Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

Din Tai Fung thinks robots aren’t good enough to make their iconic pork soup dumplings.The Taiwanese chain’s North America CEO, Aaron Yang, said Din Tai Fung’s xiao long baos, which are known for being pleated at the top with exactly 18 folds, are “very, very delicate.” Yang, 33, leads the company alongside his brother, Albert Yang, 32.And they make a lot of them — Din Tai Fung sells an average of 10,000 handmade xiao long baos every day at each of its North American outlets, the chain told BI. It has over 173 outlets in 13 countries, including the US,…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lance Koster, a 61-year-old Pilot instructor, and his wife, Michelle, who moved to Justin, Texas, in 2024.Justin is a small town about 40 minutes north of Fort Worth. According to recent Census data, its population is 6,197.The essay has been edited for length and clarity.Lance: In my career as a pilot, my family and I moved around the country a lot. In 2010, we ended up in Salt Lake City and lived there for 14 years.We loved Salt Lake City. Its landscape was amazing, especially the mountains. We were always skiing,…

For me, grocery shopping is more of a game of strategy than a chore.With a family of four, plus one more when my oldest daughter comes home on weekends, I stick to a weekly food budget of $200. There’s a little wiggle room, but definitely nothing over $250. If something doesn’t fit into this week’s budget, it simply gets bumped to next week’s list.That kind of discipline helps me stay in control and avoid unnecessary stress. These days, prices are high, so I’ve had to get smarter about how and where I spend my money.I always monitor weekly sales, clip…

Forget fireworks and cookouts: Elon Musk and Sam Altman are spending their Fourth of July sharing their frustrations about US politics.The rival tech billionaires each celebrated Independence Day with social-media posts in which they vented about the state of the 50 states.Musk rekindled his idea of starting a new political party called the “America Party” in an X post. This comes after a falling out between the Tesla CEO and his former ally, President Donald Trump.”Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system!” Musk wrote on X.Musk’s musings…

A seemingly overemployed engineer has sparked a round of memes and self-reflection in tech this week.Indian software engineer, Soham Parekh, was accused online by a founder this week of working at three to four startups simultaneously. The founder’s X post set off a firestorm in the industry, with other founders chiming in to say they, too, hired — and fired — him.Parekh appeared on the tech podcast “TBPN” on Thursday and confirmed he had juggled multiple jobs.”I wanna preface by saying that I’m not proud of what I’ve done. That’s not something that I endorse either,” Parekh said. “No one…

The rhetoric around AI in the workplace can be vague: Automation, algorithms, productivity, efficiency, decision-making, up-skilling, the list goes on.Between rapid technological progress and the lag of adoption, there’s continued uncertainty about how AI will reshape the future of work.Many employees are anxious about their value, for instance. Executives are at once captivated by the potential for profits and worried about keeping up with their competitors. Investors and company boards are frustrated by the losses they’ve already incurred from not moving fast enough.Consulting firms are often at the heart of it all. From the outset, at least, they’ve positioned themselves…

If President Donald Trump didn’t exist, the staunchly anti-Trump news website The Bulwark might not either.But the president isn’t solely responsible for The Bulwark’s success. Instead, its top editor credits email newsletters, podcasts, and YouTube for its impressive growth in recent years.”We grew consistently, all the way through the Biden administration,” Jonathan V. Last, editor of The Bulwark, said in an interview with Business Insider. “That’s something I didn’t expect.”To be sure, Trump’s resurgence has added fuel to the fire that Last and his colleagues were kindling. The Bulwark surpassed 100,000 paid subscribers on Substack in early July, which the…

When the Covid-19 pandemic forced the UK into lockdown in 2020, people up and down the country turned to baking sourdough bread and yoga. For Redinel and Oerta Korfuzi, the restrictions gave cover for a different pursuit: insider trading.As a result, the Albanian siblings are now facing a new form of lockdown. On Friday, a London judge sentenced former Janus Henderson research analyst Redinel Korfuzi, 38, to six years in prison and his sister Oerta Korfuzi, 36, to five years.“This case has elements akin to a Greek tragedy where an individual of some standing is brought crashing down by a…

For this special holiday edition of AI Playground, I asked ChatGPT and Anthropic’s powerful new Claude 4 chatbot for recommendations for my Tahitian trip. I’m on vacation with my wife and a group of friends to celebrate the birthday of one of our oldest friends, Theresa. We’re staying in Moorea for about seven days. There are four couples ranging in age between roughly 50 and 60 years old. I requested suggestions such as activities during the day and evenings, along with restaurant and bar recommendations. Finally, I asked what would be the best event and location to celebrate Theresa’s birthday.Then,…

Big Tech just won big in the battle over data and copyright. The implications for business, publishing, and the future of the web are profound.Two recent US court rulings, including one in favor of Anthropic’s use of millions of books for AI training, have nudged the legal consensus closer to this reality: All content published online is now fair game. Companies such as Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft may never have to pay for the text, images, or video they ingest to power their AI tools.This is a huge win for Big Tech and the new AI economy. But it…