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The Dangerous Stupidity of “Doing Your Own Research”

Froot Loops

In a recent interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested that parents of newborn babies should do their own research before vaccinating their babies. Here’s the full quote: “I would say that we live in a democracy, and part of the responsibility of being a parent is to do your own research. You research the baby … Read more

Why the Nike Backlash May Be Just the Beginning

Nike backlash

When Jennifer and I wrote Beyond Diversity, one of the first things we talked about was blind spots. We knew that there would be things we could not see or cultural references we might not know. It was the reason we engaged six contributors and another eight sensitivity readers to help us uncover those deficits in … Read more

UAE Becomes First Region to Experiment with Using AI to Write New Laws

UAE uses AI to write lesgislation

Here’s a fascinating statistic about the recent state of AI regulation: “at least 69 countries have proposed over 1,000 AI-related policy initiatives globally, but these primarily focus on how to control AI rather than empower it.” What could empowered AI do for the future of government? The United Arab Emirates is the first nation to … Read more

Earth Day, Environmental Hostility and The Blue Marble 50 Years Later

Blue marble

This past week was Earth Day and one of the efforts to commemorate the day was NASA recognizing the 50th anniversary of their iconic “blue marble” photo of the Earth by releasing a similar image taken fifty years later. How did they compare? “In the 50 years that separates these two snapshots in time, one … Read more

3 Powerful Talks from TED This Week That Are Already Available Live to Watch

TED Robot butler

The TED conference took place this past week and some of the talks have already been released. While most of the year the TED social channels repackage and release talks from past events, this is the one moment when you can actually watch talks close to when they were first presented live. Going through the … Read more

How NFL’s New 8k “Hawk Eye” Cameras Offer an Interesting Model for Truth and Verification

Hawk Eye

Rather than relying on chains and the human eye to measure whether teams have achieved a first down in NFL football games next season, the league is turning to Sony 8k cameras with a new technology known as “hawk eye” to precisely and instantly measure whether a first down was achieved. The idea is to verify the … Read more

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Who Is Government? by Michael Lewis

NOBW_who is government

In the words of bestselling author Garrett Graff who recently wrote a review for The Washington Post, this book “examines some of the remarkable people who make up the federal workforce — career civil servants who have accomplished the extraordinary in quiet ways, people whose jobs are normally buried layers below any partisan rancor. Perhaps never … Read more

The Wild Theory of the “Mar-a-Lago Accord” That Aims to Explain Everything Trump Is Doing

Mar a Lago accord

There is a theory circulating Wall Street and other circles that aims to take all the chaos of the first several months of the new Trump administration and offer an explanation for how it all fits a grand master plan that could, if it works, be heralded as “the greatest geopolitical deal of the century.” … Read more

Why the EPA Fighting Back Matters

EPA

The EPA has a marketing problem and it’s a basic one that has existed for decades. Despite being largely effective in its mission to protect American air quality and prevent toxic sludge from entering waterways, the government agency receives almost no public credit for their success. Of course, I’m oversimplifying their mission and perhaps overstating their success—but … Read more

Can Brand America Be Destroyed?

Brand America

Diplomats and trading partners don’t trust the word of America anymore. Countries are hosting summits and meetings to discuss alliances specifically omitting the US. Politicians in other countries are winning elections because they argue against America. There are even kits for sale online to help Americans who do travel abroad to disguise themselves as more … Read more

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#1 WSJ & USA Today Bestselling Author

In addition to Non-Obvious Thinking, 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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