Day: October 5, 2025

• My career used to be my identity. I had spent years prioritizing work and was feeling burned out.
• I ended up quiet quitting, but it only exacerbated my burnout.
• I ended up resigning and traveling for a few months, and reclaimed my boundaries around work.

On any given day at 8:45 a.m., I would roll out of bed and make the five-foot commute to the kitchen to brew coffee. I’d throw on loungewear, wake up my laptop, and join my first meeting of the day.

People would talk on the screen, but my attention was elsewhere: an open browser of TikTok air fryer recipes or livestreams of the latest news. My plan was always to do the bare minimum.

I was quiet quitting, my own little protest.

I’d prioritized my career for years and felt burned out

Six years before my revolt began, I was 22 and landed a graduate marketing job at a fashion house in London, earning £14,500 a year (about $18,500 at the time). Over the years, I climbed the ladder until I was making £50,000 a year and no longer had to survive on frozen pizzas or battle long commutes, having moved into my own studio in the city center.

I embraced my 20s for the chaotic rite of passage that it is, hurtling forward like an Irish thoroughbred, racking up bad dates and corporate promotions, hoping one day to snag a Forbes 30 Under 30 badge.

However, in 2020, layoffs and budget cuts left me with double the workload. Though I took on more, I wasn’t compensated, and by the time the pandemic ended, I couldn’t ignore the years I’d spent prioritizing my career over my own mental health.

Overworked and burned out, it was time to stage my rebellion.

I entered my quiet quitting era

I chose to work from home as much as possible, even when most of my colleagues were in the office. I’d wiggle my mouse to appear active, take long midday gym breaks, and became an expert on all plotlines of The Real Housewives franchise.

At first, I felt proud of the time I was reclaiming. But it didn’t last. My mental health deteriorated when the purpose my career once gave me wasn’t replaced elsewhere. I was directionless, and waking each morning with the lethargy of someone who’d just finished an Ironman, despite sleeping 10 hours a night. Having previously been diagnosed with depression, I recognized the signs that I was heading there again.

After a year of quiet quitting, my breaking point arrived during a work call where colleagues argued over fonts used in a recent presentation. I thought, “Is this really what life is all about?”

My ‘quiet quit’ turned into a ‘loud quit,’ and I resigned

In December 2022, I handed in my resignation and bought a one-way ticket to Australia with no planned date for my return. I spent three months traveling there and across New Zealand before returning to London, trying to reclaim my zest for life.

I spent hours in nature, hiking mountains and sailing with dolphins at sunrise. I slowly remembered what it was to have fun and not take life so seriously. I shared my story with friends and strangers and realized how common burnout was, and that I wasn’t alone.

Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing. I could have done all this in London — spending more time in the city’s beautiful parks, or asking my boss for better support. Escaping wasn’t the only option; what I really needed were boundaries and the courage to advocate for myself sooner.

Traveling helped me reclaim my identity and set boundaries when I returned to work

The real problem was that my career had become my identity, and I didn’t know who I was without it. It took traveling 10,000 miles and spending a large chunk of my savings to dismantle that. And while I’m grateful for the perspective and memories my travels gave me, I wish I’d found ways to make those changes sooner, without losing a year of my life to quiet quitting.

When I returned home, I restarted my career as a freelancer and finally established clear boundaries around my work. My job no longer defines me; now, I enjoy it alongside the passions I’ve invested in for myself. Some days I’m a social media manager. Other days, I’m a rock-climbing yogi or a home cook pretending I’m a chef from The Bear.

Prioritizing balance, well-being, and passions outside work has helped me find purpose in my whole life — and that’s something I’ll never want to quiet quit.

Moscow – Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for long-range strikes inside Russia would obliterate relations between the Kremlin and Washington, reports 24brussels.

Sources indicate that the United States is contemplating direct involvement to bolster Ukraine’s capability to target strategic Russian infrastructure. Last month, US Vice President JD Vance confirmed that Washington is reviewing a request from Ukraine for long-range Tomahawk missiles that could reach deep into Russian territory, including Moscow, although no definitive decision has been made.

US President Donald Trump has expressed his disappointment in Putin for failing to achieve peace in the region, characterizing Russia as a “paper tiger” incapable of overcoming Ukraine. In response, Putin has questioned whether NATO is merely a “paper tiger” for its lack of effectiveness in stopping Russia’s advances.

How could US Tomahawk supplies impact Russia-US relations?

Putin declared that supplying Tomahawk missiles would signify the beginning of a new phase of escalation in relations between Russia and the United States. “This will lead to the destruction of our relations, or at least the positive trends that have emerged in these relations,” he stated in a video aired by Russian state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin.

“This will mean a completely new, qualitatively new stage of escalation, including in relations between Russia and the United States,”

According to Putin, while the Tomahawks would pose a threat, Russia intends to counter them with enhanced air defense systems.

What are Tomahawk missiles, and how far can they reach?

Tomahawk missiles are subsonic, long-range cruise missiles designed primarily for land attack missions. They are utilized predominantly by the US Navy’s surface ships and submarines, and also by the submarines of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy. These missiles can strike high-value and heavily defended targets with remarkable precision from distances ranging from 1,000 to 1,600 kilometers.

What additional missile capabilities has the US supplied to Ukraine?

Since the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the United States has provided Ukraine with an extensive array of missiles and missile technology. This assistance has included HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) equipped with precision-guided munitions, with several hundred units delivered since their introduction in mid-2022. These systems have been crucial in targeting Russian forces and logistics within occupied regions.

Additionally, the ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System), long-range precision missiles capable of reaching targets beyond 300 kilometers, received approval for deployment to Ukraine as of early 2024.

• AMD’s CEO, Lisa Su, grew up in Queens and obtained three degrees from MIT.
• She’s credited with turning AMD into a roughly $270 billion powerhouse and rival to Nvidia in AI chips.
• Here is a look at her career rise, personal life, and challenges over the years.

Lisa Su is the engineer behind one of the most dramatic corporate turnarounds in the tech industry.

The Taiwanese American CEO is widely credited with transforming AMD from a struggling semiconductor firm on the brink of collapse into a global powerhouse competing head-to-head with Intel and Nvidia.

When Su joined AMD in 2012, the company’s market value was under $2 billion. Within a decade of her leadership, AMD’s innovations in high-performance computing and graphics, especially the Ryzen CPUs and EPYC server processors, catapulted the company’s value to roughly $270 billion as of October 2025.

But Su’s leadership has not been without challenges. AMD’s two largest competitors, Nvidia and Intel, are now working together in a strategic collaboration. Under the second Trump administration, export regulations related to China, one of AMD’s largest markets, are also constantly changing.

Here’s a look at the timeline of Su’s career, from her early life in New York City to her role as one of the most influential women in tech and innovation:

Early life, family

Lisa Tzwu-Fang Su was born in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1969, to Su Chun-hwai and Sandy Lo. Her family immigrated to the US when she was around the age of three, because her father, a statistician, was pursuing his graduate studies at the University of Texas in Austin. Her mother at that time was an accountant. The family eventually settled down in Queens, New York City.

As a child, Su liked to take apart and rebuild remote-controlled cars and other gadgets, which sparked her interest in engineering. She eventually attended The Bronx High School of Science and graduated in 1986.

Education

Su attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston for many years and focused on electrical engineering. She eventually completed her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees all at MIT throughout the 1990s.

Su’s doctoral work on MOSFETs — tiny electronic switches inside computer chips — helped cement her future in some of the world’s best-known semiconductor companies.

Semiconductor research

After leaving the academic environment, Su worked in engineering, research, and managerial positions at Texas Instruments, IBM, and Freescale Semiconductor.

As the lead scientist at the IBM Semiconductor R&D Center, she contributed to the development of copper interconnects in chips, replacing aluminum ones. Her later role as senior vice president and general manager at Freescale, where she prepared the company for its IPO, gave Su the experience she needed to take on roles beyond research.

Joining AMD

Su joined AMD in 2012 as the general manager of Global Business Units. AMD’s market cap that year was a little less than $2 billion.

At that time, most of AMD’s revenue came from traditional chips for PCs. However, the PC market was shrinking in the early 2010s while demand for smartphones and tablets was booming.

AMD began to adopt a “semi-custom” approach, which involved taking its core technologies and modifying them based on individual customer needs. This approach helped secure contracts to design and manufacture chips for Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One, which reduced reliance on the PC market.

In October 2014, Su was promoted to become President and CEO of AMD.

The big AMD turnaround

In 2014, AMD had a large but scattered portfolio of chips for PCs, embedded systems, graphics, and low-power mobile, but the lack of focus was causing the company to lose market share to Nvidia and Intel.

In a change of direction for the company, Su decided to discard the market of low-power chips with small margins to focus on producing high-end chips for the cloud, data centers, and consoles.

The development of the Ryzen chips helped revive its market share among consumer products, while the simultaneous launch of the EPYC processor chips helped carve its share among data centers and servers. Companies with a large demand for cloud, like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google Cloud, have all been adopting EPYC chips.

In 2018, AMD also managed to launch the world’s first 7-nanometer data center GPUs, namely the Radeon Instinct MI50 and MI60.

By 2020, AMD’s market cap had reached over $110 billion.

An early viral moment

Before Su started gracing magazine covers, she went viral in a clip from the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix, where Formula 1 commentator Martin Brundle yelled, “Excuse me, Ma’am, do you speak English?” at the CEO, who was sponsoring the event.

“I’m with AMD,” Su said, a response that immediately gained her the internet reputation of being humble. The original clip on YouTube has garnered more than 750,000 views and continues to circulate on Instagram Reels as an example of humility.

Honorary buildings at MIT

In 2022, Su became the first MIT alumna to make a gift for a building that will bear her own name. Originally called Building 12, the home of MIT.nano was renamed the Lisa T. Su Building.

Su also regularly appears at MIT’s doctoral commencement ceremonies and established the Lisa Su Fellowship Fund, which supports female graduate students at MIT who have made accomplishments in nanotechnology.

Her marriage to Daniel Lin

Su leads a very private life outside her role at AMD. Her spouse is Daniel Lin, but it is unclear when the pair got married or if they have children. There are no verifiable records of Lin’s profession, and he is not a public figure, though the pair often appear in public events together.

Lisa Su’s downtime

Su told Wired what keeps her going: She boxes with a trainer at her house for exercise, enjoys a good passion tea lemonade from Starbucks, and gets between five and six hours of sleep every night — seven on weekends.

CEO of The Year

Su’s work at AMD was recognized by Time magazine in 2024, which named her CEO of the Year. She became the first woman to receive this title.

Su is related to her competitor

Su and Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia and the biggest competitor to AMD, are actually related. They are first cousins, once removed, with Huang being the elder. Su’s maternal grandfather is the eldest brother of Huang’s mother.

Despite both immigrating to the US from Taiwan as children, they did not grow up together and had never met until well into their respective careers.

Competition with Nvidia

AMD’s business has grown more than a hundred times since Su took the wheel, but it is still just a fraction of the size of the $4.4 trillion Nvidia.

When asked if she thinks she could outcompete Nvidia, Su told Wired in an August interview that she doesn’t necessarily want to be compared to Intel and Nvidia, because “the market is humongous” and she sees plenty of opportunities.

On September 18, Intel and Nvidia announced a strategic collaboration to develop AI infrastructure and personal computing products together, sending Intel shares up 23% as of market close on the same day and denting AMD’s stock. The collaboration is anticipated to create significant pressure on AMD by combining Nvidia’s AI expertise with Intel’s hardware.

Su’s approach to criticism

In March, a team of analysts from SemiAnalysis published a report that AMD’s graphics processing unit is still inferior to that of Nvidia’s, because AMD’s existing software is preventing the chip from reaching its full potential.

But Su was not angry. Instead, she hopped on a 90-minute call with the SemiAnalysis’s lead analyst the next day to hear him out.

“Feedback is a gift even when it’s critical,” Su wrote in a post on X after the call, “We have put a ton of work into customer and workload optimizations, but there is lots more we can do to enable the broad ecosystem.”

Export controls on China

Similar to Nvidia’s H20 chips, AMD has developed chips specifically for the Chinese market in response to past US export control regulations, namely the MI308 AI chips.

In April, AMD estimated that the company would take a $800 million hit in revenue after Trump announced more stringent chip export controls that would ban MI308 from reaching its intended market.

“We lead today because we have the best technology. However, if we’re not able to fully have our technology adopted in the rest of the world, there will be other technologies that will come to play,” said Su in a US Senate hearing in May regarding export controls. “They may not be as good as we are today, but frankly, usage really spurs innovation.”

In July, the restriction was lifted, and AMD said it would resume compliant shipments to China. By September, both Nvidia and AMD agreed to share 15% of their revenues from chip sales to China with the US government, in exchange for maintaining their export licenses.

The Rose Garden dinner

On September 4, Su attended an AI task force meeting at the White House, led by first lady Melania Trump, and subsequently attended a dinner event hosted by Trump alongside some of the biggest names in tech, including Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Su had previously endorsed the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan, though she was not a member of a formal advisory board. In a September interview with Fox Business, Su said the AI Action Plan is an “excellent blueprint for what it takes for America to lead.”

The AI Action Plan has faced criticism for attempting to override state-level AI governance and withholding AI infrastructure funding from states with more stringent regulations.

Tbilisi – On Sunday, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze accused protesters of attempting to overthrow the government during violent demonstrations that aimed to storm the presidential palace, asserting that the European Union has meddled in Georgian politics, reports 24brussels.

A day prior, just before polls closed, a significant group of demonstrators sought to breach the presidential palace in the capital, Tbilisi. This followed the deployment of riot police who utilized pepper spray and water cannons to disperse demonstrators gathered during local elections, resulting in the detention of five activists.

Kobakhidze claimed that approximately 7,000 individuals participated in the rally, yet he stated that their “attempt to overthrow the constitutional order” had ultimately failed, despite their alleged backing from Brussels.

“They moved to action, began the overthrow attempt, it failed, and then they started distancing themselves from it,”

he remarked.

“No one will escape responsibility. This includes political responsibility.”

Why is Prime Minister Kobakhidze accusing the EU of meddling?

Kobakhidze specifically targeted EU Ambassador Paweł Herczynski, alleging interference in Georgian politics and urging him to denounce the protests. “You know that specific people from abroad have even expressed direct support for all this, for the announced attempt to overthrow the constitutional order,” said Kobakhidze.

“In this context, the European Union ambassador to Georgia bears special responsibility. He should come out, distance himself and strictly condemn everything that is happening on the streets of Tbilisi.”

How has the EU reacted to Georgia’s accusations?

The EU’s diplomatic service responded in July, dismissing the allegations from Georgian authorities as “disinformation and baseless accusations” regarding the EU’s involvement in Georgia. The service stated, “Recent statements falsely claiming that the EU seeks to destabilise Georgia, drag it into war or impose so-called ‘non-traditional values’ constitute a deliberate attempt to mislead the public.”

What triggered the attempted storming of Georgia’s palace?

The unrest stems from ongoing protests organized by Georgia’s pro-Western opposition since last October, which followed what they claim was a fraudulent victory by the Georgian Dream party in parliamentary elections.

On Saturday, the ruling Georgian Dream party declared its success in securing victories in all municipalities across the nation, home to 3.7 million residents, despite boycotts by the two largest opposition coalitions.

As polls neared closure, protesters attempted to breach the presidential palace amid calls for a “peaceful revolution” against the Georgian Dream party, which they accuse of being pro-Russian and authoritarian.

A smaller faction of demonstrators approached the palace but faced resistance from the police, who repelled their advance. Some protesters subsequently blocked a nearby street, igniting fires and clashing with riot police.