Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 16

The Non-Obvious Media Platform of the Week: Shelly Palmer Blog

Rather than sharing a book recommendation this week, I wanted to switch it up and share a media source that’s particularly timely right now. If you’re not familiar with Shelly Palmer, he is a tech commentator and overall insightful voice on the future of technology. At CES he hosts tours and often offers his own perspective on hits and misses from the show.

More significantly, throughout the year he posts details about the things that are happening in tech and has been very aggressive abo...

The Hottest Innovations and Tech from CES 2025 — Insights from the Ground

I’m very tempted to put together a “best innovations” list from the world’s largest tech trade show. I did one last year and I know that’s probably the biggest thing you want to know about my experience here at CES anyway. CNET, Engadget, WIRED, Tom’s Guide and lots of other tech media have already been releasing their picks for the best, most fun products and inventions. This year, I’ve been focusing my efforts on videos and will be releasing lots of the stories over the next few weeks. The peo...

Want To Help LA? Curb Your Schadenfreude

A billionaire posted a desperate tweet asking for private fire support to save his home … and he was attacked for it. Turns out this particular billionaire posted in the past about lowering property taxes and generally supports politicians who advocate for smaller government. Along with that smaller government and less taxes, though, there is less money to pay those brave firefighters who are currently overworked and underpaid yet still trying to save people’s homes and businesses.

Every ...

The Long Game of the Kardashians May Be Smarter Than You Think

Most of us know that reality TV is often heavily scripted and edited to tell an intentionally melodramatic story. Usually the on-screen participants have little to no control over how they are portrayed. The Kardashians have always been different. The family has frequently been criticized for having little talent and only being famous for being famous–the ultimate oxymoron. Yet over the past decade, the individual sisters from this “untalented” family have taken their fame and turned it into mul...

Will Facebook Become a Sad AI-Dominated Graveyard in the Coming Year?

Facebook announced they are going to get more aggressive with allowing AI-generated users and profiles on Facebook. In a move literally no one was asking for, they announced the shift and one of their senior AI execs at Facebook described their vision this way:

“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do. They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform… that’s where...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Infectious Generosity by Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson knows big ideas. As the head of TED, the global organization behind TED talks and TED X events, he has been witness to the backstory of more big ideas than most. His biggest is that humans are hardwired to be generous. Not that it’s easy to remember that in a world that seems colder than it actually is. Yet the stories he tells and examples he brings together offer a reminder that we all can give ourselves the grace to be our most generous selves and make a difference in the world...

How 2025 Could Become The Year of Reuse

Every time I would visit India growing up, one sight would fascinate me as we traveled the roads was the number of old Ambassador black taxis that continued to dominate the roads for five decades. The thing I didn’t know as a child but later learned was that the “secret” to their longevity was that the insides of the cars would be completely replaced over time. While the iconic car brand has since been discontinued, I couldn’t help thinking about it this week as a read about a luxury service des...

What We Can Learn From 2024 Most Hated Ads

The worst ads of the year, according to marketing publication The Drum, included Apple’s cringy ad showing the iPad literally crushing human creativity, Google showing how AI could help a seven year cheat her way through writing a fan letter to an Olympian, Jaguar’s controversial brand revamp, Bumble’s bumbling ad imploring their female users to hook up more often and several others. I had to agree with the assessments for the various ads/campaigns being terrible, but looking at the list there w...

6 Techniques to Find Anything That’s Lost or See What Others Miss

You know that moment when you misplace something, and it takes forever to find? It could be your keys or a handwritten to-do list or anything else that seemingly just disappeared into thin air. Maybe you never found it.

A piece from NPR this week collects six techniques that would be worth remembering to help you solve this very common human problem:

Identify what makes your missing object stand out in its environment.Think about likely scenarios of how and why your object might ...

Jamie Foxx and His Family Offer a Masterclass on How to Maintain Privacy

About eighteen months ago, actor and musician Jamie Foxx got sick. Like really sick. He was rushed to the hospital with “life threatening” injuries and fans plus the media alike all were left to pray and speculate about the mysterious cause of his illness.

Meanwhile, his family and friends kept quiet about it – refusing to share details and declining all interviews. Of course, the media and Internet filled the void with lots of baseless conspiracy theories (it was a hit job from Diddy!) Still...