Weekend Briefing No. 576

What Employees Want -- 30-Somethings -- Pronatalism's Wealthy Champions

Welcome to the weekend.

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Prime Numbers

40 — The U.S. restaurant industry shows a complex duality in 2025, with projected record-high sales of $1.5 trillion and employment of 15.9 million workers, while simultaneously grappling with widespread profitability challenges as 40% of establishments operate at a loss and over half carry pandemic-era debt.

8.6 — Romantic cinema has experienced a dramatic decline in market share, with IMDb data showing romance films plummeting from 34.8% of movie releases in 2000 to just 8.6% in recent releases, representing a 75% decrease in the genre's presence over this period.

5,000,000 — The Port of Shanghai achieved a historic milestone with 5 million containers processed in January 2025, driven by pre-tariff shipping surges and Lunar New Year timing, coming after a record 50 million containers in the previous year, though potential new U.S. tariffs threaten to make 40% of the $525 billion Chinese export trade to America economically unfeasible, according to Bloomberg estimates.

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What Employees Want

Most would assume economic uncertainty drives workers to prioritize paychecks above all else, yet for the first time in 22 years, work-life balance has overtaken salary as the top priority for global talent. This seismic shift in workplace values extends beyond flexible schedules, with 83% of workers craving a sense of community so deeply that a third would accept lower pay to work with friends. The research spanning 35 markets reveals that employees are increasingly willing to take bold action, with 44% quitting toxic workplaces and 45% actively campaigning for better conditions. Modern workers aren't just seeking jobs — they're demanding environments that align with their values, provide growth opportunities, and foster genuine connections, marking a fundamental transformation in the employer-employee relationship. Randstad (5 minutes)

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30-Somethings

What if an entire generation isn't actually failing to grow up, but rather confronting a fundamental mismatch between traditional adult milestones and modern economic realities? Despite 30-somethings having 66% more wealth than their parents did at the same age, skyrocketing costs of housing, shifting social norms, and a pervasive sense of future uncertainty have completely transformed the path to adulthood. The result is a paradoxical generation — earning more than their parents but feeling poorer, craving independence while living with roommates well into their 30s, and increasingly viewing traditional markers of adulthood like marriage, homeownership and children as optional rather than inevitable steps on life's journey. Wall Street Journal (4 minutes)

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How Many Years Will You Live

For those who optimize everything—your healthspan is no exception. Take the Longevity Quiz from Super Age, a new media brand built to deliver cutting-edge insights on longevity, vitality, and peak performance. Discover how your lifestyle, mindset, and daily habits stack up against the latest research, and get personalized strategies to extend your strongest years. Plus, we’ll send you our flagship newsletter, The Mindset, which dives into everything from sleep to sex, fitness to bodywork, nutrition and breakthroughs in longevity science. Longevity isn’t about guessing—it’s about strategy. Ready to see where you stand? Take the Super Age Longevity Quiz today. Super Age (Sponsored)

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Pronatalism's Wealthy Champions

Money can buy many things, including multiple rounds of IVF costing over $200,000, a bounce castle in your living room, and designer handbags — all while raising four children with a fifth on the way. The Collins family has become the face of secular pronatalism, arguing that declining birth rates spell economic doom through empty schools, overwhelmed retirement systems, and potential global conflicts. Yet their well-funded mission to convince others to have more babies highlights a stark reality: their proposed solution to population decline requires significant financial resources that most Americans, living in studio apartments and struggling with basic expenses, simply cannot access. Washington Post (4 minutes)

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Busy But Not Productive

In a world obsessed with being busy, most professionals unknowingly trap themselves in an endless cycle of reactive management tasks while neglecting the deep work that drives real progress. This four-quadrant approach to time management — splitting professional hours between management, creation, consumption and ideation — reveals that most people spend their days drowning in emails and meetings while creative work gets squeezed into the margins. By intentionally timeboxing each type of work and treating learning and reflection as essential parts of the workday rather than luxuries, professionals can break free from the busy-but-unproductive trap and make meaningful progress on what truly matters. Nir and Far (4 minutes)

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You Are Not Rick Rubin

In an era where anyone can curate playlists and prompt artificial intelligence (AI) to generate content, many tech enthusiasts invoke Rick Rubin's name as proof that pure taste trumps technical skill in creative endeavors. Yet this misunderstands both history and context — Rubin's influence stemmed not from merely having good taste, but from wielding real power in an era of cultural gatekeepers, institutional backing and scarce distribution channels. Today's fragmented landscape of algorithmic curation and democratized tools means no individual can shape mass culture the way Rubin once did, revealing how the dream of becoming a digital-age tastemaker through AI prompting fundamentally misunderstands what made his impact possible. Hot Takes (4 minutes)

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Grow or Stagnate

A stagnant comfort zone can silently drain the vibrancy from even the most successful life. The transformative power of learning new skills — whether it's mastering AI, improving persuasion or building a business — lies not in the specific choice but in the deliberate push beyond familiar territory. Just as Marcus Aurelius observed how the untrained left hand could master the reins through dedicated practice, every new skill requires embracing the initial discomfort of incompetence. Breaking free from complacency means actively seeking challenges that stretch our capabilities, knowing that temporary struggle paves the way for lasting growth. Darius Foroux (4 minutes)

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Should We Work Together?

Hi! I’m Kyle. This newsletter is my passion project. When I’m not writing, I run a law firm that helps startups move fast without breaking things. Most founders want a trusted legal partner, but they hate surprise legal bills. At Westaway, we take care of your startup’s legal needs for a flat, monthly fee so you can control your costs and focus on scaling your business. If you’re interested, let’s jump on a call to see if you’re a good fit for the firm. Click here to schedule a one-on-one call with me.

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Founder Fridays

Check out my other email Founder Fridays — a Friday morning briefing helping startup founders and operators scale smarter.

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Weekend Wisdom

Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. - John Maxwell