The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

The Insider Picks team has tested out a lot of products so far this year. There are plenty of items that stand out for being innovative, practical, comfortable, and adding value to our lives in a plethora of other ways. Then, there are the products that are so useful we cannot imagine what we'd do without them.

These items, whether we've purchased them ourselves or tested them out for work, have become mainstays in our lives, helping us to solve even the most mundane of life's inconveniences. From big-ticket items like a $500 space heater to a $10 nylon bag, these are the most useful products we have tried or bought this year, and know we will continue using for years to come. 

Check out our list of the 35 most useful products we've tried this year, below:

A robovac that vacuums your home even when you really don't to

Eufy Boost IQ RoboVac 11S, $169, available at Amazon

I’ve saved probably five hours a week worth of cleaning time because of this vacuum. All I have to do is set it on an automatic timer to run its course every day, and it travels around my apartment, clearing molding between rooms with ease. This one isn’t advanced enough to track its route so sometimes it’ll go over the same spots, but the ones with all those special features tend to cost a lot more than this one (which is pretty reasonable in my opinion). In addition to scheduling cleanings, you can also use the remote control to clean a specific area by directing the vacuum’s route yourself. It’s slim enough to make it under dressers and couches with low clearance, and strong enough to suck up all the cat hair and litter in my apartment. — Sally Kaplan

A headband that makes falling asleep to music easy

AcousticSheep SleepPhones Bluetooth Headphones, $99.95, available at Amazon

I like to fall asleep to music, but it’s a notoriously difficult task to find headphones that are comfortable (ie. slim enough) to sleep on top of at night without waking up with a sore neck. These AcousticSheep headphones look a bit like a science experiment, but they’re the best ones I’ve found yet: comfortable, loud (but not loud enough to disturb others), and a battery life that lasts all night. You can listen to soothing sounds from an app or your favorite Spotify playlist via Bluetooth. — Mara Leighton

A smartwatch that costs less than $100

Amazfit Bip Smartwatch, $79.99, available at Amazon

I use this affordable smartwatch to track my daily activity and sleep as well as for handy features like the timer, alarm clock, and text notifications. It’s an all-in-one accessory, which is why it’s under-$100 price is even more amazing. Since I hate the constant cycle of charging that comes with owning a lot of tech, the month-long battery life is another reason why I recommend it often to friends. The watch doesn’t take a lot of time to set up and get used to, but it will give back in many different ways. — Connie Chen

• HQ Trivia and Vine cofounder Colin Kroll was found dead on Sunday. He was aged just 34.
• He had a reputation as a talented but uncompromising boss, who had a history of clashes with staff.
• Complaints were reportedly made about his behavior at HQ and Vine, and he also apologized this year for "poor management."
• His own father, Alan Kroll, said he was a "tough boss" with a strong work ethic.
• Kroll achieved a rare thing though: He created a breakout hit — twice.

Colin Kroll's death at the age of 34 was met with an outpouring of grief from staff at HQ Trivia. But it also provoked an honest assessment of his chequered management history — from his own father.

Recode has led reporting on some of the growing pains at HQ Trivia and Kroll's record as a boss, both at HQ and Vine, the looping video app he also cofounded.

In December last year, Recode said some VC firms sat out of an HQ Trivia raise due to concerns about Kroll's reputation for "exhibiting inappropriate behaviour toward women" while working at Vine.

Recode reported that Jeremy Liew, a board member at HQ's publisher Intermedia Labs, investigated. "I found a good deal of negative sentiment about Colin and the Vine team and some discomfort with his behaviour, but I did not find evidence that warrants his removal from the company," he concluded.

HQ Trivia closed the $15 million raise in March, Axios reported, valuing the company at $100 million.

And then this year, Kroll was again accused of inappropriate conduct — this time by an HQ staffer. Recode revealed that the employee filed a complaint with HR over his "aggressive management style." The claim was again investigated and the company told Recode that it "yielded no concerns."

But Kroll was upfront about his shortcomings. In a statement released to Axios following HQ's $15 million raise, he admitted that he was fired from Vine for "poor management."

Kroll said: "It was a painful experience, but an eye-opening one that served as a catalyst for professional development and greater awareness in the office. I now realize that there are things I said and did that made some feel unappreciated or uncomfortable. I apologize to those people."

Read more: The career of Colin Kroll, cofounder of Vine and HQ Trivia who has died at age 34.

And on the day of his death, Kroll's own father, Alan Kroll, said he could be a "tough boss."Alan told The New York Times that his son was bruised by reporting about his management style, which could have stemmed from Colin's strong work ethic.

"He had this hard Midwest drive about him," said Alan, who raised his three sons in Detroit. "He couldn’t understand people that couldn’t keep up. I tried to explain to him that not everyone could do that." Ultimately, Alan concluded: "He was a young guy working on really creative stuff."

And Kroll was evidently popular with a number of HQ employees.

"He poured his heart and soul into his work and was incredibly proud of what his team accomplished. I will forever be grateful for his friendship, his leadership, and his belief in me,"tweeted HQ Trivia quiz host Scott Rogowsky.

"A brilliant mind gone way too soon,"added Sharon Carpenter, another quiz host. Kroll's cofounder Rus Yusupov said: "He made the world and internet a better place."

Kurt Wagner, the Recode reporter who detailed Kroll's difficulties, tweeted that despite questions over his management style, he is likely to be remembered for a rare thing in the tech world: Creating a breakout hit — twice.

SEE ALSO: The cofounder of HQ Trivia and Vine has died at the age of 34

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: USB-C was supposed to be a universal connector — but it still has a lot of problems

• Paul Markovich, the CEO of health insurer Blue Shield of California, has been keeping close tabs on Amazon, he told Business Insider.
• Since early this year, Amazon has been making big forays into healthcare — from buying pharmacy startup PillPack to naming physician Atul Gawande CEO of its healthcare venture with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan.
• More recently, those forays have increasingly centered around sensitive patient data.
• Markovich is concerned that patient privacy may be getting sidelined.

It's been six months since the still unnamed healthcare venture among e-commerce giant Amazon, conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, and multinational bank JPMorgan Chase named a CEO.

Under physician and writer Atul Gawande, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Jamie Dimon have outlined bold ambitions for their first-of-its kind initiative: improving care and slashing costs for their companies' combined 1.2 million employees and, perhaps eventually, for all Americans. But details about the plan have been scant.

Still, members of the triumvirate (nicknamed ABC for short) have been making rapid-fire moves into the health space since the summer. Amazon, for instance, bought online pharmacy startup PillPack for just under $1 billion, suggesting that at least one part of its future healthcare play would involve medications. Last month, Amazon rolled out an online tool to analyze patient medical records.

Paul Markovich, the CEO of health insurer Blue Shield of California, has been keeping close tabs on Amazon, he told Business Insider, along with other tech giants like Apple and Google.

Overall, he sees those companies' forays into healthcare as a positive step toward creating more efficiency and better customer service, he said.

"Honestly I think the more players that we have trying to figure out better models that are more efficient with a better customer experience and higher quality, hallelujah," said Markovich.

Read more:Meet the surgeon, professor, and writer tapped to run the Amazon-JPMorgan-Berkshire Hathaway health venture

But Markovich also has a warning for tech giants like Amazon, who he said may be forgetting to prioritize one key component of the healthcare equation: privacy.

An 'admonition' to tech giants including Amazon

Many of Amazon's health moves involve highly sensitive customer data — data which Markovich doesn't believe is necessarily being treated with as much care as it should.

Shortly after Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan revealed plans to bring on Comcast digital health manager Jack Stoddard as operating chief of their endeavor, Amazon filed a patent aimed at enabling voice assistant Alexa to detect when a user is sick. The following month, Amazon announced a new service called Comprehend Medical that uses machine learning to analyze data from patient health records for hospitals, insurers, and drug companies.

"One of the things, I'd say an admonition, to all those companies including Amazon is that the privacy standards around data are a lot higher in healthcare than they are in other businesses," Markovich said.

"And what I've seen in my interactions with them is that the sensitivity isn't necessarily there."

While Markovich acknowledged that today's healthcare system is far from perfect, one of its strengths is the high bar placed on patient privacy. He said privacy has become an embedded part of physician and provider culture thanks to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Clinton-era law that protects patient medical information.

"We're culturally steeped in what the acronym HIPAA stands for and means," Markovich said. "I think if [companies like Amazon] are going to be successful, there needs to be more cultural sensitivity to the bar being a lot higher on privacy and security."

SEE ALSO: A superstar ex-Facebook and Google exec is trying to upend a $24 billion industry with devices that spot disease sooner — and she's already testing it on animals

DON'T MISS: A Silicon Valley VC in the hottest area of healthcare explains what it looks for in new startups aiming to disrupt the $35 billion addiction market

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NOW WATCH: There's a shady market for breast milk in the US where parents risk buying contaminated milk

• Google announced on Monday that it will spend $1 billion in a major New York City expansion.
• It's locked down three properties near the Hudson River on New York's west side. 
• The expansion will enable Google to add 7,000 employees in New York, in what it is calling its "Global Business Operation."

Google will build a new campus in New York City, the tech giant announced in a blog post on Monday.

Google will spend $1 billion to create a 1.7-million square-foot campus in Manhattan's West Village neighborhood, it said in the post by Google's CFO, Ruth Porat. The new campus will be called "Google Hudson Square."

Google's locked down three properties as part of the expansion:

• 550 Washington St.
• 315 Hudson St.
• 345 Hudson St.

Google said it plans to start moving into the buildings in 2020. 550 Washington Street is called the St. Johns Terminal space, and it will be the head of Google's "Global Business Operation" when it opens in 2022.

All of the locations announced on Monday are within walking distance of each other.

Google already has a massive office in New York, at 111 8th Avenue, with 7,000 employees. The expansion will allow Google to support another 7,000 employees in the city. Google has also paid 2.4 billion to purchase the Chelsea Market, across the street.

The announcement caps off a busy quarter in tech expansion. 

Last month, Amazon announced that it would move as many as 50,000 employees into new office complexes in Queens, New York and Arlington, Virginia. Apple said it would expand its footprint in Austin, Texas.

SEE ALSO: Apple is dropping $1 billion on a huge new campus in Austin, Texas

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NOW WATCH: Watch BMW's self-driving motorcycle accelerate, turn, and brake to a stop

• Having a strong work ethic and developing a reputation for being able to execute on projects is one of the most important determinants of career success, said Marc Spilker, a former Goldman Sachs exec who's now chairman of Chiron Investment Management. 
• Working hard leads to learning more, which leads to improving, which leads to getting more opportunities, according to Spilker. 
• Getting to see as many opportunities as possible, and then selecting the best ones, is what ultimately translates into career success, he said.  

You've heard it 1,000 times: 80% of success is showing up. The quote is often attributed to Woody Allen, in an interview after his breakout 1977 hit, Annie Hall. By now, the comment has almost become a cliche. 

For Marc Spilker, work ethic, and fostering a reputation for getting things done, is actually an explanation for his success. Spilker, a former Goldman Sachs partner who's now chairman of a small but fast-growing asset manager, said it's the single best thing he did to get ahead during a 30-year Wall Street career. 

"If you look at the industry I grew up in, there's not a big diversity in terms of raw intelligence of the people, yet some do wildly well and some don't," Spilker said in an interview with Business Insider. "There’s always a little bit of luck, but work ethic is way more important than people think."

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Spilker joined a derivatives trading house in Chicago named O'Connor. It was the late 1980s, just as global stock and bond markets were beginning a meteoric expansion. As a young trader, Spilker signed up for unpopular work shifts in order to gain experience and soon gained a reputation for efficiently executing on the projects he was assigned, he said. 

"I was willing to work the Japan shift from Chicago — come into the office at 6 o'clock at night and work through the night," Spilker said. "I was willing to work the London shift, come to the office at midnight and work through breakfast the next morning. To me it was like, the more you work, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you were. The better you were, the more opportunities you saw, and back to this virtuous cycle."

Read More: Netflix says the best thing about working there is also the worst

After a few years at O'Connor, Spilker joined Goldman Sachs. In 20 years at the Wall Street firm, he rose to co-head of its asset-management arm with a key position on the firm's powerful management committee. In 2010, Spilker left for Apollo Management, where as president he helped the private-equity firm sells share to public. Spilker later founded GPS Investment Partners with two ex-Goldman colleagues and together they built Chiron Investment Management, a manager of $2.7 billion where he's chairman.

Over many years, Spilker said he got opportunities to work on cool projects and earn promotions by establishing a reputation as someone who could get stuff done. It was all part of building his personal brand and showing his colleagues that he could be trusted to finish the job, he said. 

"You want to be in a position to see opportunities as they come up," he said. "If you have a brand, a personal brand, known for being somebody that will do excellent work but will actually get the work done, then you're more likely to see the opportunities than others. And that's the best thing you can have happen in your career."

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NOW WATCH: LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman says success is both luck and hard work

Bitcoin is everywhere.

The cryptocurrency is seemingly in the news every day as investors and businesses try to understand the future of this digital finance.

But what is Bitcoin all about?

Why is it suddenly on every financial news program?

And what does it mean to you?

Find out the answers to these questions and more in Bitcoin 101, a brand new FREE report from Business Insider Intelligence.

To get your copy of the FREE slide deck, simply click here.

Join the conversation about this story »

• The US military has been delivering much-needed supplies to islands in the Pacific every year around the Christmas holidays for almost seven decades.
• Operation Christmas Drop (OCD) is the Department of Defense's longest-running humanitarian airlift operation.
• Supplies are delivered to 56 islands across the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Federated States of Micronesia, and Republic of Palau.
• The most recent drop occurred just last week.

For people living on remote islands across the Pacific, Christmas is the sound of C-130s roaring overhead as boxes of food, clothing, toys, and more parachuted from the holds drop down from the sky.

Here's what it looked like this year.

Operation Christmas Drop, which began during the holiday season in 1952 as a spur-of-the-moment decision by a B-29 Superfortress crew, is the Department of Defense's longest-running humanitarian airlift operation.

Source: Andersen Air Force Base

Now in its 67th year, the OCD mission is supported by the US Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard, as well as members of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and Royal Australian Air Force. It serves over 50 remote islands in the Pacific.

Source: Indo-Pacific Command

The first drop all those years ago began with a B-29 crew dropping supplies to waving locals on Kapingamarangi island. The program now helps tens of thousands of people living on 56 islands across an area of 1.8 million square nautical miles annually.

Source: Indo-Pacific Command

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

• Aestheticians and facialists frequently rely on facial steaming to remove toxins from the skin.
• At-home facial steamers like the $30 ECVISION Nano Ionic Warm Mist Facial Steamer I bought from Amazon make it easy to utilize the technique on your own.
• Steam softens the skin and opens the pores, releasing the built-up bacteria, sebum, and impurities that often lead to blackheads and whiteheads. Facial steaming also boosts circulation to give you a natural glow, and adds much-needed hydration to dry winter skin.
• These at-home steamers run on filtered water, making them an easy addition to any skincare routine, even for those with sensitive skin.

As a sensitive-skinned beauty editor, I sometimes feel like I'm leading a double life.

It's my job to stay on top of the latest skin-care products, buzzy ingredients, and at-home tools, but I can't actually use many of them myself. I long to take a mini microdermabrasion machine to a few lingering acne scars, or at least try the LED light therapy masks taking over Instagram. My reactive skin requires a gentler approach, though. To avoid irritation and unnecessary breakouts, I rely on a handful of simple, natural ingredients… like, really simple. Water, pure jojoba oil, and the occasional application of aloe vera kind of simple.

I had all but accepted a life devoid of trendy skin-care devices when I came across something called a facial steamer: A gadget not unlike a clothing steamer; except instead of releasing wrinkles from fabric, it releases gunk from pores. And considering the fact that facial steamers utilize a single ingredient — water — the tool seemed safe enough to test on even the most delicate skin (i.e., mine).

If you've ever had a facial before, you've likely experienced the benefits of a good steam.

"Steaming the face softens the pores, helps enhance the penetration of products, and increases circulation in the skin,"Sharon Holtz, the spa director at Terranea Resort in Southern California, tells Business Insider. Aestheticians usually begin each facial treatment with a professional-grade steamer, thereby guiding dirt and impurities out of the pores and prepping the skin for product application.

But who says you need to shell out for a fancy facial to experience the #postfacialglow that comes from steaming?

I scooped up the ECVISION Nano Ionic Warm Mist Facial Steamer for $30 on Amazon, and it's quickly become my favorite skin-care must-have for a couple of reasons.

For one, it's incredibly easy to use. The back of the device features a removable water cartridge that you fill with filtered water (that's important — you don't want to treat your pores with any of the bacteria or minerals found in tap water) and pop back in place. It takes less than a minute for the water to get steamy, at which point you simply hold the tool about six inches away from your face and allow the steam to do its job. A full cartridge typically lasts for 10 minutes or so.

The second reason I'll never give up my at-home skin saunas? I swear my blackheads and whiteheads are almost non-existent after two months of consistent use. That might sound like an exaggeration considering there are no acne-fighting ingredients or cutting-edge creams involved here, but facial steaming proves that a little bit of water goes a long way.

As Holtz says, steaming softens the skin — and this seemingly small action sets off a chain of skin-saving events. As the skin softens, pores open and loosen their grip on any substances that may be "clogging" them, like excess sebum, dirt, and bacteria. These impurities are then gently released from the skin.

At the same time, steaming provides hydration to dry skin while heat dilates the blood vessels in the face, aiding in circulation and oxygenation. With fresh oxygen and nutrients flowing through these blood vessels, the face appears fresh and glowing.

Finally, steam moistens the skin, transforming it into the perfect canvas for product application. Since skin cells are more permeable when they're damp, your favorite serum or moisturizer will penetrate more deeply when applied directly after a steam session and thus, deliver better results.

I'll let you in on my dirty little steaming secret, too: It's the perfect first step for safely popping a pimple. I know, I know— you're never supposed to pop a pimple! But we all do it at some point, right? All I'm saying is that if you do your popping after a steaming session, it's so much easier: Whatever is clogging your pores is drawn closer to the surface of the skin, and your pores are primed to release it quickly and painlessly.

All of that being said, steaming does have its risks.

"It is very important not to overdo it," Holtz says. Holding the steam too close to your face or steaming too often can aggravate sensitive skin, and even lead to burns or flare ups of rosacea and eczema. “You would not want to do it too often, perhaps once or twice a week,” the aesthetician recommends.

Holtz suggests making an at-home spa day out of it by following your facial steaming with a clarifying or hydrating face mask. The result? The kind of fresh, clear skin and next-level radiance previously only found in your aesthetician's office — all thanks to a $30 Amazon find and plain old water.

Buy the ECVISION Nano Ionic Warm Mist Facial Steamer for $30.99

SEE ALSO: I'm using this unexpected pantry item to wash my face — and my skin has never looked better

Join the conversation about this story »

The healthcare industry is in a state of disruption. Digital solutions are becoming a necessary part of the new global standard of care for patients and regulation is being fast-tracked to catch up to digital health innovation.

These rapid changes will have ripple effects across the entire healthcare system, impacting incumbents and new entrants alike.

Based on our ongoing analysis, understanding of industry trends, and conversations with industry executives, Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has put together The Top Five Trends Shaping The Future of Digital Health.

To get your copy of this free report, click here.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Google will likely halt its censored search project for China, according to a report by The Intercept on Monday. 
• Members of the Dragonfly team are said to have been using large data sets pulled from the Beijing-based website 265.com, which Google owns, to help build the censored search product. 
• When Google's privacy team found out about the use of search data, however, they were reportedly "really pissed" and ultimately decided that the 265.com data could no longer be used.
• Google had originally planned to launch its censored search engine, known as Dragonfly, between January and April 2019. 

Google will likely halt its censored search project for China, according to a report by The Intercept on Monday. 

The report says that Google decided to shut down an integral data source for the project, and as a result, internal resources have been shifted to focus on products related to other countries, like India, Indonesia, and Brazil. 

The news comes almost a week after Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified before Congress that "right now, there are no plans to launch a search service in China."

Read more: Congress grills Google CEO Sundar Pichai for the first time

The likely end of Dragonfly

Work on the controversial project, according to the Intercept, hinged largely on the company's use of search data it obtained from the Beijing-based website, 265.com — which Google owns. Unbeknownst to Google's privacy team, members of the Dragonfly team were using large data sets pulled from 265.com to inform and train the censored search product it was building, says the report. 

In August, the Intercept broke news of the Dragonfly team using 265.com's search data, which is typically safeguarded at Google to protect users. According to the new report, the privacy team was "really pissed" to learn of this and after a series of internal meetings, the Dragonfly team was no longer permitted to use 265.com data. 

“The 265 data was integral to Dragonfly,” one source told The Intercept. “Access to the data has been suspended now, which has stopped progress.”

Google had originally planned to launch its censored search engine, known as Dragonfly, between January and April 2019, according to reports.

Google did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. 

Read the full Intercept report here. 

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NOW WATCH: The Google Pixel 3 has the best smartphone camera you can buy right now — here's why

• Each year, hundreds of middle-school students compete in the national Broadcom Masters competition.
• This year's winner, Georgia Hutchinson, 13, invented a solar-energy system that can figure out the sun's location at any time.
• Hutchinson received $25,000 for her device and is working on patenting the invention.
• She told Business Insider she hoped the invention would provide an economic incentive for people to invest in solar energy.

A 13-year-old scientist from California has won $25,000 for inventing a solar-panel system that can determine where the sun is at any given time.

Georgia Hutchinson, from Woodside, California, took the top prize at the Broadcom Masters nationwide STEM competition for middle-school students. She placed first in a pool of 30 finalists, who received a total of $100,000 in prize money.

The Society for Science & the Public and the Broadcom Foundation, which supported the competition, also gave $1,000 to the STEM — science, technology, engineering, and math — program at Hutchinson's middle school.

Hutchinson's invention, which she calls a data-driven dual-axis solar tracker, relies on publicly available data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to track the sun and make solar panels more efficient. Instead of using costly sensors, the invention uses a computer program designed to figure out the sun's location and tilt solar panels for optimal power production.

Hutchinson said she hoped that by helping solar panels produce more energy, the invention would provide an economic incentive for people to invest in solar power. Focusing on renewable resources to reduce our carbon footprint is crucial if we want to avoid extreme weather conditions, she said.

Near Hutchinson's home in the San Francisco Bay Area, those kinds of weather conditions have led to disaster. In early November, Northern California was hit by the most devastating fire in the state's history; it killed at least 86 civilians.

"The smoke was so bad that thousands of schools all over the state had to be closed down because of the smoke," Hutchinson told Business Insider. "We're seeing right now the effects of climate change, and the data-driven dual-axis solar tracker I built is designed to make solar energy more economical."

Hutchinson said she was working with a lawyer to get her invention patented, adding that she would use the prize money for her education.

Maya Ajmera, the president and CEO of the Society for Science & the Public, told Business Insider that only 10% of the nearly 80,000 students who present at science fairs are nominated to compete in Broadcom Masters. This year, a group of judges chose 300 contestants from a pool of 2,500 students who applied, then another judging panel narrowed the entries down to 30.

Hutchinson's project stood out because it used publicly available data and was very accurate, Ajmera said. During a test of the device, the amount of electricity generated was within 5% of what Hutchinson's computer model predicted.

Ajmera said the society supported the middle-school competition because it targets students during the most impressionable time in their lives.

"We think that this is the time if we can capture kids' excitement about STEM that that is going to pay huge dividends in the future," Ajmera said.

After presenting her project at local and state science fairs, Hutchinson traveled to Washington, DC, for the final round of the competition.

"Knowing that people I met at Broadcom Masters will be influencing society in the future is really comforting to me," Hutchinson said. "I was really inspired by everybody's passion, and everybody who was wanting to change the world for good and wanting to use STEM for that, regardless of where they came from."

At home, Hutchinson often finds herself as the only girl in coding classes and other STEM activities, but the DC trip was a chance to spend time with about a dozen other girls who are passionate about STEM, she said.

Hutchinson said she was pushing to make that more common. After being the only girl to join a computer-science elective in elementary school, Hutchinson created a chapter of the nonprofit Girls Who Code to get more of her peers interested in STEM.

Since then, she has also launched a lunchtime design club, where she works with fourth- and fifth-grade girls on various projects, such as designing a hydraulic claw.

"I really want to show people that STEM isn't just for boys and that girls can do STEM too," Hutchinson said.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: There's a shady market for breast milk in the US where parents risk buying contaminated milk

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen by 400 points, or 1.68%, by Monday afternoon and was on track to close at its lowest level since April.
• Traders were positioning themselves ahead of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting, which is set to begin Tuesday and is expected to produce the fourth interest-rate hike this year and ninth since the financial crisis.
• Watch the major US indexes trade in real time here.

US equity markets were slammed Monday and were on track for a second straight day of losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 400 points, or 1.68%, as of Monday afternoon, threatening to close at its lowest level since the beginning of April. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were lower by about 1.7%.

Monday's selling came as investors positioned themselves ahead of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting, which is set to begin Tuesday. The central bank on Wednesday is widely expected to raise its fed funds rate to a range between 2.25% and 2.5%. It would be the Fed's fourth time this year raising interest rates — and ninth time since the financial crisis.

The prospect of a rate hike drew the ire of President Donald Trump on Monday, as he fired off a tweet criticizing the Fed.

"It is incredible that with a very strong dollar and virtually no inflation, the outside world blowing up around us, Paris is burning and China way down, the Fed is even considering yet another interest rate hike,"he wrote on Twitter. "Take the Victory!"

Bank stocks were fractionally lower on the day, with the KBW Bank Index down 0.25% as the spread between the two- and 10-year yields held near 16 basis points. A flattening yield curve hurts banks' profitability, as it shrinks the spread between the rate at which banks borrow and the rate at which they lend.

Goldman Sachs fell 2.65% to near $168 a share, lagging its peers, after the investment bank and two of its former executives faced criminal charges in Malaysia over what the country called "grave violations" of its securities law relating to the scandal surrounding its $6.5 billion sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB.

Elsewhere, stocks with healthcare exposure were hit hard after a federal judge late Friday ruled that the Affordable Care Act, the law better known as Obamacare, was unconstitutional. The decision is sure to be appealed and doesn't immediately take effect, but Molina Healthcare (-11.18%), Community Health Systems (-10.46%), Tenet Healthcare (-5.27%), Centene (-4.62%), and HCA(-2.53%) were under pressure.

Oil prices also fell, with West Texas Intermediate crude oil down 2.09% to $50.16 a barrel and on track to close at its lowest level since October 2017.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The equity chief at $6.3 trillion BlackRock weighs in on the trade war, a possible recession, and offers her best investing advice for a tricky 2019 landscape

• While each year has its ups and down, there are things we'll miss about 2018.
• From "Beychella" to "Thank U, Next," we enjoyed exciting pop culture moments.
• We'll miss the Olympics. 

Every year has its ups and downs and 2018 was no exception. From political scandals to wacky internet challenges we're just about ready for a fresh start in 2019.

But with iconic pop culture moments and the passing of celebrity legends, there are some things that we're just not quite ready to move on from. Take a walk down memory lane with us, and read on for the things we'll miss about 2018 in the new year.

We'll never have a new generation of Toys 'R' Us kids.

In March, Toys R Us announced they'd be closing all their remaining toy stores. While shoppers enjoyed going-out-of-business sales that saw items up to 95% off, the empty shelves once filled with toys marked the end of an era. 

Netflix's true-crime satire "American Vandal" won't be cracking anymore cases.

After just two seasons, Netflix's "American Vandal" was canceled in October. The mockumentary series followed two teenagers as they investigated high school pranks in a similar style to "Making a Murderer" or the hit-podcast "Serial." The satirical show never took itself too seriously, and we'll miss its subtle humor.

We'll miss the Internet coming together to watch "Thank U, Next" for the first time.

Ariana Grande dropped the super-anticipated song and accompanying music video, "Thank U, Next" earlier this year to great fanfare. The single debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and garnered 93.8 million streams in just one week in the US. Grande fans have more music to look forward to in 2019 when the "Thank U, Next" album debuts, but they'll never get to enjoy the hit for the first time again or relive the camaraderie of reacting to it in real time.

• Hedge fund performance slumped while fees were cut in 2018. 

• Industry insiders say equity managers, the battle for tech talent, and fee pressure are all coming up daily at hedge funds big and small. 

• “It’s not a great time to be in the hedge fund business, relative to other times," says Adam Zoia, CEO of consulting firm CompIQ. 

Headlines about high-profile hedge fund closures and performance troubles commanded the industry’s attention in 2018. A year that started off with promise for both established managers and new players quickly tanked after the second quarter's close.

Fees are pushed lower with every new fund launch, and large managers like Dmitry Balasny's firm laid off large swaths of staff. On top of all the industry pressures, the markets in the fourth quarter lobbed off any kind of returns many managers had managed to squeeze out so far this year — through the end of November, hedge funds have on average lost 2%, HFRI reports.

Going into 2019, industry observers and participants believe the following trends will dominate conversation:

Equity funds are going to be put to the test

It’s time for long-short funds to prove their worth. After nearly a decade of tranquil, post-crisis bull market, when equity hedge funds, on average, finished in the black but rarely beat the S&P, market volatility in 2018 has given investors reason to turn to active management again. Now these equity hedge funds have to prove to clients they're able to crank out positive returns with the markets in constant spasms. 

“More and more people believe the large-cap developed index is highly efficient, and it’s very hard to deliver any excess returns,” said Don Steinbrugge, CEO of hedge fund consultancy Agecroft Partners. “You consistently have to be doing more.”

Long-short strategies still hold the highest proportion of assets of any hedge fund strategy in the industry, according to senior portfolio manager at fund-of-funds manager SkyBridge Capital Troy Gayeski, with between 40% and 50% of industry assets under management. The hedge fund industry's current asset total — more than $3.2 trillion — was partially inflated by this equity exposure during the market's long bull run. 

If long-short players can't keep the returns up during bouts of volatility, then industrywide assets will start to slip thanks to poor performance and investor outflows. 

With a potentially lower benchmark to beat, equity hedge funds will be under the microscope in 2019.

"2 and 20" will continue to fade away

The 2% management fee and 20% performance that was typical of the hedge fund industry’s early days has been slipping away for years. Hedge Fund Research reports that only 30% of the industry has fees at or greater than the traditional “2 and 20” rate. The average management fee has fallen to 1.43% industrywide while incentive fees sit at 16.93% as of the end of the third quarter, according to the data provider.

Part of the squeeze on management fees comes from public pension funds that have been pressured by legislatures to lower the fees on their portfolios. The Texas Teacher Retirement System is the biggest US pension fund in terms of hedge fund assets, according to data from Preqin, with $14.7 billion of its $151 billion portfolio allocated to hedge funds. The pension has pushed hedge funds since 2016 to accept a 1% management fee and 30% performance fee structure, according to Brad Gilbert, the pension’s senior director of hedge funds. “The traditional hedge fund fee structure is flawed,” Gilbert said at an April meeting of the pension’s board meeting.

Managers will battling more than just each other for top talent

Much like investment banking’s battle with the Googles and Facebooks of the world for top tech talent, hedge funds looking to up their technology games are finding that they are competing against more than just the manager down the street.

Hedge funds are looking to hire everything from systems and data engineers to machine learning specialists, but they are losing out to Silicon Valley for top talent, said Peter Wagner, CEO of recruiting firm Affinity North. With the “bonus-weighted culture, a few bad years leaves people very disillusioned,” he said about the compensation structure in the hedge fund world.

Jobs at big tech firms like Google where they're developing new products and on the frontlines of new tech innovations may be more fulfilling for tech workers than a typical hedge fund job, Wagner said. Old-school trading systems at older hedge funds force some industry tech roles to focus on maintaining legacy products instead of building out new ones. 

Not to mention the compensation upside. “It’s very easy for a Facebook to add stock shares to an offer, and it’s very cheap for them to do it,” Wagner said. “There’s no real equivalent on the hedge fund side.”

More fund-to-family-office transitions

Some older hedge fund founders have struggled to keep up with the market over the past couple of years, or just decided it wasn't worth the effort to keep pushing off young start-ups, cranky investors, and aggressive regulators. 

So the allure to “close it down” is understandable, said Adam Zoia, CEO of CompIQ, a New York-based consulting and database company. “They’re saying ‘you know what? I don’t have the energy to wait around for another moment where I might outperform,’” Zoia said.

Billionaire Leon Cooperman said exactly that in July when he announced he would turn his $3.6 billion hedge fund, Omega Advisors, into a family office by the end of the year and return outside capital to investors.

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life chasing the S&P 500 and focused on generating returns on investor capital,” Cooperman wrote to investors in a July letter. Cooperman, who turned 75 this year, founded the firm in 1991.

Multibillion funds Highfields Capital Management — run and founded by former Harvard endowment stock-picker Jonathon Jacobson— and Ascend Capital also announced transition plans to investors in the fourth quarter this year.

"After three-and-a-half decades of sitting in front of a screen, I realized I am ready for a change," Jacobson wrote in his October letter to investors, alerting them that he would be returning outside capital. 

“It’s not a great time to be in the hedge fund business, relative to other times,” Zoia said, noting that this kind of stagnation is common for a “maturing industry.” Put another way, the “insulation” protecting the industry from external forces has gone away, said Gary Stibel of consultancy New England Consulting Group. “There’s going to be unhappy people on both the investor and the manager side” next year, Stibel said.

The hunt for differentiated data will be even more cutthroat 

It doesn’t matter what what your hedge fund strategy is — the need for differentiated data is universal. And the alternative data provider industry has boomed because of it.

According to AlternativeData.org, there are roughly 375 different companies offering some new form of data. The most well-known in the industry have now become table stakes — without their information, a manager is automatically starting at a disadvantage.

But more niche players have cropped up, using natural language processing software to constantly scan what traders are saying on Twitter and integrating CIA interrogation techniques into a model to determine when company executives are being deceptive on earnings calls.

“People’s needs keep changing, and the datasets keep changing,” said James Crane-Baker, CEO of PsychSignal, which scans and cleans social media posts of traders and sells the data to quant hedge funds. The most successful funds in the future, Crane-Baker believes, will be the ones that employ the data buyers, who “travel the world looking for new datasets.”

Well-known Wall Street firms seem to be paying attention to this boom in both data collection and data budgets. Third Point Management recruited WorldQuant’s co-head of data strategy, Matt Ober, last year to be its chief data scientist, while Nasdaq has purchased two of the hedge fund industry’s biggest data providers, eVestment and Quandl, over the last 12 months.

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• INSIDER picked the top kids' movies of 2018 to watch.
• If you're looking for something to watch with the family, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,""Paddington 2," and "Bumblebee" are our top picks.

It's been a very good year for animated movies, sequels, and kids' movies and INSIDER has picked the best of them.

We consider a kids' movie to include both animated releases and live-action films that can be watched with families (i.e.: "Christopher Robin"). 

From an excellent "Paddington 2" to a few Disney sequels, and even a "Transformers" spin-off, here are the movies we recommend the most this year for families and little ones. 

12. "Peter Rabbit"

This adaptation of the Beatrix Potter books may have flown under the radar earlier this year, but it was a big hit in the UK and a sequel is coming in 2020.

The movie follows Peter Rabbit and his three sisters as they go to war with a new tenant (Domhnall Gleeson) who isn't fond of the furry rodents and their friends raiding his garden. Some of the jokes may not fly with parents. (There was quite a controversy around one scene where the rabbits preyed on Gleeson's character for an allergic reaction he had to blackberries.) But overall, the movie is cute and if you're a fan of Gleeson ("Ex Machina,""The Force Awakens") you'll enjoy his war with the rabbits here. 

Where to watch it:Netflix

11. "Mowgli"

Did we need a second movie based on "The Jungle Book" after Disney's 2016 adaptation grossed nearly $1 billion? Probably not, and that very well may be part of the reason Warner Bros. sold its mammoth movie to Netflix.

It's easy to see why "Mowgli" wasn't a theatrical release from the moment it starts. Disney's more realistic CG of its characters is superior to Warner Bros. However, the magic here is in the riveting performances from Rohan Chand ("Bad Words") as the man cub who grows up in the jungle and Benedict Cumberbatch as a menacing Shere Khan trying to hunt him down. 

I would have watched a full 90 minutes of Shere Khan chasing Mowgli around on screen. While some berated the film for its darker take on the Rudyard Kipling source material, I appreciated the film takes kids seriously enough to not tone things down. Plus, it didn't have that silly King Louie number that's in the Disney version. 

If you have Netflix, it's definitely worth a watch over the holidays with the family. 

Where to watch:Netflix
You can read our review here.

10. "The Grinch"

Universal's reboot of the curmudgeon who hates Christmas may not be completely necessary, but it is a heartwarming update to the original animated Chuck Jones special that gives the Grinch a somber origin story. 

If you're a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch, he charms not only as the grumpy green guy, but in his ability to make you empathize with a grown man who, underneath his grinchy exterior, is really an isolated, lonely hermit who desperately needs a hug (or, at the least, a Christmas present).

You can read our review here. 

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

• Bluetooth headphones get rid of those annoying wires and increase convenience so you can take your music with you anywhere.
• Of all the wireless headphones we've tested, the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Wireless over-ear headphones are the best ones you can buy, and they sound amazing.

Headphones are evolving. When Apple first announced the iPhone 7, which dropped the headphone jack in favor of a wireless connection, many were more than a little frustrated. Traditionally speaking, wired headphones have been of a higher quality, both sound-wise and when it comes to reliability. Now, however, that’s changing, and the gap in sound quality is closing.

If you’ve decided you want to ditch those annoying wires in favor of wireless headphones, there are a number of things to consider. The first thing you’ll need to decide is what form-factor you prefer. Do you want over-ear headphones, on-ear headphones, or in-ear headphones? Over-ear headphones generally sound better and are more comfortable, while in-ears are far more portable, and on-ear headphones attempt to strike a balance between those two.

You’ll also want to consider whether you want noise-cancellation, which helps cut out the background noise while you’re listening. Last but not least, you’ll want to think about your budget. These days, there are great Bluetooth headphones across most price ranges, but as is the case with most things, the more you have to spend, the better headphones you'll get.

We’ve been testing as many wireless Bluetooth headphones as we can get our hands on over the past few years, and we’ve put together this list of the best wireless headphones we've tested. We'll continue to add to this list as we test more models and different types of wireless headphones. You can also check out all the other types of headphones we recommend in the last slide.

Here are the best wireless headphones you can buy:

• Best wireless headphones overall: Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 headphones
• Best noise-cancelling wireless headphones: Bose QuietComfort 35
• Best on-ear wireless headphones: AKG N60 NC Wireless
• Best wireless headphones under $150: JBL E55BT headphones
• Best wireless headphones for great sound: Master & Dynamic MW50 headphones
• Best wireless earbuds less than $50: iFrogz Impulse Duo earbuds
• Best wireless headphones for travel: Sony WH1000XM3 headphones
• Best stylish wireless headphones: Bower & Wilkins PX Wireless headphones

Updated on 12/17/2017 by Malarie Gokey: Added new models to replace old versions and updated prices and formatting.

Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.

The best wireless headphones overall

Why you'll love them: The Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Wireless headphones don’t just look great — they’re extremely comfortable and sound like a dream, too.

Which Bluetooth headphones should you get if you want the best of the best? In our testing, the best wireless headphones money can buy are the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Wireless over-ear headphones.

There are a number of things that make these headphones so good. For starters, they look beautiful. The headphones are built with premium leather, along with a strong metal frame and a rustic look. It’s a great combination, but the build doesn’t just make them good-looking — it also makes them nice and strong.

While the headphones do have an over-ear design, they are somewhat portable. They fold up and fit into a nice strong case, which is included in your purchase. The case is great for those of you who want to take your cans on the go. The Sennheiser headphones are comfortable, too. They have nice memory foam in the ear-cups, and while we would have liked to see a little more foam in the headband, that’s not a deal-breaker by any means.

Then there’s the sound, which is the highlight of these headphones. The Sennheiser Wireless over-ear headphones boast a deep, rich low-end, along with a well-tuned and accurate mid-range and crisp high-end. They also have noise cancellation, and while it’s a little annoying that you can’t deactivate it if you want, it well help keep that extra noise out so you can listen to your music in peace.

We’re not the only ones who love the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Wireless headphones. They scored 9/10 in a review from Headphone Review, and their predecessor, the Momentum Wireless 2.0 headphones scored 9/10 on Trusted Review and 4/5 on CNET. The main downside to these headphones is that they’re not cheap. To get them, you’ll need to shell out a cool $350 to $500, but if you do, you won’t be sorry.  — Christian de Looper

Pros: Beautiful design, relatively comfortable, excellent sound quality

Cons: Expensive, could use more padding in headband

Buy the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Wireless over-ear headphones on Amazon for $349 (originally $499.95)

The best noise-canceling wireless headphones

Why you'll love them: The noise cancellation technology on the Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones is the best around, but the headphones also sound great and are extremely comfortable.

Bose is a powerhouse in the headphone world and has been especially successful when it comes to noise cancelling headphones. In our testing, the headphones with the best noise cancellation technology are the Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones. When these cans are on, the noise cancellation is almost eerie.

The headphones aren’t just great for noise cancellation. They’re extremely comfortable and sound great, too. Sure, the design isn’t all that interesting, but for many people that doesn’t matter as much as the noise cancellation technology and sound quality. If you're into customizing your cans to suit your personality, you can design your own headphone on Bose's website.

The Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones also come with everything you’ll need to take them on planes and around town, including a nice carry case, plane adapter, and an aux cable for when you want to use them in wired mode. Speaking of which, wired mode is, unfortunately, the only time you can use these headphones without noise cancellation on. There’s no switch to turn it off when they’re connected through Bluetooth.

Plenty of reviewers loved the headphones besides us. Trusted Reviews gave them 9/10, CNET gave them 4.5/5, and Headphone Review gave them 9/10. They are a little pricey, coming in at $299 to $350, but paying that will get you the best noise canceling headphones around. — Christian de Looper

Pros: Excellent noise cancellation, great sound quality, very comfortable

Cons: Expensive, slightly boring design

Buy the Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones on Amazon for $299 (originally $349)

The best on-ear wireless headphones

Why you'll love them: The AKG N60 NC Wireless headphones have an excellent design, feel comfortable, and sound great, but they’re also super portable and live safely in an included carry pouch.

Looking for something a little more portable than the over-ear Sennheiser Wireless headphones? The AKG N60 NC Wireless headphones could be the ones for you.

The headphones feature a super sleek design with a black and silver color scheme, along with an on-ear form factor, which makes them a lot more portable than over-ear headphones. They’re made even more portable with their swiveling earcups, which help the headphones fit nice and snugly in the included carry bag.

The AKG N60 NC headphones are comfortable, too. There's a good amount of memory foam in both the earcups and the headband. The best thing about these headphones, however, is that they sound great. There’s a ton of low-end frequencies, though the bass doesn’t go overboard. The high frequencies are nice and clear, too, which helps the music sound crisp.

Next up is the fact that these headphones also feature noise cancellation that's better than you’ll find on many other headphones. It’s not quite as good as the Bose QuietComfort 35’s tech, but it's good nonetheless. The headphones aren’t perfect. In the pair we tested, there was a small amount of Bluetooth noise, which came in the form of a very faint buzzing in the background. You couldn’t hear it while music was playing, but it was a little annoying.

Others liked the N60 NC Wireless headphones, too. They scored 8.7/10 on Headphone Review. The Verge also liked them during their preview, PCMag gave them 4 out of 5 stars, and Time also praised them. The headphones are a little pricey at $150 but more affordable than our top pick. — Christian de Looper

Pros: Portable, good noise cancellation, great sound, nice look

Cons: Bluetooth noise

Buy the AKG N60 NC Wireless on Amazon for $149.90

• LionTree Advisors founder and tech, media and telecom banker Aryeh B. Bourkoff warned employees to "brace themselves" for a year of uncertainty, looking forward to 2019.
• In his annual letter to LionTree staff, Bourkoff highlighted market turmoil and global politics as factors which will require industry leaders to be agile, curious and able to "self-correct" over the next 12 months.
• But there are also plenty of positive industry trends to look forward to, he said.
• He expects to see new products and experiments in the video space from industry leaders like Disney and Warner Media, a ripple effect from developments in 5G mobile technology, and the emergence of new space technologies.

LionTree founder and renowned tech, media and telecom banker Aryeh B. Bourkoff is urging his colleagues to "brace themselves" against impending instability. 

"The New Year promises unpredictability as the only constant," he wrote in a year end letter to LionTree staff on Monday. "The future does not make promises to the present and demands only that we prepare for it diligently and imagine it boldly."

The markets, Bourkoff wrote, have proven to be both strong and turbulent. While this is challenging for many of LionTree's clients, Bourkoff said he sees the market volatility as "a healthy correction." 

"The top priority for leaders across industries will be to address this paradox of strong fundamentals and ambient unease — and to do so with kindness, humility, curiosity, and the ability to self-correct that comes from teaching and learning simultaneously," he wrote.

Though there is much uncertainty on the international political stage, Bourkoff believes that political turmoil in the US that has marked the past two years will have less impact on the economy in 2019 and 2020 as a new mix in Congress enhances the likelihood of legislative gridlock.

Read more: Here is what Bourkoff predicted back in 2017

Things to watch: 5G, eSports, and space travel

Macroeconomics aside, Bourkoff also shared his predictions for which TMT trends will take off in 2019.

The hottest issues next year will be the battle in the direct-to-consumer video space, major developments in mobile thanks to 5G, new innovations in voice and audio technologies, and swift developments in emerging industries like eSports and space technology, he said.

It will be a "pivotal" year for companies like Disney and Warner Media in the direct-to-consumer video space. Bourkoff expects to see new products and experimentation from big players as they gear up to compete against the Netflix's of the world.

Bourkoff also expects to see new opportunities in audio, particularly around voice-based commerce and advertising.

Outside of devices, a whole new market is developing around space tech where he expects to see many long-term projects start coming to fruition.

"The possibilities are dizzying: passenger space travel, instantaneous delivery and universal connectivity via satellite and the prospect of point-to-point networks," he said.

Read Bourkoff's full letter here: 

SEE ALSO: Uber, Lyft, China, and more — top tech investment bankers share their biggest hopes and fears for IPOs in 2019

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The legendary economist who predicted the housing crisis says the US will win the trade war

• I tried McDonald's in 10 different countries. 
• McDonald's in Australia seemed to taste the freshest. 
• Customer service varied depending on where I was. 
• McDonald's in Malta was very popular and offered a "Big Tasty" menu item. 

I love McDonald's. It's been a part of my life since I was a young child, and my dedication to the iconic American fast-food chain only strengthened when I decided to study abroad my freshman and junior years in college.

Thanks to my travels, I have now been able to try McDonald's in 10 different countries. I was surprised to see that, for the most part, McDonald's is pretty universal though some places were better than others.

Read on to see what the biggest differences are.

The fries and burgers in the US are iconic.

If you live in America, chances are you've been to McDonald's at some point. McDonald's in America, to me, is classic and delicious. I always go with the two cheeseburgers, small fries combo (although there are healthier menu options).

The fries are some of the best fast-food fries (though opinions sometimes differ) — crispy, hot and salty. The burgers are perfect for a quick bite to eat or a late night snack.

McDonald's in the United Kingdom has some options unique to that place.

McDonald's in England is so popular that the queen owns her own location. While a lot of the menu is still the same, the British McDonald's food has fewer preservatives, and the Big Mac, for example, is smaller.

They also offer a traditional British breakfast that's available until 10:30 a.m., consisting of a bacon sandwich, hash brown, and English breakfast tea.

And of course, you can't forget the fact that in the UK, they have a Maltesers McFlurry that's delicious.

Sweden offered a "Jureskog Texas burger."

What's interesting about Swedish McDonald's, along with several other McDonald's around the world, is that they offer limited-edition signature burgers that pertain to a particular state in the US.

For example, in Sweden, they serve the Jureskog Texas burger, which is a barbecue burger that comes with spicy, flat potato chips.

Other than that, everything tastes pretty much the same.

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

Startups are often seen as incubators or think tanks making better, smarter, or cooler products faster than traditional companies can. And thanks to the lean businesses models made possible by the internet, those products don't have to cost more than the status quo they're replacing. 

Their uniqueness, cool origin stories, and — on average — more sustainable and ethical business practices also make them particularly good gifts. Below are 76 up-and-coming startups we love to shop at, plus a cheat sheet for what to buy from each of them.

Below, you'll find 76 of the best gifts you can buy from startups this year.

Looking for more gift ideas? Check out all of Insider Picks' holiday gift guides for 2018 here.

Allbirds

What to buy:
Women's Wool Loungers, $95
Men's Wool Loungers, $95

This is the footwear company responsible for the merino wool sneakers and loungers often called the "most comfortable shoes in the world"— a statement we agreed with after trying them. They're great for everyday use or for traveling, and you'll find them in high concentrations in hubs like Silicon Valley and New York City. 

Allbirds are also a great gift for environmentally-conscious shoppers. The company is well-known for practicing "better business" and engineering its shoes from sustainable wool, eucalyptus leaves, or foam made from sugar cane.

Brooklinen

Atlas Coffee Club

What to buy:
Three-Month Subscription, $55

Atlas Coffee Club is a monthly coffee subscription that curates freshly-roasted, micro-lot coffees from around the world and sends them to your door. Since the coffees span the globe, each shipment is meant to connect recipients with the culture that produced it. Shipments include a corresponding postcard (plus flavor notes and brewing tips), and the coffee bag designs are inspired by local landscapes and textiles. 

• As your life changes and progresses, your priorities and responsibilities can shift significantly. 
• Here, author Jennifer Still details seven things she's completely changed her mind about over the past decade.

It makes sense that as we grow older and experience more of life, our thoughts and feelings about certain things change.

Beliefs we've held for years that we believed we'd never budge on are suddenly seen in a different light and we realize we may have gotten it wrong. It's called growing as a person, and it's a good thing.

While I've certainly evolved my way of thinking about many things over the past decade, these are the seven topics that I've done a complete 180 on.

SEE ALSO: I tried intermittent fasting for a month — and I saw 7 life-changing results

1. Having children

While I was never gung-ho about having kids to begin with, I've definitely become vehemently against the idea over the past decade. I'm simply too attached to having freedom with my time, money, and energy and realize that I'm not selfless enough to even want to give that up for a child. No doubt parenthood is rewarding, it's just not for me.

2. The institution of marriage

One thing I was definitely certain I would never do is get married. While I had nothing against the institution as a whole, outdated and unnecessary as it is, I've always supported couples who wanted to declare their commitment to one another via a legal contract. My lack of personal investment in the idea all changed in 2014 when I did actually tie the knot, albeit in a civil ceremony with only our witnesses present.

3. The value of work

While I was raised to appreciate the value of hard work and have pretty much always had at least a part-time job, even as a teenager, I admittedly never really took pride in what I did. It wasn't until I found a career I was truly passionate about — writing and editing — that I began to understand how good it feels to invest a lot of time and energy into something and proud of how it turned out.