Assorted Links Friday

Write 5x more but write 5x less:

1. The average person should write 5x more things than they do.
2. The average written thing should be 5x shorter than it is.

In other words: write more often, but make each thing you write shorter.

Meet Generation Z: The newest members of the workforce:

Food fraud and counterfeit cotton -- the detectives untangling the global supply chain: Amid the complex web of international trade, proving the authenticity of a product can be near-impossible. But one company is taking the search to the atomic level

How to get things done when you don’t want to do anything: The drive to be your best can be hard to muster right about now. Here are some ways to get your mojo back.

90% of the world's adults consume some form of caffeine everyday, making it the most widely used psychoactive drug on Earth. Michael Pollan, author of This Is Your Mind On Plants, explains why. Michael goes into the history of coffee drinking, breaking down its origins and how it benefits humankind.

US economy shows resilience during Delta surge: Consumers boosted retail spending last month; employers, meanwhile, have held on to workers amid tight labor demand

The vaccine divide will drive even worse economic divides:

That means that the vaccine divide—now aligned with the red-blue divide—will likely exacerbate the other economic divides that are already weakening the nation. Whereas the more heavily vaccinated blue counties will be better able to withstand the economic effects of the Delta variant, red communities will likely struggle as the virus keeps frustrated shoppers, travelers, and workers at home.

The labor shortage is actually 3 mismatches between workers and employers: There are three major disconnects that define this mystery around open jobs, and why people aren't filling them. Economists call these "mismatches," and they've been driving labor crunches for months.

Ranked: The reputation of 100 major brands in the US:

We are at that point in the year when the Covid pandemic is evolving from a disease of the air conditioning belt, to a disease of the heating belt: