborate on the situation.)More grave, though, is the possibility that letters could be used to sway or convince elderly or otherwise vulnerable sellers to take an offer that may not be the best decision for them financially. Byington, who has personal experience feeling burned by a bidder, cautioned that divulging personal information could also backfire if a deal falls through and a seller believes a prospective buyer is at fault. "If the buyer was dealing with a mercurial seller who was livid at the fact that the funding didn't go through because of a disclosure issue," she said, "they could be dealing with someone who is not only very mad, but someone who now knows a lot of details about the buyer and their children's lives because of a letter."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Iran-Saudi Rapprochement Will Deal A Deathblow To The Dollar Authored by Andrew Korybko via The Automatic Earth blog, Eurasia’s geo-economic integration took a great leap forward as a result of the Iranian–Saudi rapprochement, which unlocks the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) trade potential with Russia and China. Its wealthy members can now tap into two series of Iranian-transiting megaprojects in one fell swoop through this deal, with the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) connecting them to Russia while the China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor (CCAWAEC) will do the same vis-à-vis China. The bloc’s de facto Saudi leader has been prioritizing a comprehensive economic reform policy known as “Vision 2030” that was introduced by Crown Prince and first-ever Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) upon his rise to power in 2015. It regrettably stumbled as a result of the disastrous Yemeni War that he’s been waging since that same year, but everything is now back on track and more promising than ever after securing $50 billion worth of investments from China last December. The People’s Republic regards Vision 2030 as complementary to its Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) due to MBS’ focus on real-sector investments for preemptively diversifying the Saudi economy away from its presently disproportionate dependence on oil exports. His country’s location at the crossroads of Afro-Eurasia also makes investments there extremely attractive from the perspective of China’s logistical interests, hence its massive commitment to his comprehensive economic reform policy. Without last week’s Beijing-brokered deal, China would have had to rely on maritime routes under the control of the powerful US Navy to facilitate the forthcoming explosion in bilateral real-sector trade, but now everything can be conducted much more securely via the Iranian-transiting CCAWAEC. Looking forward, there’s also a theoretical possibility of Chinese energy investments in Iran connecting the Gulf to Central Asia and thenceforth to the People’s Republic, thus fully securing its strategic interests. That’s still a far way’s off, if it even happens at all that is, but it nevertheless can’t be ruled out. Saudi Arabia’s desire to join BRICS and the SCO, which are the most influential multipolar organizations in the world right now, could turn this scenario into a reality a lot sooner than even the most optimistic observers might have expected. All of this in and of itself will herald a revolution in geo-economic affairs, and that’s even without Saudi Arabia having yet to throw its full support behind the “petroyuan”. Once this major oil exporter begins to sell its resources in non-dollar-denominated currencies like China’s, then the petrodollar upon which the economic-financial aspect of the US’ unipolar hegemony is predicated will be dealt a deathblow. The global systemic transition to multipolarity and the impending trifurcation of International Relations that will precede the final inevitable form of this process would unprecedentedly accelerate once this happens, thus further hastening America’s ongoing demise. About those aforementioned processes, they were already made irreversible by the special operation that Russia was forced to commence in defense of its national security red lines in Ukraine after NATO clandestinely crossed them there and subsequently rejected Moscow’s security guarantee requests for politically resolving their resultant security dilemma. Over the past year, the New York Times was forced to admit that not only did the sanctions fail, but even the plot to “isolate” Russia did too. These outcomes were largely the result of Russia’s example inspiring the Global South to rise up against neo-colonialism by refusing to comply with the demands placed upon them by the US-led West’s Golden Billion to unilaterally sacrifice their own interests simply to serve that de facto New Cold War bloc’s. India played the leading role in this respect due to its status as the world’s largest developing country, which gave comparatively medium- and smaller-sized ones the confidence to follow in its footsteps. That globally significant Great Power, which sits on the South Asian end of the NSTC that transits through Iran en route to Russia, also scaled up its purchases of discounted oil from Moscow to the point where its decades-long strategic partner is nowadays its largest supplier. Of crucial significance to the present analysis, a growing number of its deals are in non-dollar-denominated currencies, which sped up de-dollarization processes to such an extent that even Reuters felt compelled to write about this. Considering this newfound financial context, there’s no doubt that upcoming Saudi moves in support of the petroyuan that are taken in coordination with Iran and Russia would catalyze the next natural phase of de-dollarization. Russian-GCC real-sector trade that’ll be carried out via Iran across the NSTC will be conducted in national currencies and thus prepare those three for the moment when they finally decide to deal a deathblow to the petrodollar. All in all, it’s not hyperbole to declare that the dollar’s prior dominance is done for as a result of the Iranian-Saudi rapprochement. That Beijing-brokered deal makes this outcome an inevitability unless some subversive black swan event takes place such as a US-backed coup against MBS, though that’s unlikely to happen after he successfully consolidated his power in late 2017. With this in mind, it can confidently be declared that that last week’s development will be seen in hindsight as a game-changer. *  *  * Support the Automatic Earth via Patreon. Tyler Durden Sat, 03/18/2023 - 00:10.....»»

Funny Things Happen On The Way To "Restoring Financial Stability" Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, We can also predict that the next round of instability will be more severe than the previous bout of instability. Everyone is in favor of "doing whatever it takes" to "restore financial stability" when the house of cards starts swaying, but funny things happen on the way to "Restoring Financial Stability." Whatever "emergency measures" are rushed into service to "stabilize" an inherently unstable system resolve the immediate problem but opens unseen doors to new sources of instability that eventually trigger another round of systemic instability that must be addressed with more "emergency measures." These unintended consequences proliferate as policy extremes are pushed to new extremes, and "emergency measures" become permanent sources of the very instability they were supposed to eliminate. As @concodanomics recently observed on Twitter: "A major flaw of finance is that it nearly always mutates the very instruments meant to protect investors into crisis-inducing time bombs." Another major flaw in finance is the self-serving pressure applied by politically influential players to "enable innovation," a.k.a. new opportunities for skims and scams. The usual covers for these "innovations" are 1) deregulation ("growth" will result if we let "markets" self-regulate) and 2) technology (generating guaranteed profits by front-running the herd is now technically possible, so let's make it legal). Broadening the pool of punters who can be skimmed and scammed is also a favored form of financial "growth" and "innovation." "Democratizing markets" was the warm and fuzzy cover story for enabling everyone with a mobile phone to dabble in risk-on gambles with margin accounts (cash borrowed against a portfolio of stocks). Mixing "innovation," "democratizing markets" and "deregulation" enabled funny things like the FTX debacle, which admirably displayed every dynamic of our rickety tar-paper-shack of a financial system, a shelter that seems fine on a summer day but starts coming apart as soon as it rains: absurdly transparent influence-buying; Ponzi schemes presented as "innovative finance," insider dealing, corruption, fraud, malfeasance, shrill proclamations of innocence, etc. Unintended consequences have their own unintended consequences, a.k.a. second-order effects. So broadening the pool of people who qualified for a jumbo mortgage by lowering lending standards in the mid-2000s sounded very fine and progressive, i.e. "democratizing homeownership," but handing out jumbo mortgages to uncreditworthy households ended up "democratizing" fraud on such a scale that the ensuing collapse almost took down the entire global financial house of cards. To backstop the resulting mess, the Federal Reserve bought a couple trillion dollars of mortgage-backed securities and dropped mortgage rates to historic lows. These "saves" ended up (surprise!) inflating an even more extreme housing bubble which is currently popping, as all bubbles eventually do, with the usual devastating results to punters who were swept up in the "fear of missing out" frenzy that inflates bubbles. In real-time, it's not that easy to discern how the latest policy "fixes" are creating new perverse incentives and opening new loopholes for insiders to exploit. While we may not have clarity on the specifics, we can confidently predict that the latest policies to "restore financial stability" will create new perverse incentives and open new loopholes which will lead to the next round of panicky instability. We can also predict that the next round of instability will be more severe than the previous bout of instability. This is what happens when the system starts sliding down the backside of the S-Curve, and doing more of what worked in the past transforms into doing more of what's failed spectacularly. The irony is rather rich, isn't it? The policies rushed into service to "restore financial stability" insure the next round of financial instability will be even harder to stabilize, until the instability undergoes a phase change that puts it out of reach of all stabilization policies. Yes, the tar-paper shack is full of cracks that are widening as it settles deeper into the swamp, but no worries, we've got some financial reports right here we can stuff into the cracks. A few more rounds of "innovation," "democratizing markets" and policy "saves" and this place will be transformed into a palace, just you wait. *  *  * My new book is now available at a 10% discount ($8.95 ebook, $18 print): Self-Reliance in the 21st Century.  Read the first chapter for free (PDF) Become a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Tyler Durden Fri, 03/17/2023 - 16:20.....»»

FinanceWhy First Republic Bank ($FRC) isn't bouncing. (thebasispoint.com)WeWork ($WE) has reached a deal with Softbank to restructure its debt. (nytimes.com)Fidelity Crypto is now live. (theblock.co)SVBSVB didn't go bust because it was woke. (theverge.com)But poorly managed remote work maybe did. (axios.com)How the downfall of SVB could affect climate and biotech startups. (nature.com)Why many people want SVB to survive in some form or fashion. (semafor.com)Money moves so quickly making it hard to combat a bank run. (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com)The Fed is a bad bank regulator. (mattstoller.substack.com)Fund managementTiger Global wrote down the value of its venture portfolio by 33% in 2022. (wsj.com)Despite diversification efforts, private credit still drives Ares Management ($ARES). (institutionalinvestor.com)EconomyHas the banking crisis increased the odds of a recession? (axios.com)Industrial production was flat in February 2023. (calculatedriskblog.com)It's hard to run a semiconductor manufacturing plant without trained workers. (wsj.com)Earlier on Abnormal ReturnsPodcast links: third places. (abnormalreturns.com)What you missed in our Thursday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)Longform links: combating burnout. (abnormalreturns.com)Don’t waste your emotional capital investing out of spite. (abnormalreturns.com)Are you a financial adviser looking for some out-of-the-box thinking? Then check out our weekly e-mail newsletter. (newsletter.abnormalreturns.com)Mixed mediaFive insights from "STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy" by Dan Lyons. (nextbigideaclub.com)What YouTube hustle gurus are really selling. (vox.com)We're drowning in subscriptions. (wapo.st).....»»

"For many years I truly felt Twitch might die without my guidance and input, but I no longer feel that is true," Shear said, announcing his departure. Twitch CEO Emmett Shear speaks onstage at Twitchcon.Courtesy of Twitch Twitch CEO Emmett Shear announced he is stepping down to care for his newborn son.  After 16 years at the helm, his resignation marks a new beginning for Twitch.  "I truly felt Twitch might die without my guidance and input, but I no longer feel that is true," he said.  After 16 years at the helm of Twitch, CEO Emmett Shear is stepping down to focus on raising his newborn son. "Twitch has been like my family, the place I've spent more of my waking hours than anywhere else," Shear wrote on Twitch's blog Thursday. "With the arrival of my son, the time has come for me to focus my energies on building that tiny little startup family, and I'm ready to dedicate my energies there."Shear's decision to step back from the Amazon-owned, live-streaming platform took effect immediately, Shear wrote. He will be replaced by Dan Clancy, the company's president. "For many years I truly felt Twitch might die without my guidance and input, but I no longer feel that is true," Shear wrote. "I think in fact it's exactly that growth which has allowed me to even consider the idea that I might not work at Twitch." Shear has been at the helm of Twitch since its inception as Justin.tv 16 years ago. Through a name change and a purchase from Amazon, the company has grown to host more than 8 million streamers every month.Shear likened Twitch to a child, one he wrote is "ready to move out of the house and venture alone," allowing him the time and focus to care for his new son. "So it is with great poignancy that I share my decision to resign from Twitch as CEO," Shear wrote. "I want to be fully there for my son as he enters this world and I feel ready for this change to tackle new challenges. I will continue to work at Twitch in an advisory role."Shear's decision to step down continues a changing of the guard among the most popular entertainment platforms on the internet. Just last month, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki decided to step down from her role at the company, marking the end of an era for the ubiquitous video platform. With a large pool of overlapping viewers, the changes at the top of both YouTube and Twitch seem to mark a new beginning for live streaming and video on the internet. "Thank you, everyone, for your support, your critical thoughts, your trust, and your help," Shear wrote. "We built something great."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Fridays are all about podcast links here at Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s links including a look at the... The bizAre podcasts thriving because of the decline of third places? (fastcompany.com)What podcasters think about different podcast publishers. (podnews.net)CompaniesAimee Keene talks with Neeraj Arora about how the Facebook deal for WhatsApp came together. (shows.acast.com)Matt Reustle and Dom Cooke talk with Simon Owens about building a modern media business. (joincolossus.com)SVBEzra Klein talks with Noah Smith about what is unique about SVB. (nytimes.com)Eric Newcomer talks with Laurence Tosi about the unraveling of SVB. (newcomer.co)Derek Thompson talks with Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson about the fallout from SVB. (theringer.com)Andy Slavitt talks with Justin Wolfers, Mark Zandi and Ben Eisen about the state of the U.S. banking system. (podcasts.apple.com)Ben Carlson and Josh Brown talk about what to do with your cash now. (awealthofcommonsense.com)Meb Faber talks with Gary Zimmerman, founder of MaxMyInterest.com. (mebfaber.com)FinanceJoe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway talk with Charlie McElligott about the rise and impact of zero-day options. (bloomberg.com)Barry Ritholtz talks with Rich Bernstein, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC. (ritholtz.com)Jeff Malec talks with Marty Bergin, CEO of DUNN Capital Management, about the state of trend following. (youtube.com)Cameron Passmore and Benjamin Felix talk with Charlie Ellis author of "Inside Vanguard: Leadership Secrets From the Company That Continues to Rewrite the Rules of the Investing Business." (rationalreminder.libsyn.com)Roben Farzad talks with Herb Greenberg about SVB and more. (podcasts.apple.com)Non-financeJonathan Fields talks decision making with Daniel Kahneman. (goodlifeproject.com)Lee C. Camp talks with Oliver Burkeman about his book "4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals." (open.spotify.com)Sean Illing talks with Costica Bradatan about his new book "In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility." (podcasts.apple.com)Tim Ferriss talks longevity with Dr. Peter Attia. (tim.blog).....»»

Emmett Shear, the CEO of the Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch, has stepped down effective immediately from his role to spend more time with family, according to a blog post Thursday,. The company's current president, Dan Clancy, will replace him as CEO. Shear said he will continue in an advisory role. Shear started the project that became Twitch 16 years ago. It began as an experimental effort to livestream co-founder Justin Kan's life, but that idea was scrapped and they built an entire….....»»

MarketsBonds are once again a risk-off asset. (thereformedbroker.com)Markets are betting the Fed is closer to a pause. (econbrowser.com)Oil prices are below where they were before the Ukraine war. (axios.com)StrategyRisk is what you don't see coming. (theirrelevantinvestor.com)How crises affect our risk perceptions. (behaviouralinvestment.com)Pundits love to peddle fear in the face of market volatility. (fa-mag.com)CompaniesFacebook has shed some 25% of its workforce in the past few months. (drorpoleg.com)What Zuck has to say to the tech industry. (investmenttalk.substack.com)Google Cloud is shifting its customer focus. (theinformation.com)Office vacancies rates are not improving. (axios.com)FinanceWhy 2023 is not a replay of 2008-09. (ritholtz.com)Credit Suisse is not Silicon Valley Bank. (ft.com)Japan bank portfolios are full of long dated bonds. (economist.com)First Republic Bank ($FRC) hasn't always been a standalone entity. (thebasispoint.com)American Express ($AXP) cards have appeal to Gen Z and Millennial customers. (barrons.com)Social media played a big role in the demise of SVB. (thisisthetop.substack.com)UkraineThe conflict in Ukraine is the first GoFundMe war. (wsj.com)Russia has committed war crimes by taking Ukrainian children across the border. (semafor.com)Ukraine is running low on munitions. (nytimes.com)EconomyStill no sign of a turn in weekly initial unemployment claims. (calculatedriskblog.com)Housing construction leads almost every recession. (bonddad.blogspot.com)Good weather boosted employment in February. (calculatedriskblog.com)We still aren't building enough single family homes. (thebasispoint.com)The Fed is buying time to allow unrealized losses to roll off bank balance sheets. (soonparted.co)Earlier on Abnormal ReturnsLongform links: combating burnout. (abnormalreturns.com)Don’t waste your emotional capital investing out of spite. (abnormalreturns.com)What you missed in our Wednesday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)Personal finance links: taking actual risks. (abnormalreturns.com)Are you a financial adviser looking for some out-of-the-box thinking? Then check out our weekly e-mail newsletter. (newsletter.abnormalreturns.com)Mixed mediaNobody wants to log into your site to read your content. (theverge.com)An exmaple why scaling a media business is so difficult. (simonowens.substack.com)Companies continue to deprecate customer support phone lines to everyone's loss. (wapo.st)Tech layoffs are setting off a scramble for people with H1-B visas. (restofworld.org).....»»

Users will still be able to access ChatGPT for free but those who pay the $20 monthly fee will get extra perks — including priority use of GPT-4. Users who pay a monthly subscription for ChatGPT Plus will have access to the updated version of ChatGPT powered by GPT-4.SOPA/Getty Images OpenAI's new GPT-4 update is available for ChatGPT Plus subscribers. The subscription model was launched in February and costs $20 per month. Here's what we know about the difference between ChatGPT Plus and the free version. In February, after around two months of unlimited free use, OpenAI announced plans to monetize its viral AI chatbot, ChatGPT.Users can still access the chatbot for free but those who pay a monthly subscription for "ChatGPT Plus" will be able to try out the updated version of ChatGPT powered by GPT-4. Some form of a subscription model for ChatGPT has been in the works for a while. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, floated the prospect in December, calling the operating costs "eye-watering" in a Twitter post. ChatGPT Plus costs $20 per month — here's how the paid version differs from the free one. New features Users signed up for the subscription model will have access to the much-anticipated GPT-4. ChatGPT Plus had previously promised subscribers priority access to new features and improvements. Among other updates, GPT-4 is able to process and understand image prompts and can engage in longer conversations. OpenAI has said the update is more reliable and more creative than its popular predecessor, GPT-3.5.CEO Sam Altman said the updated chatbot was capable of passing the bar exam and "could score a 5 on several AP exams."Access during peak timesChatGPT's huge popularity has meant some users struggle to access the chatbot when the site is particularly overloaded. Frequent users will be familiar with the "ChatGPT is at capacity now" holding page. However, paying users will get "general access to ChatGPT, even at peak times," OpenAI said in a blogpost.Faster responsesChatGPT usually generates its responses in a matter of minutes or even seconds for simple queries. ChatGPT Plus promises an even faster response time. Sometimes the chatbot can lag with lengthy requests and users are left waiting.It's still unclear how powerful the paid version will be but the company is offering up the potential of speedier responses for users with time-sensitive tasks. Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

In today’s world, almost everything is connected. Everything is linked together in a networked world — from your appliances to your cars. This interconnectedness has led to a host of new and exciting opportunities for businesses, and the IoT (Internet of Things) is no exception. As the IoT industry continues to grow in popularity, so […] In today’s world, almost everything is connected. Everything is linked together in a networked world — from your appliances to your cars. This interconnectedness has led to a host of new and exciting opportunities for businesses, and the IoT (Internet of Things) is no exception. As the IoT industry continues to grow in popularity, so does the number of experts shaping the industry. In this blog post, we’ll introduce you to the top 10 experts shaping the IoT Industry — and reveal their unique insights and perspectives on the future of this growing sector. if (typeof jQuery == 'undefined') { document.write(''); } .first{clear:both;margin-left:0}.one-third{width:31.034482758621%;float:left;margin-left:3.448275862069%}.two-thirds{width:65.51724137931%;float:left}form.ebook-styles .af-element input{border:0;border-radius:0;padding:8px}form.ebook-styles .af-element{width:220px;float:left}form.ebook-styles .af-element.buttonContainer{width:115px;float:left;margin-left: 6px;}form.ebook-styles .af-element.buttonContainer input.submit{width:115px;padding:10px 6px 8px;text-transform:uppercase;border-radius:0;border:0;font-size:15px}form.ebook-styles .af-body.af-standards input.submit{width:115px}form.ebook-styles .af-element.privacyPolicy{width:100%;font-size:12px;margin:10px auto 0}form.ebook-styles .af-element.privacyPolicy p{font-size:11px;margin-bottom:0}form.ebook-styles .af-body input.text{height:40px;padding:2px 10px !important} form.ebook-styles .error, form.ebook-styles #error { color:#d00; } form.ebook-styles .formfields h1, form.ebook-styles .formfields #mg-logo, form.ebook-styles .formfields #mg-footer { display: none; } form.ebook-styles .formfields { font-size: 12px; } form.ebook-styles .formfields p { margin: 4px 0; } Get The Full Henry Singleton Series in PDF Get the entire 4-part series on Henry Singleton in PDF. Save it to your desktop, read it on your tablet, or email to your colleagues (function($) {window.fnames = new Array(); window.ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email';}(jQuery));var $mcj = jQuery.noConflict(true); Q4 2022 hedge fund letters, conferences and more   Alicia Asín Pérez Alicia Asín Pérez is an expert in IoT technology and has been instrumental in shaping the industry. Asín is CEO and co-founder of Libelium and has helped bring innovative IoT solutions to the market -- including the Waspmote, a wireless, modular, open-source hardware sensor platform for IoT. Moreover, Asín is a renowned speaker known for her expert analysis of data mining. She sheds light on the pressing concerns surrounding Big Data, highlighting the importance of security and privacy in the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT) landscape. Dr. Mazlan Abbas CEO and Co-founder of FAVORIOT, Dr. Mazlan Abbas, is another IoT expert who has significantly impacted the industry. FAVORIOT presents a tailor-made IOT platform for all Internet of Things (IoT) ventures. This platform streamlines the integration of sensor and actuator data on the Internet, making collecting and storing IOT device data effortless. Furthermore, the platform provides peace of mind for developers as they create vertical applications and offer seamless hosting solutions. He has been recognized for his significant contributions to the field and has been a speaker at numerous industry events. As CEO of FAVORIOT, Dr. Abbas is responsible for the company's overall strategy and vision and is committed to driving the industry forward. Kevin Ashton The co-founder of the Auto-ID Centre at MIT -- Kevin Ashton is a pioneer in the IoT industry. He is best known for coining the term "Internet of Things" and has been instrumental in shaping the industry since its inception. With over 20 years of experience in technology, Kevin has a deep understanding of IoT and has been a critical player in its development. Kevin Ashton's contributions to the field of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) are noteworthy. As a co-founder of the Auto-ID Centre at MIT, he was instrumental in developing and promoting RFID technology for tracking and managing physical assets. Under his leadership, the Auto-ID Centre conducted groundbreaking research on RFID, creating a global standard for RFID tags and readers. This standard has become the foundation for many RFID-based applications, including supply chain management, inventory control, and asset tracking. Through his work at the Auto-ID Centre, Kevin helped demonstrate RFID technology's vast potential and paved the way for its widespread adoption. Today, RFID is an integral part of the Internet of Things (IoT) and continues to play a crucial role in many industries and applications. Stacey Higginbotham Stacey Higginbotham is a technology journalist and writer. She has a background in covering the Internet of Things (IoT) and other technology-related topics. She has written for various tech publications, including Gigaom, where she was a senior writer and editor, covering IoT and other tech trends. Stacey is known for her insightful reporting and analysis of IoT trends and her ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly and concisely. She remains a prominent figure in the tech community and is widely respected for her contributions to the IoT industry. Peggy Smedley Peggy Smedley is a prominent thought leader and influencer in technology and the Internet of Things (IoT). She is a writer, speaker, and consultant known for her expertise in IoT and its impact on business and society. Moreover, Peggy is the editorial director of IoT Institute, providing insights and analysis on the latest developments in IoT technology. She is also the host of "The Peggy Smedley Show," a popular podcast covering IoT and technology topics. Peggy has been recognized for her contributions to the IoT industry and has received numerous awards and accolades for her work. Through her writing, speaking, and consulting, Peggy is dedicated to promoting the understanding and adoption of IoT technology. Andrew Thomas As the CRO of SkyBell, Andrew Thomas likely made a significant contribution to the Internet of Things (IoT) industry through his work with the company. SkyBell is a leading provider of smart home products, including video doorbells connected to the Internet and controlled and monitored through a smartphone app. By developing and marketing these products, Andrew Thomas and SkyBell have helped advance the IoT industry by making smart home technology more accessible and user-friendly. Additionally, by driving the company's revenue growth, Andrew Thomas has helped increase investment in the IoT industry and drive innovation in the field. Through his efforts, SkyBell has likely contributed to the growth of the smart home market and the development of new and innovative IoT products. Pete Wassell Pete Wassell is the Founder and CEO of Augmate Corporation, a technology company specializing in developing wearable and IoT devices for enterprise customers. Augmate provides a platform for managing and deploying these devices, helping organizations efficiently and securely integrate wearable technology into their operations. As the founder and CEO of Augmate, Pete Wassell is likely responsible for leading the company's strategy and vision and overseeing its day-to-day operations and growth. He has likely played a significant role in shaping the company's wearable technology and IoT approach. He has been instrumental in helping Augmate to establish itself as a key player in the industry. Charlie Kindel Charlie Kindel is a former General Manager of Amazon's Alexa Smart Home division. He worked at Amazon for over five years and was responsible for developing and launching various Alexa-enabled smart home devices and services. Kindel is a well-known figure in the technology industry, having held senior leadership positions at companies such as Microsoft, where he worked on the Windows Home Server team, and Amazon, where he was instrumental in developing the Amazon Echo and Alexa voice assistant. Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is a designer and entrepreneur who is best known for inventing the Good Night Lamp. This lighting system allows people to stay connected with loved ones in different locations.   The Good Night Lamp consists of several lamps that can be placed in different rooms in different locations, and when one lamp is turned on, all the other lamps in the system will light up as well, creating a visual connection between people who are far apart. This product received recognition and praise for its unique and innovative design, which combines technology with a focus on human relationships and emotions. Helen Greiner She is a roboticist and entrepreneur who is best known as the co-founder of iRobot. This company designs and manufactures robots for various applications, including home cleaning. Greiner co-founded iRobot in 1990 with colleagues Colin Angle and Rodney Brooks, and she played a key role in developing the company's first product, the Roomba vacuum cleaner. Greiner is also known for her contributions to the field of robotics, including her work on autonomous robots and mobile manipulation. She has been the recipient of various awards and honors for her work in the field of robotics and is considered a pioneer in the industry. Parting Words The IoT (Internet of Things) is a rapidly growing and enormously complex field, and as such, there is a lot of ground to be covered in terms of understanding its various facets. To stay at the top of the curve and keep up with the latest developments, it is crucial to follow the work of the leading experts in the field. This blog series aims to do just that by profiling ten of the most influential individuals shaping the IoT today. Keep an eye on what these IoT leaders do next, so they understand where things are going. Article by Brad Anderson, ReadWrite.....»»