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Cultural Themes from Apple’s App of the Year Award Finalists

Cultural Themes from Apple's App of the Year Finalists

Apple announced all the finalists for their App of the Year awards and the majority are the sorts of apps you would expect. Image manipulation tools and productivity apps to help you create better images, videos, or content. Buried within the awards announcement, though, is a category that stood out: apps that deliver “Cultural Impact.” The eight … Read more

WSJ Just Killed Its Bestseller List. Do These Lists Even Matter Anymore?

WSJ-drops-bestseller-list

Books are an anomaly when it comes to how “bestsellers” are ranked. Movies are judged by their total box office numbers. Music is rated based on listens and album sales cumulatively. By contrast, a bestselling book generally earns that designation after a single great week of sales. Or in the case of an Amazon bestseller, maybe … Read more

Can Shaming Agencies Create a Talent Rebellion Against “Unworthy” Brands?

A environmental activist group that calls themselves Clean Creatives is “once again calling out ad agencies that have contracts with fossil fuel companies in a series of billboards across New York.” The strategy behind this makes sense: shame creative professionals to pressure them into not taking work with certain companies and create a talent drain. … Read more

How One-Star “Review Bombing” on GoodReads Is Tanking Books and Manipulating Public Opinion

Recently in a workshop I was leading, a gentleman mentioned he would often judge a book by its Amazon reviews. The problem with this strategy is that sometimes those reviews are unfair, biased or come from people who have never actually read the book. Author Cecilia Rabess is a case study in what happens when a book … Read more

The Most Popular Non-Obvious Stories of 2022 (Based On Reader Feedback)

Based on this combination of quantitative and qualitative data, here is a partial list of some of the most popular stories of the year, based on what my readers shared.

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

Is Social Media Making It Impossible To Grow Up?

It should be a basic human right to remember the past with fondness as being better than it actually was. Unfortunately, for today’s generation of young people, this may already be impossible. “Can one ever transcend one’s youth if it remains perpetually present?” asks author Kate Eichhorn. As they grow up online, an underappreciated side … Read more

The 2018 Non-Obvious Book Awards – Top 50 Business Books Of The Year

The Non Obvious Book Award

Every year my team and I read and review hundreds of books in the process of curating ideas to incorporate in our annual list of trends. Beyond using those books to inspire how we see the world, we also select our favorites each year to feature as part of the Non-Obvious Book Awards program. For … Read more

Why Do Critics Hate Movies That Real People Love?

The Queen-inspired film Bohemian Rhapsody film was poorly rated by critics, yet became a big box office hit. Earlier this year, the same thing happened to Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Show musical film about the life of PT Barnum. Why are critics so out of touch with what real people like? And why do we love the … Read more

How To Tell If You’re An Asshole (And Why It’s So Hard)

sagrada familia line

Last week a small army of cruise ship passengers disrupted a funeral in the tiny Norwegian city of Honningsvåg and took pictures of the mourners. According to The Guardian, Barcelona is crowded with careless tourists who overrun destinations and fail to respect the culture. A political story of a Supreme Court nominee seeming to ignore a handshake and walk away this … Read more

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#1 WSJ & USA Today Bestselling Author

Rohit is the author of 9 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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