Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 32

The Awoken & The Sleepless

The Non-Obvious Book(s) of the Week

It’s the summer and when it comes to reading, for many people that means reading fiction … so this week I’m shifting my book recommendations to a different genre. My two picks this week came out within a month of each other back in 2022 and may seem similar based on their titles but are actually quite different but equally compelling imaginings of a dystopian future. In The Awoken, author Katelyn Monroe Howes transports the reader to a potential future wher...

Porto and the Importance of City Branding

As I write this, I’m just off the stage here in Portugal at one of the largest business conferences of the year in Europe at the QSP Summit in the city of Porto. Aside from its picturesque location on the Northern coast, the country’s second largest city also enjoys a reputation as an award-winning destination due to a combination of its experiences, food and branding.
Longtime readers may not be surprised to hear that it’s the last element that I find the most intriguing. Many destinations compe...

How Global Sports Are Showcasing a Surprising Upside of Immigration

This summer is a back-to-back sports frenzy in my household. It started with the T20 Cricket World Cup, followed closely by two major soccer tournaments: the UEFA European Championship and Copa America, which will both conclude this coming weekend. Then later this month, the Paris 2024 Olympics will start (which we will be attending in person). One unexpected story that has continually taken center stage in these competitions is the role of immigration in the shape of many of the teams and the a...

A First Look at America’s Smartest Highway

Driverless vehicles are obviously going to be part of humanity’s future, but they aren’t experiencing a great PR moment right now. Every day it seems there is another story about an incident involving a driverless vehicle hitting someone, mistaking something on the road or generally malfunctioning. Not to mention the justifiable fears of hacking that will be more top of mind when (not if) a higher profile example of this actually happens.One rapidly emerging solution to at least some of these pr...

Too Little Government

Is there such a thing as too little government? This feels like a loaded political question in a time when trust in government is historically low. Government and business are usually positioned as enemies-
The current fear is that more government regulation will stifle business, while too little regulation incentivizes the greediest companies and criminals to take advantage of a world with no oversight. Most citizens in any nation would agree that striking the right balance is essential.
What mak...

A Man of the World: My Life at National Geographic by Gilbert M. Grosvenor

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week

The birthday of a nation is a perfect moment to celebrate heroes and the American hero I pick to honor on this 4th of July is Gilbert Grosvenor.
While his name might be unfamiliar, the brand his family has managed for more than a century has left a large, yellow-bordered mark on the world. The National Geographic Society and their iconic magazine have illuminated every corner of the world for decades. In this “swashbuckling memoir … filled with pirates, royalty...

Chick-fil-A Launches Summer Camp for Young Kids: Is It Smart or Evil?

This July, children aged 5-12 years old in some regions can sign up for a summer camp experience to go behind the scenes at a Chick-fil-A restaurant to see how the food is made and how operations work. It’s been predictably popular among young fans of the brand and the few locations where it is offered are already sold out. When news of the program broke, the brand received plenty of criticism online from people joking that it seemed like an evil master plan to employ child labor and commenting ...

How 7879 Is Transforming the Jewelry Resale Market

Putting your money into buying gold has long been considered one of the most stable investments. Buying jewelry, though, is rarely as safe of a bet because of all the marketing and impurities that go into the products. New fashion ecommerce site 7879 (the name comes from a combination of the atomic element numbers for gold and platinum) is trying to change that. The platform only sells products that are 24 karat purity and certified.
More interesting is their ambition to allow customers to view t...

Neuralink May Create a Generation of Gamers with Superhuman Reflexes

Earlier this year Noland Arbaugh became the first patient to receive a brain-computer chip implanted by Elon Musk’s startup Neuralink after a diving accident left him paralyzed. Aside from being able to move a cursor with his mind now, he recently told podcaster Joe Rogan that the implant has also given him near superhuman reflexes in a handful of video games. The advantage is so extreme, that he suggested in the future “they’ll probably have different leagues for people like me because it’s jus...

Want To Understand How AI Could Transform Our World? Read More Philosophy.

AI-induced angst seems to be on everyone’s mind. Just this week I was invited to an hour-long virtual session with a group of brand experts and strategists about the future of AI and creative industries. I was tempted to do what most others do and focus on the latest technology. Whether it’s fun but relatively pointless talking head animations or mind-blowing examples of one-button Hollywood level animation, the simultaneous cheering and fearing of AI usually centers on talking about the tools. ...