🛑 Stop paying lawyers by the hour

Happy Tuesday, {{first_name | friend}}. Imagine heading to the store for eggs and coming back to find your entire house has been scrambled. That’s what happened to a Texas homeowner when a demolition crew bulldozed her duplex, down to the foundation. The kicker? They weren’t even supposed to be on her street.

🎩 So, what led these folks to swing the wrecking ball in the wrong direction? A) A paperwork typo, B) A Google Maps error, C) A drone misreading addresses or D) A confused neighbor. The answer is hanging out at the end!

While you’re hunting for the perfect gift, data brokers are hunting for you. Every time you check out, creepy companies are scraping your name, address and shopping habits to sell to the highest bidder, including scammers. Stop being the product! I use Incogni to automatically scrub my personal info from hundreds of these databases. It’s the best gift you can give yourself. Get 60% off now with my exclusive link.

🎟️ Remember to check the Golden Ticket section below. One lucky reader gets a $100, $200 or $500 Amazon gift card every day, and it could be you. — Kim

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If you’ve ever hired a lawyer, you know the pain of the billable hour. You get the invoice, and it’s filled with charges like “0.1 hours to read an email” or “0.3 hours for a phone call.” 

I know this is going to upset the lawyers in the crowd. It’s an outdated system that literally rewards people for taking longer to do things.

I was reading a fascinating piece in WSJ (paywall link) about how AI is turning this whole paying-by-the-hour ancient model upside down. 

The short version? AI is doing the grunt work faster and better than most humans can. This means billing by the hour makes zero sense.

Let’s break it down. 

Say an attorney charges $500 an hour to review a client’s contracts, documents, emails, texts and everything else for a case. Say it takes 20 hours to go through it all, that’s a $10,000 bill. But that same lawyer can upload the documents into an AI tool that reads them, flags the risks and summarizes all of it in under a minute.

There’s a big problem here. If the law firm keeps billing by the hour, that 30 seconds of work is worth about $4.16. Ouch.

Firms aren’t dumb. They’re pivoting fast. Instead of billing for time, they’re shifting to flat fees. 

You pay $2,000 for a contract, $5,000 for a divorce and $10,000 for a complicated will for a business owner with four wives, 10 kids and a pile of assets and liabilities, no matter if it takes five days or five minutes. 

Now, I realize the lawyer went to school for years, passed the bar and is putting their license on the line. AI does hallucinate. We need a human to separate the facts. But I do love predictable pricing and a faster turnaround. 

The death of the billable hour is coming for anyone who trades time for money on tasks AI can crush. I’m looking at you, consultants, CPAs, freelancers, expert witnesses, coders, designers and copywriters.

If your business model relies on charging for the time it takes to do something rather than the value of the result, you are officially an endangered species. We’re moving from an economy of “how long did it take?” to “how good is the result?”

👊🏼 Do you have a friend about to hire someone by the hour? Be a pal and forward this email first. You might save them a fortune. Friends don’t let friends pay human prices for robot work. Or at least convince them not to become lawyers if they’re Irish. You see, they can’t pass the bar. (lol)

Joe from Los Angeles sent some salacious photos to a girl, and she’s threatening to share them all. Plus, the most advanced fighter jet, the most hated man in Silicon Valley and why your smartphone can’t cause a plane crash.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or listen now wherever you get your podcasts, search for “Komando.”

🌎 Flat-out ridiculous: Columbia Sportswear’s CEO offered to hand over his entire company to any flat-earther who finds and photographs the edge of the Earth. Tim Boyle, worth $1.6B, says all you need is a pic of the planetary abyss. I’m sure his board of directors had a word with him because he clarified the “company” is technically a decoy LLC worth $100K. As if flat-earthers don’t have enough trust issues. 

Not a Belieber: Justin Bieber’s beefing with Apple over the voice note button. Apparently, every time he tries to send a text, he accidentally hits dictation, it beeps, kills his music and ruins his vibe. He joked that he’d put Apple employees in a chokehold if it ever happened again. This is his most relatable era yet. Wait until he sees the Liquid Glass update. 

💼 The startup do-over: New buzzword dropped. Tech CEOs needed a sexier word for “oops, we pivoted,” so now they’re “refounding” their companies (paywall link) as AI startups. That’s the script for when a company needs to fire people, jam in AI and act like it was part of the vision. Airtable, Opendoor and Handshake rebranded and cut staff. Don’t call it a layoff, it’s a “spiritually synergized strategic realignment.” Wow, right?

Houston, oopsie: For three years, a bug in NASA’s comms system could’ve let hackers hijack billion-dollar space missions, like Mars rovers or satellites. Nobody noticed until an AI fixed it in four days. The flaw survived multiple human reviews. Imagine losing control of Mars because someone clicked a fake Amazon email.

🎧 My go-to earbuds: I’ve tested more audio gear than I can count, and I keep coming back to Raycon’s Everyday Earbuds. Comfortable fit, great sound, simple to use. Raycon is offering up to 20% off sitewide right now. Perfect for gifting or upgrading.*

Silver is gold: People 55 and up are the fastest-growing crowd on YouTube and TikTok. At 53, Caroline Idiens started posting workouts during lockdown. One reel about toned arms took off, and now she’s got 2.3M Instagram followers, a best-selling book and fans worldwide. Others are racking up over a million views per post. There’s no age limit on building something new. Go and get after it. You’ve already survived low-rise jeans. This is easy.

🧼 Clean internet, kinda: Missouri just became the 25th state to crack down on online porn, requiring adults to upload government ID or biometric data to even get in the door. That’s half the states going porn-free. 

Don’t get ho-ho-hosed by this scheme. A viral secret Santa game promises gifts, but they’re scams in disguise.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or listen now wherever you get your podcasts, search for “Komando.”

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Next time a website is glitching, don’t just refresh. Press Ctrl + Shift + R (or Cmd + Shift + R on Mac). This triggers a “hard reload,” forcing the browser to ignore the cache and download a fresh version of the page code. Go to a web page and try it, so you know how to do it when you need to.

Laptop battery draining fast? Try this. On Windows, turn on “dynamic refresh rate,” so your screen automatically adjusts to what you’re doing. It speeds up when things move fast, then slows down on still pages to save power. Open Settings > System > Display > Advanced display and toggle on Dynamic refresh rate.

💡 The right light: When shopping for LEDs, avoid anything over 5000K. They give off a bluish tint that dupes your brain into thinking it’s still daytime, so you’ll struggle to fall asleep later. Look for warm or soft white bulbs around 2700K-3000K. The yellowish glow is easier on the eyes and feels much cozier.

Save a Netflix moment: On the mobile app, tap the screen while watching and hit Clip. Choose a start and end point (up to two minutes), then tap Save in the top right. Now you can share the highlight with friends via Messages, Instagram or wherever you want. Or rewatch it anytime in My Netflix.

🚑 Add emergency contacts: If you’re traveling these holidays, make sure they’re visible on your phone’s lock screen, so first responders know who to call. On iPhone, open Health > Medical ID, add your contacts, and enable Show When Locked. On Android, go to Settings > Safety and emergency > Emergency contacts and toggle Show on Lock Screen.

Get the best case ever: I started designing my own tough iPhone and Samsung cases, built to handle real life. They’re in my new Etsy shop, along with AirPods protectors, hats, hoodies, beanies and a few surprises. If your case is looking tired, take a look before holiday travel gets rough.

Coming early 2026, Samsung’s finally rolling out the Z TriFold, a three-panel foldable phone that opens like you’re revealing the world’s most expensive takeout menu. 

Fold it once, twice, three times, and boom: You’re holding a 10-inch tablet thin enough to slice deli meat or a Hershey bar after you sit on it.

For $2,400, it can be yours. The only thing folding faster than this phone is your annual budget. Apple should have their version out in 2028.

The answer: B) A Google Maps error. Technology giveth, technology taketh away (your entire home). In 2016, a demolition crew followed a bad Google Maps pin and bulldozed Lindsay Diaz’s duplex in Rowlett, TX, down to the foundation. By the way, the address was correct on Apple Maps and Mapquest.

Speaking of, I have this great joke about construction. I’m still working on it. Got to hammer out a few kinks. Make sure to nail the delivery. I don’t want to screw it up! (Was that a groan I heard, or do you need to eat something?)

Before you head out: Keep this in mind. Every time you shop online, data brokers track you. Incogni removes your info from over 420 sites, and right now, you can save 60% with my link.

Tomorrow, I’m talking about the urban legend that your Christmas tree is bad for Wi-Fi. This is the #1 tech newsletter in the U.S. and proud of it.

— Kim

📣 Don’t keep me a secret: Send your friends to GetKim.com

Photo credit(s): Gemini, Chifenchy, Samsung

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