👴🏼  Retirement roomies

👋  Good morning. Remember when every undergrad was trading philosophy courses for computer science? Turns out software engineering might not be the guaranteed career path it once was: Hiring for recent engineering grads has fallen 25% since 2019, according to LinkedIn data, the steepest decline among the 20 most common majors on the platform. English majors — this is your time to shine. 

NEWS FLASH 

🐕  This company’s got a lot going on: We’ve got another funding round for Corgi — alas, an AI insurance startup, not three stacked height-challenging dogs in a business suit. Now valued at $4B, it has raised money 3x in less than three months… all on the heels of being accused of stealing software, randomly opening an all-night cafe in San Francisco, and most dubiously, for expecting its employees to work seven days a week.

🛬  Dancing on their own: United Airlines is finding that it takes two to tango in the hardest possible way, per WSJ. The airline reportedly approached Delta Air Lines last year about the idea of merging the two top US airlines together. Talks didn’t progress — much like United’s rebuffed merger proposal sent to American Airlines earlier this year.

💼  That job description is getting blurry: AI is reshaping desk jobs, according to a new OpenAI analysis of 800k+ work-related ChatGPT messages. The company found that 44% of occupation-specific requests involved tasks usually handled by a different profession, with customer service, HR, and design workers most likely to use AI to venture outside of their job descriptions.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

• Plot twist: Kalshi sent Netflix a cease-and-desist letter over the trailer for a new documentary on prediction markets, alleging it includes misleading footage that depicts the company facilitating an illegal sports trade in Nevada. 
  

• Why’s the playground so empty? The number of kids living in America’s largest cities has fallen 6% in the last decade — faster than the national decline — as parents seek cheaper housing, lower childcare costs, and a better quality of life. 
  

• Weird mash-up alert: Cheez-It is teaming with Coors Light on a beer cheese-flavored cracker, which’ll come out in August. Too bad it isn’t a Cheez-It-flavored beer. 
  

• Excel at dating: Some singles are turning to spreadsheets to manage their love lives, according to The Wall Street Journal, with one dating spreadsheet creator selling 10k+ copies of her $9.99 template that lets users score compatibility and track red flags.

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THE BIG IDEA

Home-sharing platforms are matching the elderly with roommates

Roommates are often regarded as something reserved for college students and fledgling young adults. But increasingly, cohabiting with strangers is becoming as common among senior citizens as it is among youths.

• Between 2006 and 2016, the number of older Americans living with unrelated roommates grew 88% in the US.
  
• Several platforms have since emerged to help match “home providers” — say, someone whose spouse has passed and now lives alone in a big empty house — with “home sharers,” or those seeking affordable housing.

“It’s like online dating, except that people who have rooms can meet people who need rooms,” one home-share program director told The New York Times.

Currently, ~55 organizations offer these services in the US, and demand is growing amid a housing shortage and the rising cost of living.

A golden opportunity

Home-share platforms screen applicants, verify incomes, coordinate matches (based on preferences like whether they smoke, have a pet, or require parking), and will even mediate disputes if they arise.

Not all agreements are purely financial either.

• Sunshine Home Share Colorado helped Susan Beese (79) and her dog move in with Shirley Jennett (89), who lived alone in a ranch-style home, per NYT.
  
• In exchange for a two-bedroom space with a kitchen and bathroom, Beese pays roughly half her previous rent rate; she also tends to Jennett’s garden, takes out the trash, and occasionally cooks.

A silver lining

While the biggest reason driving the trend is affordability, home sharing is also helping to address the loneliness epidemic — and not just for the elderly:

• In NYC, nun-run convent boarding houses have become a popular housing option among cost-burdened young people, who are drawn by the reasonable rent rates (as low as ~$580) and staying for the community.
  
• CoAbode, a home-share platform for single moms that offers communal support through shared household duties, has added ~300k users since 2016.
  
• In San Francisco, where the average monthly rent is $3k+, Brownstone Shared Living’s tenants pay ~$700/month for twin beds and shared facilities. While some critics consider the pod-style bunks “dystopian,” The Information found residents don’t, with many touting the sense of “communal life and camaraderie.”

Several states are now pushing legislation to introduce or expand “Golden Girls”-style programs, and while home sharing alone won’t solve the affordable housing crisis, it does make aging in place (or living anywhere but in your mom’s basement) more viable, and a little less lonely.

• Meanwhile, many Gen Zers are simply moving back in with their parents, which is one way to get around being broke and alone.
  

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Manifest your dreams: and maybe build a manifesting app that brings in $340k per month? It’s all possible. 

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Revenue at US breakfast restaurants and diners in 2025, up 13% from $13.8B in 2019, according to data from IBISWorld via Business Insider. With consumers tightening their budgets but still craving a reason to go out, breakfast is emerging as the restaurant industry's recession-friendly indulgence.

The one thing that might take a hit even if your wallet doesn’t: um, romance, probably? Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a candlelit breakfast… yet.

AROUND THE WEB

📅  On this day: In 1978, National Lampoon’s Animal House starring John Belushi opened in US theaters with an estimated budget of ~$3m.

😴  Yes, please: Doomscrolling designed to put you to sleep.

🦬  Game: Take a selfie with a bison.

🚗  That’s interesting: Take a virtual road trip through random cities around the world while listening to their local radio stations.

🐶  Aww: Reserved seating.

SHOWER THOUGHT

People self-organize in elevators to maximize space.  SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Singdhi Sokpo.

Editing by: Sara "Golden girl" Friedman.

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