Extreme saver wants to skip retirement so she can give her money away – Fox Business

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A TD Ameritrade survey finds that most people believe $1 million is enough to retire. FOX Business Lauren Simonetti with more.

Even though Shang Saavedra and her husband have been financially independent for about three years, Saavedra only recently stopped working so she could take a year-longmaternity leave for her first child.

The couple lives in Manhattan and are followers of the F.I.R.E. Movement -- which means Financial Independence, Retire Early. However, Saavedra and her husband have slightly different goals than the name suggests.

The approach that my husband and I have taken is, financial independence, retire optional, Saavedra, 34, told FOX Business. So its creating optionality and freedom.

MILLENNIAL MILLIONAIRE WHO RETIRED AT 30 EXPLAINS THE SACRIFICES HE MADE TO GET THERE

One of those options is for Saavedra -- a strategy consultant and author of the blog Save My Cents -- to be able to take her maternity leave for a full year.

But we have much bigger goals in mind,including philanthropy and helping other people, which is really motivating us to not stop working and continue to grow our wealth for the benefit of others, she added.

Shang Saavedra, 34, and her husband became financially independent three years ago. (Courtesy of Shang Saavedra)

The couple started their extreme saving by living off just the lower of their two incomes, but it wasnt easy for Saavedra at first.

I spent a greater proportion of my income before coming into marriage than my husband did, she said. And its a sacrifice.

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She eventually had a breakthrough, though, about a year after they started.

I realized that if I focused on what felt like deprivation, then this is not going to work, Saavedra said. And in grappling with the emotions of feeling like, 'Oh, Im missing out on life or Im missing a former life, I used to do all these things,' I realized, what if I turned all of that on its head and recognized everything that I was able to do.

She added that having a more positive mindset helped her recognize how much she used discretionary spending to fill a hole in her heart.

If Im able to self-soothe and say I get to or Im grateful for, then Ive psychologically solved the pain in my heart and then I no longer need to pursue consumerism to plug that hole, she explained. Once this happened, suddenly everything became so much easier.

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By the time Saavedra was 31, she and her husband were financially independent. It was then that they realized they could set much bigger goals than just saving for themselves.

We were like, 'Wow -- now its no longer about ourselves, who else can benefit?' Saavedra said, adding: A huge part of our value system is dont just live for yourself.

Saavedra and her husband lived frugally so they could have more flexibility in their schedule, including taking parental leave for their children. (Courtesy of Shang Saavedra)

In part, the couples value system comes from their faith, which inspires them to tithe 10 percent of their income. However, they are also saving much more, which they may use to set up scholarships for higher education -- though theyre still deciding exactly how they want to give away their money.

Weve already been in the habit of giving our money away for a really long time and this is just challenging ourselves to do even more, Saavedra said.

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That selfless motivation is what keeps Saavedra and her husband going, she said. Its also what makes following the F.I.R.E. Movement so fulfilling.

Even though Saavedra and her husband are financially independent, they have chosen to continue working so they can use their money for philanthropy. (Courtesy of Shang Saavedra)

Theres a misconception among a lot of people that being frugal is miserable, and I would say thats not true,"Saavedrasaid. "We do have some of our own creature comforts. We travel, we eat decent."

The bottom line for individuals wanting to achieve financial security is finding a balance between saving and spending that works in their unique situations, she said.

Everyone has different tolerances," Saavedra added. "Not everyone can save to the extent that we save. Not everyone wants to do what we do Take everything that you hear and come up with something that youre comfortable with, because personal finance is personal.

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Extreme saver wants to skip retirement so she can give her money away - Fox Business

Fewer than one in four young adults are financially independent – Greater Baton Rouge Business Report

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Financial independence is one of the many markers used to designate the crossover from childhood into young adulthood, and its a milestone most Americans (64%) think young adults should reach by the age of 22, according to a new Pew Research Center study. But thats not the reality for most young adults whove reached this age.

The share of young adults who could be considered financially independent from their parents by their early 20san assessment based on their annual incomehas gone down somewhat in recent decades. A new analysis of Census Bureau data finds that, in 2018, 24% of young adults were financially independent by age 22 or younger, compared with 32% in 1980.

Looking more broadly at young adults ages 18 to 29, the share who are financially independent has been largely stable in recent decades. Overall, young men are more likely than young women to be financially independent, but this gender gap has diminished significantly.

The surveys findings underscore the extent to which many young adults are financially reliant on their parents. Some 45% of adults ages 18 to 29 (with at least one living parent) say they have received a lot of or some financial help from their parents in the past 12 months.

According to parents of young adults, those shares may be even higher. About six-in-10 parents with children ages 18 to 29 (59%) say they have given their kids at least some financial help in the past year. The study is based on two nationally representative surveys.

A majority of young adults who have received financial help from their parents say at least some of it was for recurring expenses. Six-in-ten say the money went toward household expenses such as groceries or bills, and significant shares used it to pay their tuition, rent or mortgage.

Read the full report from Pew.

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Fewer than one in four young adults are financially independent - Greater Baton Rouge Business Report

The Hyper-Frugal FIRE Lifestyle Could Be More Pitiful Than It’s Worth – Above the Law

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(Image via Getty)

A few weeks ago, I read the story about Daniel, a 36-year-old lawyer who was living a very, very frugal lifestyle. He eats only rice and beans, lives in a small apartment in New Jersey, and buys his clothes from thrift shops. His goal was to retire early and he has saved up a six-figure retirement account and $400,000 in cash.

Daniel is a believer in the FIRE philosophy which is short for Financial Independence Retire Early. This goes beyond the sensible basic financial advice of spending less than you earn. The idea is to work like crazy and save as much money as possible. FIRE also recommends diversifying income sources, generating passive income, and monetizing everything you do. Once you save enough money, you can then quit your job in your 30s or 40s. You can then spend the best years and the rest of your life living happily ever after doing whatever you want to do.

I can relate to Daniel in some ways as I prefer being a minimalist. When I am not with clients or friends, I dont like to spend a lot of money eating out. And when I do eat out, it usually coincides with a restaurants special discount promotions like Taco Tuesdays. I make my own coffee, which I concede tastes slightly better than sewage. At the moment, I have no desire to live in a McMansion. And I generally do not like having a lot of stuff which ends up gathering dust or gets thrown away unused.

But after learning more about the FIRE lifestyle, I dont think I am crazy or disciplined enough for it. There are drawbacks to the FIRE lifestyle that make me wonder whether it is worth the sacrifice. Now I understand people have different priorities in life so you can take my thoughts below with a grain of salt.

You will pay more taxes. Unfortunately, the tax laws do not give incentives to save. Before you can legitimately claim an income deduction or a tax credit, you have to spend money on certain things. So if you save, a big chunk of those savings will go to the government.

That early retirement savings cannot be touched for a long time. So you have a sizeable retirement account because you maxed out your IRA or 401K contributions for many years? Thats super. But you cannot withdraw from it until you reach the age of 59 1/2 or you will have to pay a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty and possibly income taxes on the withdrawn amount. The tax laws did not have FIRE in mind.

You will give up a lot of things. Many personal finance gurus advise delayed gratification where you hold off on enjoyment now in exchange for greater enjoyment later or avoiding unnecessary debt. But the FIRE lifestyle goes beyond simple fiscal discipline. They advocate making substantial and permanent lifestyle changes.

For example, it is not enough to buy a used car to save a few thousand dollars. Some FIRE blogs tell you to learn how to fix and maintain your car by yourself. If you buy a house or rent, you are encouraged to get roommates to save costs. A few even tell you what to eat and where to buy the ingredients in order to save on grocery costs.

I can rent rooms in my house but that means I am giving up privacy and I run the risk of having bad roommates. Todays cars have so many electrical and computer controlled components that it is nearly impossible to fix them on your own. And some of the foods recommended I just dont care for.

I appreciate what they are trying to do, but I personally cannot live a life that is so micromanaged and requires me to do so many things on my own.

Your family life could be a difficult one. You might embrace the hyper-frugal FIRE lifestyle but good luck finding a significant other who shares the same philosophy while you are together. Even if you do, at some point, you and your significant other might end up being frugal about different and incompatible things. Or one of you might get sick and tired of the FIRE lifestyle altogether.

And of course, it costs money to raise children properly. Especially for the unexpected expenses that comes with parenthood such as preschool, after school activities, weekend golf lessons, or in some cases, bail money.

From the stories I read, the FIRE lifestyle is best for single people since there is no one to argue with and no one to take care of.

I wont name any names but one of the most prominent voices of the FIRE movement recently got divorced. He stated that the FIRE lifestyle was not the cause and I want to believe him. But considering that most married couples split due to finances (or lack of it), I am inclined to believe that finances played at least a part in the separation.

You might not be able to deal with financial catastrophes or opportunities. Many of the FIRE supporters assume that once people retire at some obscenely young age, they will not have major financial problems in the future. Instead, they think that everyone will live happily ever after and they will have money to pay a doctor for a checkup.

Before you quit your day job, you will need to save a substantial amount of money for a major financial catastrophe. You or a family member could suffer from a serious medical condition. Or you might be sued.

Or it may not be catastrophe but instead a potentially lucrative but expensive investment opportunity that interests you.

And if you retire at young age, it can be more problematic because there will be more time for potential catastrophes. Especially if you plan to spend your free time pursuing hobbies such as parkour, rock climbing, or whatever these people are doing.

You might be unemployable. Finally, lets just say that at some point, the FIRE lifestyle does not work out and you want to (or need to) go back to work. Well, your absence from the job market could make that difficult. How are you going to spin your early retirement in an interview? It is very likely you wont be welcomed back to your old senior management position. Instead, you may end up starting in the bottom in a different field.

The FIRE lifestyle sounds very appealing, especially to the significant number of people who hate their current jobs. For some people, like Daniel above, if it means living like an ascetic monk for a few years, in exchange for freedom, then thats what he will do. But with the money he has saved so far, Daniel will not live lavishly. He will live a barely middle class lifestyle in a low cost-of-living area.

But I just dont see it working for me. It means I will have to live a lower quality of life during my prime years while a chuck of the money I save goes towards taxes. If I put the money into a tax-advantaged retirement account, I wont see that money for another 17 years. Not only that, I will have to save another nest egg for potential financial catastrophes or something else.

Whenever I hear testimonials about those who followed the FIRE lifestyle and achieved significant financial freedom, I think most of them are not telling us everything. Some of these people might have cashed out large stock options after leaving their firm. Or they may have a spouse who is still working. Or they have a secret golden goose that they wont share with others. Or they may live a life that is much poorer than what people think.

It is generally a good idea to spend less than you make if you want to save money to retire. But if you want to play with FIRE, be careful because you could get burned.

Steven Chung is a tax attorney in Los Angeles, California. He helps people with basic tax planning and resolve tax disputes. He is also sympathetic to people with large student loans. He can be reached via email at sachimalbe@excite.com. Or you can connect with him on Twitter (@stevenchung) and connect with him onLinkedIn.

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The Hyper-Frugal FIRE Lifestyle Could Be More Pitiful Than It's Worth - Above the Law

Rich Life: The Blue Zone of Financial Well-Being – Investment U

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Financial Freedom

By Alexander Green

Originally posted November 4, 2019 on Liberty Through Wealth

In my last column, I discussed National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettners exciting new research on the Blue Zones, home to the worlds happiest and longest-living people.

And while money doesnt always lead to a longer and more satisfying life, it certainly doesnt hurt.

For example, in a Gallup-Sharecare study, nearly 90% of people who were managing their finances well said their relationship with their spouse or partner was strong.

Yet when finances were cited as a sore point in the household, the number of happy relationships plunged to just 60%.

Moreover, it didnt matter whether the couples were affluent or not. Money troubles create relationship troubles.

Ive seen plenty of couples, for instance, where one was an avid shopper and the other a dedicated saver. Thats a bad combo.

I knew another where one wanted to tap into retirement savings to get a new boat or remodel the kitchen and the other felt strongly otherwise.

Things went decidedly south from there.

Financial compatibility or at least peacemaking compromise seems to be a prerequisite for connubial bliss.

Arguing and worrying about money is toxic. It creates stress and conflict.

Yet when a households finances are managed smartly, relationships improve.

Studies show there is even an inverse relationship between wealth and obesity. Financial well-being, it turns out, even helps keep you slim.

(An important consideration since obesity is highly correlated with hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia and some forms of cancer.)

Yet in the 2019 Retirement Confidence Survey, the longest-running survey of its kind, only 23% of workers said they were very confident theyd have enough for a comfortable retirement.

(In fact, only 35% of current retirees are very confident they have enough.)

This isnt terribly surprising when you consider that 32% of Americans have no savings and 58% have less than $1,000 set aside.

This is a national tragedy, one that will have serious ramifications down the road when nonsavers petition their elected representatives to redistribute the incomes of those who have saved and invested.

Dont get me wrong. Some people are poor due to bad genes, bad luck or circumstances beyond their control.

But can this possibly describe the nearly two-thirds of Americans who havent saved for a rainy day much less up to three decades of retirement?

Especially when financial independence requires only three things:

Heres an example

Up until youre 25, your need for a home, transportation, healthcare and other expenses may take every penny you earn.

But starting at age 25, lets say you invest $190 a month in an S&P 500 index fund and earn nothing more or less than the markets long-term average annual return of 10%.

With dividends reinvested, that would turn into $1.02 million by age 65.

Thats right. Just $190 a month is all it takes to go from flat broke to millionaire status.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in this country in 2018 was $61,937.

So $190 requires the average household to save just 3.6% of its income or less than 5% post-tax to hit the seven-figure mark in 40 years.

Even if a household could save only $95 a month, it would still turn into a half-million dollars in 40 years.

(And if they bought a home and didnt pull out and spend the equity along the way that would likely get them the rest of the way to millionaire status.)

Saving. Investing. Compounding. Building equity.

Its so simple. Yet many Americans never get out of the starting blocks.

Why?

A major reason is too many people decide theyll start saving after all their wants and needs are met.

That doesnt work.

We live in a wonderful free market system where companies knock themselves out to bring us a constant array of exciting new products and services.

If you plan to start saving after all your familys desires are met well, good luck with that.

Heres the bottom line: Financial freedom doesnt just provide you with security and peace of mind.

As Dans research reveals, your health and happiness may depend on it as well.

Incidentally, Dan and I as well as several other nationally renowned business and investment experts will be speaking at The Oxford Clubs 22nd Annual Investment U Conference at the beautiful Park Hyatt Aviara in Carlsbad, California, April 16-18, 2020.

This promises to be one of our very best conferences ever. For more information, click here.

Good investing,

Alex

An expert on momentum investing, value investing and investing based on insider activity, Alex worked as an investment advisor, research analyst and portfolio manager on Wall Street for 16 years. He now runs the wildly successful Oxford Communiqu, ranked as one of the top investment newsletters by Hulbert Digest for more than a decade. He is also the author of four national best-sellers: The Gone Fishin Portfolio, The Secret of Shelter Island, Beyond Wealth and An Embarrassment of Riches. He shares his wisdom in his free daily e-letter, Liberty Through Wealth.

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Rich Life: The Blue Zone of Financial Well-Being - Investment U

Retirement: The benefits of being FIRE-ish – Chicago Tribune

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It's easy to dismiss the super savers who embrace the FIRE movement as starry-eyed dreamers. Financial Independence, Retire Early followers -- many of whom are millennials who consider working 9 to 5 to be drudgery -- often save 50 percent to 70 percent of their annual income with the goal of retiring in 10 to 15 years. The aggressive "Lean FIRE" savers share tips online on how they manage on less than $40,000 a year -- for example, by Dumpster diving, living in a van, not having children or subsisting largely on a diet of rice and beans.But FIRE is much more than that. FIRE followers track their money, invest in low-cost funds, avoid high-interest debt and focus their spending on what's important to them, rather than buying things just because they can afford them. Adapting some of these FIRE principles to fit your less-austere lifestyle can go a long way toward helping you achieve your retirement goals. If you're not ready to go full-blown FIRE, here's how to be FIRE-ish:Boosting savings gives you more money to invest. But more important, "every time you increase your savings rate, you are decreasing your lifestyle," says Whitney Morrison, principal financial planner with LegalZoom. That means you won't need to accumulate as much to maintain your lifestyle in retirement. FIRE folks typically watch every penny. You don't have to be that precise, but you should have an idea of your cash flow so you can find extra dollars to put toward savings. Some expenses, such as a car loan or kids' extracurricular activities, disappear over time, freeing up money that you can redirect into investments, says Melissa Sotudeh, a certified financial planner in Rockville, Md. "If you're at the point that you've got the kids launched, that's a big pay raise there," she says.Or boost savings by cutting expenses. "There is a lot of low-hanging fruit that won't force you into depriving yourself," says Brad Barrett, cofounder of the ChooseFI website. You don't have to give up your lattes. Look to housing and transportation, the largest expenses for consumers. If the kids are grown and you no longer need a four-bedroom house, consider downsizing.

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Retirement: The benefits of being FIRE-ish - Chicago Tribune

Dress for Success Vancouver Raises $118,000 at 20th Anniversary Success Luncheon – Yahoo Finance

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Over 20 years the registered charity has successfully helped over 35,000 women in the Lower Mainland transition into the professional workforce

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 04, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dress for Success Vancouver (DFSV), last week, celebrated 20 years of empowering women in the workforce with The Success Luncheon 2019 at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. The event brought together 400 business executives and senior leaders from some of BCs most profitable and influential sectors, and featured a keynote by CEO of Dress for Success Worldwide, Joi Gordon. Through insightful presentations, discussions, and networking opportunities, attendees celebrated the impact the organization has had on Vancouvers changing workforce over the last 20 years.

The Dress for Success Vancouver team and I are honoured to be part of the driving force that advocates for the empowerment of women and their unmatched contributions to Vancouvers workforce, said Amy Robichaud, Executive Director of Dress for Success Vancouver. We are committed to making the necessary resources and services available to women who are entering the Canadian job market for the first time accounting for roughly 80 percent of our DFSV clients and ensuring their transition into the professional workforce, BC economy, and local community.

Having expanded well beyond its humble church basement beginnings 20 years ago, DFSV has helped guide more than 35,000 women in the Lower Mainland towards financial independence and economic inclusion through workforce development programs and services including offering interview-appropriate clothing for those seeking employment. With a strong focus on growing the female workforce, DFSV has had a significant impact on the local economy, successfully generating a potential economic engine of over $1 billion CAD.

Boughton Law is thrilled to be the presenting sponsor of the Success Luncheon for a third consecutive year and to continue our ongoing partnership with Dress for Success Vancouver, said Luca Citton, Managing Director and Chair of the Community Action Committee at Boughton Law. As a society, it is our collective responsibility to empower women by equipping them with the tools they need to not only enter the workforce but thrive and succeed in it.

We are so pleased to have been involved in this years Success Luncheon, and to further the empowerment of women in our local economy, said DFSV partner Jacqui MacNeill, CEO and Founder of Escents Aromatherapy. Escents entire workforce is comprised of strong and highly-proficient women, and being part of this event could not have aligned more closely with our values and beliefs.

This year, the Success Luncheon 2019 raised $118,000 CAD, which will go towards furthering the mission of Dress for Success Vancouver and their commitment to empowering women as they enter the local job market. Sponsors of this years event included Presenting Sponsor Boughton Law; Platinum Sponsors David Yurman, Smart Savvy + Associates, and Aritzia; Gold Sponsors Grosvenor, Cargill, and EWOS; and more - with goodies provided by Escents for guests to take home.

About Dress For Success Vancouver

Dress for Success Vancouver (DFSV) is proud to celebrate 20 years in 2019, established in 1999 as the first International affiliate of Dress for Success Worldwide. The organization is an independent registered charity committed to empowering women into the workforce by providing professional attire, career development tools and a career advancement program. DFSV serves over 2000 clients per year and works with over 80 referral agencies: from Work BC and immigration services, to hospitals, colleges, and youth programs. For more info visithttps://www.dfsvancouver.org.

Media ContactSasha YeomansTalk Shop Media604 690 3509sasha@talkshopmedia.com

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Dress for Success Vancouver Raises $118,000 at 20th Anniversary Success Luncheon - Yahoo Finance

Separation of Church and State Inevitable – IcelandReview

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The eventual separation of church and state is inevitable, writes Minister of Justice slaug Arna Sigurbjrnsdttir in an op-ed in Morgunblai this morning. The Church of Iceland is fully capable of executing its duties independent of the state.

Icelands 1874 constitution guarantees religious freedom, but also specifies that the Evangelical Lutheran Church is a national church and as such it is protected and supported by the State. This provision was retained in the constitution of the Republic of Iceland of 1944.

According to slaug, the demand for equality among religious organisations has become increasingly salient. An autonomous church independent of the government better accords with the ideals of freedom of religion and opinion, but the Church of Iceland (The Evangelical Lutheran Church) has enjoyed special status within Icelandic governance, she writes. According to slaug, more and more people are now convinced that the financing of religious organisations should not fall within the governments purview. Many will continue to follow the church, she writes, even if a complete separation of church and state becomes a reality.

A new agreement between the government and the Church of Iceland stipulates that the latter will no longer function as another state institution. Rather, the church will come to resemble an independent religious organisation, responsible for its own operations and finances. These changes are a significant improvement. Heading in the direction of full separation of church and state is inevitable. Until then and despite this agreement the Church of Iceland will, in accordance with the constitution, continue to enjoy the support and guardianship of the Icelandic government.

The above-mentioned agreement, signed in September, specifies the increased financial independence of the Church of Iceland. From January 1st onward, the Church of Iceland will process its own wages and manage its own books. Furthermore, a special law on Church-managed funds will be revoked.

According to slaug, the teachings of the Church continue to be significant and meaningful to the everyday lives of Icelandic citizens. If citizens continue to trust the church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church will continue to be Icelands national church, irrespective of its legal or governmental status.

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Separation of Church and State Inevitable - IcelandReview

Heres How This Nurse Paid Off $1M Of Debt In Just Over 2 Years – Forbes

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When Naseema McElroy completed her Masters in nursing in her early 30s, she was set to make a good living in the Bay area, where nurse salaries can reach well into the six figures. She also expected her remaining balance of her $186,000 in student loans to be paid off in a decade, under a student loan forgiveness program.

Fast-forward three years to 2015, and she couldnt seem to get ahead. Something clicked, she said, it is this $1,900 a month [Im] paying to student loans.

She came to the realization that she would have to put her life on hold for the seven remaining years before the loan forgiveness program kicked in. Even then, it mostly would have just covered interest, based on the peak of her payback plan. The pay off didnt add up.

McElroy paid off nearly $1 million in debt in just over two years by figuring out what she could ... [+] live without.

This thought set her down a path to pay off all of her debt, which at the time reached nearly $1 million if you include her mortgage, in just over two years. Using a mix of her real estate, the flexibility with her job as a nurse and some tactical strategies to reduce her costs, she has managed to free herself from the debt.

With nearly 45 million Americans living in student loan debt and the average person having $38,000 in any kind of debt, excluding mortgages, the pull to rid oneself of the monthly payments is strong. But its more than that. In a survey, TIAA and the MIT Lab found that 73% of respondents said that the student loan impact has forced them to put off maximizing their retirement savings, while one-in-four arent saving at all due to the debt load.

For those that seek financial independence (FI) or want to retire early, the ability to get rid of the debt as fast as possible, in order to start funneling cash into savings is step number one. For McElroy, her debt strategy has allowed her to save nearly $200,000 in the two years since she became debt free. Heres how she did it.

Unloading Her Inconvenient Home

Living in the Bay area will naturally come with some large expenses. Among McElroys debt load, more than half came from the $575,000 she owed on her mortgage. Not many would be willing to give up the home in order to pay off the debt and it wasnt originally part of the plan, she said.

But then she started to evaluate her experience with the house. It wasnt in a convenient location, creating an almost hour commute. On top of that, it wasnt close to her family, making it difficult to see them on a regular basis. Not to mention, all the extra costs that come with keeping up a home. In the end, she felt it made more sense for her to list the house, use the proceeds to pay off the rest of the student loans, and then rent elsewhere.

After selling the house with about a $100,000 profit, she paid off the remaining student loan debt. Between selling her condo that she rented out in L.A. in 2015 and listing her home, she was able to reduce her real estate debt exposure by nearly $650,000 while earning about $200,000 in profit.

As for housing, she eventually settled in Oakland, renting a house. But she convinced her landlord to allow them to sublease the basement, cutting her rent by 36%.

The Pay-Down Plan

The student loans, however, were the last piece of her debt that McElroy paid off. She had taken out a 403b loan in order to afford the initial down payment on her house, along with a car, which she still owed about $25,000 on and some other personal debt.

McElroy paid off her smallest debts first, finally finishing off her student loan debt after the ... [+] sale of her home.

When she sold her condo, it was these payments she first paid off. She chose to go that route, before attacking the student loans, for two reasons. First, shes an acolyte of the snowball method to pay back debt, attacking the smallest one first. But she also struggled with the notion of the student loans, since she was part of the loan forgiveness program.

What changed her mind? In 2016 and 2017, her income kept growing higher, which meant her payments had to increase. I only saw the payment getting higher and it felt stifling, McElroy said.

With basic math, she realized her average payment would mean the program would only forgive the interest. She could avoid the interest by simply paying back the loan. From 2015 to 2017, every extra penny went to the loan. By the time she sold her house, she only had a little more than $19,000 left to repay on the student loans.

Nursing Provides Her FI Flexibility

Since paying off her debt, McElroy has launched a podcast, Nurses on FIRE, where she explains tricks and tactics that nurses can use to expedite their financial independence. Shes taken her own savings efforts to the next level, increasing her total savings to about 10% of her $2 million FI goal.

But she also explains that her career allows her a level of flexibility to increase or decrease how much she wants to work, depending on whats needed at the time.

There are so many ways to maximize my income, she said, by either increasing her shifts or adding another job, like filling in for nurses that have left on maternity leave.

Working three days a week, it also allows her ample time to grow what she hopes becomes bigger revenue streams with her blog, Financially Intentional, and podcast. But she doesnt worry about the retire early notion of FIRE.

Instead shes tackling ways that she can scale back, increase her hours, travel abroad or other tactics open to nurses.

Theyre strategies shes testing and pursuing, since she doesnt have to worry about a large payment accruing interest due at the end of each month.

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Heres How This Nurse Paid Off $1M Of Debt In Just Over 2 Years - Forbes

Playing Net Game With Serena Williams: Rapid Replies On Success, Investing And Business – Forbes

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Randall Lane with Serena Williams at Forbes Under 30 Summit 2019.

In a time machine, where would historys greatest female athlete travel? I would go see what Jesus was up to or Moses part the Red Sea.

How many more years will Serena Williams compete at tennis? However much longer Roger Federer plans on playing.

If not tennis, what sport would she pursue? Golf. I can hit it really far; it just doesnt go in a straight line.

The same applies to Serena Williams career, as in recent years the 38-year-old, 23-time Grand Slam winner made career moves off the path that built her a $225 million fortune over the past two decades. Keynoting the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Detroit on October 28, Williams discussed the motivations and lessons behind her forays into fashion, investing and advocacyand indulged the young entrepreneurial audience in rapid Q&A, akin to rallying at the net.

Williams revealed a few of her favorite investments since she entered the venture capital game five years ago and has dropped money into 34 companies. Meal-prep subscription service Gobble and Alchemy 43, a Drybar-like destination for Botox and filler treatments, to name two, exhibit Serena Ventures focus on underfunded demographics: Only 2.3% of funding went to women-led startups in 2018, according to Pitchbook.

If Im the boss, Im going to give other people opportunities that normally wouldn't have had opportunities. Because I know what its like, she said. Or the narrative is never going to change.

The first athlete to make Forbes annual list of Richest Self-Made Women, Williams also discussed financial independence before a crowd of nearly 5,000 20- and 30-something professionals at Detroits Masonic Temple and a partnership aimed at reframing another narrative. A partnership with the Allstate Foundation, the Purple Purse initiative promotes financial empowerment as a rescue for victims of domestic violence. Research indicates that financial abuse occurs in 99% of domestic violence cases and is a primary reason victims stay in unsafe, unhealthy relationshipsperhaps one individual is preventing the other person from working or from accessing bank accounts.

We have to make those uncomfortable topics comfortable in order to make change, she said onstage with Forbes Chief Content Officer Randall Lane as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month draws to a close, an occasion for which Williams designed a handbag and a backpack for Purple Purse.

Serena Williams and Randall Lane in the at Forbes Under 30 Summit 2019, held in Detroit's Masonic ... [+] Temple.

Thats but one avenue where her professional portfolio beyond sport has ventured into fashion. Serena apparel line debuted in 2018 with affordable items ranging from dresses to denim to blazers, inspired by early sewing skills she and sister Venus learned from their mother in their Compton, California upbringing.

I think people definitely underestimate me, but thats what makes me most dangerous.

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Playing Net Game With Serena Williams: Rapid Replies On Success, Investing And Business - Forbes

1 in 5 middle-class Singaporeans wont survive a month if they lose their jobs, survey finds – Business Insider

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Half of all middle-class Singaporeans dont have enough savings to cover six months of expenses if they lose their job and onein five say they wont even last a month, according to a report by financial comparison site GoBear.

The report, published on Friday (Nov 1), surveyed1,028 middle-class Singaporeans aged between 18 and 65 on their attitudes toward personal finance. It did not define what middle-class meant.

The survey found that local respondents top three financial priorities weresaving money, achievingfinancial independence, and creating an emergency fund.

Read also:Half of Singapore is in the worlds richest 10% and 226,000 people are among the elite 1%

However, 45 per cent of respondents admitted they did not have enough savings to cover half a years worth of expenses, with 21 per cent adding they couldnt live beyond a month if they lost their main source of income.

Stashing away six months worth of salary in an emergency fund is a common piece of financial advice to guard against retrenchment or sudden expenses such as medical bills.

GoBear citedfinancial risk management expert Wong Kon How as saying this was because most Singaporeans assets were locked away inproperty and CPF accounts.

Wong added that this monthly expenditure could have been influenced by pressure to keep up appearances and becoming accustomed to a certain quality of life.

The report also found that found thatSingaporean respondents owned about nine financial products on average higher than respondents of similar surveys in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Respondents here also hadhigher levels of financial knowledge compared to their Asian counterparts.

Despite this, almost half the Singapore respondents werepessimistic about their financial future, and feltfinancially insecure.About 55 per cent of respondents said the rising cost of living in Singapore outpaced their earnings.

When asked about growing their wealth, one in three said they did not know how to do so.A quarter said they believed investing was risky, and one in five still keptcash at home in piggy banks.

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1 in 5 middle-class Singaporeans wont survive a month if they lose their jobs, survey finds - Business Insider

Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner reveals new approach aimed at tackling shoplifters – Punchline Gloucester

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Retailers across Gloucestershire have welcomed new proposals put forward by the county's Police and Crime Commissioner aimed at reducing shoplifting.

Around 50 of the county's most prominent retail businesses were represented at the launch of a report into retail crime produced by Martin Surl's office.

The 33-page review painted a picture of retail crime up nationally by 25% since the turn of the century and highlighted many of the reasons for it.

In it, the PCC mapped out a new approach that will commit Gloucestershire Police to: investigate every retail theft and simplifying the way retailers are able to report crime.

It also sets out to establish Crime Prevention Advisors to improve links with businesses, improve information sharing and improve partnership working.

PCC Martin Surl said "Shop theft is considered attractive because of its accessibility and low detection rate. But it is not the victimless crime it is often perceived to be.

"Unfortunately, this is compounded by a police response which can only be described as 'patchy' due to an approach which has given priority to crimes considered to be more serious.

"This is a flawed approach. Every crime matters and what might seem trivial today can often lead to something much more serious tomorrow ".

The manager of Gloucester retailers' organisation 'City Safe' Steve Lindsay said, "The PCC's report is fantastic. It's honest; it's factual. It's what we've waiting years for."

Detective Superintendent Steve Bean, Gloucestershire Constabulary's Head of Investigations answered questions from retailers and promised to look into their complaints.

He told them, "The OPCC has conducted research both locally and nationally and you can't disagree with any of the recommendations.

"The PCC is right. Every crime does matter and it's clear to me the quality of investigation is nowhere near to where it should be.

"We've become oblivious to how bad the police response has been and be under no illusion we intend to address it".

Cheltenham BID Director Kevin Blackadder said, "It was a really good idea to bring together a number of businesses quite clearly concerned about the levels of retail crime.

"It gave them the opportunity to make it clear how they're suffering from crime that's not just a business problem but a society problem.

"I'm pleased the police recognise shoplifting can lead to more serious crime and their commitment to report back in six months".

To read the retail crime review in full on the OPCC website, Safer Days and Nights priority pages - https://www.gloucestershire-pcc.gov.uk/priorities/safer-days-and-nights-for-all/

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Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner reveals new approach aimed at tackling shoplifters - Punchline Gloucester

Retailers welcome proposals to tackle shoplifting | Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard – Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard

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Retailers have welcomed new proposals aimed at reducing shoplifting in Gloucestershire.

Around 50 of the countys most prominent businesses were represented at the launch of a report into retail crime produced by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC).

PCC Martin Surl said Shop theft is considered attractive because of its accessibility and low detection rate. But it is not the victimless crime it is often perceived to be.

Unfortunately, this is compounded by a police response which can only be described as patchy due to an approach which has given priority to crimes considered to be more serious.

This is a flawed approach. Every crime matters and what might seem trivial today can often lead to something much more serious tomorrow.

You can read the retail crime review on the OPCC website at gloucestershire-pcc.gov.uk/priorities/safer-days-and-nights-for-all/

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Retailers welcome proposals to tackle shoplifting | Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard - Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard

What if we turned off the spigot of grief?: Tom Wetzel and Denise DeBiase – cleveland.com

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Guest columnists Tom Wetzel and Denise DeBiase are certified law enforcement executives with close to 60 years of combined police experience.

Having collectively been police officers for over half a century, we, like cops everywhere, have seen and felt plenty of the damage caused by criminal activity. It is easy to wonder what more we can do to prevent or measurably reduce it.

The phrase We have met the enemy, and they are us is a good starting point.

What we mean by that is quite simple. Our appetite for pleasure can often be found in the form of vice crimes. These personal choices can have mind-boggling consequences for so many others. There may be debate on whether these types of activities should even be classified as crimes, as they often seem to be victimless on their face. But dig deeper, and you will see that these actions create a victim count beyond measure.

Drug use and prostitution are two such vices that both of us know have caused incalculable pain and have resulted in far-reaching criminal activity and suffering.

What would happen if we could find a way to reduce or eradicate our weaknesses toward certain behaviors like these? What if we turned off the spigot on criminal profits because our collective self-discipline suppressed demand? How much could we reduce crime not just in America, but across the entire world?

Anyone who has watched movies has probably seen a major motion picture that dramatized the life of real or fictionalized drug traffickers and how rich they got off the addictions of others. And now we are watching the loss of life in staggering numbers due to heroin and fentanyl overdoses.

How do we get people to stop? It is a complex matter, but we could start with a deeper understanding about how much suffering is caused when we decide to find pleasure or relieve pain through a mind-altering substance.

That same suffering is also caused when someone decides to solicit sex. Many may argue that there is a significant demand that must be met. But the woman who prostitutes herself isnt doing it for fun. Shes doing it for money. But that cash has a huge price tag, which includes exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, cruel physical violence, addiction to drugs and a battered soul.

Were certain these women didnt wake up one day and decide this was the best thing for them to do.

How do women who prostitute themselves mentally recover? For the most part, many wont, or the healing may take decades. As a society, we havent helped them enough. We need to find opportunities to help women avoid the poisonous siren call of prostitution, as well as provide opportunities to heal and nurture these exploited souls.

Another way is to find innovative ways to stifle the demand and let these customers understand that their actions are caustic and burn many around them.

We know that suppressing desires for pleasure or for pain avoidance is easier said than done. But an empathetic society will recognize that it holds the power within its individual members to snuff out so much criminal activity, simply by making them more aware that choices have consequences beyond the person looking in the mirror.

Have something to say about this topic? Use the comments to share your thoughts, and stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using Notification Settings (in blue) just below.

Readers are invited to submit Opinion page essays on topics of regional or general interest. Send your 500-word essay for consideration to Ann Norman at anorman@cleveland.com. Essays must include a brief bio and headshot of the writer. Essays rebutting todays topics are also welcome.

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What if we turned off the spigot of grief?: Tom Wetzel and Denise DeBiase - cleveland.com

Microsoft CEO says Azure Quantum will address the big challenges in computing – GeekWire

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduces the companys new initiatives in quantum computing at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Orlando, Fla. (Microsoft Video)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella today took the wraps off Azure Quantum, a full-stack, cloud-based approach to quantum computing that he said would play well with traditional computational architectures.

With all the capacity we have around computing, we still have many unsolved problems, whether its around food safety, or climate change, or the energy transition, Nadella said at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Orlando, Fla. These are big challenges that need more computing. We need general-purpose quantum.

While classical computers deal in binary bits of ones and zeroes, quantum computers can take advantage of spooky physics to process quantum bits or qubits that can represent multiple values simultaneously.

For years, Microsoft and its rivals have been laying the groundwork for general-purpose quantum computing hardware and software. Microsoft has previously announced some elements of its strategy, including its Q# programming language and Quantum Development Kit, but today Nadella put all the pieces together.

A private preview of Azure Quantum is due to be launched in the coming months, with the Microsoft Quantum Network serving as the primary point of contact for developers and startups. Well have a variety of hardware solutions that are all going to be open in Azure, Nadella said.

Microsofts hardware partners include IonQ and Honeywell, which are working on quantum computing systems based on trapped ions; as well as Quantum Circuits Inc., which uses Lego-like assemblies of superconducting circuits.

Nadella said Azure Quantum will offer a complete toolkit of open-source software including Microsofts Q# and QDK, as well as 1QBits software platform and services.

End-to-end quantum computing based on Microsofts topological qubit architecture may not yet be ready for prime time, but Nadella highlighted a quantum on classical approach, in which quantum tools are used alongside classical computation to optimize the algorithms for simulating complex phenomena.

Weve seen, in fact, many use cases already, across health care, across finance and the electrical grid as well, Nadella said.

He threw a video spotlight on a medical diagnostic technique called magnetic resonance fingerprinting, which is being pioneered by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic.

The technique uses quantum-inspired algorithms to optimize MRI scans, based on the patients precise position inside the scanner. Once the scan is done, the 3-D visualization can be viewed using Microsofts HoloLens augmented-reality headset.

Working with Azure has given us improvement in speed and about a 30% improvement in precision, Mark Griswold, a professor of radiology at CWRU, said on the video. The results were getting are allowing us to see diseases earlier than befor, and to quantify the treatments that were giving.

Other early users include:

Microsoft isnt alone in efforts to explore the frontiers of quantum computing. D-Wave Systems, which is headquartered in Burnaby, B.C., has been developing a cloud-based service that takes advantage of a special-purpose optimization technology known as quantum annealing.

Meanwhile, IBM, Google and other heavyweights of the computer industry are neck-and-neck with Microsoft in the race to create general-purpose quantum devices. Just a couple of weeks ago, Google researchers and their partners published a research paper claiming that they had achieved quantum supremacy over classical computation for a specific algorithm that generates random numbers.

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Microsoft CEO says Azure Quantum will address the big challenges in computing - GeekWire

Quantum computers: why Google, NASA and others are putting their chips on these dream machines – World Economic Forum

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In 1936, Alan Turing proposed the Turing machine, which became the foundational reference point for theories about computing and computers. Around the same time, Konrad Zuse invented the Z1 computer, considered to be the first electromagnetic binary computer.

What happened next is history, and in our world today, computers are everywhere. Our lives are dramatically different from how they were even at the end of the 20th century, and our mobile phones have far more powerful CPUs than desktop computers did only few years ago. The advent of the Internet of Things brings computer power into every minute detail of our lives. The world wide web has had such a transformative effect on society that many people can't even remember a life before they were online.

The major catalyst behind this transformation was the discovery of silicon, and its use in the production of good transistors. This occurred over a period of more than 100 years, dating from when Michael Faraday first recorded the semiconductor effect in 1833, via Morris Tanenbaum, who built the first silicon transistor at Bell Labs in 1954, to the first integrated circuit in 1960.

We are about to embark on a similar journey in our quest for building the next-generation computer. Quantum physics, which emerged in the early 20th century, is so powerful and yet so unlike anything known before that even the inventors had a hard time understanding it in detail.

In the early 1980s, Richard Feynman, Paul Benioff and Yuri Manin provided the groundwork for a completely new paradigm of quantum computing, introducing the idea that quantum computing had the potential to solve problems that classical computing could not. And so quantum computing came into its own.

Peter Shor published an algorithm in 1994 capable of efficiently solving problems in cryptography that are hard to solve for classical computers that is, the vast majority of computers used today. In fact, Shor's algorithm continues to threaten the fundaments of most encryption deployed across the globe.

The problem was that, in 1994, there was no quantum computer in sight. In 1997, the first tiny quantum computer was built, but the field really took off only when the Canadian startup D-Wave revealed its 28-qubit quantum computer in 2007.

Similar to the trajectory of non-quantum communication, which took more than 100 years from discovery to mass use, quantum computers are now maturing very quickly. Today, many players are engaged in a battle over who can build the first powerful quantum computer. These include commercial entities such as IonQ, Rigetti, IBM, Google, Alibaba, Microsoft and Intel, while virtually all major nation states are spending billions of dollars on quantum computing development and research.

Quantum computers are powerful yet so difficult to build that whoever can crack the code will have a lasting powerful advantage. This cannot be understated. Heres a striking example of the power of quantum computing.

Quantum leaps: growth over the years

Image: Statista

To break a widely used RSA 2048-bit encryption, a classical computer with one trillion operations per second would need around 300 trillion years. This is such a long time that we all feel very safe.

A quantum computer using Shor's algorithm could achieve the same feat in just 10 seconds, with a modest 1 million operations per second. That's the power of quantum computers: 300 trillion years versus 10 seconds.

Another reason why nation states pour so much money into the field is precisely because, with it being so difficult, any achievement will directly yield a lasting advantage.

So where are quantum computers today, and where are they headed?

Considering the immense challenges to building quantum computers, I'd say we are roughly where we were in around 1970 with classical computers. We have some quantum computers, but they are still pretty unreliable compared to today's standard. We call them NISQ devices - Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices. Noisy because they are pretty bad, and intermediate-scale because of their small qubit number. But they work. There are a few public quantum computers available for anyone to programme on. IBM, Rigetti, Google and IonQ all provide public access with open-source tools to real quantum computing hardware. IBM even sells a quantum computer that you can put in your own data centre (the IBM Q System One).

But these are not yet powerful enough to break RSA 2048-bit keys, and probably won't be for another 10 to 20 years.

The comparison date of 1970 works from another angle, too. In October 1969, researchers sent the first message over the internet (it was called ARPANET then). When they tried to send the one word "login", the system crashed after sending "l" and "o". It later recovered and the message was successfully sent.

Today, we are also building a quantum communication system that doesn't communicate bits and bytes, but quantum states that quantum computers can understand. This is important so that we can build up a quantum version of the internet.

D-Wave, NASA, Google and the Universities Space Research Association created the D-Wave 1,097-qubit quantum computer.

Image: Reuters/Stephen Lam

It is also important as a way of encrypting communication, since the quantum channel provides some inherent physical guarantees about a transmission. Without going into too much detail, there is a fundamental property whereby the simple act of wiretapping or listening into a communication will be made detectable to the parties communicating. Not because they have a fancy system setup, but because of fundamental properties of the quantum channel.

But quantum computers are not just useful for cryptography applications and communication. One of the most immediate applications is in machine-learning, where we are already today on the cusp of a quantum advantage meaning that the quantum algorithm will outperform any classical algorithm. It is believed that quantum advantage for machine-learning can be achieved within the next 6-12 months. The near-term applications for quantum computing are endless: cryptography, machine-learning, chemistry, optimization, communication and many more. And this is just the start, with research increasingly extending to other areas.

Google and NASA have just announced that they have achieved 'quantum supremacy'. That is the ability of quantum computers to perform certain tasks that a classical computer simply cannot do in a reasonable timeframe. Their quantum computer solved a problem in 200 seconds that would take the worlds fastest supercomputer 10,000 years.

The problem that was solved is without any practical merits or implications, yet it demonstrates the huge potential quantum computers have and the ability to unlock that potential in the coming years.

This opens up a completely new era where we can now focus on building quantum computers with practical benefits and while this will still be many years away, it will be the new frontier in computation.

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World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with our Terms of Use.

Written by

Andreas Baumhof, Vice President Quantum Technologies, QuintessenceLabs

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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Quantum computers: why Google, NASA and others are putting their chips on these dream machines - World Economic Forum

Opinion | Quantum supremacy and the cat thats neither alive nor dead – Livemint

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There is this joke about a cat that belonged to a gentleman called Schrdinger: Schrdingers cat walks into a bar. And doesnt."

If you chuckled, you must have been a student of quantum physics. Austrian physicist Erwin Schrdingers Cat Theory is a paradox that explains the seeming contradiction between what we see with our naked eye and what quantum theory says actually is in its microscopic state. He used this to disprove something called the Copenhagen Interpretation" of quantum mechanics. This interpretation states that a particle exists in all states at once until observed". Schrdingers cat is in a box and could be alive or dead. But, till the box is opened, you wont know its state. This would mean that the cat could be both alive and dead at the same time.

Now, hold that thought while we leap from cats to computers. The ones that we use now follow the principles of a Turing machine. Here, information is encoded into bits (either 1s or 0s) and one can apply a series of operations (and, or, not) to those bits to perform any computation. A quantum computer is different, it uses qubits or the quantum analogue of bits. Now, jump back to the cat. Much like the feline in Schrdingers box, a qubit is not always 0 or 1, but can be both at the same time. Only at the end of the computation or when the box is opened, would you know which, but during the computation process, its exact state is indeterminate.

If this leaves you scratching your head, do not fret. In a 2017 Wall Street Journal interview, here is what Bill Gates said: I know a lot of physics and a lot of math. But the one place where they put up slides and it is hieroglyphics, its quantum." Even Einstein had some difficulty grasping the concept and famously dismissed it with, God does not play dice with the universe."

What makes a quantum computer exciting is its ability to exploit these properties of quantum physics to perform certain calculations far more efficiently and faster than any supercomputer. Thus, megacorps such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google have been working on quantum computers. Last week, Google claimed to have achieved quantum supremacy, or the point when such a computer can perform a calculation that a traditional one cannot complete within its lifetime. Googles quantum computer took 200 seconds for a calculation that would take a supercomputer 10,000 years.

While all this is impressive, what does it mean for us? Its hard to fully answer this, as we are venturing into an entirely new area, and the future will reveal applications we have not even imagined yet. Its a bit like classical computing. We did not know how it will totally revolutionize our world. In the same manner, quantum computing could be a game-changer for many industries.

Take big data and analytics. We produce 3 exabits of data every day, equivalent to 300,000 Libraries of Congress. Classical computers are reaching their limits of processing power. However, with exponentially more powerful quantum computers, we could spot unseen patterns in large data sets, integrate data from different data sets, and tackle the whole problem at once. This would be rocket fuel for artificial intelligence (AI), with quantum computing offering quick feedbacks and collapsing the learning curve of machines. This will make AI more intuitive, expand to various industries and help build artificial general intelligence.

Online security will be impacted, with our current data encryption strategies wilting under the assault of quantum power. On the other hand, there will be formidable new cryptographic methods like quantum key distribution, where even if the message gets intercepted, no one can read it (the Cat, again). On a side note, the security of every public blockchain will be under threat from quantum hacks. It was no coincidence that Bitcoins price slumped the day Google announced its breakthrough. Quantum computing could speed up drug development by reviewing multiple molecules simultaneously, quickly sequencing individual DNAs for personalized drugs. Another application lies in weather forecasting and, more importantly, climate-change predictions. It will require the tremendous power of quantum computing to create complex, ever-changing weather models to properly predict and respond to the climate cataclysm that awaits us.

Its a brave new world of quantum computing were entering, and we will discover its possibilities as we go along. If you feel youve got it but are still confused, thats okayit is the nature of this beast. Just step out of the box.

Jaspreet Bindra is a digital transformation and technology expert, and the author of the book The Tech Whisperer

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Opinion | Quantum supremacy and the cat thats neither alive nor dead - Livemint

Other voices: Welcome to the age of Quantum computing – St. Paul Pioneer Press

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Has the era of quantum computing finally dawned? In a field long plagued by hype and hubris, theres reason for some cautious optimism.

A team of scientists at Googles research lab announced last week in the journal Nature that they had built a quantum computer that could perform calculations in about 200 seconds that would take a classical supercomputer some 10,000 years to do. An age of quantum supremacy was duly declared.

Rather uncharitably, IBM researchers were quick to point out that the feat was less than advertised. They estimated that by using all of the hard disk space at the worlds most powerful classical computer, the Summit OLCF-4 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they could do the same calculation in 2.5 days, not 10,000 years. Googles claim to have achieved quantum supremacy that is, to have accomplished a task that traditional computers cant was premature.

This was to miss the bigger picture: A rudimentary quantum machine has improved on the fastest supercomputer ever built by a factor of 1,080 an immense achievement by any measure. Although the specific problem that Googles computer solved wont have much practical significance, simply getting the technology to work was a triumph; comparisons to the Wright brothers early flights arent far off the mark.

So is the world prepared for what comes next?

Quantum computers, to put it mildly, defy human intuition. They take advantage of the strange ways that matter behaves at the subatomic level to make calculations at extraordinary speed. In theory, they could one day lead to substantial advances in materials science, artificial intelligence, medicine, finance, communications, logistics and more. In all likelihood, no one has thought up the best uses for them yet.

They also pose some risks worth paying attention to. One is that the global race to master quantum computing is heating up, with unpredictable consequences. Last year, President Donald Trumps administration signed a $1.1 billion bill to prioritize the technology, which is a decent start. But the U.S. will need to do more to retain its global leadership. Congress should fund basic research at labs and universities, ensure the U.S. welcomes immigrants with relevant skills, invest in cutting-edge infrastructure, and use the governments vast leverage as a consumer to support promising quantum technologies.

A more distant worry is that advanced quantum computers could one day threaten the public-key cryptography that protects information across the digital world. Those systems are based on hard math problems that quantum computers might theoretically be able to crack with ease. Security researchers are well aware of the problem, and at work on creating post-quantum systems and standards. But vigilance and serious investment is nonetheless called for.

No doubt, the quantum-computing era will have its share of false starts, dashed hopes and fiendishly difficult problems to overcome. As Google is showing, though, thats how technology advances: bit by bit, into a very strange future.

Bloomberg Opinion

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Other voices: Welcome to the age of Quantum computing - St. Paul Pioneer Press

Volkswagen : optimizing traffic flow with quantum computers – Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source

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Volkswagen is launching in Lisbon the world's first pilot project for traffic optimization using a quantum computer. For this purpose, the Group is equipping MAN buses of the city of Lisbon with a traffic management system developed in-house. This system uses a D-Wave quantum computer and calculates the fastest route for each of the nine participating buses individually and almost in real-time. This way, passengers' travel times will be significantly reduced, even during peak traffic periods, and traffic flow will be improved. Volkswagen is testing its traffic optimization system during the WebSummit technology conference in Lisbon from November 4 to 8 - during the conference, buses will carry thousands of passengers through the city traffic in Lisbon.

Martin Hofmann, Volkswagen Group CIO, says: 'At Volkswagen, we want to further expand our expert knowledge in the field of quantum computing and to develop an in-depth understanding of the way this technology can be put to meaningful use within the company. Traffic optimization is one of the potential applications. Smart traffic management based on the performance capabilities of a quantum computer can provide effective support for cities and commuters.'

Vern Brownell, CEO of D-Wave, says: 'Volkswagen's use of quantum computing to tackle pervasive global problems like smart traffic management is an example of the real-world impact quantum applications will soon have on our cities, communities, and everyday lives. Since we built the first commercial quantum computer, D-Wave has been focused on designing systems that enable quantum application development and deliver business value. Volkswagen's pilot project is among the first that we know of to make production use of a quantum computer, and their ongoing innovation brings us closer than ever to realizing true, practical quantum computing.'

System includes two components: passenger number prediction and route optimization

The Volkswagen traffic management system includes two components - passenger number prediction and route optimization by quantum computing. For predictions, the development team from Volkswagen is using data analytics tools to identify stops with especially high passenger numbers at certain times. For this purpose, anonymized geo-coordinates and passenger flow data are used. The objective is to offer as many people as possible tailor-made transport possibilities and to ensure optimum utilization of the bus fleet.

For the pilot project in Lisbon, 26 stops were selected and connected to form four bus links. For example, one of these runs from the WebSummit conference facility to the Marqus de Pombal traffic node in the city center.

The Volkswagen team intends to continue the development of this prediction component. The idea is that bus operators should add temporary links to their scheduled services to serve stops with the largest passenger numbers. This would be a meaningful approach for major events in the city area, for example.

The Volkswagen experts have developed a quantum algorithm for route optimization between the stops. This algorithm calculates the fastest route for each individual bus in the fleet and optimizes it almost on a real-time basis. In contrast to conventional navigation services, the quantum algorithm assigns each bus an individual route. This way, each bus can drive around traffic bottlenecks along the route at an early stage and avoid traffic jams before they even arise.

The experts from Volkswagen expect this development to have a further positive effect. As the buses travel along individually optimized routes which are calculated to ensure that they can never cause congestion themselves, there will be a general improvement in traffic flow within the city.

Volkswagen intends to develop the system to market maturity

In the future, Volkswagen plans to develop its traffic optimization system to market maturity. For this reason, the Volkswagen developers have designed the system so that it can generally be applied to any city and to vehicle fleets of any size. Further pilot projects for cities in Germany and other European countries are already being considered. Volkswagen believes that such a traffic optimization system could be offered to public transport companies, taxi companies or fleet operators.

Volkswagen and quantum computing

Volkswagen is cooperating with its technology partners D-Wave and Google, who provide the experts with access to their computer systems. In 2016, the Volkswagen team already successfully demonstrated congestion-free route optimization for taxis in the Chinese capital Beijing. Since then, the development of the algorithm has been steadily continued and it has been protected by patents in the USA.

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Volkswagen : optimizing traffic flow with quantum computers - Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source

IBM picked a fight with Google over its claims of ‘quantum supremacy.’ Here’s why experts say the feud could shake up the tech industry’s balance of…

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Most people probably couldn't tell you what quantum computing is. And, as we learned last week from an unusual public spat between tech companies, it turns out that the top quantum-computing engineers aren't so sure either.

It all started when Google researchers published a paper in the journal Nature declaring that they achieved "quantum supremacy" a breakthrough in computing speed so radical that, to use a fictional analogy, it might be akin to attaining hyperspace travel speed.

But before the champagne had even been poured, IBM was disputing Google's claims with a blog post, insisting that, technically,"quantum supremacy" hadn't really been reached.

Quantum computers have special properties that allow them to solve problems exponentially faster than even the most powerful computers today. Google researchers said their quantum computer solved a problem in 200 seconds that would take a powerful supercomputer 10,000 years to solve a potential game changer for fighting climate change, discovering drugs, predicting the stock market, and cracking the toughest encryption.

Quantum computing is still in its infant stages, and you won't find it in your office anytime soon, but investors and researchers see huge potential in it. Already, companies like Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Intel are racing tobuild quantum computers, while venture capitalists are pouring money into startups like IonQ, Rigetti Computing, Aliro, and D-Wave.

The feud between IBM and Google is in many ways academic. But it also highlights the prominence and importance within the industry of a technology considered science fiction just a decade ago. As computing technology gets pushed to its limits, new technology like quantum computing has the potential to open entirely new markets and shake up the balance of powers in the tech industry.

And while Google and IBM are taking different approaches to quantum, the rival claims underscore the seriousness with which each company views the technology.

"Google is doing things as a research project," Brian Hopkins, the vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, told Business Insider. "IBM has a commercial strategy, pouring money in to get money out. They want to get to a point where quantum computers are powerful enough so people are willing to pay money to solve problems."

At the same time, rivals like Microsoft, Intel, and quantum-computing startups are lauding Google's experiment and see it as a good sign for quantum computing.

Jim Clarke, Intel's director of quantum hardware, with one of the company's quantum processors. Intel

"We're beginning to have a discussion that a quantum computer can do something that a supercomputer does not," Jim Clarke, the director of quantum hardware at Intel, told Business Insider. "It motivates us that we're on the right path. There's still a long way to go to get to a useful quantum computer. I think this is a positive step along the way."

Computer experts told Business Insider it would take time to prove whether Google did, in fact, reach this benchmark and whether IBM's disputes were correct.

IBM, which built Summit, the most powerful supercomputer, said the experiment could be run by a supercomputer in 2 1/2 days, as opposed to the 10,000 years Google said would be required with a traditional computing technology.

In other words, even though Google's quantum computer is faster, if it were true that the supercomputer could run that same problem in 2 1/2 days, it would not be that large of a difference. Running a problem that takes 10,000 years to solve is impractical, but if it took 2 1/2 days to solve, it would not be that big of a deal.

"The conflict between Google and IBM highlights that there's some ambiguity in the definition of quantum supremacy," Bill Fefferman, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Chicago, told Business Insider.

Still, Google's work shows the progress of quantum computing, and people shouldn't lose sight of that, despite the arguments about it, Martin Reynolds, the distinguished vice president at Gartner, said.

That being said, since quantum computing is still in its early days, Google's milestone is "a bit like being the record holder in the 3-yard sprint," Reynolds said.

Fefferman added that the "jury is still out" on whether Google has actually reached quantum supremacy, but not because of anything IBM said.

"While it's not completely clear to me that there's currently enough evidence to conclude that we've reached quantum supremacy, Google is certainly breaking new ground and going places people have not gone before," Fefferman said.

And though Google's experiment is a "major scientific breakthrough," it has little influence on commercial users today, Matthew Brisse, the research vice president at Gartner, said.

"It demonstrates progress in the quantum community, but from an end-user perspective, it doesn't change anyone's plans or anyone's project initiatives because we're still many years away," Brisse told Business Insider. "We're literally five to 10 years away from using this in a commercial production environment."

In general, IBM and Google's competitors told Business Insider they saw the experiment as a step forward.

"This is an exciting scientific achievement for the quantum industry and another step on a long journey towards a scalable, viable quantum future," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

Rigetti Computing CEO Chad Rigetti. YouTube/Y Combinator

Chad Rigetti, the founder and CEO of the startup Rigetti Quantum Computing, called Google's experiment a "remarkable achievement" that should give researchers, policymakers, investors, and other users more confidence in quantum computing.

He added that IBM's claims haven't been tested on actual hardware yet, and even if it were proved, it would still be slower and more expensive to run than on Google's quantum computer.

"The Google experiment is a landmark scientific achievement and the most important milestone to date in quantum computing," Rigetti told Business Insider. "It shows that real commercial applications are now within sight for superconducting qubit systems."

Clarke, of Intel, agreed that it was a positive for the quantum community overall, though he said that calling it "quantum supremacy" might be debatable. Clarke also said that it could show that quantum computers could be more efficient, as he suspects that Google's quantum computer uses much less power than running a Summit supercomputer for over two days.

"What's been interesting to me is seeing some of the negative reactions to this announcement," Clarke told Business Insider. "If you're in the quantum community, any good experiment that suggests there's a long future in quantum computing should be appreciated. I haven't quite understood some of the negative response at this point."

What happens next is that other scientists will review the paper, work to prove or disprove it, and debate whether quantum supremacy has been reached. Ines Montano, an associate professor of applied physics at Northern Arizona University, said IBM would likely work to prove that its supercomputer could run that experiment in a shorter time frame.

"IBM will have to figure out something to put some data to their claim," Montano told Business Insider. "That will be a very public discussion for a while. In the meantime, there's the quest is to find problems that may be more applicable to current things ... We're not as far away as we were thinking 10 years ago."

This will likely take some time, as quantum supremacy is difficult to prove. Still, quantum computing is still in its early stages, experts say, and they expect more advancements in the coming years. Experts predict that the industry is still at least 10 years away from useful quantum computers.

"Google's managed to find a complex problem that they can solve on this system," Reynolds told Business Insider. "It isn't a useful solution, but it is a big step forwards. IBM offers a way to solve the problem with classical hardware in a couple of days. That's also impressive and shows the caliber of thinking that we find in these early quantum programs."

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IBM picked a fight with Google over its claims of 'quantum supremacy.' Here's why experts say the feud could shake up the tech industry's balance of...

What Are the Biggest Challenges Technology Must Overcome in the Next 10 Years? – Gizmodo

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Technologys fineI definitely like texting, and some of the shows on Netflix are tolerablebut the fields got some serious kinks to work out. Some of these are hardware-related: when, for instance, will quantum computing become practical? Others are of more immediate concern. Is there some way to stop latently homicidal weirdos from getting radicalized online? Can social networks be tweaked in such a way as to not nearly guarantee the outbreak of the second Civil War? As AI advances and proliferates, how can we stop it from perpetuating, or worsening, injustice and discrimination?

For this weeks Giz Asks, weve assembled a wide-ranging panelof futurists, engineers, anthropologists, and experts in privacy and AIto address these and many other hurdles.

Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT

Here are some broad societal impact challenges for AI. There are so many important and exciting challenges in front of upI include a few I have been thinking about:

1) virtual 1-1 student-teacher ratios for all childrenthis will enable personalized education and growth for all children

2) individualized healthcarethis will deliver medical attention to patients that is customized to their own bodies

3) reversing climate changethis will take us beyond mapping climate change into identifying ways to repair the damage; one example is to reverse engineer photosynthesis and incorporate such processes into smart cities to ameliorate pollution

4) interspecies communicationthis will enable us to understand and communicate with members of other species, for example to understand what whales are communicating through their song, etc

5) intelligent clothing that will monitor our bodies (1) to ensure we live well and (2) to detect the emergence of a disease before the disease happens

And here are some technical challenges:

1) interpretability and explainability of machine learning systems

2) robustness of machine learning systems

3) learning from small data

4) symbolic decision making with provable guarantees

5) generalizability

7) machine learning with provable guarantees

8) unsupervised machine learning

9) new models of machine learning that are closer to nature

Anthropologist and Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Jean Nicod, Paris; Co-Founder of the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, University of Oxford, and author of Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood and the (Un)Making of Terrorists

How to tell the difference between real vs fake, and between good vs harmful so that we can prevent harmful fake (malign) activity and promote what is real and good?

Malign social media ecologies (hate speech, disinformation, polarizing and radicalizing campaigns, etc.) have both bottom-up and top-down aspects, each of which is difficult to deal but together stump most counter efforts. These problems are severely compounded by exploitation of cognitive biases (e.g., their tendency to believe in messages that conform to ones prior believes and to disbelieve messages that dont), and also by exploitation of cultural belief systems (e.g., gaining trust, as in the West, based on accuracy, objectivity, validation and competence vs. gaining trust, as in most of the rest of the world, based on respect, recognition, honor, and dignity) and preferences (e.g., values associated with family, communitarian, nationalist, traditional mores vs. universal, multicultural, consensual, progressive values).

Malign campaigns exploit psychological biases and political vulnerabilities in the socio-cultural landscape of nations, and among transnational and substate actors, which has already led to new ways of resisting, reinforcing and remaking political authority and alliances. Such campaigns also can be powerful force multipliers for kinetic warfare and affect economies. Although pioneered by state actors, disinformation tools are now readily available to anyone or any group with internet access to deploy at low cost. This democratization of influence operations, coupled with democracies vulnerabilities owing to political tolerance and free speech, requires our societies to create new forms of resilience as well as deterrence. This means that a significant portion of malign campaigns involve self-organizing bottom-up phenomena that self-repair. Policing and banning on any single platform (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, VKontake, etc.) can be downright counterproductive, with users going to back doors even being banned, jumping between countries, continents and languages, and eventually producing global dark pools, in which illicit and malign online behaviors will flourish.

Because large clusters that carry hate speech or disinformation arise from small, organic clusters, it follows that large clusters can hence be reduced by first banning small clusters. In addition, random banning of a small fraction of the entire user population (say, 10 percent) would serve the dual role of lowering the risk of banning many from the same cluster, and inciting a large crowd. But if, indeed, States and criminal organizations with deep offline presence can create small clusters almost at will, then the problem becomes not one of simply banning small clusters or a small fraction of randomly chosen individuals. Rather, the key involves identifying small clusters that initiate a viral cascade propagating hate or malign influence. Information cascades follow a heavy-tailed distribution, with large-scale information cascades relatively rare (only 2 percent > 100 re-shares), with 50 percent of shares in a cascade occurring within an hour; so the problem is to find an appropriate strategy i to identify an incipient malign viral cascade and apply counter measures well within the first hour

There is also a layering strategy evident in State-sponsored and criminally-organized illicit online networks. Layering is a technique where links to disinformation sources are embedded in popular blogs, forums and websites of activists (e.g., environment, guns, healthcare, immigration, etc.) and enthusiasts (e.g., automobiles, music, sports, food and drink, etc.). These layering-networks, masquerading as alternative news and media sources, regularly seek bitcoin donations. Their block chains show contributions made by anonymous donors in orders of tens of thousands of dollars at a time, and hundreds of thousands of dollars over time. We find that these layering-networks often form clusters linking to the same Google Ad accounts, earning advertising dollars for their owners and operators. Social media and advertising companies often have difficulty identifying account owners linked with illicit and malign activity, in part because they often appear to be organic and regularly pass messages containing a kernel of truth. How, then, to detect layering-networks (Breitbart, One America News Network, etc.), symbols (logos, flags), faces (politicians, leaders), suspicious objects (weapons), hate speech and anti-democracy framing & as suspicious?

Finally, knowledge of psychology and cultural belief systems are needed to train the data that technology uses to mine, monitor, and manipulate information. Overcoming malign social media campaigns ultimately relies on human appraisal of strategic aspects, such as importance of core values and the stakes at play (political, social, economic), and relative strengths of players in those stakes. The critical role of social science goes beyond the expertise of engineers, analysts, and data scientists that platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook use to moderate propaganda, disinformation, and hateful content.

Yet, an acute problem concerns overwhelming evidence from cognitive and social psychology and anthropology, that truth and evidenceno matter how logically consistent or factually correctdo not sway public opinion or popular allegiance as much as appeals to basic cognitive biases that confirm deep beliefs and core cultural values. Indeed, many so-called biases used in argument do not reflect sub-optimal or deficient reasoning but rather suggest their efficient (even optimal) use for persuasionan evolutionarily privileged form of reasoning to socially recruit others to ones circle of beliefs for cooperation and mutual defense. Thus, to combat false or faulty reasoningas in noxious messagingits not enough to target an arguments empirical and logical deficiencies versus a counterarguments logical and empirical coherence. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that warning about misinformation has little effect (e.g., despite advanced warning, yes voters are more likely than no voters to remember a fabricated scandal about a vote no campaign, and no voters are more likely to remember a fabricated scandal about a vote yes campaign). Evidence is also mounting that value-driven, morally focused information in general, and social media in particular not only drives readiness to believe, but also concerted actions for beliefs.

One counter strategy involves compromising ones own truth and honesty, and ultimately moral legitimacy, in a disinformation arms race. Another is to remain true to the democratic values upon which our society is based (in principle if not practice), never denying or contradicting them, or threatening to impose them on others.

But how to consistently expose misleading, false, and malicious information while advancing truthful, evidence-based information that never contradicts our core values or threatens the core values of others (to the extent tolerable)? How to encourage people to exit echo chambers of the like-minded to engage in a free and open public deliberation on ideas that challenge preconceived or fed attitudes, a broader awareness of what is on offer and susceptibility to alternatives may be gained however initially strong ones preconception or fed history?

Professor, Mechanical Engineering, MIT, whose research focuses on quantum information and control theory

The two greatest technological challenges of our current time are

(a) good cellphone service, and

(b) a battery with the energy density of extra virgin olive oil

I need say no more about (a). For (b) I could have used diesel fuel instead of olive oil (they have similar energy densities), but I like the thought of giving my computer a squirt of extra virgin olive oil every time it runs out of juice.

Since you are also interested in quantum computing Ill comment there too.

Quantum computing is at a particularly exciting and maybe scary moment. If we can build large-scale quantum computers, they would be highly useful for a variety of problems, from code-breaking (Shors algorithm), to drug discovery (quantum simulation), to machine learning (quantum computers could find patterns in data that cant be found by classical computers).

Over the past two decades, quantum computers have progressed from relatively feeble devices capable of performing a few hundred quantum logic operations on a few quantum bits, to devices with hundreds or thousands of qubits capable of performing thousands to tens of thousands of quantum ops.

That is, we are just at the stage where quantum computers may actually be able to do something useful. Will they do it? Or will the whole project fail?

The primary technological challenge over the next few years is to get complex superconducting quantum circuits or extended quantum systems such as ion traps or quantum optical devices to the point where they can be sufficiently precisely controlled to perform computations that classical computers cant. Although there are technological challenges of fabrication and control involved, there are well-defined paths and strategies for overcoming those challenges. In the longer run, to build scalable quantum computers will require devices with hundreds of thousands of physical qubits, capable of implementing quantum error correcting codes.

Here the technological challenges are daunting, and in my opinion, we do not yet possess a clear path to overcoming them.

Quantitative futurist, Founder of the Future Today Institute, Professor of Strategic Foresight at New York University Stern School of Business, and the author, most recently, of The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Could Warp Humanity

The short answer is this: We continue to create new technologies without actively planning for their downstream implications. Again and again, we prioritize short-term solutions that simply never address long-term risk. We are nowists. Were not engaged in strategic thinking about the future.

The best example of our collective nowist culture can be seen in the development of artificial intelligence. Weve prioritized speed over safety, and longer-term strategy over short-term commercial gains. But were not asking important questions, like what happens to society when we transfer power to a system built by a small group of people that is designed to make decisions for everyone? The answer isnt as simple as it may seem, because we now rely on just a few companies to investigate, develop, produce, sell, and maintain the technology we use each and every day. There is tremendous pressure for these companies to build practical and commercial applications for AI as quickly as possible. Paradoxically, systems intended to augment our work and optimize our personal lives are learning to make decisions that we, ourselves, wouldnt. In other caseslike warehouses and logisticsAI systems are doing much of the cognitive work on their own and relegating the physical labor to human workers.

There are new regulatory frameworks for AI being developed by the governments of the US, Canada, EU, Japan, China, and elsewhere. Agencies like the U.S.-based National Institute of Standards and Technology are working on technical standards for AI, but that isnt being done in concert with similar agencies in other countries. Meanwhile, China is forging ahead with various AI initiatives and partnerships that are linking together emerging markets around the world into a formidable global network. Universities arent making fast, meaningful changes to their curricula to address ethics, values and bias throughout all of the courses in their AI programs. Everyday people arent developing the digital street smarts needed to confront this new era of technology. So they are tempted to download fun-looking, but ultimately suspicious apps. Theyre unwittingly training machine learning systems. Too often, they are outright tricked into allowing others to access untold amounts of their social, location, financial, and biometric data.

This is a systemic problem, one that involves our governments, financiers, universities, tech companies and even you, dear Gizmodo readers. We must actively work to create better futures. That will only happen through meaningful collaboration and a global coordination to shape AI in way that benefits companies and shareholders, but also prioritizes transparency, accountability and our personal data and privacy. The best way to engineer systematic change is to treat AI as a public good.

University Distinguished Professor, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, whose work focuses on the impact of technologies on individuals, relationships, communities, and social institutions

Technologies from medicine to transportation to workplace tools are overwhelmingly designed by men and tested on men. Rather than being neutral, technologies developed with male-oriented specs can cause physical harm and financial risks to women. Pacemakers are unsuited to many women since womens hearts beat faster than mens and that was not figured into the design. Because only male crash test dummies were used in safety ratings until 2011, seat-belted women are 47% more likely to be seriously harmed in car accidents. When men and women visit help wanted websites, the technological algorithms direct men to higher-paying jobs. Machine learning algorithms designed to screen resumes so that companies can hire people like their current top workers erroneously discriminate against women when those current workers are men.

Womens hormones are different than mens, causing some drugs to have enhanced effects in women and some to have diminished effects. Even though 80% of medications are prescribed to women, drug research is still predominantly conducted on men. Between 1997 and 2000, the FDA pulled ten prescription drugs from the market, eight of which were recalled because of the health risks they posed to women.

On the other hand, some treatments may be beneficial to women, but never brought to market if the testing is done primarily on men. Lets say that a drug study enrolls 1000 people, 100 of whom are women. What if it offers no benefit to the 900 men, but all 100 women are cured? The researchers will abandon the drug, judging that it is only 10% effective. If a follow-up study focused on women, it could lead to a new drug to the benefit of women and the economy.

Workplace technologies also follow a male model. Female surgeons in even elite hospitals have to stack stools on top of one another to stand high enough to undertake laparoscopic surgeries. Their lesser hand strength causes them to have to use both hands to operate tools that male surgeons operate with one, leading female surgeons to have more back, neck and hand problems than men. Nonetheless, the patients of female surgeons do better than those of men. Imagine the health gain to the patients (and their female surgeons) if technologies were designed to accommodate women as well as men.

Female fighter pilots wear g-suits designed in the 1960s to fit men. These too-large suits do not provide adequate protection for women against g-forces, which can lead to a sudden loss of color vision or a full blackout as blood begins to rush from their brain. The zippers generally dont unzip far enough to comfortably fit the female bladder device, which causes some female pilots not to drink before missions, potentially leading to blackouts from dehydration. Other military equipment poses safety and efficacy risks to women. Designing with women in mindsuch as the current work on exoskeletonscan benefit both female and male soldiers by providing protection and increasing strength and endurance.

Id like to see the equivalent of a Moon Shota focused technology research programthat tackles the issue of women and technology. Innovation for and by women can grow the economy and create better products for everyone.

Do you have a question for Giz Asks? Email us at tipbox@gizmodo.com.

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What Are the Biggest Challenges Technology Must Overcome in the Next 10 Years? - Gizmodo