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An increasingly popular narrative arc in storytelling is to take a classic bad guy and humanize him to flip the story. The bad guy isn’t intrinsically bad – but becomes that way through some sort of trauma.
One thing that right and left wing media personalities have in common: they are both desperate to be hated. Attracting the hate of their ideological opposites has become a sad metric for success. If you’re not pissing someone off, you’re not doing your job. The same mentality has entered into the world of business and entrepreneurship. … Read more
I spend a lot of time writing my books. For Non-Obvious Megatrends, my team of editors and I went through fourteen rounds of editing and obsessed over every word in every section to share the insights as succinctly as possible without losing the nuance of all the research we had amassed from ten years of … Read more
Hollywood and just about any other creative industry is filled with success stories of people to took big risks to find that “performance of a lifetime.” To some degree, these are what make awards like the Oscars so watchable. That actor who lost (or gained) 50 pounds in service of a great role, or the … Read more
A new Netflix eight-part mini-series called Indian Matchmaking has been sparking a big debate online because of how it shines a spotlight on what one observer called “Brahmanical patriarchy … shaped by gender, caste, and economic relationships.” The show tells the story of arranged marriages from the perspective of a famous matchmaker who uses “biodata” to connect people. … Read more
I have wanted to go to the Comic-Con event for years, but never quite managed to make it. This year, I finally can – because the entire event is happening virtually. It is happening all weekend, and there is already an excellent panel online you can watch on how teachers are using comic books to help students … Read more
Can a Super Bowl ad that costs nearly $6 million be worth it? That’s a question worth debating if you’re in marketing, so let’s take a look at some of the Super Bowl marketing strategies behind the ads from this year’s big game and see which ones were the biggest winners and losers. For longtime … Read more
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
There is a moment during a show at the Austin City Limits where Ed Sheeran finally starts to perform his biggest hit at the time: Shape of You. About 10 seconds into the performance, he breaks a guitar string. Watching what he does next is a master class in stage presence, preparation and perhaps the … Read more
Why HBO’s Chernobyl Is The Feel-Terrible Hit Everyone NeededLike over six million viewers I have been completely engrossed in the storytelling of this startlingly accurate hit mini-series about the 80’s era nuclear disaster. The lessons for today are profound and despite casting that oddly seems to avoid any actual Russian actors in lead roles, the five episode series is … Read more
Non-Obvious is my #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book about how to see what others miss and anticipate the future.
Rohit Bhargava is a trend curator, founder of the Non-Obvious Company and the 3-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books.
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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.
