Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 16

The Tesla Resistance Is Real. Here’s What It Means …

Tesla owners are disguising their cars as a sign of resistance. There are plenty of YouTube videos with tips on how to hide the evidence that you’re driving a Tesla. Others are putting bumper stickers explaining that: “I bought this before Elon went crazy.” People are selling or otherwise getting rid of their Teslas if they can afford to, and the stock is in a nosedive. All of these are a growing response to owner Elon Musk’s erratic behavior and lack of attention spent recently on running Tesla...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St. Clair

There are colors that you may have heard of, and more than a few that you haven’t. This highly original book takes a look at all of them and gives you all the meanings and symbolism of colors that you may never have thought about. Rated by USA Today as one of their “Top 100 Books to Read While Stuck at Home During the Coronavirus Crisis”—I’m pretty sure this was the first time I came across the book too. Since then, I have referred to it often when I’m going through an exercise to work on a book...

The Talking Tree and How AI Can Give a Voice to the Voiceless

How can you get young people to reconnect with nature? Let them talk to a tree. That’s the creative premise behind a new campaign that features a 150-year-old horse chestnut tree in London’s Morden Hill Park, which ‘speaks’ using “real-time sensory data from over 10 sensors measuring wind speed, soil moisture, humidity, and bioelectrical signals. This data feeds into an LLM that shapes the tree’s personality and enables live conversations.”

While a novel concept, this also signals an inte...

The 7 Non-Obvious Secrets of Understanding People to Predict the Future

This past week, I debuted a new keynote talk at SXSW, and it was all about understanding people. I will share the full video when it comes out in a few weeks, but in case you want a behind the scenes look at the tips, here’s the full list:

BEING UNIQUELY HUMAN IS THE ADVANTAGEIDENTITY ALWAYS SHAPES BELIEFSWINNERS AREN’T THE SAME AS CHAMPIONSEASY, OBVIOUS ANSWERS ARE A DISTRACTIONPEOPLE & EXPERIENCES SHOULD SURPRISE YOUMEANING COMES FROM INTERSECTIONSUNDISCOVERY CAN BE...

What Entitlement Looks Like? Adrien Brody’s Oscars Award Acceptance Speech

When the Best Actor award was announced and Adrien Brody took the top honor for the second time, he headed toward stage and abruptly stopped. Realizing he was chewing gum, he took it out and threw it to his partner and “personal gum valet” Georgina Chapman. That was just part of the criticism that author Joe Berkowitz offers up for Brody who’s “case study in entitlement” was broken down in this article. The reaction to his speech (which broke the Guinness record for its length) was widely negati...

The Ultimate Movie Brand Partnership: Kleenex and IMDB Launch “The Kleenex Score”

There aren’t many brands that define their entire category so much that people literally use the brand name interchangeably to describe the product. Kleenex has always had that for the tissue industry, and now they are doubling down on this dominance with a clever new partnership with movie database IMDB to offer “The Kleenex Score” to movies so you can anticipate how much a movie is likely to make you cry. Preparing for that moment, of course, involves getting the Kleenex ready.

This is ...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: The Endless Refrain by David Rowell

What would a world without any new music sound like? Perhaps we are already there, a reality music writer and journalist David Rowell explores in this deep exploration of the current and potential future of music and those who create it. From considering what it means for holographic versions of dead musicians to be going back on tour, to the impact of digital listening platforms like Spotify on music discovery—this is an wide-reaching but also deeply personal look at the forces subverting music...

How a Pharma Ad Ban Could Shift the Landscape of Television Advertising

The advertising industry is anxiously awaiting potential news that newly appointed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who started his term by single-handedly bringing the deadly measles disease backfrom near extinction, may turn his attention toward the pharma industry by banning all drug advertising on television. Unlike his widely criticized stance on vaccines, this is a move that most Americans support. It’s also one causing significant discussion among those in the advertising and media ind...

The Inside Story of Elon Musk’s Takeover of the US Government and Why It Matters

Here’s the TLDR version of this story: Elon Musk is a visionary who believes he alone knows what humanity needs to thrive in the future and he wants the freedom to execute his vision without any oversight from anybody. Dismantling the Federal government is the fastest way to execute this goal.

This past weekend the New York Times published a meticulously reported exposé of all the moves the Elon Musk and the DOGE group has made to take over the Federal Bureaucracy, as well as offered some...

Inside the Blind Box Phenomenon Fueling the Resurgence of the Art Toy Industry

Outside a Pop Mart store in Vietnam there is a line around the block at 2am. The cause for all this excitement is the latest blind box release of a limited edition figurine … otherwise known as an art toy. In case you’re not familiar, these figurines are collectibles that allow customers to “express creativity, find joy and connect with others.” That’s a quote from an executive at Pop Mart (obviously) but he’s not exaggerating that there are plenty of customers who devote hours to building their...