Just like you thought you’d stop having acne once you were an adult—well, it turns out you can’t get out of homework either. But sometimes, the student becomes the teacher, and you get to be the one doling out assignments.

Take interview assessments. When you’re looking to hire someone new, there’s only so much you can do to see if they’d be a good fit.

• How can you tell if someone is a really good BS-er or if they actually know what they’re talking about?
• Or what if someone is a terrible talker but they know their stuff better than anyone else?

Asking the candidate for a sample work product allows them to show their technical prowess and skills—and gives you an objective way to evaluate their qualifications.

Here are three things to keep in mind when crafting the perfect interview assignment.

Go beyond the SAT vibes. Assessments don’t need to be a worksheet or standardized test. Instead, try to lean into the work that’ll be expected as part of this role.

• For example, a mock sales pitch, a copyediting assignment, or a financial model exercise.
• But remember: Unless you’re paying for their time, be reasonable about what you’re asking for. There’s nothing worse than spending 10 hours on a complex deck and then getting a “TY” from your interviewer, so be considerate when you’re on the other side.

Don’t be hasty. Consider when during the interviewing process you’re assigning a task.

• If it’s too early in the process, key team members may not have even met the candidate before they review the assignment.
• If it’s too late, you may have committed too much time and energy into the process, only for the deliverable to be worse than the final season of Game of Thrones.

🫣 Plagiarism isn’t just for teenagers during finals week. We’re lookin’ at you, ChatGPT. Don’t be surprised if your candidate gets outside help on their project.

• This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as they cite their sources.
• But if you want a true test of wits under pressure, you may need to sit them down in a conference room with a timer, a piece of paper, and a really good cappuccino.

And don’t forget the classic teacher’s dilemma: If you dish out homework, you have to grade it too. So make sure to have an impartial way to evaluate the assignment for everyone you’ve assigned it to, gold star stickers not included.—CS

Taco legal drama just cracked into more pieces than your Cantina Crispy Melt. The lawsuit over the rights to the phrase “Taco Tuesday” was officially dropped.

• Fast-food chain Taco John’s gave up the ghost after Taco Bell challenged its trademark, citing, “to deprive anyone of saying ‘Taco Tuesday’—be it Taco Bell or anyone who provides tacos to the world—is like depriving the world of sunshine itself.”

While we’re stoked that we can finally write “Taco Tuesday” without getting sued, let’s zoom out a bit.

• The phrase itself has Mad Men–level marketing spin, turning the universally worst day of the workweek into the day when you’re encouraged to stuff yourself with tacos—thus making it the best day of the week.

FYI today is a Tuesday…so put on your stretchiest work pants and get inspired with a few other famous marketing turnarounds while you wait for lunch hour.

Questionable moo. If you were alive in the ’90s, you saw a “Got Milk?” ad at least once a week. The California Milk Processor Board decided to go where no government agency had gone before—to make milk cool.

• By spending millions giving celebrities from Jennifer Aniston to Kermit the Frog the signature milk mustaches, Big Milk basically put off the adoption of milk alternatives for at least a decade.

Drop the “Donuts”—it’s cleaner. In a world increasingly obsessed with health and wellness, sugary indulgences like donuts have become less of a staple. By 2019, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it would embrace the coffee and beverage side of its business: It dropped the last half of its name, becoming just Dunkin’.

• One reason this turned out to be such a successful rebrand was that it didn’t ask the customers to do too much. Most customers just said “Dunkin’” before the rebrand anyway, partly due to its slogan—America runs on Dunkin’—which had been used since 2006.

The best balancing act. The ratty gray tennis shoes in the back of your family’s hall closet are back in action since New Balance has done the impossible and become hip.

• The dad shoe co has upped its cool factor by pairing with popular streetwear bigwigs like Joe Freshgoods and Salehe Bembury. Jury’s still out on whether the mid-calf sock tan also gets a pass though.

Bottom line: Marketing spin is a great way to spruce up your brand (hey, Mattel), but keep in mind that you’ve got to walk the walk if you’re going to taco the talk.

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Say goodbye to exhausting commutes and arriving sweaty to work. At least, that’s the deal for the lucky cyclist commuters of Trondheim, Norway, who get to ride a bike escalator up one of the town’s massive hills.

Ready for your steep town to get its own? (Lookin’ at you, San Fran.) Here are a few details to know about the CycloCable before you pitch your city council:

• I’ve got lots of hills in my city, and I have calves of steel—how helpful would the escalator be? Norway’s CycloCable jets bikers up an 18% incline at almost five feet per second. For reference: One of the most tortuous climbs in the 2023 Tour de France, Col du Tourmalet, averages about 7%.
• Does a “ski lift for bikes” actually make people lazier? Turns out, the free ride does the opposite. In a 2007 survey, over 40% of the city’s bikers were out and about more often because they had access to the lift.
• Is the CycloCable just for bikes? All wheels are welcome. That means strollers, scooters, heck, even a shopping cart can get a lift to the top.

And for those of us who want to ride our bikes this summer but don’t live near the Arctic Circle, just remember there’s no shame in getting off and walking the hill.

Got other commutes worth wearing a helmet and going to the office for? Reply to this email with your tips, and we may include them in a future Water Cooler piece.

Read: Why a four-day workweek expert isn’t pushing for everyone to have Fridays off—at least not right now.

Listen: Land of the Giants is back for another season on how Big Tech companies affect our lives, this time diving into all things Tesla. The first episode drops tomorrow.

Prep: How to get the 411 on the company where you’re about to have a job interview.

Watch: “Reverse logistics” is a classic example of business jargon. But once you get past the fact that it just means “package returns,” there’s some pretty cool stuff to discover—like the new trend of boxless pickups, straight from your doorstep.

Shop: Accidentally spent your paycheck filling your closet with the cutest Barbie collabs this season? You’re not alone. Get back on track with the Money with Katie 2023 Wealth Planner.