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What The New Ban on Non-Competes Actually Means for Companies

Banning noncompetes

This week the FTC issued a rule this week that bans non-compete clauses, estimating that up to 8,500 new startups will be created as a result of the ban. The federal agency describes the downsides of non-competes this way:  “Noncompetes are a widespread and often exploitative practice imposing contractual conditions that prevent workers from taking a … Read more

How Water Flipping, Excess Solar Energy and Shifting Hydropower Stations Show Us the Future Is All About Water

Orange Skies over Athens

The skies were orange above Athens and that was just one of several climate and energy related stories this week that offered a glimpse into stories we will see more frequently in the coming years. The first example is a concerning story of a tiny Arizona town where a private company purchased land and water rights only … Read more

The Invisibility Shield Can Help You Actually Disappear … Now Available on Kickstarter

Invisibility shield

Hiding during a game of paintball. Doing a magic trick. Avoiding detection by real-life spyware. These are just a few of the potential uses for a new invisibility shield 2.0 that’s taking pre-orders on Kickstarter right now. This “portable cloaking device” works by bending light around you. The more scientific explanation is “the lenses diffuse the ambient light that’s … Read more

Why Industrial Tourism Is One of the Fastest Growing Trends in Travel

Industrial Tourism

Portugal is one of several countries investing big into industrial tourism – a term that describes experiences where travelers can visit factories to see how products get made. Of course, vineyards and liquor distilleries along with many food manufacturers have long offered this sort of experience. But Portugal is taking it one step further. In São João da Madeira, … Read more

Detroit Rides “Post Bankruptcy Energy” To Become America’s Most Unlikely Boomtown, According to WSJ

Detroit's resurgence

About ten years ago, no one would have said the city of Detroit would be sitting at the perfect crossroads of multiple urban trends. Around then, the city was in the midst of declaring bankruptcy. That moment created a new sense of urgency among those wealthy enough to do something about the future of the … Read more

Why Amazon Is Filled with Garbage Ebooks and How They Could Fix It

Why Amazon Is Filled With Garbage Ebooks and How They Could Fix It

An article from Vox this week explored why exactly Amazon is filled with so many garbage ebooks, and the answer is infuriatingly straightforward. AI makes it easy to generate content, Amazon makes it too easy to publish large volumes of ebooks with minimal quality standards and effective growth hacker marketing makes it easy to promote these … Read more

What Would You Put In the “Forever Library” to Archive Human Existence for a Billion Years?

What Would You Put In the Forever Library To Archive Human Existence For a Billion Years

Several million years from now when future civilizations or aliens or whatever is around then look back on human existence, at least they will know how David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear back in 1983. That’s just one of the archives of humanity that is part of the Galactic Legacy Archive–a library of … Read more

The New Luxury Airline for Dogs Called BarkAir Is Not a Joke, It’s a Brilliant Marketing Stunt

First Class Dog

Apparently it has been a dream of dogfood subscription brand BarkBox for more than a decade to create an airline dedicated to flying dogs and their human companions around the world. Now they are making it a reality through a partnership with private jet charter company Talon Air and the way they are doing it is … Read more

AI Disproportionately Affects Women. We All Need to Fight Back.

AI Beauty Pageant

This week, the “world’s first Miss AI” digital beauty contest was announced with $5000 prize awarded based on beauty and skill using AI tools. One tech expert predicted that the AI girlfriend industry could hit $1B in revenue soon despite multiple reports of how the creators of these digital companions may be hoarding your private data. While these issues could … Read more

Meet Tupperware: The Slowing Fading Brand That Should Have Won the Nostalgia Trend

Meet-Tupperware-The-Slowing-Fading-Brand-That-Should-Have-Won-The-Nostalgia-Trend

Tupperware parties were a thing; once so iconic that they symbolized an entire cultural movement of work-from-home (mostly) female entrepreneurs in a time when opportunities for women to run and own their own businesses were rare. Today the company is in rapid decline and the public shift away from plastic food containers is only one reason for it. A … Read more

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Rohit is the author of 10 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.

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