Leadership
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Warren Buffett’s first tax return showed $7 owed to the IRS. The then-paperboy and former Berkshire Hathaway CEO is now worth $143 billion
Warren Buffett, who is worth $143 billion today and was once the richest man in the world, was once making mere pennies as a teenage paper boy. The Oracle of Omaha filed his very first tax return in 1944 when he was just 14 years old for his earnings delivering newspapers in Washington, D.C. He…
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Palantir CEO says working at his $316 billion software company is better than a degree from Harvard or Yale: ‘No one cares about the other stuff’
Palantir CEO Alex Karp may have three degrees to his name—but he’s fed up with higher education. The billionaire took a shot at elite universities, including Harvard and Yale, during one his AI firm’s earnings calls, saying degrees don’t matter once you land at Palantir: “This is by far the best credential in tech. If…
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He was coding at 12 and became one of Google’s youngest ever CMOs—but now says Gen Z are better off ice skating than learning to code
Learning to code was once the fast-track ticket to success. It’s the self-taught skill that launched the careers of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk. Even former President Barack Obama urged young people to learn to code. But according to one former Google CMO who started coding at 12, AI has just killed it.…
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‘I’m not going to force you’: Duolingo CEO backs off from evaluating employees on their AI usage
Using artificial intelligence is becoming a prerequisite for many jobs, but some companies are rethinking its value when it comes to assessing employees’ performance. Nearly a year after announcing Duolingo would evaluate AI use in performance reviews, CEO Luis von Ahn said the company has let that metric go. On April 28, 2025, he announced…
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‘It tastes like a Twinkie’: Major tech podcaster Kara Swisher says AI is overhyped for one simple reason—humans don’t like it
Artificial intelligence has quickly become the defining technology of the moment—promising breakthroughs from curing diseases to making space travel more routine, while also raising fears of widespread job disruption. But Kara Swisher isn’t convinced the technology will live up to the hype. On a recent episode of her podcast, On with Kara Swisher, the veteran…
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Rory McIlroy’s mom worked night shifts at a factory so her son could play golf. Now he’s worth $200M and is a two-time Masters champion
Rory McIlroy solidified himself as the biggest name in golf this weekend when he won the Masters for a second year in a row and is worth an estimated $200 million. But McIlroy came from much humbler beginnings. He grew up in a modest, semi-detached house in Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland, with two parents…
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Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donates $70 million to Meals on Wheels America—helping feed more than 2 million people a year
While billionaires have come under fire for not living up to their philanthropic promises, one person is rising from the rest: MacKenzie Scott. She’s pouring billions into education, public health, and the environment—and now, she just funneled some of her fortune to help feed and support millions of Americans. Scott recently gave a $70 million…
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When AI sells to AI, brands win on data and identity
Personal AI use is collapsing the customer decision-making process into a single conversation, and most brands aren’t ready for it. The window of influence that once spanned dozens of touchpoints is shrinking to seconds. What’s more, AI is now selling to AI. Brands themselves are using the technology to market to consumer AI intermediaries before…
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Why an exec at biopharma giant Gilead Sciences prefers energy management over time management
For Johanna Mercier, Gilead Sciences’ chief commercial and corporate affairs officer, leadership starts with a clear accounting of what sustains performance across a global role. In a job that rarely conforms to fixed hours, she focuses on her energy: what drains it, what restores it, and how to protect enough of it to lead with…
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This TikTok sensation sold her startup for $2 billion. Now Pepsi is letting ‘Poppi be Poppi’
Allison Ellsworth admits she’s not the typical founder story. She was, by her own telling, “a solid C student,” a partier, someone who got arrested during spring break and later found herself driving across the country working in oil and gas research. Even now, after selling Poppi for $2 billion, she doesn’t try to polish…