🚬 Zyn clocks in

Plus: Swiping for jobs, turning doodles into running routes, and more. 

You're just 3 referrals away from earning a Hustle Essentials kit. Check out all of our prizes here. Share your link: https://thehustle.co/join?ref=7598767985 Share The Hustle: https://thehustle.co/join?ref=7598767985 Check your referral progress & prizes here 👋  Good morning. Is your labradoodle looking over your shoulder right now? New research suggests a small group of gifted dogs can learn new words just by eavesdropping on conversations between humans. Only a few other animals, like parrots and apes, have shown the same level of smarts and nosiness. Maybe just read the newsletter aloud to Spot today? P.S. We really want to make this email the best thing in your inbox. Tell us how close we are to achieving that in this survey. STARTING UP Now you can copy that influencer's vacation ❌  The problem: Travelers want to plan the best trips possible before taking off, but often have to choose between generic, AI-generated itineraries or putting in hours of research, poring over reviews, websites, and social media posts.  💡  The pitch: Boop wants to turn those TikTok videos you trust into bookable itineraries. The app uses AI to "capture" a creator's trip, tracking their movements in the background — with permission — to turn locations, photos, and reservations into a detailed itinerary that other users can copy and personalize, per TechCrunch. Creators can then earn affiliate commissions when others book their itineraries. 🚀  The outlook: Boop launched in November 2025 on an invite-only basis and has already raised $3.2m in pre-seed funding, backed by execs from Tripadvisor, Marriott, and Expedia. The company's ultimate goal: harness Gen Z's love of travel and become the new way people plan and book a trip. NEWS FLASH   Today's kids found out what a dial tone sounds like: Tin Can, the buzzy startup that makes landline-esque phones for kids, saw call volume pop over 100x on Christmas Day from early December, leading to a crash (and several kids who couldn't share what Santa brought them). The company has since fixed its services. Giddy up: Kawasaki Heavy Industries is aiming to have a prototype of a robotic horse by 2030 and a marketable one by 2035. It's also developing a "riding simulator" to show what it'd be like to ride it. The goal? To make mountaineering safer, of course. If you want something done… Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy, want to fund three ground-based observatories and a space telescope. If they do, the resulting Lazuli would be bigger than NASA's Hubble and also the largest privately funded telescope in history. Healthcare from home: Luminate Medical, an Irish startup developing technology to allow cancer patients to self-administer some therapies at home, announced 130 new jobs and $21m in funding. WEALTH-BUILDING TIPS Ways to build wealth beyond your paycheck Marina Mogilko wasn't always Silicon Valley Girl (1.3m+ subscribers on YouTube). She was once an Avon rep, souvenir seller, education vlogger, and UGC creator.    Today, she's clearing a cool $100k per month from 10+ different streams of income. Read on for her top five side hustle suggestions, plus seven principles for lasting success.   Wealth-building wisdom   THE BIG IDEA New Silicon Valley perk: Nicotine pouches to make you work harder We love an in-office perk, sure, but that typically means free pastries — not nicotine pouches. Nicotine, most commonly associated with cigarettes, has long been available in a variety of alternative formats — vaping, patches, gums, etc. — as a cessation tool for smokers who'd like to quit. However, non-smokers — especially tech workers in Silicon Valley — have begun using nicotine as a stimulant, per The Wall Street Journal. This has led some companies to offer it the way others provide protein bars and kombucha on tap. Why? And also, how? One study found that nicotine can have brain-boosting benefits, improving memory, attention, and cognitive processing. Alex Cohen, founder of an AI health-tech startup, told WSJ that, as someone with ADHD, it helps him focus. The preferred method of delivery is a flavored pouch, such as those produced by startups Lucy Nicotine and Sesh, that people tuck between their gums and teeth. Palantir Technologies currently has a vending machine from each brand in its Washington, D.C., offices, with pouches free for anyone 21 and up. Is it dangerous? Compared to smoking cigarettes — the leading risk factor for lung cancer — no. But nicotine is still an addictive substance with potential negative health outcomes. A Swedish dentist told the BBC about some gnarly gum lesions he'd seen among pouch users that were so deep, the roots of nearby teeth were visible. There's also concern that pouch users might seek out nicotine in other, more harmful forms, including cigarettes. And perhaps it's mildly dystopian to think about companies supplying a habit-forming substance that makes workers more productive… until you remember that's also coffee.  Speaking of coffee…  Forty-four percent of US companies offer free snacks, a key motivator for workers. Yet a tax law that allowed companies to deduct the cost of free food and beverages expired on Dec. 31, 2025. The change is expected to raise an additional $32B in taxes on employers through 2034. It's currently unclear if companies will pull back or not, per Bloomberg. But it actually may not matter what perks employers provide. Forbes predicts that in 2026, one of the hottest office perks will be the ability to not go there, thanks to the rise — and popularity — of remote and hybrid roles. Those workers will have to provide their own bananas and nicotine fridges.   🔗 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED   Everyone's pirating movies again. Seriously — visits to piracy sites surged to 216B in 2024. A deep dive into the industry finds out why. NEWSWORTHY NUMBER Share of people who've used a dating app in search of a job, according to a recent survey by Resumebuilder.com via Gizmodo, with one in 10 respondents saying job-hunting was their main reason for being on the apps at all.   This isn't the first instance of online users mixing business with pleasure — LinkedIn has somehow become a hotbed of romantic connections — and given the dismal hiring landscape, the fact that desperate jobseekers are getting creative isn't exactly shocking. What is? How many people this insane move has apparently worked for: 88% said they've made successful professional connections through a dating app, and 37% said it's even landed them a gig.   So, here's to shooting your shot… Hope those DMs find you well.   AROUND THE WEB 📆  On this day:  In 1967, James Bedford, who died from liver cancer, became the first person to be cryogenically frozen. 🤮  That's interesting: How some animals can eat poison and be just fine. 🗞️  Newsletter: The Assist makes becoming a better professional enjoyable. ✏️  That's cool: Make a doodle. Then turn it into a running or walking route. 🐱 Aww: Very small. SHOWER THOUGHT Somewhere in the world, two people matched on a dating app and both are using ChatGPT to write every response to each other. SOURCE Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Singdhi Sokpo. Editing by: Sara "Will work for lattes" Friedman.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. Working on something big? 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