Longreads Best of 2020: Business Writing
Through December, we’re featuring Longreads’ Best of 2020.
整个 12 月，我们都会精选 Longreads 的 2020 年最佳作品。
After revisiting hundreds of business stories picked by the team this year, we’ve narrowed down our favorites.
在重新审视了团队今年挑选的数百个商业故事后，我们缩小了我们最喜欢的故事的范围。
Enjoy these nine reads, including coverage of the wildest startup collapses and in-depth explorations of pandemic insurance, TikTok content houses, 5G, and the state of the fossil fuel industry.
享受这九本读物，包括对最疯狂的初创公司倒闭的报道，以及对流行病保险、TikTok 内容屋、5G 和化石燃料行业状况的深入探索。
If you like these, you can sign up to receive our weekly email every Friday.
如果您喜欢这些，您可以注册以每周五接收我们的每周电子邮件。
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## Unlucky Charms: The Rise and Fall of Billion-Dollar Jewelry Empire Alex and Ani (Aaron Gell, Marker)
## 不幸的魔咒：十亿美元珠宝帝国的兴衰亚历克斯和阿尼（亚伦·盖尔，马克）
Carolyn Rafaelian spent 15 years building a jewelry empire, making her company, famous for its $30 expandable wire bracelets, one of the fastest-growing fashion brands ever.
卡洛琳·拉斐尔安 (Carolyn Rafaelian) 花了 15 年时间打造了一个珠宝帝国，使她的公司（以 30 美元的可伸缩金属丝手链而闻名）成为有史以来增长最快的时尚品牌之一。
But what led to Alex and Ani’s fall?
但是什么导致了亚历克斯和阿尼的堕落呢？
Aaron Gell’s piece has it all: an odd alliance between a spiritual “earth mother” founder and an Army major-turned-CEO, business decisions influenced by astrology and New Age practices, a $1.1 billion gender discrimination lawsuit against Bank of America, and even a spinoff into a “university”that was meant to share the company’s life lessons with the world.
艾伦·盖尔 (Aaron Gell) 的文章讲述了一切：精神上的“地球母亲”创始人与陆军少校出身的首席执行官之间的奇怪联盟、受占星术和新时代实践影响的商业决策、针对美国银行的 11 亿美元性别歧视诉讼，甚至还衍生出一所“大学”，旨在与世界分享公司的人生教训。
Buzzwords aside, the curriculum mostly aimed to impart an essential truth behind Alex and Ani’s appeal: Its products were not just glittery trinkets but spiritual armor designed to protect, inspire, and ennoble the bearer as she made her way through the world.
抛开流行语不谈，课程的主要目的是传授亚历克斯和阿尼的吸引力背后的一个基本事实：它的产品不仅仅是闪闪发光的小饰品，而且是精神盔甲，旨在保护、激励和提升持有者在世界各地的生活。
Retail employees at the company’s “bangle bars” were known internally as “bar tenders” for their patience and empathy.
该公司“手镯酒吧”的零售员工因其耐心和同理心而在内部被称为“调酒师”。
They’d draw out customers’ personal stories — what AAU president Dennis Rebelo called “story birthing” — prescribing just the right stones and talismans (the Eye of Horus for protection, light, and reason; the dragonfly for grace, change, and power) for each unique journey.
他们会绘制顾客的个人故事——AAU 总裁 Dennis Rebelo 称之为“故事诞生”——为每一次独特的旅程提供合适的宝石和护身符（荷鲁斯之眼代表保护、光明和理性；蜻蜓代表优雅、改变和力量）。
## We Can Protect the Economy From Pandemics.
## 我们可以保护经济免受流行病的影响。
Why Didn’t We?
为什么我们没有？
(Evan Ratliff, Wired)
（埃文·拉特利夫，《连线》杂志）
Nathan Wolfe, a former epidemiology professor at UCLA, started a company — Metabiota — focused on helping industries and governments build resilience to epidemics.
加州大学洛杉矶分校 (UCLA) 前流行病学教授内森·沃尔夫 (Nathan Wolfe) 创办了一家名为 Metabiota 的公司，专注于帮助行业和政府增强抵御流行病的能力。
When they partnered with German reinsurance provider Munich Re five years ago, they developed what is essentially the world’s first pandemic business insurance.
五年前，当他们与德国再保险公司慕尼黑再保险合作时，他们开发了世界上第一个流行病商业保险。
But, as Wolfe explains to Ratliff, nobody bought it.
但是，正如沃尔夫向拉特利夫解释的那样，没有人买它。
Through Ratliff’s lens, Wolfe is compelling (“an Indiana Jones-like virus hunter”), as is his look into Metabiota’s work on disease surveillance and pandemic modeling.
在拉特利夫的镜头下，沃尔夫引人注目（“印第安纳琼斯式的病毒猎人”），他对 Metabiota 在疾病监测和流行病建模方面的工作的看法也是如此。
As the human and economic devastation multiplied in tandem across the globe, Metabiota’s employees suddenly found themselves living inside their own model’s projections.
随着人类和经济灾难在全球范围内成倍增加，Metabiota 的员工突然发现自己生活在自己模型的预测中。
Just two years earlier, the company had run a large set of scenarios forecasting the consequences of a novel coronavirus spreading around the globe.
就在两年前，该公司已经运行了大量场景来预测新型冠状病毒在全球传播的后果。
“I guess part of what I’m struggling with emotionally is that it’s almost like we’ve been attacked by a cliché,” Oppenheim told me later.
“我想我在情感上挣扎的部分原因是我们几乎就像受到了陈词滥调的攻击，”奥本海姆后来告诉我。
“No one can predict the exact timing and location and dynamics, but the broad contours are a story that people have walked through specifically before.”
“没有人能够预测确切的时间、地点和动态，但大致的轮廓是人们以前经历过的具体故事。”
## The 8th Wonder of the World (Josh Dzieza, The Verge)
## 世界第八大奇迹（Josh Dzieza，The Verge）
“In many ways, the Foxconn debacle in Wisconsin is the physical manifestation of the alternate reality that has defined the Trump administration.” The deal the administration and the state’s Republican leaders made in 2017 for the Foxconn project was huge: a $10 billion investment from the Taiwanese electronics company, a 20 million-square-foot LCD factory, and 13,000 jobs.
“从很多方面来说，富士康在威斯康星州的惨败是特朗普政府所面临的另一种现实的具体体现。” 2017 年，政府和该州共和党领导人就富士康项目达成了一项规模巨大的协议：这家台湾电子公司投资 100 亿美元，建设一座 2000 万平方英尺的 LCD 工厂，并创造 13,000 个就业岗位。
It would put Southeastern Wisconsin on the map as a world-class manufacturing hub: “Wisconn Valley,” or the Silicon Valley of the Midwest.
这将使威斯康星州东南部成为世界级的制造业中心：“威斯康星谷”或中西部的硅谷。
Today, none of that exists.
今天，这些都不存在了。
Dzieza’s investigation is thorough and brutal from start to finish (and is sleekly designed, too).
齐扎的调查从头到尾都是彻底而残酷的（而且设计也很巧妙）。
The company had little progress to show the new administration.
该公司几乎没有向新政府展示任何进展。
Rather than the 1,040 people Foxconn intended to hire by the end of 2018, per its contract with the state, or even the 260 needed in order to receive subsidies, an audit found the company had managed to hire only 113.
富士康计划在 2018 年底之前按照与国家签订的合同聘用 1,040 名员工，甚至没有达到获得补贴所需的 260 名员工，但审计发现该公司只聘用了 113 名员工。
At the Mount Pleasant campus, it had erected a single structure, a 120,000-square-foot space that sat virtually empty.
在芒特普莱森特园区，它建立了一个单一的建筑，一个 120,000 平方英尺的空间，几乎是空的。
Its very name, “the multi-purpose building,” seemed noncommittal.
它的名字“多功能建筑”似乎不置可否。
As for the promised LCD factory, the “Fab,” Foxconn boasted in a letter that a contractor had moved 4 million cubic yards of dirt.
至于承诺的 LCD 工厂，即“Fab”，富士康在一封信中吹嘘说，承包商已经搬运了 400 万立方码的泥土。
As 2018 came to an end, the company froze budgets and canceled planned career fairs.
2018 年即将结束，该公司冻结了预算并取消了计划中的招聘会。
The project entered a complete stall.
该项目彻底陷入停滞。
## A TikTok House Divided (Rebecca Jennings, Vox)
## TikTok 之家分裂（Rebecca Jennings，Vox）
In this fun deep-dive into the fascinating and fickle world of TikTok content mansions and collab houses in Los Angeles, Jennings follows internet-famous teens navigating a new system of talent management and fame, which is compared to the studio system of classic Hollywood when stars were tied to companies in long-term contracts.
在这部有趣的深入探讨洛杉矶 TikTok 内容豪宅和合作屋的迷人而变化无常的世界中，詹宁斯跟随网络名人青少年探索新的人才管理和名誉系统，这与明星与公司签订长期合同的经典好莱坞工作室系统进行了比较。
You’ll read about content creators who’ve leveraged their massive followings into lucrative sponsorships and deals with brands, feuds with rival houses, shady managers sharking for opportunities in a fledgling industry, and money that doesn’t seem to exist.
你会读到内容创作者利用自己的大量追随者获得利润丰厚的赞助并与品牌进行交易，与竞争对手的公司发生争执，不正当的经理在新兴行业中谋取机会，以及看似不存在的金钱。
By the end of October, the Inspir3 House started to turn on its founder.
十月底，Inspir3 House 开始对其创始人发起攻击。
“I’ve known him forever, so when he started telling all these lies, I was sure to tell everybody to protect themselves,” Justin says.
“我认识他很久了，所以当他开始说这些谎言时，我肯定会告诉每个人要保护自己，”贾斯汀说。
Nupur says they’d have meetings during which Chase would talk for hours about what was going to happen with their careers — he’d allegedly promised lucrative sponsorship deals and a potential reality show.
努普尔说，他们会开会，蔡斯会花几个小时谈论他们的职业生涯——据称他承诺提供利润丰厚的赞助协议和一个潜在的真人秀节目。
A charity called U R the Future had reached out to hire the members to do activities, such as cleaning up beaches and handing out pizzas to homeless people, and then post the videos on their social channels, but Chase allegedly asked the house members to pay for things the charity was supposed to have covered (for instance, the pizza).
一家名为“U R the Future”的慈善机构已聘请会员开展活动，例如清理海滩和向无家可归的人分发披萨，然后将视频发布到其社交频道上，但蔡斯据称要求会员支付慈善机构应承担的费用（例如披萨）。
U R the Future eventually pulled out.
《U R the Future》最终退出。
Nupur also says all the money she earned during her stay with Inspir3 came from her own TikTok livestreams, where viewers would send her digital gifts that could be transferred to cash, without any help from Chase.
Nupur 还表示，她在 Inspir3 期间赚到的所有钱都来自她自己的 TikTok 直播，观众可以在直播中向她发送数字礼物，这些礼物可以兑换成现金，而无需大通银行的任何帮助。
That was, until CBS reached out for a brand promotion: Nupur was nervous to negotiate with such a large company, so she forwarded the email to Chase, who set the payment to $1,500 with a 15 percent fee.
直到哥伦比亚广播公司 (CBS) 寻求品牌推广：努普尔 (Nupur) 与如此大的公司谈判感到紧张，因此她将电子邮件转发给蔡斯 (Chase)，后者将付款金额定为 1,500 美元，并收取 15% 的费用。
But Nupur never got the money, even as Chase badgered her for his 15 percent.
但努普尔始终没有拿到钱，尽管蔡斯缠着她要他的 15%。
She eventually found out he had CBS pay his PayPal account instead of hers, and when she confronted him, he claimed his PayPal account wasn’t working.
她最终发现他让哥伦比亚广播公司向他的 PayPal 账户而不是她的账户付款，当她质问他时，他声称他的 PayPal 账户无法使用。
She says she still hasn’t gotten the money.
她说她还没拿到钱。
## The Eco–Yogi Slumlords of Brooklyn (Bridget Read, The Cut)
## 布鲁克林的生态瑜伽士贫民窟领主（布里奇特·里德、The Cut）
“What could drive two yogic, environmentally conscious, vegan brownstoners to kick out their unemployed tenants during a global pandemic?” In a can’t-put-down tale of gentrification and grift, Read traces the undoing of Gennaro Brooks-Church and Loretta Gendville, ex-partners who accumulated their wealth through a network of yoga studios, Airbnb rentals, and rooms in illegally converted properties.
“在全球大流行期间，是什么促使两个热爱瑜伽、具有环保意识、素食主义者的赤褐色砂石住宅赶走失业的房客？”在一个关于中产阶级化和欺诈的令人难以忘怀的故事中，里德追溯了根纳罗·布鲁克斯-丘奇 (Gennaro Brooks-Church) 和洛雷塔·詹德维尔 (Loretta Gendville) 的失败，这对前搭档通过瑜伽馆、Airbnb 租赁和非法改建的房产中的房间网络积累了财富。
As bosses and landlords, they were a complete mess, and their “empire seemed to operate on a shoestring”: think overworked staff with low pay and no benefits, nonexistent leases, unpaid gas bills and fines, and rat sightings at parties.
作为老板和房东，他们一团糟，他们的“帝国似乎是在资金紧张的情况下运作的”：想想那些工作过度的员工，工资低，没有福利，不存在租约，未付燃气费和罚款，以及聚会上发现老鼠。
By the time the pandemic hit in March, the couple had nine mortgages on six properties, so you can take a guess at why they suddenly appeared on the doorstep of one of them, 1214 Dean Street, over the summer.
到三月份疫情爆发时，这对夫妇已经有六处房产的九笔抵押贷款，所以你可以猜测为什么他们在夏天突然出现在其中一处迪安街 1214 号的家门口。
While I don’t like the phrase “hate-read,” this one certainly is.
虽然我不喜欢“讨厌阅读”这个词，但这个词确实是。
And it’s a good one.
这是一件好事。
They squeezed every drop of money they could out of every setup.
他们从每个设置中榨取每一滴钱。
Brooks-Church offered workers free yoga classes in exchange for a day of labor in his building business.
布鲁克斯-丘奇为工人提供免费瑜伽课程，以换取在他的建筑业务中工作一天的报酬。
Gendville offered free classes to guests when the couple began renting out both of their Carroll Gardens brownstones on Airbnb and Vrbo for at least $200 a night.
当这对夫妇开始在 Airbnb 和 Vrbo 上以每晚至少 200 美元的价格出租卡罗尔花园 (Carroll Gardens) 的两处赤褐色砂石建筑时，Gendville 为客人提供免费课程。
Multiple guests at the Douglass Street listing complained in reviews that it looked as if someone had been living in the rooms right up to the moment they arrived.
道格拉斯街房源的多位房客在评论中抱怨说，在他们到达之前，房间里似乎一直有人住着。
The couple and their children, according to yoga teachers, would sometimes sleep in the yoga studios because every other property was occupied.And still they kept expanding.
据瑜伽老师说，这对夫妇和他们的孩子有时会睡在瑜伽馆里，因为其他所有财产都被占用了。而且他们仍在不断扩张。
In 2016, as the next wave of gentrification gathered speed, the couple spent $1.4 million to purchase two properties in Flatbush and East New York.
2016 年，随着下一波高档化浪潮加速，这对夫妇花费 140 万美元在弗拉特布什和纽约东部购买了两处房产。
They took out additional mortgages on two of their other homes, accruing more than $2 million in debt in only four months.
他们为另外两套房子申请了额外的抵押贷款，仅仅四个月的时间就积累了超过 200 万美元的债务。
And why not?
为什么不呢？
Brooklyn home sales continued to break records, and the market’s consensus was as giddy as it was unsustainable.
布鲁克林的房屋销售继续打破纪录，市场的共识既令人眼花缭乱，又不可持续。
They squeezed every drop of money they could out of every setup.
他们从每个设置中榨取每一滴钱。
Brooks-Church offered workers free yoga classes in exchange for a day of labor in his building business.
布鲁克斯-丘奇为工人提供免费瑜伽课程，以换取在他的建筑业务中工作一天的报酬。
Gendville offered free classes to guests when the couple began renting out both of their Carroll Gardens brownstones on Airbnb and Vrbo for at least $200 a night.
当这对夫妇开始在 Airbnb 和 Vrbo 上以每晚至少 200 美元的价格出租卡罗尔花园 (Carroll Gardens) 的两处赤褐色砂石建筑时，Gendville 为客人提供免费课程。
Multiple guests at the Douglass Street listing complained in reviews that it looked as if someone had been living in the rooms right up to the moment they arrived.
道格拉斯街房源的多位房客在评论中抱怨说，在他们到达之前，房间里似乎一直有人住着。
The couple and their children, according to yoga teachers, would sometimes sleep in the yoga studios because every other property was occupied.
据瑜伽老师说，这对夫妇和他们的孩子有时会睡在瑜伽馆里，因为其他房产都被占用了。
And still they kept expanding.
但他们仍然在不断扩张。
In 2016, as the next wave of gentrification gathered speed, the couple spent $1.4 million to purchase two properties in Flatbush and East New York.
2016 年，随着下一波高档化浪潮加速，这对夫妇花费 140 万美元在弗拉特布什和纽约东部购买了两处房产。
They took out additional mortgages on two of their other homes, accruing more than $2 million in debt in only four months.
他们为另外两套房子申请了额外的抵押贷款，仅仅四个月的时间就积累了超过 200 万美元的债务。
And why not?
为什么不呢？
Brooklyn home sales continued to break records, and the market’s consensus was as giddy as it was unsustainable.
布鲁克林的房屋销售继续打破纪录，市场的共识既令人眼花缭乱，又不可持续。
## Huawei, 5G, and the Man Who Conquered Noise (Steven Levy, Wired)
## 华为、5G 和征服噪音的人（Steven Levy，《连线》）
Over 10 years ago, a relatively unknown Turkish scientist named Erdal Arıkan made a breakthrough in the field of information theory — polar codes.
十多年前，一位名叫埃尔达尔·阿里坎（Erdal Arıkan）的土耳其科学家在信息论领域取得了突破——极码。
This discovery eventually helped Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications company, to take the lead in the global 5G technology race.
这一发现最终帮助中国电信公司华为在全球5G技术竞赛中取得了领先地位。
Levy’s profile of Arıkan and his wider look at Huawei offer context on who will drive technology for the world’s communications system for years to come.
Levy 对 Arıkan 的介绍以及他对华为的更广泛的看法为谁将在未来几年推动世界通信系统的技术提供了背景。
Huawei was ecstatic.
华为欣喜若狂。
But it was not just Huawei’s win; it was China’s too.
但这不仅仅是华为的胜利；也是华为的胜利。这也是中国的。
Finally, a Chinese company was getting respect commensurate with its increasingly dominant power in the marketplace.
最后，一家中国公司得到了与其在市场上日益增强的主导地位相称的尊重。
“Huawei-backed polar code entering the 5G standard has a symbolic meaning,” one observer told a reporter at the time.
“华为支持的Polar码进入5G标准具有象征意义，”一位观察人士当时告诉记者。
“This is the first time a Chinese company has entered a telecommunications framework agreement, winning the right to be heard.”
“这是中国企业首次签订电信框架协议，赢得了话语权。”
## Shell Is Looking Forward (Malcolm Harris, New York Magazine)
## 壳牌展望未来（马尔科姆·哈里斯，纽约杂志）
Fossil fuel giant Shell flew Malcolm Harris to a private planning workshop so he could talk about global warming from his millennial perspective.
化石燃料巨头壳牌公司派马尔科姆·哈里斯去参加一个私人规划研讨会，以便他可以从千禧一代的角度谈论全球变暖。
In turn, he meets and chats with a number of employees, and — having not signed an NDA — shares a frank, fly-on-the-wall account of what he hears and learns.
反过来，他与一些员工会面并交谈，并且在没有签署保密协议的情况下，分享了他所听到和了解到的坦率、不经意的叙述。
TL;DR: big oil companies are talking about climate change.
TL;DR：大型石油公司正在谈论气候变化。
They may even invest in progress.
他们甚至可能投资于进步。
But at the end of the day, their future still rests in oil and gas.
但归根结底，他们的未来仍然取决于石油和天然气。
The policymakers at Shell simply want the public to think they’re part of the solution, when “[in] reality, they’re a problem trying to avoid being solved.”
壳牌的政策制定者只是希望公众认为他们是解决方案的一部分，而“实际上，他们是一个试图避免解决的问题”。
By gathering millennial employees from throughout the company, along with experts on the cohort and senior management, the strategies team surely hoped to infuse the firm’s leadership with a drip of youth consciousness, the way some oligarchs are rumored to inject themselves with young people’s blood.If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is going to rally millennials around Green New Deal legislation, then it’s a good time to become a green-energy company — or at least buy a few of those and rebrand that way.
通过聚集整个公司的千禧一代员工，以及团队中的专家和高级管理层，战略团队肯定希望为公司的领导层注入一点青年意识，就像传闻中一些寡头为自己注入年轻人血液的方式一样。如果亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯要团结千禧一代支持绿色新政立法，那么现在就是成为一家绿色能源公司的好时机——或者至少收购其中一些公司并以这种方式重塑品牌。
Climate protesters are just another market reality, one that can be profitable when apprehended correctly, even for a big, old oil and gas firm.
气候抗议者只是另一个市场现实，如果正确逮捕，即使对于一家大型、老牌石油和天然气公司来说，也可以获利。
The question was how to see that generational conflict coming, how to meet it and harness it and ride it into the future.
问题是如何看待代际冲突的到来，如何应对它、驾驭它并驾驭它走向未来。
By gathering millennial employees from throughout the company, along with experts on the cohort and senior management, the strategies team surely hoped to infuse the firm’s leadership with a drip of youth consciousness, the way some oligarchs are rumored to inject themselves with young people’s blood.
通过聚集整个公司的千禧一代员工以及团队专家和高级管理层，战略团队当然希望为公司的领导层注入一点年轻意识，就像传闻中一些寡头为自己注入年轻人的血液一样。
If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is going to rally millennials around Green New Deal legislation, then it’s a good time to become a green-energy company — or at least buy a few of those and rebrand that way.
如果亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯打算团结千禧一代支持绿色新政立法，那么现在就是成为一家绿色能源公司的好时机——或者至少购买其中一些公司并以这种方式重塑品牌。
Climate protesters are just another market reality, one that can be profitable when apprehended correctly, even for a big, old oil and gas firm.
气候抗议者只是另一个市场现实，如果正确逮捕，即使对于一家大型、老牌石油和天然气公司来说，也可以获利。
The question was how to see that generational conflict coming, how to meet it and harness it and ride it into the future.
问题是如何看待代际冲突的到来，如何应对它、驾驭它并驾驭它走向未来。
## Lavish Parties, Greedy Pols and Panic Rooms: How the ‘Apple of Pot’ Collapsed (Ben Schreckinger and Mona Zhang, Politico)
## 奢华的派对、贪婪的政治和恐慌的房间：“Apple of Pot”是如何崩溃的（Ben Schreckinger 和 Mona Zhang，Politico）
Enjoyed this story about MedMen?
喜欢这个关于 MedMen 的故事吗？
Here’s another favorite on a startup collapse: Mo Tkacik’s Bustle profile of Rebekah Neumann and an account of WeWork’s rise and fall.
这是关于初创公司倒闭的另一篇热门文章：Mo Tkacik 对 Rebekah Neumann 的 Bustle 简介以及对 WeWork 兴衰的描述。
Right from the start, MedMen was slated to become the next big cannabis startup: it had famous fans at its ribbon-cutting ceremony in Venice, California, a partnership with Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, and a slick marketing campaign.
从一开始，MedMen 就注定要成为下一个大型大麻初创公司：它在加利福尼亚州威尼斯举行的剪彩仪式上拥有著名的粉丝，与格温妮丝·帕特洛 (Gwyneth Paltrow) 的 Goop 合作，以及巧妙的营销活动。
But the company, founded by Adam Bierman and Andrew Modlin, ran into trouble soon after: Bank fraud.
但这家由亚当·比尔曼和安德鲁·莫德林创立的公司很快就遇到了麻烦：银行欺诈。
Excessive spending.
过度消费。
Illegal political contributions.
非法政治献金。
Instead of soaring high, it unraveled into a “cautionary tale of American Wild West capitalism,” becoming known as the “WeWork of weed” to the rest of the industry.
它非但没有飙升，反而变成了“美国狂野西部资本主义的警示故事”，被业内其他人称为“杂草界的 WeWork”。
Where the traditional dispensary experience could feel grungy and illicit, the MedMen in “WeHo,” with its wood-paneled interior, aimed for sleek sophistication.
传统的药房体验可能会让人感觉邋遢和不合法，而“WeHo”中的 MedMen 则采用木镶板内饰，旨在打造时尚精致的氛围。
Strains of weed were displayed in well-lit glass cases, and built-in iPads allowed customers to browse information about the offerings.
杂草品种展示在光线充足的玻璃柜中，内置的 iPad 允许顾客浏览有关产品的信息。
The weed was stored in stainless steel drums in a back room that resembled an open kitchen in a high-end restaurant.
这些杂草被储存在一个类似于高档餐厅开放式厨房的后室的不锈钢桶中。
After ordering, customers could watch through a window as uniformed staff, called “Budtenders,” retrieved it.
下单后，顾客可以透过窗户看到穿着制服的工作人员（被称为“Budtenders”）取货。
## Garbage Language (Molly Young, Vulture)
## 垃圾语言（Molly Young、Vulture）
Hey team!
嘿团队！
I have an ask.
我有一个问题。
Let’s chat async about ways we can ladder up our skills in the new year and strategize some quick wins.
让我们异步讨论如何在新的一年里提升我们的技能并制定一些快速获胜的策略。
We’ll break up into two teams so we can parallel-path roadmaps, then meet in a few weeks to synergize and find alignment.
我们将分成两个团队，以便我们可以并行制定路线图，然后在几周内会面以进行协同并找到一致。
Sigh.
叹。
I’ve revisited this brilliant piece numerous times this year, and it gets better each time.
今年我多次重温了这部精彩的作品，每次都变得更好。
Young writes sharply about the language we encounter in the workplace — from empty corporate-speak to marketing fluff — that takes up space, impedes communication, and even creates the illusion that you’re doing more work than you really are.
杨尖锐地描述了我们在工作场所遇到的语言——从空洞的公司用语到营销废话——这些语言占用空间，阻碍沟通，甚至让人产生一种错觉，让你觉得你做了比实际更多的工作。
It’s spot on.
这是正确的。
The front of the plaid packet said UPTAPPED: ALL NATURAL ENERGY.
格子包的正面写着 UPTAPPED：ALL NATURAL ENERGY。
The marketing copy said, “For too long athletic nutrition has been sweetened with cheap synthetic sugars.
营销文案称：“长期以来，运动营养品一直用廉价的合成糖来增甜。
The simplicity of endurance sports deserves a simple ingredient — 100% pure, unadulterated, organic Vermont maple syrup, the all-natural, low glycemic-index sports fuel.”It was a packet of maple syrup.
耐力运动的简单性需要简单的成分——100% 纯正、无掺杂的有机佛蒙特枫糖浆，一种全天然、低血糖指数的运动燃料。”这是一包枫糖浆。
Nothing more.
而已。
Whenever I hear a word like operationalize or touchpoint, I think of that packet — of some anonymous individual, probably with a Stanford degree and a net worth many multiples of my own, funneling maple syrup into tubelets and calling it low-glycemic-index sports fuel.
每当我听到像“操作化”或“接触点”这样的词时，我就会想起那个包——某个匿名的人，可能拥有斯坦福大学学位，净资产是我的好几倍，将枫糖浆倒入小管中，并称之为低血糖指数运动燃料。
It’s not a crime to try to convince people that their favorite pancake accessory is a viable biohack, but the words have a scammy flavor.
试图让人们相信他们最喜欢的煎饼配件是一种可行的生物黑客技术并不是犯罪，但这些话有一种骗局的味道。
And that’s the closest I can come to a definition of garbage language that accounts for its eternal mutability: words with a scammy flavor.
这是我能想到的最接近垃圾语言的定义，它解释了它永恒的可变性：带有欺骗味道的单词。
As with any scam, the effectiveness lies in the delivery.
与任何骗局一样，其有效性在于交付。
Thousands of companies have tricked us into believing that a mattress or lip-gloss order is an ideological position.
成千上万的公司欺骗我们，让我们相信床垫或唇彩订单是一种意识形态立场。
The front of the plaid packet said UPTAPPED: ALL NATURAL ENERGY.
格子包的正面写着 UPTAPPED：ALL NATURAL ENERGY。
The marketing copy said, “For too long athletic nutrition has been sweetened with cheap synthetic sugars.
营销文案称：“长期以来，运动营养品一直用廉价的合成糖来增甜。
The simplicity of endurance sports deserves a simple ingredient — 100% pure, unadulterated, organic Vermont maple syrup, the all-natural, low glycemic-index sports fuel.”
耐力运动的简单性需要简单的成分——100% 纯正的有机佛蒙特枫糖浆，一种全天然、低血糖指数的运动燃料。”
It was a packet of maple syrup.
那是一包枫糖浆。
Nothing more.
而已。
Whenever I hear a word like operationalize or touchpoint, I think of that packet — of some anonymous individual, probably with a Stanford degree and a net worth many multiples of my own, funneling maple syrup into tubelets and calling it low-glycemic-index sports fuel.
每当我听到像“操作化”或“接触点”这样的词时，我就会想起那个包——某个匿名的人，可能拥有斯坦福大学学位，净资产是我的好几倍，将枫糖浆倒入小管中，并称之为低血糖指数运动燃料。
It’s not a crime to try to convince people that their favorite pancake accessory is a viable biohack, but the words have a scammy flavor.
试图让人们相信他们最喜欢的煎饼配件是一种可行的生物黑客技术并不是犯罪，但这些话有一种骗局的味道。
And that’s the closest I can come to a definition of garbage language that accounts for its eternal mutability: words with a scammy flavor.
这是我能想到的最接近垃圾语言的定义，它解释了它永恒的可变性：带有欺骗味道的单词。
As with any scam, the effectiveness lies in the delivery.
与任何骗局一样，其有效性在于交付。
Thousands of companies have tricked us into believing that a mattress or lip-gloss order is an ideological position.
成千上万的公司欺骗我们，让我们相信床垫或唇彩订单是一种意识形态立场。
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