| | | | | |  Will Varner | | IN THIS ISSUE | Jordan Fisher on Broadway's return | The gender-neutral revolution in toys | Kanye's Wyoming ranch is for sale | | | | Good morning. I'm home in Western Massachusetts to see my parents for the weekend, but with all due respect to them, the real party here is the #foliage. At first glance, the sea of yellow, orange, red, and brown might seem like a random medley of colors...but it's not. When chlorophyll abandons a tree in the autumn, it leaves behind a mix of other pigments that are distinct from one species to the next. The sugar maple, which rules the fall foliage world in North America, glows a brilliant orange. Dogwoods turn reddish-purple. Beech and hickory trees get their yellow on. And oak leaves—well, most of the poor fellows fade to brown before they become raking fodder. I like to think of it as each tree leaving its individual signature on nature's canvas before retiring for the winter. —Neal Freyman | | | | | | | | | Icebreakers With...Broadway's Jordan Fisher Jordan Fisher Jordan Fisher has appeared in TV shows since 2009, but the actor got his big break on Broadway in 2016 with a role in Hamilton. In December 2019, Jordan was selected to play the lead in Dear Evan Hansen and then...well...no one got to play any theater roles, anywhere. Now, Jordan will finally get the chance to wear his cast on Broadway starting December 11. We caught up with Jordan to see how he's feeling now that Broadway's back. Tell us what it means to be heading back to live theater again with Dear Evan Hansen. Do you think anything will be different after being away for so long? Just to be in the theater again...I didn't anticipate the range of emotions that I would feel walking into a theater. I missed that energy. So I'm thrilled to be able to take the stage again for Dear Evan Hansen and wear that polo and wave through windows all over again. What are the top three songs you've been listening to right now? I've been listening to a lot of Lawrence. Their new album, Hotel TV, just came out, and they have a song on there called "False Alarms" that I've been listening to a lot. I've also been listening to "I Feel It" by Jon Bellion, and "The Jackie" by Bas with J-Cole & Lil Tjay. Speaking of music, what's the hardest thing you've ever had to sing? The hardest song any artist ever has to sing ever is the US national anthem. That will always be the answer. It's just very difficult. It requires a lot of you. It takes a lot of energy and it's usually a cappella, and there is very, very minimal room for error. You're 27 now, what are some things you wish you knew when you were 20 years old? Everything that I know now. It's funny because everybody is either in a rush to grow up or doesn't want to grow up at all. And I feel I'm somewhere in the middle. I think that my appreciation for time as a kind of currency has grown as I age. But at the end of the day, I would never go back and tell my past self anything because everything that's happened in my life has happened for a reason. This is what has led me to this point. And I'm very happy with my life. So, I think if I had to go back in time and tell my past self anything, it would be like, *fist bump* "Let's just keep going." This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. | | | | | | American Express® Business understands that your business is unlike any other, so their Cards are designed to help you take your business further. You started with a big, bold idea—so your card should be able to support that BIGness and boldness. Created specifically for business owners, these Cards can help you do more thanks to features and benefits** created with your needs in mind. You can get: - Membership Rewards® points
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American Express® Business is here to help you grow your small business, make big moves, or keep up the momentum. In short, these Cards are built to help get you where you want to go. Learn how these Cards are Built for Business. By American Express. Benefits not available on all Cards. Terms vary by Card**. | | | | I Don't Have Anything to Do At Work. Should I Leave? Each week, our workplace whisperer Shane Loughnane answers a reader-submitted question about work in 2021. Anything bothering you at work? Ask Shane here. I started a new job last month and they haven't given me much guidance on what my role is. Most days I'm twiddling my thumbs for eight hours. Is it worth sticking it out to see if the environment changes?—Lily, Baltimore I read somewhere this week that 4.3 million people (and presumably 8.6 million thumbs) quit their jobs in the US this August. While "sticking it out" may not be trending right now, that doesn't necessarily mean you should be in a rush to join the exodus. Short of identifying something toxic or egregiously incompatible, a month is a pretty short time period to make a judgment call one way or another about a job. There's a decent chance your boss is trying to ease you in and doesn't realize how truly idle you are. It's equally possible that you're simply experiencing lackluster onboarding and/or management. Either way, you'll need to take the reins. You're 30 days in—what do you expect to be doing in 60 days? 90 days? Reflect on what attracted you to this job. If there's not a clear path to you doing those things in a reasonable timeframe, it may be time to look elsewhere. As you seek out more to do, be careful not to get yourself saddled with "busy work." It's always easier to add to your plate than to take away, so view this as an opportunity to handpick high-value tasks that interest you. Remember that a valuable work experience doesn't always mean you're churning out high priority emails. Especially early on in your career, it's important to consider if there are experiences (and people) worth learning from. Bottom line: Sticking it out in hopes that the environment changes isn't the answer, but taking advantage of a chance to mold your own environment is a rare opportunity that may pay off down the line. Just promise us you'll never get too busy to twiddle your own thumbs. Have a question about work you want to ask Shane? Write in here. And remember, we're also compiling work horror stories ahead of Halloween. If you've got a good one, share it here. | | | Toys Will Be Toys Giphy Just over a week ago, California passed a law that requires large department stores to create gender-neutral sections with a "reasonable selection" of nongendered toys and child care items. - To be clear: Stores can still have boys' and girls' sections, but they also need to have an unlabeled section.
The woke and the anti-woke are duking it out in Facebook comments over CA's new bill, the first of its kind passed in the US, with supporters saying that it helps counter gender stereotypes and opponents arguing it's government overreach. But the fact is...the toy industry has been moving toward gender neutrality for the better part of the past decade—without lawmakers forcing its hand. On the retail side: - Toys"R"Us (which is back from the dead FYI) announced it was doing away with gender signage in its stores in 2013 and deleted the "boy" and "girl" filters from its website in 2015.
- Target nixed gendered aisles and labels in 2015.
- Ditto for Walmart's aisles, except you can still search by gender online.
Even if stores leave their "girl" and "boy" signs up...they may have a hard time sorting toys into binary aisles: The latest brand to board the genderless toy train is Lego Lego announced this week that it would completely scrap gendering its little blocks—which already don't discriminate between the bottoms of feet—through marketing efforts or otherwise. It based that decision on a big survey that showed girls "remain held back by society's ingrained gender stereotypes as they grow older." Parents of 6-to-14-year-olds took the first half of the survey, and their kids took the second half, which led to some eye-opening learnings around ingrained gender stereotypes, like: - 76% of parents said they'd encourage their sons to play with Legos, but just 24% would recommend Legos to their daughters.
- 71% of boys worry they'll be made fun of for playing with feminine-coded toys, compared to 42% of girls for masculine-coded toys.
These discrepancies don't stop at the toy aisle. Parents said they're more likely to encourage girls to cook and bake than boys, and more likely to encourage boys to play sports than girls. Zoom out: For proponents of gender neutrality in the toy aisle, this stereotyping of what a "girl" and "boy" can do limits what kids think they can be when they grow up.—JW | | | | | | One quintillion operations per second, thank you very much. If that number makes your head spin, you're not alone. That's how quickly the next generation of supercomputers will be able to process data. See how exascale computing will transform the way we fly, consume energy, and predict major climate catastrophes in our latest article with HPE. | | | | Open House Welcome to Open House, the only newsletter section dedicated to showcasing what Kanye doesn't want anymore. We'll give you a few facts about a listing and you try to guess the price.  DBW Realty Today's property is none other than the West Lake Ranch—3,888 acres of open land outside of Cody, Wyoming. Kanye West bought the ranch two years ago and had big plans to turn it into a Yeezy compound that could support clothing manufacturing, architectural projects, and maybe even making good music. But he decided to scrap all that and put the ranch up for sale. Amenities include: - 1 bed, 2 half-baths (but plenty of room for camping)
- Go-kart track
- View of the Absaroka Mountains
- No income tax and one of the lowest property taxes in the country
How much to do like the other billionaires do? | | | 1. A secretive hedge fund is gutting newsrooms. (The Atlantic)
2. MLB is testing ways to fix baseball's boredom problem. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
3. How I hacked all displays in my high school district to play Rick Astley. (The Next Web)
4. Dwayne Johnson lets down his guard. (Vanity Fair)
5. Remarkable trees throughout the world. (Moss and Fog)
6. Meditation on sleep. (Mn Artists)
7. True crime is rotting our brains. (Gawker)
8. Opening up about my search for direction. (Founder's Journal)
9. The wildlife photographer of the year 2021 winners. (The Guardian)
10. Can New Yorkers tell the difference between cryptocurrencies and cannabis strains? (Morning Brew) Automated *chef's kiss*. Flippy, the AI-powered chef assistant, makes quick service restaurants more efficient by grillin' and fulfillin' kitchen tasks, increasing profit margins by 3x. Flippy also earned Miso Robotics partnerships with 10 of the top 25 QSR brands. Invest in their delicious potential here.* *This is sponsored advertising content | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | |
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