• While many people move to Florida for retirement, Karen Meadows and her husband did the opposite.
• The couple left their calm, slow-paced life in Panama City Beach for a faster one in Brooklyn.
• At first, many things about moving to NYC, like the subway, scared Karen, but now she feels at home.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Karen Meadows, a 62-year-old Floridian who moved to New York in 2024. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

My husband and I have been married for 34 years, and we spent 17 of those years living in Panama City Beach, Florida. It’s where I raised both of my kids and where I started my running coaching business and a 10K charity race.

Panama City Beach was a gorgeous place to live, with beautiful skies every day, clear blue water, and pure white sand. While it was a touristy area, when we first moved there, it was still pretty sleepy during the off-season. That’s actually why I got into the racing business — I was really bored, and there wasn’t that much to do.

However, over the time we lived there, it became more popular.

Many people move to Florida to retire because it’s quiet and has a slower pace of life. But for me, I wanted to move somewhere with more energy.

In 2024, my husband and I moved to New York. It’s funny because the first thing everybody says about our move is, “Oh my God, you did the opposite.” And they’re right.

To be honest, at first, I was afraid to live in New York. And I’ll tell you, most days I’m still a little bit afraid. But I’m a huge believer in the idea that your brain is your central governor; it rules everything, and that the second you start restricting yourself because of fear, or thinking you should slow down, you will.

In New York, there are so many people to see and things to do. I’m more active, and living here is keeping me positive about aging.

We moved to be closer to our children

Moving to New York was definitely driven by our children. In 2020, my son was accepted to Columbia University. My daughter also attended Boston University and now lives in New Jersey. My husband and I really wanted to be closer to them.

We did have some issues selling our house in Florida. It was a really pretty home, but it also had a lot of quirky touches. On top of that, there was so much new construction that we were facing a lot of competition.

I took the first decent offer we received. By that point, I didn’t care about trying to squeeze out more money — I felt like my mental health was worth more than that. We made enough from the sale to put some money in the bank and feel like we could downsize comfortably.

There’s such a big contrast between New York and Florida. It made it pretty stressful trying to figure out where to live. But my son introduced me to Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and I liked that it had plenty to do while feeling a little less hectic than Manhattan.

When we first moved to Williamsburg, we lived in an old converted loft building. When our lease was up there, we moved to Three Williamsburg Wharf in 2025. We live in a two-bedroom, two-bath unit and pay around $8,700 a month. Our corner unit has a view of the Brooklyn skyline and overlooks the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which I love because you can see so much going on.

Coming from a big house, a two-bedroom apartment is a huge downsize. And while I thought I wouldn’t like renting, I’ve never been happier. There’s a lot less to worry about; there are no property taxes, and everything gets done for you. I also love the sense of community here, from wine tastings and Super Bowl parties to the people I’ve met in the building.

Moving to New York was a risk, but I’ve found a new community

I’ve always been a bit of a risk-taker, and I think it’s important to challenge yourself.

That’s part of why I’m such a dedicated runner — I regularly train for marathons, and I’ve run the New York City Marathon and the Boston Marathon many times.

Still, moving to a new place comes with plenty to worry about.

Some of the fears I’ve had to overcome in New York included learning to use the subway — my son showed me how to use maps, which made it much less intimidating — and getting comfortable driving in a busy city.

The way I got over that fear was by driving more. I also started volunteering with North Brooklyn Angels, a nonprofit food delivery service. Doing that community work has also helped me become more social.

In addition to volunteering with North Brooklyn Angels, I’ve joined the North Brooklyn Runners Club, started a book club, and recently begun volunteering with City Harvest, a food rescue organization. These groups have been especially important to me because I left behind my whole life and many of my friends in Florida. I also love helping people in need.

I know I probably could have moved somewhere more laid-back, warmer, and with lower taxes, but I love New York. I’m almost 63, and I feel better and more alive than ever. Life feels freer, I’m more engaged, and there’s still so much to explore.

• Sean “Diddy” Combs’ attorneys are trying to overturn his conviction and sentence.
• Combs was sentenced to 50 months for two prostitution-related charges last year.
• In appellate court arguments Thursday, a defense lawyer argued that Combs was treated unjustly.

During a lively exchange of questions and arguments on Thursday, a trio of federal appeals judges signaled their strong interest in overturning last year’s sentence on prostitution-related charges for Sean “Diddy” Combs.

The appellate judges repeatedly voiced skepticism over the Manhattan sentencing judge’s decision to hold the trial’s ample evidence of coercion and force against Combs in sentencing.

Combs was acquitted of using coercion or force to sex-traffick his two longtime girlfriends, the judges noted — and it’s the appellate court’s duty to ensure that sentencing guidelines are followed, and “that the jury’s acquittal isn’t negated,” as Judge M. Miller Baker noted Thursday.

The judges’ apparent sympathy with arguments by a Combs attorney on Thursday comes with a catch, however.

Even if the defense wins and the case is kicked back down to US District Court Judge Arun Subramanian for resentencing, Subramanian has already said that even without considering coercion and force, 50 months remains, in his judgment, a fair sentence for Combs.

Overturning Combs’ sentence could set an important precedent in future cases — setting firmer guidelines on what federal judges can and cannot weigh at sentencing. Still, resentencing Combs could ultimately result in Subramanian imposing the exact same penalty for the “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper.

“Any potential error would be harmless here,” Christy Slavik, a lead federal prosecutor in the case, told the panel.

‘An exceptionally difficult case’

The millionaire hip-hop mogul was sentenced in October to 50 months in prison on two counts of transporting male escorts across state lines for the so-called “freak offs” at the center of the trial.

In her oral arguments Thursday, Combs defense lawyer Alexandra Shapiro repeatedly told the appellate judges that coercion and force had nothing to do with the jury’s limited finding that Combs transported male escorts across state lines.

“This case presents an important issue about respect for jury verdicts and public confidence in our criminal justice system,” Shapiro told the panel.

In detailed questions and statements from the bench, all three judges at times agreed with Shapiro, suggesting they may be open to Shapiro’s arguments and to vacating the 50-month sentence Subramanian imposed in October.

At other times, the judges of the Manhattan-based US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit expressed skepticism with both the defense’s and the prosecution’s arguments.

The panel of judges repeatedly interrupted Shapiro and Slavik as they presented their arguments, pressing them hard to defend their positions.

And at least one appellate judge appeared sympathetic to Slavik’s argument that Subramanian correctly weighed Combs’ admitted violence and drug use against him at sentencing.

“We have two women who were plied with drugs to participate in this and one of them became an opioid addict,” Baker told Shapiro at one point, referencing trial testimony by R&B singer Cassie Ventura.

“This is an exceptionally difficult case,” Judge William Nardini said at the hearing’s conclusion, telling both sides that the three-judge appellate panel is reserving decision.

‘A thirteenth juror’

Combs, who was not at the hearing, is currently serving out his sentence at a low-security prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Prison records show the 56-year-old music tycoon is currently expected to be released on April 15, 2028. He has been locked up since his September 2024 arrest.

Thursday’s arguments centered on Combs’ two federal Mann Act convictions, for transporting male escorts across state lines so that he could watch them engage in drug-fueled sex encounters with his two ex-girlfriends, including Ventura.

At Combs’ seven-week trial, the jury cleared the onetime near-billionaire of the top sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges against him. The two Mann Act counts were the only charges the jury found Combs guilty of.

In appellate briefs filed by Combs’ attorneys in December, his lawyers argued that Subramanian “acted as a thirteenth juror.”

“The judge defied the jury’s verdict and found Combs ‘coerced,’ ‘exploited,’ and ‘forced’ his girlfriends to have sex and led a criminal conspiracy,” Combs’ attorneys wrote.

They added, “These judicial findings trumped the verdict and led to the highest sentence ever imposed for any remotely similar defendant — even though most others, unlike Combs, ran prostitution businesses that exploited poor or undocumented women or minors.”

• The USPS is temporarily suspending payments to an employee pension plan, it said on Thursday.
• The move is set to free up $2.5 billion this fiscal year, the postal service said.
• USPS is facing liquidity problems and warned that it could run out of cash in early 2027.

America’s postal service is temporarily halting payments to its employees’ pensions to free up cash, citing fast-approaching financial troubles.

The payment suspension to the Federal Employees Retirement System pension plan is set to take effect on Friday, the US Postal Service said in a document with frequently asked questions and answers. The FAQ attributed the pause in pension payments to “a pending liquidity crisis in which the postal service could run out of cash as early as February 2027.”

USPS chief financial officer Luke Grossmann said that the suspension would not cause “any immediate detrimental impact” to current employees or retirees.

“The risk to the Postal Service and the American public from insufficient liquidity for postal operations dramatically outweighs any longer-term risk to the pension funds from not making the currently due payments,” Grossmann said in a statement.

The pause is the latest sign of trouble for USPS. Last fiscal year, the postal service lost $9 billion.

In a congressional hearing last month, Postmaster General David Steiner said the financial situation puts USPS at a “critical juncture.” Without action, Steiner said, USPS might not be able to deliver mail starting in early 2027.

By suspending pension payments, USPS said it would save $2.5 billion in the current fiscal year. USPS pays about $200 million every other week to fund the pensions. Contributions to employees’ Thrift Savings Plans, a separate savings option for federal employees, won’t be affected by the pause, USPS said.

The pension payment pause isn’t a permanent solution to the postal service’s financial problems, USPS said. The agency has cut costs and pursued new revenue, but said it also needs Congress to increase its funding.

“Legislative action is desperately needed to return the Postal Service to profitability,” USPS said in the FAQ.

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• Nicholas Jenkins was put on a performance improvement plan while working at Amazon.
• He took a termination package in December 2024 and was surprised by how hard it was to get hired.
• He finally landed a job after moving home to Houston and leveraging his personal network.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nicholas Jenkins, a market research analyst in his 40s who lives in Texas. He previously worked as a program manager at Amazon until leaving the company in December 2024 after being placed on a performance improvement plan. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I started working for Amazon in 2020.

Beginning in 2022, it felt like there was a shift within the company, and some experimental projects were deprioritized. Layoffs and reorganizations also picked up during this period, creating an organizational crunch.

My role as a program manager based in Seattle still seemed pretty secure. However, I thought I could eventually be impacted if layoffs continued.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that something other than layoffs would put my job at risk.

When I was put on a PIP, the writing was on the wall

In 2024, I landed under new management through a reorganization. It didn’t feel like a great fit, but I wasn’t too concerned. I thought my work was critical and that, for the most part, the quality spoke for itself. I was even angling for a promotion.

Around August 2024, there were some initial conversations about my performance, including my proficiency with the programming language SQL. I felt I was being evaluated on standards outside the scope of my role. Despite how I felt, the writing was on the wall.

Around October, I was formally placed on Amazon’s “focus” performance improvement program (PIP).

At that point, I was like, I’ve got to get out of here. This is too stressful.

I viewed my departure from Amazon as a win

I was eventually offered a termination package that included a couple of months’ worth of severance pay. Rather than taking it right away, I decided to carry on with the PIP process so I could buy time until my stock vested. Leaving sooner would’ve meant leaving money on the table.

Then, in December, I accepted the package and left.

While I hadn’t landed a promotion, I’d been there long enough for my stock to vest. This was a win.

When I parted ways with Amazon, I was under the impression that I would just roll into a new job. In the past, it felt like all I had to do was apply for a role, and I’d get it.

However, I underestimated how tough the job market would be. I didn’t get nearly the same traction I had in the past, and it seemed like companies were queuing up talent but were hesitant to actually hire.

I had roughly two to three phone screenings a month — including one with TikTok after a recruiter reached out to me — but I couldn’t land an offer.

I developed a ‘final mile strategy’ to land an offer

After struggling to find work for about five months, I realized I needed what I called a “final mile strategy” to help me land not just interviews, but also an offer. In the current market, it’s key to build relationships and have that inside track to a job.

My first step in executing this strategy was moving from Seattle back to my hometown of Houston in July 2025. I had a robust network there, which I hoped would give me an advantage.

Next, I upgraded my wardrobe and bought a few new suits because Seattle was a more casual environment than Houston.

I started attending job fairs and networking events. At one event, I spoke with a friend who worked at a credit union in Houston. The conversation helped me learn about credit unions, which came in handy about a month later, when I finally had a breakthrough.

My advice: shake hands and kiss babies

My mom is a dental assistant in the Houston area, and one of her practice’s clients is the owner of a local credit union consulting firm. My mom mentioned me to the owner, who suggested we talk.

My previous conversation with my friend helped me speak intelligently about the industry during my meeting with the owner, who later offered me a market research analyst job.

About seven months after leaving Amazon, I landed a new job, which I started in August 2025. Over time, I feel I’ve been able to showcase my abilities and forge my own path within the company.

My advice for other job seekers is to focus less on job applications and more on your personal networks. You need to get out there, shake hands, kiss babies, and cultivate relationships to build your next opportunity.

Editor’s note: Representatives for Amazon declined to comment.

• The US is changing Selective Service registration but has not announced plans for a draft.
• The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act prompted the registration changes.
• Selective Service is moving to automatic registration for those eligible.

The US is moving to change the Selective Service registration process this year, but that does not mean a military draft is in the works. Here is what’s happening.

After Congress approved automatic registration in last year’s defense policy bill, which was signed into law in December, the Selective Service System proposed rules at the end of March.

The SSS says automatic registration of eligible men is expected by December, meaning 18-year-old men in the US will be automatically enrolled in the Selective Service’s database rather than have to complete a form. The intention, SSS says, is a “streamlined registration process.”

Driven by new mandates in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, this change will shift registration from something that individuals do to something the government does automatically with available federal data.

While some critics say that the move is a significant change to Selective Service that could make it much easier to pursue the draft if needed, lawmakers behind the change have framed it as an update to bureaucratic processes that will save time and money.

What is Selective Service?

The US created its first national conscription system during World War I and established its first peacetime draft in 1940, before entering World War II, registering millions of men. The draft was used for decades, most notably during the Vietnam War, when conscription became extremely unpopular.

The US military shifted to an all-volunteer force in 1973, pushing the Selective Service System into what the agency describes as a “deep standby” status, though registration was reinstated in 1980 in case a draft was ever again needed.

Selective Service registration of eligible males — women are currently ineligible for the draft, though some have pushed to change that — is intended to enable swift mobilization in the event of a national emergency requiring a draft.

Failure to register for the draft is a felony offense that can come with steep penalties of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, as well as a loss of benefits, though prosecution is generally rare.

What is the draft?

The US last used the draft in 1973, at the end of the Vietnam War era. The Selective Service System today maintains the list of men, ages 18 to 25, who could be called up if a draft were reinstated.

Roughly two-thirds of US military personnel who served in Vietnam were volunteers, but the draft still weighs heavily in memories of the conflict, having been a significant point of contention at the time.

More recently, discussions of a potential draft resurfaced during US military action against Iran, as questions emerged about whether the conflict could expand and see the US put troops on the ground in Iran.

The US executed Operation Epic Fury, which is now on hold amid a fragile ceasefire, without putting boots on the ground, but that possibility loomed large, especially as thousands of Marines aboard amphibious assault ships moved into the region.

Early on in the war, Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about a draft and the possibility of putting American troops on the ground in Iran.

Leavitt said “it is not part of the current plan right now, but the president again wisely keeps his options on the table.” Other Trump administration officials have taken similar approaches by not ruling out even unlikely options; a return to conscription would notably require Congressional authorization, according to the Selective Service.

“People ask, ‘Boots on the ground, no boots on the ground?” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in an interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” around the same time. “You don’t tell the enemy, you don’t tell the press, you don’t tell anybody what your limits would be on an operation,” he said.

The US military put American troops on the ground in Iran in an effort to rescue two downed airmen, but there has been no large-scale ground operation, such as may be needed to seize key Iranian oil infrastructure or to ensure the destruction of highly enriched uranium.

For now, the US still relies on an all-volunteer military force. Changes to Selective Service affect records-keeping procedures. They do not determine whether Americans will be drafted.

• Engineers are debating “tokenmaxxing,” or the idea of spending as many AI tokens as possible.
• Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan embraced the term: “We’ve been tokenmaxxing longer than most people.”
• Others called it an ineffective productivity measure incentivizing wasteful token use or gaming company leaderboards.

Forget lines of code written, engineers have a new way to compete amongst each other.

Welcome to the era of “tokenmaxxing.”

Armed with shiny new AI coding tools, software developers across the tech industry have a wallet full of tokens to spend. Tokens, a measure of computing that determines how AI work is priced, have been floated as a form of compensation for engineers, even cropping up in job descriptions for AI fellowships at OpenAI and Anthropic.

But is token spending a good measure of developer productivity?

The question has lit up on social media this week as techies debate the concept of tokenmaxxing after The Information reported that some Meta engineers are racing to spend tokens to rank on an employee-made “Claudeonomics” dashboard that tracks usage and lets employees compete for titles like “Token Legend.” The company didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Some say it’s a helpful marker of employees embracing new tools; others say it could incentivize inefficient use of AI within companies — leading to performative gaming of the metric.

“Ranking engineers by token spend is like me ranking my marketing team by who spent the most money,” Linear COO Cristina Cordova wrote on X. “Don’t mistake a high burn rate for a high success rate.”

What is tokenmaxxing?

To understand tokenmaxxing, you first have to know what a token is. Large language models break words into numerical inputs, treating each token as roughly ¾ of a word. AI models charge based on the number of tokens used.

Tokenmaxxing, then, is the drive to spend as many tokens as possible. Meta and OpenAI are just some of the tech companies with token leaderboards, The New York Times previously reported.

While it’s difficult to measure how widespread tokenmaxxing has become, companies’ AI spending is clearly on the rise. The fintech company Ramp called it a “$1 trillion blind spot” on X, citing Gartner data showing that monthly AI spending among businesses has quadrupled over the last year.

It’s also a flex. Founders and future-forward engineers post their token spending on X to signal how all-in they are on AI. One xAI employee wrote that tech was turning every good idea “into theater.”

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan appears to be a fan. Quoting a prior post that chided companies that are “stingy” with tokens, Tan wrote: “We’ve been tokenmaxxing longer than most people.”

Is tokenmaxxing a good incentive?

Some within the tech world argue tokenmaxxing is an effective metric; others call it reckless spending.

Khosla Ventures partner Jon Chu called token spending measurement an “absolutely stupid policy” on X.

“Plenty of my Meta friends told me folks have been building bots that just run in a loop burning tokens as fast as they can due to this policy,” he wrote.

Cursor employee Edwin Wee Arbus offered a nuanced take on the metric, calling it a “useful, fast proxy, but slightly flawed.” He compared it to body mass index, or BMI, which can provide health insights but does not capture muscle or bone mass.

While Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hasn’t directly weighed in on “tokenmaxxing,” he has stressed the importance of engineers using a lot of tokens, saying that if a $500,000 engineer didn’t consume at least $250,000 worth of tokens, he would be “deeply alarmed.”

“The Pragmatic Engineer” newsletter author Gergely Orosz called the practice wasteful. “Devs game everything and anything seen as a target for more bonus or promos,” he wrote. “This was no different.”

BEP Research founder Ben Pouladian pulled a different takeaway from the trend, calling compute the bottleneck for innovation. “In the AI era, every employee becomes a compute consumer,” he wrote on X.

“Token spend is always an output not an input,” wrote Persona software engineer Arush Shankar, who previously worked at Square and Microsoft, according to his LinkedIn. “Worth looking at, but never in isolation. It’s a signal but not THE signal.”

Does your company track token spending or token use? Contact the reporter from a non-work email and device at hchandonnet@businessinsider.com, or on Signal at henrychand.30