It’s been a busy week with my last night’s inaugural edition of my new Non-Obvious Virtual Summit which focused on the Future of Learning (watch the replay here). And a double header today with a SXSW Session virtual keynote at Noon EST, followed by another episode of my new Non-Obvious Insights Show (video below). There are some good
Continue reading »Category Archives: Non-Obvious Insights
There is a little bit of everything in this week’s email, from robotic dogs enforcing social distancing to jazz hands replacing handshakes. Last week I also started a video show to share my thoughts on these stories as well as giving you an inside look at some of the stories that didn’t make it into
Continue reading »After writing my weekly email newsletter for just over four years, one of the questions I’m most often asked about is the stories that didn’t make it into my newsletter. I spend hours every week reading and compiling the most fascinating stories to include – but I usually only share around six stories. What about
Continue reading »One of the most consistent signs of our shifting future is how quickly new jobs and industries are emerging. Even as some fear technology making certain jobs obsolete, there are sci-fi sounding sectors like asteroid mining that are actually becoming reality. What I find more interesting, though, are the jobs which will be created as
Continue reading »Samsung’s Quiet Innovation That Everyone Ignored This week Samsung launched the world’s first folding phone. They also defied Apple and Google by keeping the 3.5mm headphone jack. This seemingly insignificant choice might be the cleverest part of the entire launch. Sometimes the most “innovative” thing you can do is deciding what NOT to change. Scientists Find
Continue reading »Why Jose Cuervo Wins With Its All-You-Can-Drink Tequila Train The temptation to create a “Strategic Spectacle” is popular for brands desperately chasing experiential marketing. Usually it leads to short term thinking and limited results. Not for Jose Cuervo, though, as their popular unlimited tequila train has been running for over 7 years. That is what commitment to an idea looks
Continue reading »The Hotel That Forces You To Take A Digital Detox In Sweden, one hotel has created a stunt designed to encourage you to stay off of Wifi during your stay … by only charging you when you use devices in the room. If you can exhibit self control for the evening in the “Check Out
Continue reading »Why Every Ski Map Looks The Same This past weekend was a big one for skiing and so this article was interesting and timely – all about the life and work of a man who has drawn hundreds of ski maps for resorts. It is a fascinating reminder that there is beauty in the details of
Continue reading »Japanese Hotel Has First Round Of Robot Layoffs I first wrote about the Henna hotel, staffed entirely by robots, more than two years ago. It seems that the experimental property in Japan has discovered a hopeful truth: people sometimes prefer people. And so it may also be the first example in history of robots being
Continue reading »Huawei’s New App Uses Sound To Let The Blind “See” Emotions Imagine an app that uses AI to read facial expressions and then translates the seven universal human emotions – anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise and contempt – into seven distinct sounds. Once it detects an emotion, it will play the sounds to allow visually
Continue reading »