Tech News
North Carolina GOP House member hit with jeers, boos and pointed questions from voters in visit home: ‘Do your job’

In two congressional districts and vastly different political environments, two Republicans in the U.S. House were met with far different reactions at public meetings they held late last week.
Against the suggestion of their leader, House Speaker Mike Johnson, to refrain from holding public meetings with constituents, second-term Reps. Chuck Edwards and Harriet Hageman went ahead with their evening sessions.
In Asheville, North Carolina, chants of opposition greeted Edwards on Thursday as opponents hooted at almost every answer he gave and chanted outside. In Evanston, Wyoming, at the southwestern corner of a sparsely populated and heavily Republican state, it was mostly Republicans who asked probing questions of Hageman in a quieter setting.
In both cases, voters were curious about the scope and pace of action in Washington since President Donald Trump took office, if less boisterously in Wyoming than the event 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the southeast.
Evanston, Wyoming
Joy Walton, a 76-year-old Republican from Evanston, had come to the meeting confused about tech billionaire Elon Musk’s role in the executive branch. Trump has charged Musk with leading a broad effort to shrink the size and cost of government.
Hageman — Liz Cheney ’s successor — worked to clarify Musk’s place in the Trump administration, describing him as “a special government employee” with “a top-secret security clearance.” She praised him for his work targeting foreign aid contracts at the U.S. Agency for International Development, calling the department a “monstrosity and waste of money.”
The meeting was tamer than some constituent meetings held by Republicans, who hold majorities in the House and the Senate. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, adjourned such a meeting this month in northwest Kansas early when constituents became vocally angry about government personnel cuts.
Still, Hageman’s meeting Friday, with about 250 filling to capacity the meeting room in the restored Union Pacific Railroad roundhouse, was the liveliest event that evening in the train depot town of about 11,800 people.
Some in the audience blurted comments to Hageman, though this was not unfriendly territory for Trump. The president received 80% of the vote in Uinta County, along the Utah border, en route to carrying Wyoming with nearly 72% of voters last year.
Yet even some devout Republicans gave voice to concern about Musk’s recommendations as the head of the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Former Wyoming Secretary of State Karl Allred, 60, said he was happy to see Trump slash “wasteful spending,” but noted that any serious reduction in federal spending needed to include the defense budget. “I guarantee we waste a lot of money there, and in every department,” Allred said regarding the military.
Even Hageman suggested Musk was going too far in targeting the U.S. Postal Service, which has agreed to assist Musk’s group in its plan to cut 10,000 of the service’s 640,000 workers over the next month. Wyoming would be among the states hit hardest by cuts to the country’s mail service because of its small population, Hageman said.
Asheville, North Carolina
Edwards was walking into a far different environment. Asheville, a mid-sized urban hub surrounded by the rural hills of western North Carolina, is the seat of Buncombe County, where Trump received 36.9% of the vote last year.
Jay Carey, a 54-year-old Democrat, had said before the Thursday night constituent meeting at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, “My plan is to call him out.”
About 20 minutes into Edwards’ meeting, Carey, a retired military veteran, started to yell at the representative to “Do your job.” Carey then stood, accused Edwards of lying and used a string of expletives until police escorted him out of the auditorium.
For about 90 minutes, Edwards faced jeers, boos and pointed questions from many in the audience of 300, while another 1,000 echoed them from outside the building.
Certainly, Carey, from the Asheville area, was part of a group of Democrats who attended the meeting, though not paid protesters as Johnson suggested were behind some of the more raucous gatherings.
Carey’s home flooded with six feet of water during Hurricane Helene in September. He lost his small business and his family had to relocate from a house to a smaller apartment.
Much of Edwards’ district was ravaged by the hurricane and remains in the early rebuilding phase, even as Trump has suggested eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Edwards seemed unruffled by the often hostile reception, telling reporters afterward, “I appreciate the chance to talk about those things, even though there were some differences and some different opinions.”
Still, as protesters continued to chant outside, Edwards said, “We’re doing exactly what the American people sent us to Washington, D.C., to do.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
Lessons learned on my journey—from MBA grad to the least experienced person in the boardroom

Across college campuses, business school students are gearing up for graduation—excited, uncertain, and determined to make their mark. To the class of 2025, I offer my best wishes—and some hard-earned lessons on navigating the road ahead.
First, know this: The business and tech world needs you. Every new generation brings fresh thinking, and today’s graduates are more prepared than ever for our fast-moving, data-driven economy. As AI and digital transformation continue to reshape industries, business leaders like me are eager to tap into your energy and ideas.
I was recently back at my alma mater, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, talking with MBA students about their transition into the workforce. One key takeaway I shared: Be ready for disruption.
When I was in their shoes 25 years ago, “digital transformation” wasn’t even in our vocabulary. Today, we live it every day. Generative AI is accelerating change across industries, making adaptability and soft skills—communication, collaboration, and the ability to learn on the fly—more critical than ever. Some of my most valuable lessons at Kellogg weren’t about business strategy or operations but about developing this kind of flexible mindset. If I could do it all over again, I’d seek out even more experiences that push me beyond the classroom, because those are the ones that truly shape your growth.
The least qualified person in the room
As you move up in your career, your area of expertise becomes just one part of the equation. People skills take center stage. Having recently marked five years as CEO of Informatica, I can tell you that much of my job isn’t about technology—it’s about people.
I’ll never forget my first leadership team meeting as CEO. Looking around the room, I realized I was the least experienced person there. My executives had spent years mastering their domains—far longer than I had been CEO. That moment reinforced something I had learned throughout my career: Success isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about surrounding yourself with great people, trusting their expertise, and building strong relationships.
This lesson applies at every level, from interns to chief experience officers. Early in my career, I leaned on mentors and colleagues for guidance. Now, as CEO, I do the same. No one succeeds alone.
Embracing change and iterating your career
The tech industry has always been fast paced, but with AI and automation redefining roles across fields, today’s graduates may face even greater uncertainty. My advice? Don’t fear change—embrace it. Disruption creates opportunities to innovate, learn, and add value in unexpected ways.
That mindset shaped my own career, which evolved in three major phases: engineering, product management, and ultimately leading a global tech company with over 5,000 employees. I couldn’t have predicted every step, but I stayed adaptable and open to new challenges. Some transitions required me to rethink traditional business models, but in every case, I focused on the future rather than clinging to the past.
Everyone’s journey looks different. Some graduates will join startups, others will work for Fortune 1000 companies. Some will change careers entirely or take time off to raise families before returning to the workforce. There’s no single route to success, and that’s a good thing.
Career paths aren’t always linear or easy. Some MBA grads today are struggling to find jobs. But setbacks are temporary. If you anticipate change and build the skills to navigate it, nothing will stop you from reaching your full potential.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
Elon Musk says his DOGE team works 120 hours a week. If they used all their remaining time for sleep, they still wouldn’t come close to 8 hours a night

Back in February, Elon Musk said he and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are working 120 hours a week.
“Our bureaucratic opponents optimistically work 40 hours a week,” he added. “That is why they are losing so fast.”
To be clear, there are 168 hours in a week, which means if Musk and his DOGE employees are working for 120 of those hours, there are only 48 hours remaining for them to use for everything else: preparing and eating food, personal hygiene, not to mention free time for hobbies or spending time with their families.
Just for fun, let’s assume you need to spend 120 of your 168 hours per week working, so you use the remaining 48 hours for sleep and sleep only: You still wouldn’t come close to a full eight hours per night, which is what many doctors recommend. With 48 hours of potential sleep spread across seven days, even in the most ideal conditions, the most you could get is 6.8 hours per night. Assuming DOGE workers are not working from home (Musk called remote work “morally wrong” in 2023), it’s safe to say DOGE employees working 120-hour weeks would probably not even scratch 6.8 hours of sleep since they’d need time to commute, unless they’re squeezing in nap breaks during the day.
To be totally clear, sleep is vital to function. The Mayo Clinic says regularly getting less than seven hours of sleep a night for adults “has been linked with poor health, including weight gain, having a body mass index of 30 or higher, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and depression.” The CDC also says getting less than seven hours a sleep on a regular basis “can lead to serious health problems.”
Musk, though, is famously a workaholic. In a November 2022 interview with Baron Capital CEO Ron Baron, the world’s richest man said he was “living in the factory in Fremont, and the one in Nevada, for three years straight. That was my primary residence.”
“I slept on the couch at one point, in a tent on the roof, and for a while there, I was just sleeping under my desk, which is out in the open in the factory,” he said. “It was damn uncomfortable sleeping on that floor and always, when I woke up, I’d smell like metal dust.”
Musk’s push to make employees more effective by simply having them log more hours may not be effective, either. A 2014 study from Stanford University found productivity per hour has a sharp drop-off when a person works more than 50 hours a week, and “output at 70 hours differs little from output at 56 hours,” meaning your efficacy has diminishing returns above a certain threshold. Perhaps relatedly, Musk recently said he’s juggling his responsibilities with DOGE, Tesla, and his other private companies like SpaceX and xAI “with great difficulty.”
That aforementioned 55-hour mark seems to have equal ramifications for both productivity and well-being: According to 2021 data from the World Health Organization, 745,000 people died in 2016 from either stroke or heart disease “as a result of having worked at least 55 hours a week.” That same study said working more than 55 hours a week gives you a 35% higher risk of stroke and 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease compared to a traditional 35- to 40-hour week.
“Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard,” Dr. Maria Neira, who has served as the WHO’s Director of the Department of Public Health and Environment since 2005, said in a statement.
Musk and his DOGE team did not respond to Fortune‘s request for comment.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
Multimillionaire musician Will.i.am invested early in Tesla, Twitter and OpenAI—now he’s betting on Gen Z MIT and Stanford grads for his next investment

- Will.i.am has an estimated net worth of $50 million, thanks to hit singles and solid investments in the likes of Anthropic and Pinterest. In a conversation with Fortune, he reveals where he’s investing next.
Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am has built a fortune off of chart-topping hits like “Scream & Shout” and “Where Is the Love?” As of 2025, he’s reportedly worth around $50 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth—but it’s not just music that’s made him millions.
Beyond his success in the studio, he was an early investor in Tesla, Pinterest, and OpenAI, proving his business instincts are just as sharp as his songwriting. Now, the rapper, producer, and The Voice U.K. judge has revealed what he’s looking for from his next investment.
“I did some pretty cool investments in the past,” Will.i.am (real name William James Adams Jr.) told Fortune, while listing off Pinterest, Dropbox, Open AI, and Anthropic as some of his smartest bets.
“I invested in Tesla in 2006, before Elon (Musk) took over the company, and he’s done great, taking it to where it is. Hopefully, he can figure out a way to get it back to its glory,” he added. “I invested in Twitter early on. When Jack (Dorsey) left, I sold it. Made good there.”
So, what’s Will.i.am looking for in his next investment? “I’m hunting for what they call large concept models,” the 50-year-old Grammy Award-winning artist revealed.
“Right now, we’re in large language models, but they’re not they’re not concepts. It’s just language—they’re just regurgitating our imagination and our concepts,” he explained.
“Around the corner, someone’s going to build large concept models. So you want to hunt for that. You want to hunt for the people that are out there doing that. They’re students right now, they’re at MIT, they’re at Stanford. They’re young kids, and they’re native to this. So you want to hunt for that. That’s the only thing I’m focused on.”
Will.i.am has a long history as a futurist and tech entrepreneur. In 2011, Intel named him their “director of creative innovation.” His start-up, i.am+, raised $117 million in 2017. Now, Will.i.am has set his sights on AI. He most recently founded FYI—an AI-driven productivity and communication platform for creatives—where he serves as CEO.
Will.i.am was speaking to Fortune in Rome for the roll out of RAiDiO.FYI radios in Mercedes-Benz cars.
Will.i.am’s biggest investment mistake
For all his successes, there’s one missed opportunity that still haunts Will.i.am—and that’s not investing in Airbnb when he had the chance.
Its founder Brian Chesky approached the rapper in the company’s early days with an opportunity to invest up to $200k in a fundraising round, but Will.i.am was skeptical.
“When you travel and you have success, you get used to the best hotels, the best service, right? So sometimes, when you’re used to the best, and you’re used to being pampered by the best, that could cripple you because when new experiences come, like Airbnb, you’re gonna base it off of the best,” he explained.
“You’re gonna say, hey, so you guys have concierge, and he’s gonna say, no. That ain’t gonna work. So you guys have room service? No. That ain’t gonna work. So I was tunnel vision and pampered by luxury.”
Airbnb went on to have one of the most successful IPOs in history in December 2020. Had he taken Chesky up on the offer, Will.i.am’s 200k stake could be worth millions of dollars today.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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