Sometimes being an adult is just plain inconvenient.

After working long hours, we still need to fit in doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, house cleaning, and more.

Better yet, a lot of the appointments we need to make are only available during our working hours.

And the last thing we want to do after a long day is head to the grocery store during rush hour. Not ideal.

What if there was a way to take care of the most menial tasks without leaving your house?

Luckily, technology is one step ahead. Stop wasting time on boring errands and make your smartphone do them for you.

Here are 45 apps that make adulting easier. (Keep in mind that not all of these apps are available in all locations.)

SEE ALSO: 11 apps you should use every day

Food and groceries

• • Instacart and Peapod: Let’s get real: Grocery shopping is a bore. It’s infuriating to fight people for the last good bunch of bananas. It’s exhausting to open 10 boxes of eggs looking for one without a broken egg. I’m over it. Great news: these are two apps that get me. Instacart and Peapod will deliver groceries to my front door when I say so. Let them fight the soccer moms. Let them battle over the last packet of turkey bacon. I’ll just sit here and not do that. Many major grocery stores are also beginning to offer delivery service. Let’s do ourselves a favor and not go to the grocery store ever again.
• • Starbucks: Why make your commute worse by waiting in line for coffee? Download the Starbucks app, order before you leave your front door, and by the time you get there, head right to the barista counter to pick up your prepaid order.
• • Favor: You’ve probably used Favor to order from your favorite non-delivery restaurants, but did you know you can use it for other errands too? The other night I used it to order NyQuil from CVS. Out of toothpaste? Favor’s got your back, er, teeth.
• • Sweetgreen: It seems like the Sweetgreen line is long no matter what time you go. Here’s a better idea: Order from the app, skip the line like a baller, and pick up your order from the register.
• • Amazon Dash and Subscribe & Save: Amazon Prime is bae. You already know this. Let Amazon do you one better with Dash buttons and Subscribe & Save. The Dash button is simple: Select which Dash buttons you want out. I have Hefty and Bounty. Place the buttons in a convenient place near where you keep that product (I put the Hefty button on the inside of my under-sink cabinet because I store trash bags under the sink); press it when you’re almost out of that product. Your order gets placed faster than you can type in your passcode. Subscribe & Save sends you a box of the things you choose in monthly intervals. Get sponges, makeup remover wipes, and protein bars in a box that ships to you every month, two months, six months, whatever. Better yet, Amazon gives you an extra 15 percent off on your order on top of free shipping.
• • DoorDash: Delivery from your favorite restaurants in less than an hour. If you want Cheesecake Factory’s Chicken Madeira with a side of red velvet cheesecake, you get Cheesecake Factory’s Chicken Madeira with a side of red velvet cheesecake.
• • Boxed: You know how Costco is the best? Until you have to push your comically large cart a mile uphill both ways and then wait in line for an hour and have to arrange all your goods in weirdly shaped boxes? That’s when you remember that Costco and other bulk stores aren’t the best. But Boxed is the best. It does all the bulk shopping and delivers it to you. You won’t even miss the free samples.
• • Kitchensurfing: Things that are better than a homemade dinner: having someone cook it and clean up for you. That’s what Kitchensurfing does. For $30 a person, you can keep up with the Joneses by having a private chef come to your home, prepare you a beautiful dinner, and clean the whole thing up.

Chores and errands

• • Target: Yes, Target is glorious to stroll through leisurely with a latte on a Saturday. During the week, you gotta get in and get out. Use the app or the website to make your purchase and choose “Order Pickup.” You’ll get an email when your order is ready. Head right to customer service and pick up your order. Done, son.
• • TaskRabbit: Want someone to come over and wash the dishes? Forgot to pick up donuts for the client meeting? Don’t know and don’t care to learn how to hang shelves? TaskRabbit sends someone to do these things for you. Enter your task, TaskRabbit will show taskers near you (as well as what their rates are), click the button, and they’ll be on their way.
• • Washio: You know what’s the best? Dropping clothes off at the dry cleaners. You know what’s the worst? Forgetting to pick them up. Washio picks your clothes up from your house, launders or dry cleans them, and drops them off the next day. Problem solved.
• • Handy: Yeah, because exactly what I want to do after working a long day is come home and scrub a tub. What I do want is to pick up my phone and schedule a time for someone to come clean while I’m at work. Handy can also help you out with any handyman tasks you either don’t want or don’t know how to do.
• • Purple, Filld, and Booster: There is nothing worse than putting off getting gas only to remember that you have an early meeting the next morning and, let’s be real, you’re not going to get up any earlier to hit the gas station. Luckily, there are three apps that can take care of that for you, coming to your home or workplace to fill up your tank. Spend more time finishing that presentation.
• • Postmates:“Any product delivered in under one hour.” We can’t sum it up any better than that.
• • Shyp: I don’t know why, but going to the post office or any shipping center is just torture. They’re only open during the worst hours. I always forget. I never know what box to get. It’s just the worst. Shyp heard my quiet sobbing and is taking this burden from me. When you use Shyp, someone will come to your home, collect the item, and get it shipped for the lowest cost possible. That’s all she wrote.
• • Zirx: Stop chasing down parking spots and make them come to you. And in the meantime, get an oil change and top off the tank while you’re parked. That’s what Zirx does. Tell Zirx where you want to leave your car, if you want any additional services like a wash or an oil change, and let them know when you’re ready to pick it up.
• • Rover, DogVaycay, and Wag!: Having a dog is the best. Leaving him all day while you’re at work and happy hour is not. Rover, DogVaycay,and Wag! are three apps that will check in on Fido while you’re out making deals and taking names.
• • Fancy Hands: Fancy Hands lets you tag someone else in to deal with your to-do list. It’s a U.S.-based virtual assistance service that gets your stuff done, so you can get back to the good life.

Health and beauty

• • Doctor on Demand: Sometimes you feel sick enough to stay home from work, but not sick enough to warrant a full-fledged trip to the doctor’s office. For those times where your boss wants a doctor’s note, or you just want to make sure you’re not coming down with the bubonic plague, there’s Doctor on Demand. Download the app, enter in some basic information, and within minutes, you’re video chatting with an MD. The cost is $40, about the same as a copay. And you don’t even have to get out of bed. Bonus: Doctor on Demand offers psychologist services as well.
• • Soothe: Celebs get all the best perks, like personal massage therapists. Well, now you can get on that celeb life with Soothe, an app that sends a massage therapist to your home (or office) whenever you want. Enter some information, choose a time, and Snapchat #CelebGoals until your heart’s content.
• • Pamper: Silicon Valley gets all the good stuff: Facebook, Google, and this new service Pamper that let’s you order on-demand manis and pedis. Get back to writing search algorithms, and let your manicure come to you.
• • Glamsquad: You know how the Kardashians are always talking about their glamsquad? Now you can have your own with this app. Glamsquad sends hair, makeup, and nail professionals to your living room to keep you looking glam at all times.
• • Priv: What if you want a quick workout and massage on top of a blowout and perfect makeup application? For those frequent moments, there’s Priv, an app that will send beauty and wellness services to your door.
• • StyleBee: Driving somewhere for a blowout only to have to drive somewhere else for your event or date is counterproductive. StyleBee lets you order a blowout right in your own bathroom. Less time driving, more time primping.
• • Vint: Long-term gym contracts are so 2010. Vint lets you search gyms around you and pick whichever one you want for a low fee. It’s great for travel when the hotel gym just won’t cut it.
• • BodyFi: Going to the gym is great, but making the gym come to you is even better. Want to get in a quick HIIT workout at lunch? BodyFi will come to your office. Just come up with a good excuse for the sweat and tears beforehand.
• • Handstand: It’s easy to make an excuse not to go to the gym when you have to drive there. It’s a little harder when you can order up a personal trainer to come right to your home and kick your butt. This app lets you pick your workout, the trainer, and the time. You just need to sit back, relax, and get ready to sweat.
• • Mona: Mona is an artificial intelligence personal shopper built by former Amazon employees. The more you use it, the better it understands your preferences. You can have Mona alert you when a certain pair of shoes goes on sale or where you can find snakeskin cropped skinnies. It scans more than 250 sites to find you the best deal on that lime green pleather tote.
• • PS Dept.: This app lets you message personal shoppers who will find any item for you. You’ll be like Jeannie blinking and making things happen in no time.
• • Stitch Fix: If you’re like me, and don’t even know what you want, Stitch Fix is the solution. Answer a questionnaire, and wait for a box to show up each month with perfect outfits picked out by your personal stylist. Keep what you want, send back what you don’t.

It's that time of year again, when previously well-adjusted singles everywhere find themselves scrambling to avoid feelings of Hallmark-induced loneliness and desperation — Valentine's Day.

But if you don't have a date yet, fear not!

Dating online gives you access to a much larger pool of potential romantic partners than meeting people through conventional methods. It also gives you a peek at compatibility before you even commit to a date too.

We've scoured the research on online dating for the best ways to improve your odds of finding someone special.

Here are eight tips to help ensure you don't spend V-day alone:

CHECK OUT: Tinder isn’t the only reason the dating scene is terrible for women right now

DON'T MISS: Science-backed ways to hack your Tinder profile and get the most matches possible

Choose a good photo.

"Offline, physical characteristics play a critical role in attractions for both men and women," researchers wrote in a 2008 study. Not surprisingly,the same is true online.

For their study, researchers surveyed 30 men and 30 women about their online dating experiences, and found that having a good photo was more important than any other aspect of their profile.

If you're not using your real name, pick a strategic username or handle.

If you're not pulling info directly from Facebook, the username or handle you select can make a big difference in how potential partners perceive you online.

Research suggests straight men are more attracted to women whose usernames suggest physical attractiveness (such as "Blondie" or "Cutie"), whereas straight women are more attracted to men whose usernames suggest intelligence (such as "Cultured").

Alphabetical order matters too. Some research suggests that names in higher in the alphabet may be linked with measures of success such as education level or income, and these names are also likely to show up higher in search results.

Make eye contact, and smile!

Wired asked the dating site OkCupid for photos of 400 of the highest-rated profiles in 10 major US cities, and the results were intriguing.

They found that over 80% of users with the hottest ranked profiles had strong eye contact. Moreover, 54% were smiling with teeth, compared to 23% who weren't smiling and 13% who were smiling without teeth. And skip the duck face, ladies — only 6% of the hottest profiles had a pic of one.

Every four years, in the days between the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, politicians, operatives, reporters, volunteers, and political obsessives descend on the Granite State to participate in the first-in-the-nation primary.

This year, I got the chance to experience a tiny slice of it firsthand.

Crisscrossing the state for two days, I watched candidates like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina attempt to grab support at banquet halls, diners and office complexes.

Between shouting questions at candidates and slyly picking at food laid out at events for supporters, I got a taste of some of the glamorous and tedious aspects of campaign life — from witnessing personal stories voters share with candidates in a quick handshake at a diner, to loitering in the cold for an hour wondering if a candidate would actually show up to a prescheduled event.

Inspired by candidates' messages, plenty of supporters came from out of state to see and participate in the action.

"I drove all the way up here from Baltimore," Dale Lantz, a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), told Business Insider while standing outside a polling location with a Sanders sign. "I wanted to be a part of all the excitement that the campaign is generating and really wanted to add a voice off support for what Bernie stands for."

On primary day, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) thanked many of the out-of-state volunteers who came from New Jersey to volunteer at his campaign headquarters in Bedford, including someone he coached on a little-league baseball team years ago.

"I have a kid here this morning who I coached from the time that he was 9 years old in Little League. He's now a senior at Boston College," Christie said, turning to look at one of the college-aged kids manning at the phone bank. "Thank you Drew for being here."

But while a candidate appearance in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel or at the Red Arrow diner may create an instant crowd of media attention, not all New Hampshire residents were particularly thrilled by the excitement of the primary.

For the working people unintentionally thrust into the center of the primary, the swarm of candidates and journalists can even prove a bit tiresome.

Upon hearing that Fiorina would be visiting, several waitresses at Janie's Uncommon Cafe separatelylamented her visit, noting it would slow down businesses. As I sat at the counter a few minutes before Fiorina arrived, the hostess informed one of her colleagues that Fiorina would be stopping by somewhat unexpectedly.

"Oh God. Kill me now," the waitress replied.

Here's what it was like to spend two days on the trail in New Hampshire:

SEE ALSO: Here's Jeb Bush's plan to beat expectations in the next big primary election

The first event I stopped at on Monday was a town hall hosted by Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R). Outside, the Kasich-adorned Airstream trailer got a prime parking spot.

The event was completely packed. Volunteers and reporters who arrived too late were forced into the makeshift overflow room in the lobby.

Though a few people immediately turned away when they saw the crowd, some were undeterred by the overflow. This man watched the town hall on broadcast monitor set up in the lobby.

Whether you need a way to charge your phone in the car, text outdoors, or inexpensive ways to cut down on cord clutter, this list has you covered.

There are a ton of options when looking for accessories to solve these everyday problems, but our picks will get the job done without breaking the bank.

While our goal was to stand under $20, which we did, most of the items on this list cost closer to $15, which is more savings for you. So whether you're looking for a way to solve one of your problems, a family member or friends problems, or need a last second gift for someone, you'll find the 11 options below will solve a lot of daily problems.

Use your devices — even when it's freezing out — with some touchscreen-friendly gloves

Winter is in full swing in many parts of the world, and thankfully the choice between protecting your fingers and using your smartphone or tablet is no more. These gloves will keep your fingers warm, while allowing you to touch your screen as much as you'd like. 

Anker's four port USB charger will keep all your devices juiced up

If you've ever been traveling with multiple people, or multiple devices, you've probably had the 'I need to charge everything' problem. This four-port wall charger eliminates that problem — hook up all your cables and you're in good shape. Overnight guests will be thankful for this at the end of the night, and even more grateful in the morning when everything's full charged.

Price: $17.99

Bring your movies and shows with you with a 64 GB flash drive

Yes, the cloud is a wonderful thing, capable of storing a ton of data that's accessible to you anywhere at anytime — until it's not. Keeping a flash drive around is a secure way to transfer data from one place to another with a small footprint. You probably have one lying around, but the prices have fallen so far it's worth it to pick up a high-capacity USB drive one once and for all.

Price: $14.99

The premiere of Kanye West's new album on Thursday afternoon got off to a rocky start.

The rapper hosted a listening party and performance piece at New York City's Madison Square Garden, in which he played "The Life of Pablo," his latest record, and showed off his fashion line's new season. The event was live-streamed for free via Tidal, but it kept freezing.

"Pablo" is definitely an evolution from "Yeezus," his last album, which had a harder edge. The beats are still minimal and there is still some Kanye screaming, but he layered in soulful vocals, including by Rihanna. There's also one Taylor Swift reference that's definitely not safe for the whole family.

Kanye wrestles with a lot of personal themes in "Pablo": where he came from, his mega-celebrity, his family, and his relationship to his fans. He promised gospel and, in his own way, delivered.

The debut itself saw everyone from Pusha T and Naomi Campbell to Kim Kardashian and Lamar Odom joining the occasion.

See what happened when Kanye debuted his new album below:

SEE ALSO: Kanye West's new album has a harsh diss of Taylor Swift everyone will talk about

The premiere of "The Life of Pablo" at Madison Square Garden was sold out, but anyone could watch the live stream through Tidal — even non-Tidal members.

The problem was that as soon as things kicked off at 4 p.m., the stream started freezing. It was soon up again and you could watch on a low resolution.

Kanye West entered, along with family and friends, while speakers played the new album from beginning to end. Kanye grinned a lot, and danced and mouthed along to some lyrics, but he did not do any actual performing.

John Schnatter has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and a thing for pizza.

In high school, he worked at a pizza and sub shop in his hometown of Jeffersonville, Indiana, where he first fell in love with making pizza. He got through college by working at a place called Greek's Pizzeria and even considered dropping out of Ball State University to open a franchise, but his parents wouldn't allow it.

"That's when I got the idea," Schnatter tells Business Insider. "I'd finish college and open my own restaurant. I had the recipes, I knew the equipment, and I had a store layout." After consulting a marketing major who lived in his dorm, he even had a name. 

He took the leap of faith in 1984. He sold his beloved Camaro Z28 for $2,800 to buy $1,600 worth of used restaurant equipment, and then turned a tavern's broom closet into a pizza business.

It has since grown into the empire known today as Papa John's Pizza — the third largest pizza chain in the world, with 4,800 restaurants around the globe and a market capitalization of $2.2 billion. Papa John's is also the official pizza sponsor of the National Football League and Super Bowl 50.

Schnatter says these were the five "unexpected ingredients" for his startup success:

SEE ALSO: Papa John's CEO shares 3 productivity tricks he used to grow his pizza business into a $2 billion company

1. Patient ambition

"You have to keep looking until you find work that's meaningful and purposeful," Schnatter says. "Then work it to the bone, and you'll never work a day in your life."

As a young man, Schnatter worked all sorts of odd jobs, including driving a forklift for a local package store, painting gutters, mowing lawns, welding barges, and flipping hamburgers at Wendy's. "I bounced around until I fell in love with making pizzas: I was good at it, I enjoyed the process, and loved making people happy," he explains. "I'm not sure I would have lasted as long as I have running my own business had I not been doing what I felt like I was put on Earth to do."

2. Unconventionality

"Back in the early days of Papa John's, I dove into a competitors' dumpsters to find their sales sheets and sent personal letters to their customers asking them to give our pizza a try," says Schnatter. "Unconventional, sure, but to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to be tenacious and scrappy. And you have to truly believe your product is the best and personally vouch for it."

3. Failure

Contrary to what some people might tell you, failure is an option — and not always a terrible one, he says.

"Perfect example: Years ago, we offered a Sweet Chili Chicken Pizza and were convinced it would be a huge hit. Boy, were we wrong," Schnatter adds. "We were left with a massive surplus of Sweet Chili Chicken sauce.

"So, since we encourage curiosity and tinkering, instead of throwing it out, we used the principle of optionality to find ways to make it sell. With a little creativity, we developed our wildly popular Sweet Chili Chicken Wings, proving that even in the face of failure, a successful option is somewhere to be found. But you can't be afraid of failure."

Business owners often find some of their best ideas when they're looking for something else, he says. "It's all about turning a negative into a positive."

Valentine's Day can be expensive.

According to a recent Bankrate study, a nice dinner for two and a bottle of champagne costs an average of $130 — tack on a dozen roses and box of chocolates and you're racking up quite the bill.

The good news is February 14 doesn't have to break the bank. There are plenty of memorable ways to spend the day with your partner that won't cost a fortune. Try one of these 15 ideas:

SEE ALSO: How much to spend on a gift for your partner this Valentine's Day

Hit up a food truck and explore your city

Find cheap, tasty eats on the street before seeing all that your city has to offer. Look up museums to visit and parks to explore, or simply start walking with no fixed itinerary. If you need a mission, try a photo scavenger hunt. There are plenty of ideas online, or you can create your own. Who knows? At the end, you might have the perfect Instagram.

If you're feeling more adventuresome, check to see if your city offers a bike-share program and spend the day discovering the ins and outs of your city on wheels.

Visit that tourist attraction you've never managed to see

Did you know the Empire State Building ($32) in New York City is open until 2 a.m.?

Pick a classic childhood birthday-party activity

When was the last time you went bowling, putt-putting, go-carting, roller-skating, or played laser tag? Plus, these kid-friendly activities tend to be affordable. Top your day off with ice cream (or hot chocolate, depending on the weather) and you can't go wrong.

Post up at a dive bar for affordable drinks and old-school arcade games

Not only will you save money on drinks, you can square off in darts, pool, or skee-ball. Plus, there's bound to be an old-timey jukebox with a plethora of classic hits to choose from.

Head to a board-game cafe for the afternoon

If Monopoly or Risk rouse you more than arcade games, spend the day sipping coffee or an IPA at a board-game cafe. Can't find one in your city? Crack open Bananagrams, Clue, or Twister at home.

Channel your inner Van Gogh at a paint-and-sip studio

Even if you have no previous painting experience, these paint-and-sip classes offered in many cities will help you create a painting you can be proud of. Experienced artists help you paint your own version of a famous artwork, step by step.

Expect to spend $30 to $45 a person, plus a bottle of wine if you fancy one. Most of the studios are BYOB, which may help calm the nerves and let the creative juices flow. Check Groupon for deals and coupons in your area, which could cut the price up to 50%.

Or make a keepsake at a ceramic-painting cafe

Commemorate the day by painting a keepsake at a paint-your-own-pottery spot. Choose a mug, plate, or teacup that will make you smile every time you use it. The price will vary — from $5 to $60 — depending on the size of the piece you choose to paint.

Over the last few years, the smartphone has become more than a device we use to call people and send text messages.

But it's easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer number of apps — there are more than a million apps in Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store.

So I broke out the most useful apps I use every day. You should probably use them, too.

SEE ALSO: 10 business-etiquette rules you're probably breaking

DON'T MISS: The 27 jobs that are most damaging to your health

Spotify is my go-to music app.

I've been a Spotify subscriber for years. The service gives me access to nearly any song — well, except maybe songs from Taylor Swift — on demand and allows me to download music for offline listening.

My favorite Spotify feature is Discover Weekly, a customized playlist that's updated each week with music the streaming service thinks you'll enjoy.

Cost: Free (with ads and limitations) or $9.99 per month. Available on iOS and Android.

Mint is a great way to keep track of spending.

Mint aggregates all of your financials — your bank accounts, credit cards, investments, and more — and puts them in one convenient place. The service helps you create budgets, produces reports that show what you spend your money on, and keeps a history of your purchases, which allows you to keep track of what you've been buying.

Cost: Free. Available on iOS and Android.

I listen to WNYC every day.

WNYC's app gives you live streams of WNYC, the most listened-to public radio station in the US, so you can listen to "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" as they air in New York.

It also has a huge library of on-demand shows, like "Radiolab,""This American Life,""Fresh Air,""Marketplace,""The Moth," and more.

Best of all, the app has an offline listening mode that downloads programming for you based on your preferences, so you can listen without a cellular connection, like when you're on an airplane or subway.

Cost: Free. Available on iOS and Android.

Google went through a massive reorganization October 2015 when Alphabet became its parent company.

Projects that weren't part of Google's core business (Google search engine and Android) were spun out into separate Alphabet companies with their own CEO. All of these "moonshot" projects cover everything from making smarter homes to creating robots that can work alongside humans.

But even Google proper, which now falls under Alphabet, still has oversight over some of these futuristic projects.

It can be a lot to keep track of, so we compiled the 20 most ambitious moonshot projects under Alphabet and what they hope to accomplish:

Google Fiber

Google Fiber provides super high-speed internet and more than 150 TV channels. You can record up to eight show at once on the Google Fiber DVR, and control the TV using an app on an Android or iOS device.

Google Fiber, which provides an internet connection that's up to 1,000 megabits per second, is one of the fastest U.S. internet providers (along with Verizon FiOS).

It's currently only available in: Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Kansas City, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, and Provo, Utah. But it has plans to expand to cities like Tampa and Portland.

Fiber falls under the Access and Energy company under Alphabet.

Nest

Nest shows Alphabet's plan to get involved in smart home technology.

Most people know Nest from its smart thermostat, which will learn owners' behaviors and adjust the temperature according to their preference and to safe money. You can also control the thermostat remotely via its app.

But Nest makes other smart home products as well, like a smart fire detector and a smart home security camera.

Nest, which was acquired for $3.2 billion in 2014, is its own company under Alphabet.

Driverless cars

Google is one of the forerunners in the driverless car race.

As of the end of November 2015, Google's driverless cars had racked up more than 1.3 million miles in autonomous mode, according to a Google report filed with the Department of Motor Vehicles. 

A December report released by Juniper Research, a mobile and digital market research firm, declared Google was most likely to bring driverless cars to consumers first. This makes sense, considering Google’s self-driving car software has gained more than 90 years worth of collective driving experience.

Google's driverless car project is run by the Google X company under Alphabet.

A 9-to-5 work week can be brutal. Deadlines, phone calls, notifications and alarms, never-ending email chains and tons of caffeine to keep up with it all.

That’s just an average 40-hour week for some people. Executives and entrepreneurs typically add up to 20 additional hours to their schedules. Grueling schedules mean professionals are tied to their handheld devices and laptops — constantly plugged in to the electronic chatter.

Hard work deserves a serious vacation — one where you can unplug from technology and melt into euphoric surroundings, void of concrete buildings, Ubers, and conference tables.

As it turns out, such a place exists. Let me introduce you to a piece of heaven on earth.

Stashed away off the eastern coast of the Baja California Peninsula is Loreto, Mexico — home of the Villa del Palmar luxury resort.

The islands of Loreto cater to everyone who wants to unplug from the whirlwind of electronic devices and social media.

Here's a place that compels you to disconnect from the tech frenzy and reconnect with peace of mind and a sense of self.

Over the past couple years, more tech giants have recognized the dramatic lack of diversity in their workforces as a problem.

Google (largely white and male from top to bottom) is trying to establish itself as a leader in this space.

A key initiative is having its roughly 60,000 employees across the world undergo unconscious bias training. Unconscious bias refers to the stereotypes, both negative and positive, that exist in our subconscious and affect our behavior.

First implemented in 2013, the training lasts 60 to 90 minutes and is run by a coordinator who has undergone at least 12 hours of training. 

Google gave us permission to share its presentation on unconscious bias, which has been given to more than half of its staff. For access to the slides and the company's unbiasing guide, you can visit Google's re:Work site.

SEE ALSO: Google's diversity chief explains why the company decided to release its bleak diversity numbers last year

The presentation begins with an explanation of why everyone is gathered in the first place: Becoming aware of biases can lead to changing behavior, which ultimately can make Google more collaborative, inclusive, and competitive.

What we call unconscious biases are rooted in the recognition that the human brain evolved to help the species survive.

Without the brain's ability to subconsciously process thousands of pieces of information in an instant, our ancestors would have ended up as food.

We are now in the golden age of the NBA.

The NBA has an unprecedented number of superstars, with some just getting started (Anthony Davis, Kristaps Porzingis), some in their prime (Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant), and others nearing the end (Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan).

Many of those stars looked quite different in their younger days, whether it was in college or during their rookie year, with some nearly unrecognizable.

Below we take a look at how much many of this year's NBA All-Stars have changed since their careers first started:

Chris Bosh in 2003 (19 years old).

Chris Bosh now.

James Harden in 2009 (age 19).

In May 2010, eleven 450-pound humanoid robots posed before their proud "parents" and supporters in an office in Menlo Park, California.

Then, the lights went down and music rumbled on. With blue spotlights flashing, the robots began a coordinated dance to the ‘80s hit “Mr Roboto,” swiveling their heads, waving flags clutched in their "hands," and moving with flaunts and flourishes that had the crowd hooting with glee.

This raucous display was the "graduation ceremony" thrown for the ‘bots by Willow Garage, the company that had created them. Each one had cost roughly $400,000. And they were all about to be given away to enter the real world for free.

Although the now-defunct research-lab-startup hybrid might not ring any bells to you now, it was one of the most influential forces in modern robotics. The freewheeling robot collective jumpstarted the current race to apply robotics components like computer vision, manipulation, and autonomy into applications for everything from drones and autonomous cars to warehouse operations at places like Google, Amazon and car companies like BMW. Google alone acquired three of the robot companies spawned by Willow. 

Founded by an eccentric billionaire who preached a "robot revolution," Willow Garage made enormous strides in robotics hardware and software, most notably through the research bots, called PR2s, and the creation of an open source robot operating system that's still being used by academics, engineers, and hobbyists around the world today.

At its apex, the Garage was a whimsical menagerie of really bright people with diverse specialties building really "smart" robots, until it ultimately succumbed to some of the same forces that have challenged many promising Silicon Valley startups.

Here's the fascinating story of how Willow Garage came to be, fell apart, and continues to live on today.

Not-so-humble beginnings

Willow Garage founder Scott Hassan is a big-picture thinker. He's the kind of person who will veer from a conversation about telepresence into ruminating on what the world will be like once money becomes completely worthless because robots will be doing all our work for us.

He was one of the first people to invest in mysterious augmented reality Magic Leap back in 2012. Earlier this month, Magic Leap raised more than $700 million at a whopping $4.5 billion valuation.

In fact, he's the exactly kind of person who you would expect to get along with "moonshot" king and Alphabet CEO Larry Page.

Hassan met Page and Sergey Brin while working on an Integrated Digital Libraries project at Stanford. He ended up programming much of the original search engine that eventually became Google.

Meanwhile, he also founded his own company: an email list service called eGroups.com that Yahoo bought for about $432 million in 2000. He invested some of his payout back into Google, earning him enough shares to eventually become very, very wealthy.

Hassan had the kind of money that allowed him to buy office space in Menlo Park before he even knew exactly what he wanted to do with it. Its address — 68 Willow Road — ultimately inspired his new company's name.

No more reinventing the wheel

Hassan convinced Steve Cousins, who had hired Hassan as an undergraduate intern at Washington University years earlier, to become Willow's first CEO.

“My job was to fill the building with interesting people doing interesting things around autonomous technology,” he tells Business Insider.

Hassan planned to dedicate enough funding to the startup to keep about 60 people working there per year, so they began hiring all the top roboticists and researchers they could corral.

Initially, the collective focused on personal assistants, driverless boats, and autonomous cars, but eventually focused on building programmable bots.

"We had this vision that came together through the people who were there," Cousins says. "Everybody brought something to the table."

Even back in 2006, at a time when Roombas were the only kind of robot most people had seen in real life, Hassan could vividly picture the world where general-purpose autonomous robots would fill our homes and help us with everyday tasks that we'd rather avoid. He wanted robots out in the world, but he knew that there was still a lot of ground work that needed to get done first.

"I wanted the robot revolution to get here sooner," he tells Business Insider.

Hassan had long been a big believer in open source, so the team started focusing on a common operating system that roboticists everywhere could use to stop wasting time "reinventing the wheel" on every research project.

"Sharing was what was important," Hassan tells Business Insider. “We wanted to build something that could run on any other kind of robot anywhere else in the world."

Here's Google cofounder Larry Page at Willow Garage in 2009:

Robot marathons and gourmet food

In tandem with the Robotics Operating System (ROS), Willow was building robots to run it on.

To create the PR2s, the team made enormous strides in robot manipulation, human-robot interaction, perception, planning, and more.

The company had Silicon Valley's move-fast attitude, but a motto of "impact first and return on capital second."

It took about four years of hustling for Willow to be ready to release PR2 to the 11 hand-selected research institutions that had demonstrated worthy ambitions for the bots (which each had a no-cost, two-year lease, though every org eventually found a way to keep their PR2 indefinitely). 

In that time, the ROS software had caught on beyond the team's wildest dreams, sky-rocketing the company's name into the mainstream.

To capitalize on and increase that recognition, Willow built up a robust intern program that ultimately shuttled more than 130 students or visiting researchers through its headquarters.

Spending time at WG soon became like a badge of honor in the robotics community. Several former employees used the phrase "Willow Mafia" to describe the resulting kinship, and one, Matei Ciocarlie, laughed recalling how at a massive robotics conference in 2010, the sheer number of Willow Garage t-shirts, sweaters, and backpacks popping up had blown him away.

"You knew you were contributing to something that was going to be big," Kaijen Hsiao, another Willow alum says. "But it was also just a really great place to be. It was like a playground funded by a billionaire."

Like many Silicon Valley companies, Willow had fresh, communal meals prepared on site every day. Unlike with most other companies, you could also find robots folding laundry, playing pool, or fetching a beer in Willow's office.

The team had programmed PR2 to be able to plug itself in when running out of batteries, so they once tested its capabilities by making it run a 2 "pi" kilometer marathon (6.28 kilometers) around the office, recharging itself autonomously whenever it needed.

Closing the garage

In 2011, once ROS had officially infected the robotics community and the initial PR2s had been distributed, Willow started to focus on other projects and spin-offs.

The company started exploring market opportunities for autonomous bots and educating the team about entrepreneurship.

In what several employees referred to as Willow's Second Act, it started selling its PR2s and spun off eight companies, including three foundations. Google acquired three of the for-profits as part of its ambitious robotics buying spree (because Willow employees had stock in each spin-off, this proved good news for everyone).

One of the ideas in particular fascinated Hassan. The team had hacked together an iPad-on-wheels to allow a remote employee to zoom around the office, which it refined into a robot called "Beam." The possibilities of telepresence (think videoconferencing with robots) inspired Hassan and he spun-off a team called Suitable Technologies in 2011, taking a bunch of WG employees with him. 

That meant that from that point on, Hassan was funding two companies. Willow Garage was burning about $20 million a year. He had realized that getting autonomous personal robots into people's homes was still a long way off (although ROS could support countless functions, the cost of creating the hardware to handle something even as seemingly simply as picking up an article of clothing was magnitudes too expensive). He finally decided to pull out his investment in 2013 late and focus all his resources on the more near-term telepresence market with Suitable. 

Hassan describes Willow’s end unemotionally: 

"I saw people starting to get restless, so I just decided to shut things down and go, 'You’re free!'" Hassan says. "And what happened next was, everyone started companies."

That did eventually happen, but not before Cousins and the rest of the team made one last attempt to save Willow.

"I’d put my heart and soul into the organization — I’d hate to lose it," Cousins says. "I wanted to see if we could keep it alive."

From February 2013 until August, all the remaining team joined together to work on one product. Cousins managed to find someone willing to fund the new idea. However, the deal would have required Hassan to sell a big chunk of his ownership, which he didn’t want to do.

On the bright summer day when it became clear Willow was over, all the employees solemnly shut down their computers before tromping out to a local park for a giant softball game (though unfortunately the remaining PR2s weren’t invited).

Willow livin' on

Almost everyone who stayed at Willow until the shutdown ended up either starting their own robotics company or joining one founded by fellow coworkers. Cousins, for example, now runs a company called Savioke which makes robots that can deliver items to hotel guests. 

"Willow went down but now we’re all like the Pheonix,” says Mizra Shah who worked at WG in its last year and a half, and is the cofounder and CTO of a robotics company called Simbe. "We’re out there building new things, stronger than before."

All told, Hassan says he poured more than $80 million into Willow Garage. But he considers the cost well worth the reward of robotics progress. And, as always, his sights are set on the future. 

"In the next few years you’re going to see an explosion of robotics," he says. "It’s all happening right now. The rest of this decade is gonna be pretty crazy. By 2021, people are going to have robots all over their lives doing all these different tasks."

Last year, more than $150 million venture capital funding went to businesses that use Willow's ROS. 

"A large portion of current roboticists in the world have one degree of separation with WG," says Maya Cakmak, another former employee. "I think in the future, when we look back, WG will be what Bell Labs or Xerox Parc was for personal computers, for robotics."

Here are some highlights of Willow's merry band of robot revolutionaries, culled from its Flickr page:

SEE ALSO: Google's robotics division just lost its remaining cofounder after a division reboot

Besides free food, Willow Garage had some other fun perks, like setting up team bonding activities for new employees, including white water rafting, camping, ice-skating, and indoor skydiving. The first outing was a "zero-gravity" flight.

RAW Embed

Many members of the team also got to visit Freiburg, Germany for a PR2 workshop (one of the robots went to a robotics research labs there) where the "sushi challenge" required the PR2 to pick up delicate pieces of sushi, among other things:

RAW Embed

The WG team made sure to get out of the lab too, though:

RAW Embed

Wall Street is not what it once was.

More than 10,ooo jobs in sales and trading have disappeared since 2010, with some business lines, like bond trading, especially hard-hit.

The top 10 global banks have seen a 30% decrease in fixed-income front-office headcount and a 16% reduction in equities front-office staff since 2010, according to the data-analytics company Coalition.

Coalition tracked front-office headcount from 2010 through the first half of 2015 and looked at fixed-income revenue producers in areas like commodities, credit, foreign exchange, rates, securitization, and emerging markets.

On the equity side, Coalition tracked the number of traders and salespeople in institutional cash equities, equity derivatives and convertibles, futures and options, and prime services.

The job cuts show no signs of letting up. The fixed-income trading business continued to hurt banks in 2015. Morgan Stanley cut 25% of its fixed-income headcount in that division, while Goldman Sachs last month said it would make adjustments to address the "cyclical and secular pressures" in that business.

Credit Suisse, meanwhile, has slashed the 2015 bonus pool for traders.

Note: Coalition's bank index included Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and the Royal Bank of Scotland from 2010 to 2012. From 2013 to 2015, Royal Bank of Scotland was removed from the index, and replaced by BNP Paribas.

SEE ALSO: Goldman Sachs is on a 'mission' to reshape its trading business

Total fixed-income front-office headcount dropped from 24,312 staff in 2010 to 17,100 in the first half of 2015. Total equities headcount fell from 20,592 people in 2010 to 17,345 in 2015.

Here's a look at the numbers for fixed-income traders. Headcount for rates products like government bonds and interest-rate derivatives dropped significantly, from 7,527 in 2010 to 5,260 in the first half of 2015.

Within equities, there was a sharp drop-off in front-office headcount in institutional cash equities, from 11,319 people in 2010 to 8,307 people in the first half of 2015.

Thanks in part to automated mail sorting systems, postal workers may be all but obsolete in the not-so-distant future.

By 2024, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 28% decline in postal-service jobs, totaling around 136,000 fewer positions than 2014.

Mail carriers and processors aren't the only ones whose jobs are disappearing thanks to robots.

Automation technologies that conduct physical, intellectual, or customer service tasks are affecting a variety of fields, most notably metal and plastic machine workers.

Based on the BLS's occupational outlook data, here are 13 jobs that could be on their way out of the US thanks to robots:

SEE ALSO: 25 jobs that might not be around in the future

DON'T MISS: If you have one of these 3 jobs, robots will never put you out of work

13. Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

According to the BLS, they set up, operate, or tend forging machines to taper, shape, or form metal or plastic parts.

Median annual pay:$35,480

Number of people who held this job in the US in 2014: 21,600 

Predicted number of people who will hold this job in 2024: 17,000

Projected decline: 21.5%

Why it's declining:According to the BLS, one of the most important factors influencing employment of manual machine setters, operators, and tenders is the high adoption of labor-saving machinery like computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools and robots to improve quality and lower production costs. 

12. Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders (metal and plastic)

According to the BLS, they set up, operate, or tend grinding and related tools that remove excess material or burrs from surfaces, sharpen edges or corners, or buff, hone, or polish metal or plastic work pieces.

Median annual pay:$34,150

Number of people who held this job in the US in 2014: 71,400

Predicted number of people who will hold this job in 2024: 55,800

Projected decline: 21.9%

Why it's declining:According to the BLS, one of the most important factors influencing employment of manual machine setters, operators, and tenders is the high adoption of labor-saving machinery like computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools and robots to improve quality and lower production costs. 

11. Patternmakers (metal and plastic)

According to the BLS, they lay out, machine, fit, and assemble castings and parts to metal or plastic foundry patterns, core boxes, or match plates.

Median annual pay:$41,670

Number of people who held this job in the US in 2014: 3,800

Predicted number of people who will hold this job in 2024: 2,900

Projected decline: 23.4%

Why it's declining:According to the BLS, one of the most important factors influencing employment of manual machine setters, operators, and tenders is the high adoption of labor-saving machinery like computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools and robots to improve quality and lower production costs. 

There's a huge upside to being a nominee in one of the major Oscar categories this year, even if you lose.

That honor, of course, is the "swag bag" that's given to each contender in the best actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, and director categories.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and more will walk home with one of them, valued at more than $200,000 — if they're willing to report them to the IRS, since gifts of this size are taxable.

Known as "Everyone Wins" prizes and provided by Distinctive Assets, a company not associated with the Academy, they include some swanky and even bizarre items: trips to Japan, Israel, and Italy, $275 toilet paper, and something known as a "Vampire Breast Lift."

Check out everything that's in the Oscar-nominee gift bags below:

Haze Dual V3 Vaporizer, $249.99

A vibrator by sex-toy company Fiera, $250

Personalized My M&M's, $300

You may be looking for a new challenge, you may be bored of your job and want to switch career, you may want to enhance your job prospects, or you may just want to quench your thirst for knowledge.

No doubt, there are many good reasons for going back to school.

But, wait — before you consign yourself to poring over books in dark libraries all day long to churn out abstract essays of questionable value or choose to suffer the pain of reckoning with your intellectual limits, expressed through test scores, and alongside people, what, 10 years younger than you? — consider that, while going back to school might be the conventional choice, it might not actually be the best one.

In fact, there are a number of compelling personal, professional,  and economic reasons not to go back to school, and a number of compelling thinkers and writers ready to tell you why. So as you weigh your options, take a look at these six reasons why not to go back to school.

SEE ALSO: 6 classic business books you should read if you want to be successful

1. Not only is business school extremely expensive, chances are it won't pay off.

The Master of Business Administration, or MBA, is a popular schooling-second-rounder's choice because it's typically associated with great future job prospects and pay. But is it really your ticket to success?

Well, business school is expensive, that's for certain. The top 15 MBA programs charge up to $53,208 per year for tuition. That's not even including fees, loan interest, or living expenses! What if we factor those into the equation, plus the opportunity cost of lost wages too? Turns out there are eight different US business schools where the cost of an MBA exceeds $300,000.

"Wait," you might think, "surely not all business schools are that pricey!" True, however, any student who holds an MBA has an average debt of $41,687 (again, without accounting for additional expenses).

But aren't all good things expensive/difficult/arduous to attain? Maybe this what the educational experience is worth? Short answer: nope.

It's been proven that, in the long term, an MBA does nothing for your career. If it did, a master of business administration degree should correlate with measures of success, like an increased salary, or promotions to higher level positions.

Unfortunately, it doesn't.

Researchers from Stanford University and the University of Washington conducted an extensive study into the matter. Analyzing 40 years' worth of data, they found that there is no correlation between long-term career success and possessing an MBA, whether you graduated with flying colors or just scraped a passing grade.

Get the book here >>

Read the summary >>

2. The value of college education is contestable.

It's not just business school where the investment in future prospects may not pay off. You might think that, if given the choice, no employer in their right mind would choose someone without a college degree. But many employers are not looking for college graduates. What they are looking for instead are the specific skills needed for specific roles, and for people with good experience.

The fact is that college degrees are losing their value, and it's not always true that people with a degree will have higher lifetime earnings. While college degrees have proven their value since World War II, the trend has shifted. College degrees once guaranteed higher lifetime earnings due to moderate loan debt, easy employability and an annual increase in the value of a college degree. But those times are over: as more people with similar credentials flood the job market and the cost of education rises, higher competition and generally low wages mean that repaying college debt isn't easy.

What's more, degrees aren't the only kind of credential and are even becoming less necessary, while other credentials, such as portfolios and recommendations, are becoming increasingly important. Keeping up with your networking and knowing who's hiring can help you land a job as much as a degree can.

Of course, anticipated financial payoff isn't the only reason people go back to school. A degree program imparts valuable knowledge — knowledge that you cannot gain otherwise, you might think. But that's wrong too.

Get the book here >>

Read the summary >>

3. Independent learning is more satisfying than traditional schooling.

When you go to school, teachers issue demands and then reward you with high marks for grades, tests and "correct" answers, and you eventually get a degree. This method can hardly be considered personally rewarding.

In fact, for many, these rewards are demotivating, and cause people to lose their passion and curiosity at school. The rigid structures and expectations, combined with the competition for artificially scarce rewards (grades), stifles and confines our curiosity.

The rewards offered at school are forms of external motivation. Your grades, praise for getting "correct" answers, and a degree are all rewards that come from the outside.

However, we are far more motivated by intrinsic motivation, when we do things because the reward is the task itself. If you’ve ever just felt good admiring your achievement or mastery over something, then you’ve experienced intrinsic motivation.

While the traditional school systems barely offer opportunity for intrinsic motivation, self-organized independent learning initiatives — from online courses do, and the benefits of this learning style are amazing. In fact, learning what you want to learn leads to better and faster achievements as well as a longer period of engagement.

In 1982, photographer Barbara Davatz found 12 young, interesting, urban couples and decided to take their portraits. Little did she know, her little side project would continue for up to 30 years. 

"I started [the portraits] in 1982 with initially no intention of continuing the series," Davatz told Business Insider. She went on to photograph the same people in 1988, 1997, and again in 2014. The project now covers three generations of people. 

Her new book, "As Time Goes By", shows the remarkable changes that her subjects have gone through over the last 30 years. The series will be on display at Fotostiftung Schweiz in Zurich, Switzerland, from February 27 to May 16.

SEE ALSO: 14 candid family photos from the 1970s show the quirky ways Americans celebrate the holidays

Despite being a professional photographer for 40 years, Davatz still found time to work on personal projects like this one.

"I believed very strongly in the project, [I] loved it — considered it my 'life work' and my most important work," Davatz told Business Insider.

A lot changed over the years with Davatz's subjects — not just their looks. Sometimes there was a change of partners, or the subjects became parents and even grandparents.

Even though we use our iPhones all day every day, there are still a handful of features that are relatively unknown. 

Some of these features are buried in the Settings menu while others are hidden in plain sight. 

Plus, there are a few things Siri can do for you that you may not know about. 

(Note: Most of these features are available in iOS 8 and higher, while some are available in iOS 9 and higher.)

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The best smartphones in the world

Respond to texts without unlocking your phone.

You can respond to texts directly from your lock screen by pulling down on the notification drawer and swiping over to the left on the text notification. You'll see a "Reply" option, and tapping it will let you type a response without having to unlock your iPhone. 

Respond to texts while you're in an app.

If you're in an app, you can swipe down from the top and access the notification drawer to answer a text the same way you would on the lock screen. 

See which apps drain the most battery.

Want to know why your iPhone battery is draining faster than usual? Head over to Settings > Battery. This will tell you which apps are occupying the most battery power.  

Business Insider recently published a list of the 50 richest people on earth with data provided by Wealth-X, a firm that conducts research on the super-wealthy.

Of these 50 billionaires, only four (8%) are women — Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs, Mars Inc. heiress Jacqueline Mars, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, and Walmart heiress Alice Walton — and each of these women inherited rather than built their fortunes.

Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of the world's 50 richest people are men who built up their wealth from nothing.

What might explain the gender gap at the very top of the wealth spectrum?

Billion-dollar fortunes are typically built by launching hugely successful companies (think Google, Facebook, and Amazon), and women entrepreneurs have had a harder time finding similar success as men in this arena.

Although women are creating 40% of new businesses — in 2014 they created an estimated 470,000 — many have difficulty growing past $1 million in revenue without generous funding from investors, who are typically men. Plus, women in the US still earn 78 cents for every dollar a man earns, giving them less capital to start with.

Despite the odds, the landscape is changing. Today, women own 30% of all private businesses across all sectors and hold the majority of management, professional, and related positions in the US, according to a report by Bank of Montreal's (BMO) Wealth Institute. And women-led private tech companies that are able to secure funding achieve 35% higher return on investment than male-led tech companies.

As more women hold lucrative positions, the number of female billionaires worldwide continues to increase: There are now 145 female billionaires, up from 22 in 1995. However, it's still a far cry from the 1,202 men who belong to the billionaire club.

Getting wealth in the hands of women could be good for everyone.Research indicates that women give more money away than their male counterparts at all income levels.

Indeed, the four richest women in the world have a strong record of philanthropy. Learn more about them below.

SEE THE FULL LIST: The 50 richest people on earth

AND: 16 billionaires who inherited their fortunes

Laurene Powell Jobs

Net worth:$14.4 billion

Age: 52

Country: US

Industry: Media

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Disney

The widow of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs inherited his wealth and assets, which included 5.5 million shares of Apple stock and a 7.3% stake in The Walt Disney Co., upon his death. Jobs' stake in Disney — which has nearly tripled in value since her husband's death in 2011 and comprises more than $12 billion of her net worth — makes her the company's largest individual shareholder.

Though she's best recognized through her iconic husband, Jobs has had a career of her own. She worked on Wall Street for Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs before earning her MBA at Stanford in 1991, after which she married her late husband and started organic-foods company Terravera. But she's been primarily preoccupied with philanthropic ventures, with a particular focus on education. In 1997, she founded College Track, an after-school program that helps low-income students prepare for and enroll in college, and in September she committed $50 million to a new project called XQ: The Super School Project, which aims to revamp the high-school curriculum and experience.

Last October, Jobs spoke out against "Steve Jobs," Aaron Sorkin's movie about her late husband that portrays him in a harsh light, calling it "fiction." Jobs had been against the project from the get-go, reportedly calling Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale to ask them to decline roles in the film.

Jacqueline Mars

Net worth:$28.6 billion

Age: 76

Country: US

Industry: Candy

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Mars Inc.

Siblings Forrest, Jacqueline, and John Mars inherited a stake in the iconic candymaker Mars Inc. when their father, Forrest Sr., died in 1999. The notoriously private trio co-own but don't actively manage the maker of M&M's and Milky Way bars, which their grandfather started in 1931 as a confectionary business in his kitchen in Tacoma, Washington.

In 2008, Mars Inc. branched out from chocolate to gum, when it acquired the Wrigley Jr. Co. for $23 billion. Since then, it's delved into pet food, buying Iams and two other brands in 2014 from Procter & Gamble for close to $2.9 billion.

Together the three siblings run the Mars Foundation, which gives primarily to educational, environmental, cultural, and health-related causes. 

Liliane Bettencourt

Net worth:$29 billion

Age: 93

Country: France

Industry: Cosmetics

Source of wealth: Inheritance/self-made; L'Oreal Group

The heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune and the company's largest shareholder, Liliane Bettencourt is the richest woman in Europe and the second-richest woman in the world, with a net worth of $29 billion. She no longer has a hand in business operations, but L'Oreal and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation she cofounded with her late husband continue to prosper. She's an avid art collector, owning pieces by Picasso, Matisse, and Munch.

In recent years, Bettencourt became a household name in France as the central figure in an infamous trial in which judges examined whether the billionaire was taken advantage of by those close to her. The trial closed in May 2015 when eight people, including trusted friends and financial advisers, were convicted of exploiting the heiress.

Bettencourt was back in the news again late last year after accusations were made against her former butler and five journalists for recording meetings with the billionaire and thus violating her right to privacy. The butler, Pascal Bonnefoy, claimed that he made the recordings to show Bettencourt's fragile state — all six were acquitted in early January.