Derek Laan moved to Korea in his 20s, where he built his career and life. Provided by Derek Laan Derek Laan grew up in Minnesota and first went to Korea at 20 — he later moved there to teach English after college. In Seoul, he built a sales and marketing career, married, and had two sons. Now 39, Laan is weighing whether to stay in Korea or return to the US for his kids' education. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Derek Laan, 39, Senior Project Manager at Interlink. His words have been edited for length and clarity. When I was a little kid, my favorite book was "The Lorax." It's about someone chopping down all the trees. I grew up in Minnesota, and when I was 12, there was a big forest by my house where I'd go hiking and mountain biking. One day, they tore down half of it to build houses. I remember thinking: Why don't we all just live in apartments and share the forest? When I was 19, I was working at a YMCA summer camp after my freshman year of college. I was assigned to a group of Korean kids, and we went on a canoe trip where we camped and cooked over a fire. The group leader invited me to come to Korea to guide trips there. I spent the next summer in Korea. I remember flying over the country and seeing mountains and forests everywhere, but also all these apartment buildings. I thought, "I'm going to love it here." Laan moved to Korea after graduating from college to teach English. Provided by Derek Laan Language learning unlocks opportunity Two years later, after I'd graduated from college, I moved to Korea to teach English. I like kids, but I didn't think that would be my career. My goal was to learn Korean and do something cool. So I started studying Korean pretty hard. Turns out I'm super good at learning languages. Once I got more fluent, I thought I could use my language skills to help Korean companies work with international partners. I've always been interested in business. Both of my parents have MBAs. In 2013, I started as an intern at Doosan Group in Seoul and worked my way up to be a business development manager. After three years, I got an offer from the ski and sportswear brand Descente, where I worked for three years as a business strategist. I met my wife in 2018, and we got married in Korea the next year. We had our first son in 2021. I went on to work at a few other companies before I landed a job at Intralink. Laan got married and now has two sons. Provided by Derek Laan Day in the life I wake up at 6:30 a.m., feed my kids breakfast, and take them to daycare. I run to the subway and go to my office in Gwanghwamun Square. The commute takes me about an hour. A lot of my job is meetings — figuring out where there might be opportunities. One or two days a week, I travel to other parts of Korea to meet up with Korean companies and present the technologies my clients are working on. When I start a new project, I'll cold-call people or follow up with those I met through exhibitions and shows. I'll tell them, "Hey, remember me, I had this great technology. I want to come and meet you in person and tell you more about it." If I can get home by 6:30 p.m., I'll play with my kids at the playground or read some books. I try to let my wife have a break, because having two boys is really stressful. What I gave up My life in Korea is exciting. I'm on TV every few months. I'm a sponsored biker. I give lectures at universities on the side. That wouldn't happen in the US — I would just be some dude. If I had stayed in the US, my career probably would have progressed faster, and I'd be making more money. In Korea, promotions can take longer — sometimes you're waiting for someone above you to retire. Salaries are generally lower, too. In Korea, I make a little less money, in exchange for a more interesting life. I was set on staying here forever until last year, when I began considering my kids' education. I thought, "Ah, crap. It's not going to be that good to live here with them. It's going to be hard." Plans to move back I started thinking more seriously about what it would be like to raise my sons — now 2 and 5 — here long term. My parents and my sister live in Boulder. My wife and I are thinking about moving there for their school. I've done the calculation. For us to move to Colorado, I'll need to make about four times as much to maintain the same lifestyle I have here. In Korea, Laan is a sponsored biker. Provided by Derek Laan My kids are in free daycare here. Plus, we have a babysitter from a government program that helps us after daycare for about $10 per hour. Our plan is to live here until my first son goes to first grade. If we send him to elementary school in the US, it will be free — we won't have to pay for daycare for both kids. My Korean wife is an elementary school teacher, and she put it to me this way: "Ask any Korean, if you had the money and you had the visa, would you go to the US for your kids? 99% would say yes." I was really into cycling back when I was in school, basically professionally. And that doesn't happen in Korea. Here, you just study. Or if you do sports, you have to stop studying. Their culture is that you need to focus so hard that even thinking you should think about something else is bad. If I move back, I can work for the same business, finding clients in the US who want to go to Asia. Or maybe working for a Korean company that wants to go into the US. But Korea's awesome. It stinks to go back. Do you have a story to share about living abroad? Contact the editor at akarplus@businessinsider.com. Read the original article on Business Insider

Meir Orbach / CTech: Cyera agrees to acquire Ryft, an Israeli startup building automated data access and governance tools for enterprise AI deployment, sources say for $100M-$130M  —  Ryft, founded in 2024, raised $8 million before the deal and has built tools for automated data access and governance in AI environments.

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President Donald Trump was evacuated from the White House Correspondents' Dinner after gunshots rang out. Nathan Howard/Getty Images Trump and other officials were safely evacuated from the annual press dinner. Business leaders, including UFC CEO Dana White, were in the room. Here's what execs are saying about the incident. Chaos broke out at Saturday night's annual White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, DC, after multiple gunshots were heard in the ballroom. President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and a host of protectees, including the vice president and multiple Cabinet members, were ushered to safety, the Secret Service said. Trump said in a press conference following the incident that a Secret Service agent was shot in his bulletproof vest. The suspect is in custody, and investigations are ongoing. Here's what people in the big leagues of business are saying about the incident. Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in 2025 Bloomberg/Getty Images Musk reposted an X post from the White House, which included a statement from Trump. "'In light of this evening's events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our differences peacefully.' - President Donald J. Trump," the tweet read. Musk became a particularly vocal Trump backer after the July 2024 assassination attempt at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In 2025, the two hit a relationship rough patch and traded some barbs, but they have been cordial at public events since. Dana White, UFC CEO UFC CEO Dana White at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Paul Morigi/Getty Images White was a guest at the dinner and was in the room when chaos broke out. "It was fucking awesome. I literally took every minute of it in. It was a pretty crazy, unique experience," White was seen saying in a video posted on X by MMAJunkie, part of USA Today's sports desk. Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide Mark Thompson, Chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery Thompson sent a memo to all CNN staffers after the incident, according to screenshots of the memo posted to X by Brian Stelter, the network's chief media analyst. Thompson highlighted the CNN team's real-time response and on-the-ground reporting as the shooting unfolded. "We know this was a frightening and disruptive situation for those in the room, and for your colleagues and loved ones watching live on CNN. Moments like this can stay with you in ways that aren't necessarily immediate or obvious," Thompson wrote. "Please take care of yourselves and one another," he added. Luther Lowe, head of public policy at Y Combinator Journalist Weijia Jiang and her husband, Luther Lowe, head of public policy at Y Combinator. Paul Morigi/Getty Images Lowe is married to Weijia Jiang, the CBS journalist who chairs the White House Correspondents' Association. Jiang got her share of accolades from media peers and viewers alike for her poise under pressure — she was onstage next to Trump during the shooting, and took a front-row seat in the briefing room after. "So proud of @weijia. She was on the stage less than an hour ago presiding over the abrupt end of the dinner and now she's in the front row of the White House briefing room waiting to for the President to speak," Lowe wrote. Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, cofounders of Kalshi Tarek Mansour, cofounder of Kalshi. IMF The cofounders of the popular predictions market attended the event together. "This was Luana and I's first White House Correspondents Dinner. The moment was scary, but the dinner until then was a great gathering of people from all sides," Mansour wrote on X. "Grateful for law enforcement and that the President and everyone is safe," Mansour said, giving a shoutout to CBS's Jiang, too. Lara thanked Mansour on X for pulling her under the table to keep her safe. "If your co-founder isn't protecting you in a shooting situation, find another one," she wrote. Bilal Zuberi, founder of VC firm Red Glass Ventures "Pretty scary that our most important leaders of the government were at risk today. President Trump, Vice President Pence, and House Speaker Johnson were all in that room," Zuberi wrote on X. "From multiple attacks against our president to attacks against politicians around the country, to attacks on politicians and leadership around the world - these are abhorrent, and people everywhere should vehemently oppose and condemn them!" the tech investor added. Gary Tan, president and CEO of Y Combinator Bloomberg/Getty Images "I mean… I was definitely under the table. In a shooter situation, you want to be as low as possible," Y Combinator president and CEO, Garry Tan, wrote on X on Sunday. "As I was under the table with other attendees, Marco Rubio pushed my chair out of the way making a fast exit with Secret Service. I now know we were in no serious danger but in that moment I wondered how many shooters there were and what would mean for 2,000 people in that room." Lloyd Blankfein, senior chairman of Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein was at the White House Correspondents' Dinner when shots rang out. Bloomberg/Getty Images Lloyd Blankfein, the senior chairman of Goldman Sachs, appears to be entirely unrattled by Saturday night's events. "Was at the WH Correspondents dinner last night, a rare DC trip for me without a subpoena. On the positive side—was exciting, no one was killed, and ended early," he wrote on X. "I noted a new litmus for status among the gov't elite—whether you were whisked away by secret service, or left to fend." Read the original article on Business Insider

Lloyd Blankfein was at the White House Correspondents' Dinner when shots rang out. Bloomberg/Getty Images Lloyd Blankfein, senior chairman of Goldman Sachs, was at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The 71-year-old seems to be unrattled by the shooting that took place during the event. "On the positive side — was exciting, no one was killed, and ended early," he wrote on X. Apparently, nothing rattles Lloyd Blankfein, the senior chairman of Goldman Sachs — not even a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The 71-year-old billionaire, who was raised in the public housing projects of Brooklyn's East New York before he went to Harvard, reportedly had a nonchalant reaction to the chaos unfolding around him Saturday. CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss wrote in a post on X that while writer and podcaster Coleman Hughes was crouched under a table, Blankfein piped up, "Are you going to finish that salad?" things I never thought I’d hear while crouching under a table at an active shooter incident: “hey, are you gonna finish your salad?” — Coleman Hughes (@coldxman) April 26, 2026 Was Blankfein serious or just trying to break the tension? Unclear — but he kept it light when he later posted on X about the shooting that erupted near the metal detectors at the Washington Hilton while President Donald Trump was on stage. He called his appearance at the so-called "nerd prom," attended by hundreds of journalists and politicians, "a rare DC trip for me without a subpoena." Blankfein, who was CEO of Goldman Sachs from 2006 to 2018, famously testified before Congress in 2010 about the bank's role in the financial crisis. His insouciance didn't stop there. While many dinner attendees later described the shooting of a Secret Service agent and the evacuation of Trump and other guests as traumatic and terrifying, Blankfein seems to be a glass-half-full kind of guy. "On the positive side—was exciting, no one was killed, and ended early," he wrote. Was at the WH Correspondents dinner last night, a rare DC trip for me without a subpoena. On the positive side—was exciting, no one was killed, and ended early. I noted a new litmus for status among the gov’t elite—whether you were whisked away by secret service, or left to fend. — Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) April 26, 2026 The Secret Service agent who was shot was saved by his protective vest. The suspect, who is expected to be formally charged on Monday, was tackled to the floor. There were no serious injuries reported from the evacuation, which Blankfein was paying close attention to. "I noted a new litmus for status among the gov't elite—whether you were whisked away by secret service, or left to fend," he wrote. Read the original article on Business Insider

Can a book like this actually change anything? Or does the spotlight, as it always seems to, send more students racing to the place?

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Makena Kelly / Ars Technica: Palantir Slack logs and staff interviews reveal internal debates over the company's ICE and DOD contracts during Trump's second term, its manifesto, and more  —  It took just a few months of President Donald Trump's second term for Palantir employees to question their company's commitments to civil liberties.

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Chris Metinko / Axios: Collov Labs, whose visual interface lets users feed images and camera input into a model that AI agents can reason over and act on, raised a $23M Series A  —  Collov Labs, which turns images and camera input into real-world actions through AI, raised a $23 million Series A …

Today, we are excited to introduce the next generation of Genie. The new Genie can...

A rendering of President Donald Trump's planned White House ballroom, which is now stalled by legal challenges. Alex Wong/Getty Images A shooting took place at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday. President Donald Trump said the incident underscored the need to build his White House ballroom. A judge halted Trump's ballroom renovations in March, saying he lacked legal authority. In the hours after a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday, President Donald Trump tried to rally support for his new White House ballroom. "This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House," he wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. The Trump administration first announced plans to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom in place of the White House's East Wing in July 2025. At the time, the White House said the ballroom would allow officials to host large-scale events with world leaders without using an "unsightly" tent. The president said the ballroom would cost about $400 million, which he planned to raise from wealthy donors. Some major US companies — such as Amazon, Meta, and Apple — have already offered to help fund the project. Construction began with the demolition of the East Wing in October, but has since been held up by the courts. The National Trust for Historic Preservation of the United States, chartered by Congress in 1949, filed a lawsuit in December to stop construction. In a press release, the trust said Trump "disregarded" several laws and failed to obtain the necessary approval from Congress. A federal judge halted construction of the ballroom in March, saying Trump lacked the legal authority to build it. "Nothing should be allowed to interfere with its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule!!!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday, adding that it has "every highest security feature there is." Several senior members of the Trump administration, including the president and first lady Melania Trump, were present at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night for the White House Correspondents' Dinner when shots rang out. No officials were injured in the shooting. Members of the press present during the incident said they were surprised by the lack of security at the venue. "On my way out, I think about the security precautions — or lack thereof — that had struck me as surprisingly lax throughout the evening, given the presence of Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and several cabinet members," Tim Röhn, the senior editor of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, said. Business Insider is part of the network. Authorities said they have a suspect in custody, widely identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen of Torrance, California. The interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, Jeffrey Carroll, said during a press conference that the suspect was armed with a shotgun, handgun, and knives. Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for the District of Columbia, said the suspect has been charged with one count of assault on a law enforcement officer using a dangerous weapon and two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence. He will be arraigned on Monday. Todd Blanche, acting US attorney general, said during a Sunday interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" that law enforcement believes the suspect was targeting members of the Trump administration. "It does appear he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president, but I want to wait and not get ahead of us on that," Blanche said. Read the original article on Business Insider

On the latest episode of Equity, we discuss how Apple has changed since Cook became CEO in 2011, and what challenges incoming CEO John Ternus will be facing.

Maria Johnson saw items at $15 at the Bin Wins at Staples. Courtesy of Maria Johnson Maria Johnson is an Orlando-based content creator who shares tips and tricks for saving money. She stumbled upon Staples' new Bin Wins program at her local store. She believes it's a fun way to find bargains, but says she wouldn't rely on it for things you actually need. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Maria Johnson. It has been edited for length and clarity. I'm a content creator. My niche is sharing tips and tricks to get things cheaper, mostly at Disney World but also at other places in Orlando. I stumbled upon Bin Wins at my local Staples in Florida, which was an interesting way to bargain hunt. So, I decided to give them a try. Bin Wins is a new program that the company started a few weeks ago I passed by Staples and saw a yellow sign right up front and two bins. I thought, it can't just be these two bins, so I went to the back of the store, and there were about seven huge black bins just full of stuff. Staples started the program a few weeks ago, according to an employee, who also told me it was all Amazon returns and overstock. Maria Johnson visited the Bin Wins at her local Staples. Courtesy of Maria Johnson Friday is the day that unloading happens. All the best stuff comes out on Friday, but it's also the $15 day. The price drops each day, down to $2 on Thursday, before the next load of stuff comes in the following Friday. There could be things in there on a Friday that are not really worth $15, so you could come back on a Thursday and get it for $2 if it's still there. I was savvy and price-checked items online in real time To check the retail prices of items, I used my Amazon account. You open the app, and there's a little camera lens on the search bar. Click it and scan the barcode on the item, or even on a closed box — it'll tell you exactly what's in the box. I saw cases of Alani Nu drinks and Fairlife Core Power protein drinks, which are like $30 to $40 in store, plus shoes and clothes. I heard employees say that sometimes there are high-ticket items like AirPods. I saw a lot of holiday items, like Halloween decorations, Christmas ribbon, and stockings. There was a lot of seasonal stuff at our store. There were also a lot of auto parts. My husband couldn't figure out what they were at first; we had to look them up on Google. Another person shopping near us told us they were going to resell them on eBay because they were $15 here and going for $700 online. I think a lot of people were doing that. I ended up buying the tumbler I showed on my viral Instagram reel. It was $35, and I got it for $15. I'd shop them again I think the experience was fun. I'd shop again at the Bin Wins, but mostly for entertainment value, not actual deals on stuff my family needs. Not everything in the bins was worth $15, but if you could find them on the $2 day, it would be worth it. It would be a fun thing to do with someone — grab a coffee and go through the bins. Read the original article on Business Insider

"I have ever been prone to seek adventure and to investigate where wiser men would have left well enough alone."

Benjamin Wallace / New York Times: A profile of Dwarkesh Patel, whose podcast has become mandatory listening in the AI community, with guests like Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg  —  Dwarkesh Patel was a bored college sophomore looking for intellectual stimulation.  Now he commands interviews with Jensen Huang …

Courtesy of the author At first, in-game purchases felt like such a waste of money to me. Letting my son spend his money was an effective and safe way to help him make financial decisions. Open conversation, rather than control, is helping us encourage his independence. When we first stepped into the world of kid-oriented apps and online gaming, my husband and I saw in-game purchases as nothing more than buying nothing. Our 11-year-old son has always been careful with his money, perhaps to a fault. As he grew increasingly willing to spend more and more of his allowance on Robux, V-bucks, and Minecoins, we were alarmed. The whole thing irks me. I really struggle with virtual "cosmetic" purchases. Buying Skins, special emotes (expressions and dance moves, I think?), and expensive Nikes for your avatar? I can't wrap my frugal mind around it. At first, we tried to steer our son away from gaming purchases. We talked about the lure of instant gratification and impulse buying. But we also listened to his side of the story. And we realized this was simply a world we did not understand. In the end, our son's logic about his gaming purchases helped us hand him the reins to make his own spending decisions. Gaming purchases encouraged our son's financial responsibility We give our two kids an allowance of $5 a week. Their only other source of money comes from relatives' gifts. Our main purpose with allowance is to let them practice spending their own money, make their own mistakes, and learn how they want to interact with money in adulthood. The author's 11-year-old learned financial responsibility by spending money on games. Courtesy of the author While our son is tirelessly methodical, our younger daughter lives for a blind box. As with everything else, our parental approach to their spending varies between them. With a few years of making his own spending decisions under his belt, our son has grown skeptical of gimmicky offers that require urgency and any deal that sounds too good to be true. He is getting a taste of the real world in the digital age. He's become more strategic with his money, too. Fortnite recently increased the price of V-bucks — its in-game currency — so our son asked for my advice on his plan to stock up before the price jump. I told him that is exactly what I would do if I knew the price of something I love was about to go up. He decided to spend a little more than he normally would, reasoning it was better to buy now to save later. Since we don't pay for any gaming-related purchases outside Christmas or birthday presents, our son also budgets for an annual $80 PlayStation Plus subscription, which he researched as the cheapest option. It's a cost he has to cover to do what matters to him. I believe these in-game decisions now will pay off in adulthood. When we stopped policing our son's gaming purchases, it made it easier to have open conversations about money. He is proud to tell us about his purchases and sees them as savvy decisions. When he makes a mistake, we strive to meet him with respect and support, without fixing it for him. Courtesy of the author It's in these conversations that I've realized that gaming is an essential part of our son's social life. Most of his purchasing decisions revolve around gaming with friends — from the PS5 subscription to buying the latest game his friends are playing, and even gifting skins or Roblox items to friends so they can have more fun together. Thinking about it this way, it makes sense that he would rather spend money on gaming than on the toy aisle. And really, is one any more gimmicky than the other? When I asked him what he would advise other parents to do for their kids, he said, "Remember that it's not just silly little outfits or superficial things. Sometimes it can buy fun experiences. So if they're spending their own money, let them go nuts. They'll find consequences sooner or later." Much to our surprise, in-game purchases are teaching our son that spending money on experiences with others — even virtual ones — is often more worthwhile than spending money on stuff. That's a value my husband and I have built our lives on, and one I'm glad our son is learning on his own. Read the original article on Business Insider

It's "a detective story, but the detective happens to also have spider powers.”—EP Chris Miller