Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 35

This Brilliant Nonprofit Might Have the Answer to Solve America’s Political Division

The widely publicized death of local news has created a knowledge and truth void when it comes to very important public questions. Like how are your tax dollars being spent? And what decisions are being made on a local level that affect your life and your community? Unless you happen to be a citizen with a deep commitment to doing your civic duty, what you know about politics is probably shaped by the circus of national news media. This is bad for many reasons, but the biggest is that a lack of ...

The Good and Bad of Planning Your Next Trip Using AI Travel Tools

The promise is appealing. Just put your desired holiday destination into an AI travel planning tool and it can quickly generate a sample itinerary with all the must-visit sights from a certain destination. Yet as one journalist found when doing a test of AI as a trip planning assistant, there are some pretty big tradeoffs you’ll need to be willing to make.

To start, there is the obvious limitation that AI will likely use outdated information to build the itinerary – which means restaurants that h...

Do You Have the Right to Recline in a Crowded Airplane Economy Seat?

Seat reclining does not improve your leg room.

That’s just one of the underappreciated truths about airplane seats that seems like it needs to be said repeatedly out loud for traveler’s benefit as we head into the busy Spring and Summer travel seasons. If you have suffered through having an unexpectedly reclined seat shoved toward your face, or fought a silent battle over whether reclining your own seat is somehow against common airplane social etiquette, this article is a necessary read....

Barilla and the Marketing Pitfall of the Unnecessary Celebrity Spokesperson

Pasta boxes are the perfect packaging to reuse. Pasta leaves no residue, and the boxes are generally large enough to fit other items. That’s clearly the inspiration for a new campaign from Barilla that promotes box reusability in time for Global Recycling Day. The campaign casts tidying guru Marie Kondo as the spokesperson and their campaign video starts with Kondo carefully folding a pair of socks that apparently she has sold through a secondhand market.

Putting aside the unlikely idea t...

Lincoln Introduces Scent Cartridges to Enhance the Driving Experience

Who doesn’t love that new car smell? The problem is, eventually it will wear off and then your car smells like something else. And if you happen to have two teenage boys, that something else usually isn’t too good.

Lincoln has a creative solution, as they recently announced on the 2024 Nautilus they partnered with perfumiers to offer seven unique scent cartridges that can be inserted into a panel under the lid of the center armrest.

As the company writes, “the sense of smell is of special interest...

Facebook Brought Back the “Poke” Button … Here’s Why So Many People Started Using It Again

About a decade ago in a Facebook post, Mark Zuckerberg once wrote “we thought it would be fun to make a feature that has no specific purpose.” He was describing the much-ridiculed Facebook “Poke” button which was retired but now may be making a bit of a comeback. The thing people simultaneously loved and hated about it was that it was so hard to explain. What is a poke? Was getting one a good sign or not? And what should come after a poke to keep an online conversation going? 

No one ever...

If Anyone Can Explain The “Weight Loss Revolution” … It Might Be Oprah

The “meta-narrative” of Oprah’s legendary media career has been her weight loss and body image. As a result, she may be the perfect ambassador to explain the impact weight-loss drugs are having on the story of obesity in America and beyond. Should these drugs be considered medical treatment for a condition (obesity) that should be blamed on food manufacturers and not people? Or is this a get-thin-quick scheme destined to offer hope to people desperate to lose weight while the companies behind th...

The Curious Annual Ritual of Frog Shuttling and Why People Do It

You may have seen videos in your social media feed of animal lovers saving a baby chick who falls into a storm drain, or a dog trapped by a flood or a baby elephant struggling to get out of a mud pit. These human-saves-animal videos often go viral at least in part because of how rare they seem … but what if they happened predictably every year? It turns out in some places, they do.

An annual ritual known to volunteers as the “frog shuttle” brings residents together to help frogs who cross a dange...

This Bereavement Startup Shows the Hopeful Human Potential of AI

Dealing with the passing of a loved one is hard emotionally, but the paperwork and procedures involved can make it far worse. A startup called Empathy has made it easier for more than 40 million people and just landed a new round of funding to expand their offering. The need for the tool is clear. Apparently according to US government statistics, it takes an average of 420 hours to “properly wind down a deceased person’s affairs.” Empathy.com helps with everything from using AI to write obituari...

The Rise of Antinatalism

There is a growing movement of people who believe that having children is unethical—which is known as antinatalism. A feature in Harper’s magazine this week explores what may be a growing number of people looking at all the “polycrisis” in the world and deciding that the logical conclusion is to advocate for bringing no more children into the world. 

A South African philosopher named David Benatar first introduced the term of antinatalism in 2006:

“Existence contains both benefits and harm, wherea...