Non-Obvious Strategy
Trader Joe’s and the Slow Death of Brand Personality
Update – Two weeks after this post was originally published, Trader Joe’s issued a new statement sharing that they do not consider these brand names to be racist and instead will be keeping them intact. I believe brands should act in human ways and have a personality. In fact, I wrote a book on it … Read more
How Researchers Trained and Created AI With Psycopathic Tendencies
What happens when you train an AI algorithm only with murderous images from horror films or macabre photos from the Internet? A seriously disturbed AI, as researchers at the MIT Media Lab discovered. The AI, named “Norman” after the lead character from the horror film “Psycho,” reacted disturbingly in image association tests and exhibited severe tendencies toward … Read more
The Truth About Fox News: It Isn’t Fake.
Calling Fox News fake is a common theme among the people in my social media circles, but I have long been curious about their reporting and why so many people seem so deeply influenced by it. I’m a frequent reader of their stories and consistently have it as part of my overall media diet even … Read more
5 Ways To Conquer Zoom Fatigue
We are tired of Zoom. It’s not just Zoom, but the idea of being on video all day that is straining our relationship with the same video technology that once seemed like it might offer us a salvation from the isolation of working remotely. The fatigue is predictable, and growing. There are also some several … Read more
What Boxed Mac & Cheese Can Teach You About Disruption and How One Brand Quietly Embraces Its Racist Name | Non-Obvious Insights #222
This week’s stories include the reimagining of some racist logos from the past, the emerging field of digital nutrition, the dangers of Facebook Groups and what the popularity of boxed mac & cheese can teach us about disruption today and what it may mean for our long-term future. For longtime readers of this email, I … Read more
The Truth About Fake News, Virus-Killing Cars and How Twitter Might Save Social Media | Non-Obvious Insights #221
To understand the world, most of us rely on news media. The problem is, it’s hard to know what to trust. It’s an issue that we often hear described as “fake news,” but the real issue may be what we call “news” in the first place. Read this story and all the others from my … Read more
5 Non-Obvious Megatrends Changing Our World In 2020
For the past ten years I have gone through an annual ritual of publishing a book about trends that describe our shifting culture and business environment. Over the past decade, my team and I have identified and written about well over 100 trends covering everything from the rise of the #metoo movement (a trend we … Read more
Why Trend Predictions Suck (And How To Fix Them)
The first time I wrote about trends, I was inspired by bullshit. I remember reading an article with a headline that promised “5 Trends That Will Change The Future.” The first trend on the list was “Mobile Usage Will Continue To Rise.” That was the moment when I understood deeply why so many people mistrust … Read more
