Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 11

The Future of Animation Will Be 90% Faster Than Before

A few years ago, lip-syncing one minute of animation used to take about four hours. Now it can be done in 15 minutes. That’s just one of the dramatic time-saving features of AI when it comes to animation, but what’s most interesting about these tools in the world of Hollywood is just how quickly they are being implemented specifically for animation. Unlike much of the rest of the film industry that can occasionally be tech-averse–animation has been computer assisted for decades.

This fact...

The Coffee Shop That Accepts Gossip and Rumors as Payment

Good News Coffee might be my new favorite coffee shop. Unfortunately for me, they only have locations in Barcelona, Paris, Madrid and Amsterdam so far. They are quickly building a reputation for unusual promotions designed to get their customers off their phones, away from social media and actually interacting with real humans. Their latest effort to give people free drinks in exchange for oversharing is just one in a long string of inventive promotions:

“Gossip-for-beverages joins other init...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Always Eat Left-Handed … And Other Secrets for Killing It at Work and in Real Life by Rohit Bhargava

Back in 2013, I wrote a career and life advice book. It was my third book and before I really understood what it took to get a book into the market. Five years later, I released a redesigned and updated version, and it quickly eclipsed the first release. Over the past few years, right around graduation season it has been my most popular book filled with plenty of irreverent advice for young people and a unique perspective on what it really takes to build a career (and life).

Several unive...

What Is Millennial Hobby Energy?

Doing things for fun is making a comeback. That may seem like an odd statement, but there is a time in many people’s lives when everything feels too busy to indulge in hobbies. When we get that inevitable question of what we do for fun, often the answer starts with the saddest statement ever: what I used to do is _______.

According to writer Anne Helen Peterson, many millennials have “trudged through burnout and are trying to figure out who they are outside of work.” This leads many towar...

Useless Rebranding and the Underappreciated Marketing Strategy of Doing Nothing

HBO rebranded to HBO Max, and then to Max … and now back to HBO Max. Meanwhile Google is losing their longstanding “I’m Feeling Lucky” button and once again rainbow-izing their entire logo suite to make them even more indistinguishable from one another. Watching these ill-advised branding moves is enough to make anyone wonder why marketing teams need to spend so much time, money and creative energy unnecessarily reinventing things. There are, of course, examples of brilliant rebranding like what...

When the Government Refuses to Protect Consumers, Tools Like This Can Fill the Gap

For over thirty years, the EPA’s Energy Star testing and certification program has helped consumers see how energy-efficient an appliance or electronic device is before buying. Recently the new EPA leadership has announced they will likely eliminate the program. It’s one of many such eliminations of government entities created to help protect consumers that are happening now in the US. As these agencies are defunded, the natural question to ask is what (if anything) will replace them?

The...

The Hobo Handbook May Be the World’s Most Secretive Book

There is no way to buy a copy of the legendary Hobo Handbook. * Long rumored to be a “book” filled with advice from train hoppers on how to ride across America and Canada for free, the alternate title for the book is the “Crew Change Guide.” As the title suggests, the book is filled with information about how to take advantage of that crew change moment when train personnel are likely to be distracted and sneaking aboard is easier.

“New editions trickle out each year, photocopied in public li...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Late Bloomers by Rich Karlgaard

From all the “30 under 30” lists to the stories of tech billionaires who made their fortunes in their early 20s it can seem like the world has become obsessed with those who find their successes early. In the world of sports, that makes sense as our physical abilities always fade as we get older. But for many of us, success comes later in life. Sometimes much later. I often talk about finally becoming an entrepreneur at age 40 and how grateful I am that I was able to be an employee working for s...

Need AI To Provide Closure? That Might Be in All of Our Futures …

If the dead could speak, what would they say? One family used AI to create an avatar version of a man who was killed in a tragic incidence of road rage, so that he could speak at the trial of the man who killed him. The family chose to use the avatar to offer forgiveness and honor the life of the man who was killed … but they could have had the avatar say anything else. The story sparked a lot of controversy because it raised some difficult questions about what we owe those who have died and whe...

Why 3D Fixables Could Create an Entirely New Sustainable Industry

Philips is beta testing a new platform that allows consumers to 3D print a replacement accessory for one of their electric shavers. Right now, it’s just one accessory and it’s only available in the Czech Republic – but the test is getting a lot of attention from product teams in a variety of sectors. The idea that companies could make accessories or offer small, hard-to-stock pieces directly for consumers to print at home or locally could be a game changer on many different levels.

The in...