DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Inside Peloton's rapid rise and bitter fall — and its attempt at a comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

"It felt like nothing could get in the way of all that," said a former engineer who attended the party. For this report, CNBC spoke with 16 current and former Peloton employees, the majority of whom declined to be identified because they are not permitted to speak publicly about the company. Foley, meanwhile, spoke briefly with CNBC by phone, saying that while Peloton's stock has fallen, the company has not. Peloton's stock price was slowly sliding down, and employees began to panic as they saw their paper wealth evaporate. By June 30, the end of Peloton's fiscal year, the company's full-year net loss ballooned to $2.83 billion.

☆ Laid-off Googlers say they're frustrated about being treated as external candidates for internal roles even though they're still being paid
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Google told laid-off workers that they could apply for other roles at the company. Most staff are being paid until March 31 but their access to internal systems has been cut off. But laid-off workers told Insider that they are having to apply for roles as external candidates. Laid-off staff are not eligible for roles only posted for internal candidates, "so we have a much more limited pool of potential roles," she said. "We're basically being treated like outsiders who never worked at Google," Paul Baker, a laid-off video production manager, told Insider via email.

☆ Ex-Google employee says the 'once-great company has slowly ceased to function' because of 4 core cultural problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ex-Googler Praveen Seshadri wrote on Medium that employees are "trapped in a maze" of bureaucracy. Seshadri said Google's issues boil down to four "core cultural problems." Even small product changes go through the rigor of a "NASA space launch," he wrote, calling out what he said were fundamental issues within the company, and declaring that "a once-great company has slowly ceased to function." He enumerated the company's "four core cultural problems" as being "no mission, no urgency, delusions of exceptionalism, mismanagement." Seshadri also critiqued Google employees in his post, calling MemeGen "a wallow chamber," and said that griping on it "doesn't help anything."

☆ Brain Chips Like Elon Musk's Neuralink Can Change Your Personality
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Evan Malmgren | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Musk's neurotech startup, Neuralink, has been working toward implanting its skull-embedded brain chip in a human since it was founded in 2016. Other researchers have been looking into using BCIs to restore lost senses and control prosthetic limbs, among other applications. Intervening in the delicate operation of a human brain is a sticky business, and the effects are not always desirable or intended. If a brain chip can change key parts of your personality, companies should not be rushing to put them in people's heads. Wexler told me that while most people in the industry aren't that open to using BCIs as a consumer product, they still think it's likely to happen.

☆ A 28-year-old sold over $5 million worth of wallets on Amazon in the last 12 months. He shares the first steps he took and how he went from breaking even to profiting over $100,000 per month.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Joe Reeves started selling men's wallets on Amazon in 2021 as a way to make some extra side money. In August 2021, Reeves started selling men's wallets on Amazon. Reeves started his e-commerce business shortly after his son was born as a way to supplement his day job income. If you want to sell on Amazon, go into the process knowing that "it's not going to be cheap," he advised. "The more money you're willing to spend on it, the faster it'll blow up."

☆ Nina Montée Karp and Dr. Harvey Karp turned the $1,700 Snoo into the holy grail of parenting. But some say they overhyped the crib's abilities and created a nightmarish corporate culture.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Kate Taylor | Jake Swearingen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

Karp and Montée Karp built the hype into a parenting-media empire that put out three books and two instructional films in 10 years. Karp and Montée Karp met at a Hollywood party in the early '90s. Karp and Montée Karp promised her independence and flexibility to accommodate her two young children's day-care schedules and a 90-minute commute. Karp and Montée Karp insisted on being involved in minutiae that most top executives hand off. Karp and Montée Karp turned the Snoo into an award-winning holy grail of parenthood in just a few years.

☆ A husband-wife duo turned the $1,700 Snoo into the holy grail of parenting, but some say they run their company like a dysfunctional 'surveillance state'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Kate Taylor | Jake Swearingen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

☆ Laid-off Google workers say the impersonal way the company let them go shows it's 'just as cutthroat corporate as anybody else'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Laid-off Google workers were shocked that the tech giant let them go by email. "Google felt like my home," a member of Google's analytics team who'd been there for around a decade told Insider. Other laid-off workers told Insider the email layoffs "came off as lazy," showed "cowardice," and "really stunk." Two of the laid-off workers Insider spoke to said their managers had also been let go. A technical writer at Google who wasn't laid-off told Insider remaining staff feel "expendable" and were having trouble focusing.

☆ Don't think you have enough money to invest in real estate? Here's how 4 investors got started with less than $10,000 upfront.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

They used strategies like buying with an FHA loan and partnering with someone to split the costs. Wanot isn't the only successful property investor Insider has spoken with who got started without much cash. Dominic Kosteris bought a modest starter home even though he could have afforded moreReal estate investor Dominic Kosteris and his family. Sean Allen bought out-of-state in a more affordable market and invested with a friendLos Angeles-based real estate investor Sean Allen and his fiancé. Becoming a property investor all started with a conversation with his friend back in 2013.

☆ Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott on his relationship with Mitch McConnell after a failed challenge to lead Senate Republicans: 'Well, he just kicked me off a committee. So that was pretty petty.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sen. Rick Scott said it was "petty" of Sen. Mitch McConnell to take him off the Commerce Committee. McConnell in a separate Fox News interview denied retaliation and said he had "no animus toward Rick Scott at all." And I gave it to two other senators, no particular reprisal in mind, no animus toward Rick Scott at all," he added. "That was the Scott plan. That was the Rick Scott plan.

☆ Some passengers were 'crying' after an oven caught fire on their flight to South Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

An oven fire broke out on a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg on Thursday. "There was a lot of crying," passenger Tiana Cline told Insider. "There was a lot of crying," Tiana Cline, who was on the flight, told Insider. Flight attendants told passengers seated at the back of the plane to move down the aisle to avoid inhaling the thick smoke coming from the oven, Cline said. One of the stewards emerged looking like a "chimney sweep" after being enveloped in thick smoke, she said.

☆ Some Taliban fighters are sick of the 9 to 5 grind, complaining they've been sucked into urban life by working desk jobs to run Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Five young Taliban fighters described how their lives are now consumed by work and Twitter. In this picture taken on November 23, 2021, Taliban fighters ride on bumper cars. Last year, it was tolerable but in the last few months, it's become more and more congested," he told Samim. Now, if we complain, or don't come to work, or disobey the rules, they cut our salary," he told Samim. Salam, along with several other Taliban fighters interviewed, felt the public had also stopped respecting them.

☆ The inside story of how Microsoft caught up with Google on AI, and the unlikely executive who made it happen
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

With OpenAI technology, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is challenging Google's online search monopoly. "Who'd have thought, even just a few months ago, that Google would be on their back foot," said Soma Somasegar, a former Microsoft executive. Google was also busy incorporating machine-learning and other AI technology into popular products such as Google Photos, Google Translate, and its search engine. Microsoft's new Bing search engine uses a newer version of GPT-3 to answer complex questions. Microsoft's positive feedback loopThe OpenAI deal laid the foundation for Microsoft to catch Google in the AI race.

☆ Amazon Studios is growing fast and spending big on shows like 'Citadel,' but insiders say unclear creative direction, leadership shifts, and tech bureaucracy threaten to drive away staff and talent
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Lucia Moses | Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +20 min

The dust has been settling at Amazon Studios after a big reorg in the fall that solidified Jen Salke's power. Yet Amazon Studios faces major challenges. Amazon Studios' Head of Global Television Vernon Sanders told Insider that the goal is to deliver content with global cultural relevance. Amazon Prime VideoWhile spending on such big swings has soared, some insiders see far less budgetary support for underrepresented casts. "I do think people wonder what's the commitment to Amazon Studios," the current insider said.

☆ Exclusive: The FBI's McGonigal labyrinth
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +28 min

She never saw McGonigal pay. "The notion that Mr. Deripaska is some proxy for the Russian state is a blatant lie," Ruben Bunyatyan, a spokesperson for Deripaska, told Insider by email. McGonigal was not charged with espionage, and although there is currently no evidence that McGonigal committed espionage, an FBI source told Insider that the investigation is ongoing. At the FBI, McGonigal racked up a string of big cases and promotions. "He said he needed to make more money," Guerriero told Insider.

☆ DeSantis echoes Trump in latest offense against the media after taunting the former president during live TV roundtable
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Ron DeSantis won't be the Republican to give the party's response to President Joe Biden's forthcoming State of the Union Address. The broadcast echoed the media ire former President Donald Trump frequently has on display. "To assassinate someone's character with anonymous sources would have been a total no-no," DeSantis said of past media practice. Like Trump, DeSantis often bemoans his media coverage and excoriates what he calls the "corporate press." Despite raising his tussles with the press, DeSantis insisted non-politicians would be the focus of new libel laws.

☆ Bond yields are hot, but be smart how you invest. Here’s where to begin
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Darla Mercado | Cfp | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Bond yields and prices move inversely to each other so, as rates rose, prices tumbled – and did so at an inopportune time since stocks were suffering, too. Thus, they have higher interest rate risk and greater price fluctuation. He likes short-term Treasury bond funds and ETFs. Another way to mitigate interest rate risk is to use a barbell: You hold equal amounts of shorter and longer-dated issues. "You don't have to reach too far in terms of credit risk and interest rate risk to capture healthy yield in today's environment."

☆ Blame the CEO for Tech Layoffs at Google, Facebook, Salesforce, Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Ed Zitron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

CEOs made mistakes, workers bear the bruntIn their layoff announcements, pretty much every tech company placed the blame for the cuts on the economy. While they may protect the CEO's reputation or placate investors, layoffs are immensely damaging for workers, even well-paid tech employees. With great power comes no responsibilityThe blame-shifting of these tech companies and their CEOs is not unprecedented, or even that uncommon. CEO pay skyrocketed by 1,460% from 1978 to 2021, and the ratio of average-worker pay to CEO pay ballooned from 20-to-1 in 1965 to 399-to-1 in 2021. Instead, tech CEOs have passed the pain off to people who in many cases were performing well in their roles.

☆ 'Phil of the Future' star Raviv Ullman said he wishes he'd been more strategic in his Disney Channel days: 'I was 17. I don't think I knew how to be.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Eboni Boykin-Patterson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Raviv (previously known as Ricky) Ullman starred in "Phil of the Future" from 2004 to 2006. Since then he's acted in other series and films, but took some time to reflect on his Disney days. I don't think I knew how to be strategic or what that actually meant in terms of a career." Even though Ullman spent time in the "Disney Circle of Stars" in the early 2000s, he said he was rarely star-struck. "I don't think I was looking at it like, 'now I am a Disney star and will do Disney movies forever,'" but "I never consciously was trying to break out."

☆ Showtime to combine with Paramount+, rebrand with new name
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

In this photo illustration, Paramount+ (Paramount Plus) logo is seen on a smartphone against its website in the background. Paramount Global is further joining its streaming and cable TV business by combining its Showtime TV network and streaming service, Paramount+. The company said Monday it plans to integrate Showtime's streaming service fully into Paramount+, its marquee standalone streaming platform and response to the streaming wars. As part of this integration, the premium cable TV network, known for shows like "Yellowjackets," "Billions," and "Dexter," will be rebranded as Paramount+ with Showtime. Paramount+ starts at $4.99 a month, and Showtime's streaming service is $10.99 a month.

☆ A Google engineer says survivors of the mass layoffs cried in meetings the day around 12,000 of their colleagues were culled
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A Google engineer said survivors of the recent mass layoffs cried in meetings the day of the cull. Laid-off Google staff in the US woke up on January 20 to an email saying they'd been cut, though some found out through messages from concerned colleagues. Several laid-off staff told Insider they'd been overwhelmed by offers of help from current and former staff, such as offers to share résumés. Xoogler, a community of former Google staff, has organized mental-health and immigration-advice sessions. "I miss my colleagues," Jarrod Ahalt, a laid-off security engineer, told Insider.

☆ A leaked internal message appears to show Elon Musk ordered Twitter staff to suspend a left-wing activist's account
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Anti-fascist activist Chad Loder's Twitter account was suspended in November 2022. A leaked internal Twitter message suggests Elon Musk directly ordered the suspension. Bloomberg reported the internal message as saying: "Suspension: direct request from Elon Musk." Bloomberg said it viewed a screenshot of the message in question, involving the account of Chad Loder, which read: "Suspension: direct request from Elon Musk." Loder's account was one of several prominent left-wing accounts suspended by Twitter in November 2022.

☆ Yale University’s most popular class is now free for teenagers—why it could make you happier
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Santos, the psychology professor behind Yale University's most popular course, recently launched a free six-week version of the class aimed at teenagers, called "The Science of Well-Being for Teens." It was developed to address rising rates of anxiety, depression and suicide rates for kids between ninth and 12th grade, Santos says. 1, she preaches in one of the course's pre-recorded lectures: Our brains lie to us about what makes us happy. "The problem isn't that we're not putting work into feeling better — it's that we're doing the wrong things, prioritizing the wrong behaviors." Santos says she wants to help change those numbers by making the science of happiness accessible.

☆ A Google recruiter says he discovered he'd lost his job after a call with one of his candidates suddenly disconnected
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A Google recruiter said he learned he'd lost his job after a call with one of his candidates disconnected. Laid-off Google staff have criticized the abrupt and impersonal manner in which they were terminated. Lanigan-Ryan had been working on contract for headhunter Morgan McKinley at Google's office in Dublin, Ireland, since November 2021. He said that although he was paid by Morgan McKinley, "for all intents and purposes, I was a Google team member." She then saw a pop-up on her laptop with information about severance and "immediately lost access to everything," she said.

☆ Biden administration rolls out a blueprint for a 'renters bill of rights' – Here's what it includes
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Housing rights activists and tenants protest against evictions and the poor condition of their apartments outside the offices the landlord Broadway Capital in Chelsea, Massachusetts on April 25, 2022. The Biden administration announced on Wednesday new actions to protect renters across the U.S., including trying to curb practices that prevent people from accessing housing and curtailing exorbitant rent increases in certain properties with government-backed mortgages. A "Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights" was included in the announcement. "Having the federal government and the White House talk about the need for and endorse a renters' bill of rights is really significant," said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Nearly half of renter households in the U.S. direct more than 30% of their income to rent and utilities each month, and 900,000 evictions occurred annually prior to the public health crisis.

Search resuls for: "Who'd"

25 mentions found