Author: Editor

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nicole Cicero, a 54-year-old sales representative in New Jersey. It’s been edited for length and clarity.My 50s have made me realize what I really want out of life, and if I don’t do something now, I might never do it. That’s why I decided to quit my IT staffing sales job in February, after nearly 15 years at the company.It was scary as the breadwinner of my family and mom to two teenagers, but I knew I needed to make a change to be the best version of myself for them.…

Paramount Skydance has revamped another key tech team as CEO David Ellison’s digital transformation takes shape.Paramount’s ad product and tech teams are joining forces, becoming the latest units to get a makeover. Earlier this year, Ellison combined streaming engineering groups and reassigned some staffers who’d helped merge the tech platforms of Paramount+ and free streamer Pluto TV.Ad product and tech employees learned about the new structure and leaders in a late-June memo from Hugh Williams, a former Google tech exec who joined Paramount this spring as an EVP.Merging the ad product and tech groups will help create “the modern, unified…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Danny Leung, an interior designer and the founder of Detoorp, based in London, United Kingdom. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I work full time as an interior designer for a UK architecture practice, and I’ve been in the industry for about 10 years. I’m a creative person, but I found myself “repeating life” a bit. I start a project, design it, coordinate with clients, go on-site to complete it, and then do it again.I felt like I needed a change of scenery. I wanted a side hustle that…

It took years for Aimee Young to realize she’d been doing a job nobody had asked her to do.In March 2020, the human resources executive returned from maternity leave just as the world was descending into a global pandemic. She expected to devote most of her emotional energy to her infant daughter. Instead, much of it went to the adults she managed.Young, who’s now 39 and based in London, was the most senior woman on her team. As COVID-19 upended the workplace, colleagues sought her out to debrief difficult conversations, process their anxieties, and navigate squabbles between them. They brought…

Will Ferrell says that a conversation with his dad before he pursued comedy taught him to stop fearing failure.On Wednesday’s episode of the “IMO” podcast, Ferrell spoke with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson about the period when he decided to give Hollywood a real shot.At that time, he was taking classes at The Groundlings, an improvisational and sketch-comedy school in Los Angeles, and said he had begun to realize that the work “just feels right.”Before taking the leap, Ferrell sought his father’s opinion.Looking back, the “Elf” star said his dad’s response became what he still considers “the best showbiz advice…

For many, Wedbush Securities has become synonymous with Dan Ives: the charismatic, media-savvy tech analyst known for his peacock-esque personal style, colorful metaphors, and plentiful emojis to describe tech’s biggest moments.Now, after eight years at the firm, Ives said he’s leaving for a new chapter.”I have truly enjoyed my time at Wedbush and proud of all we accomplished as a great tech franchise with awesome people across the board,” he said in a widely shared email on Wednesday.He told Bloomberg that he’s leaving to launch a merchant bank — a bank primarily serving large corporations and high-net-worth individuals. The company…

“I wish I had good news about eggs, but alas, I do not,” my colleague Emily Stewart wrote back in January 2025 in an article about how eggs are probably just going to be expensive… forever. She talked to a ton of people well placed to know what was driving the cost of eggs: egg industry experts (there’s someone with the amazing job title “managing editor of eggs in the Americas”), professors of veterinary medicine, epidemiologists, and the CEO of the American Egg Board.The experts agreed that, in addition to factors like certain state laws on farming practices (a few…

A tax strategy known informally as “buy, borrow, die” is the latest flashpoint in the debate over wealth inequality after California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week called on lawmakers to eliminate what he describes as a loophole for the ultra-rich.The strategy gets its name from what boils down to a three-step approach to lowering taxes. First, wealthy investors buy appreciating assets like stocks, real estate or art. Next, they use the assets as collateral to borrow money to fund their lifestyles, thereby avoiding any sales that would trigger income taxes. Finally, when the owner dies, those assets are passed on to heirs…

In 1794, there were just 15 states in the Union, Philadelphia was still the nation’s capital, and George Washington was leading armed forces through Pennsylvania to put down the Whiskey Rebellion.That same year, a collection of rowhouses in Washington, DC, known as Wheat Row, was being constructed. They still stand today, and one of the homes is up for sale.Located on 4th Street SW near Washington, DC’s Southwest waterfront, the home is listed for $1.15 million after a recent $150,000 price cut. The property blends historic character with updates designed for modern living, according to Eric Stewart, the home’s listing…

It’s not uncommon for a consumer to order the same shirt in three sizes, then return the two that don’t fit. But what happens when the consumer swaps the labels and returns different shirts, or buys a dress for an event, wears it once with the tag tucked in, then returns it?These are examples of return fraud, a retail-industry risk that’s on the rise “in both scale and sophistication,” said Juan Hernandez-Campos, the chief operating officer at Happy Returns, a software company that manages returns and is part of UPS. Today, about 9% of returns are fraudulent, according to the…