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Today is February 29th – which apparently is a quite popular day to get married. Some couples think it’s quirky or romantic. And let’s be honest, a handful of people might be hoping they only have to celebrate an anniversary once every four years. Not that I identify with this idea at all, of course. … Read more
Imagine you’re living in a cramped apartment with a bunch of extra stuff that you don’t need year-round. You could keep it at your parent’s house – if you’re a young person and they live nearby. Or get a storage locker, which is inconvenient and requires a lot of effort. Or you could try ADD + … Read more
This past Wednesday was Valentine’s Day, and there were dozens of stories about love in one form or another. Collectively, these stories illustrated how there is a reevaluation happening now around love and how people are experimenting with new ways to find companionship, from AI girlfriends and boyfriends to polyamory experiments to automated dating. Here … Read more
Did you know that back in the earliest days of the Internet, there were a list of error codes created for situations that the web’s first designers thought would be highly possible in the future? Of course, the dreaded 404-error is the one that most of us know well: page not found. It was ubiquitous among websites … Read more
Uptalk. It’s the vocal quirk that makes every sentence sound like a question and it’s something you are regularly taught to avoid. It’s also a key element in the “TikTok voice,” a vocal style adopted mainly by female influencers that some linguists believe might signal the future of English. Uptalk has been criticized because it seems to indicate … Read more
Historical images are filled of statues with broken noses from all cultures. There are many theories to explain this. Ancient Egyptians thought that a life force would enter statues through the nose, so breaking the nose from a statue would (in theory) render it useless. Destroying artifacts has long been used by conquerors to cripple a … Read more
What if being beautiful or athletically gifted isn’t as great as most people think? It is true that being good looking is often linked to getting opportunities you otherwise wouldn’t have and this so-called “pretty privilege” often results in gifts, special access and even better career opportunities. Similarly, those who excel at sports are often socially popular … Read more
How do you reinvent something as staid and traditional as the engagement ring? One jeweler in the UK had the bright idea to create this “Croc wedding charm” that is custom designed, uses flat back screws to ensure a secure fit, and starts at £1,790. In their words, “we love pushing the boundaries of jewelry … and we’re looking … Read more
Last year, a US judge issued a landmark ruling that an artist “cannot copyright duct tape or bananas.” These were the two primary materials used by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan when he taped a banana to a wall, called it art and then was promptly sued by another artist who said he was actually the first to duct tape fruit to a … Read more
A new Gallup poll released just in time for the 4th of July leads with the eye-catching headline that extreme pride in being American is at a record low. As often is the case with sensational headline summaries like this, the true insight of the poll is buried further in the results. First of all, while … Read more
Non-Obvious Thinking is my latest book about the 4 secrets of becoming a non-obvious thinker - relesaed 10/01/2024.
Rohit Bhargava is a trend curator, founder of the Non-Obvious Company and the 3-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author of ten books.
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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.
