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This week my story picks range from exploring the future of luxury marketing and healthcare to addictive game design to the world of people who are paid to watch Netflix content. I have to admit, the one about the Netflix content taggers did intrigue me – as I never really thought about how all of … Read more
I spent the early part of this week at SXSW and one of the themes of my talk (see slides here) was our shifting relationship to the truth. I believe we must choose to venture beyond our own media bubbles and seek out information from unfamiliar sources. This week the largest ever study of fake news found … Read more
In this data visualization, the shift in diversity of both race and gender in newsroom staff and leadership across the country is analyzed with some interesting results. The newsrooms overall, as you probably expect, are overwhelmingly white and skewed toward men. More interesting is the fact that over the past 15 years the Washington Post and NY Times have … Read more
Just ten days before the highly anticipated Star Trek: Discovery finally premieres, Netflix released a timely list of the most frequently re-watched Star Trek episodes. If you are a trekkie, the full list will be fascinating – but I selected this story for another reason. It’s a rare look inside the treasure trove of data Netflix has about … Read more
For a crash course in figuring out what is real and what isn’t online, who better to turn to than a YouTuber who has built a reputation out of debunking viral videos and showing what techniques they have used. While you could go frame by frame to see the tricks, the more useful conclusion from … Read more
What if you could craft your own story in a television episode? Netflix is experimenting with letting kids do exactly that in a new episode of The Adventures of Puss in Boots by giving them half a dozen choices in the episode that each send the story in a different direction. It’s a bold experiment … Read more
Are you a member of the media? Visit our media kit to download a trend summary and more information about requesting an interview with Rohit >> This week I launched the seventh edition of my annual trend report featuring all of my research from throughout the year on trends. Many of you have already picked … Read more
This week the Internet went crazy talking about how Brangelina split. Despite how important that “news” might be – it’s clearly not the kind of “non-obvious” story I have to share today. Instead, this week’s underappreciated marketing stories feature YouTube’s desperate plan to fix their longtime problem with comments, a glimpse into what Netflix might do … Read more
I am deep in the midst of writing the next edition of Non-Obvious and identifying new trends for 2017. The research has been leading me down some interesting paths as I curate this weekly email for you. You’ll see some of those emerge this week, in stories that take you inside the strange Korean social … Read more
The big news of Unilever purchasing subscription site Dollar Shave Club for $1B this week probably dominated your newsfeed this week, and one that I had two separate journalists contact me about for comment. Subscription commerce is back in the spotlight for this week, but the more interesting stories this week for me included an … Read more
Non-Obvious Thinking is my upcoming book about the 4 secrets of becoming a non-obvious thinker - coming 09/24!
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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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.
