Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 36

Inside the Big Announcement from Author’s Equity and How It Changes Book Publishing

Two of the best-selling non-fiction authors from the past decade have both indicated they will skip the traditional publishing deals and choose to go with new hybrid publishing entity called Authors Equity for their next books. They have also taken a stake in the company. And it’s founded by the former CEO of Penguin Random House. This is a big deal in the world of book publishing. Traditional publishers are reliant on authors of breakaway hit books … the exact personalities that Authors Equity ...

Inside the Ban on TikTok and Why It Could Work

In general, the idea of banning something that kids really want to do or use hardly ever works. Betting against the ingenuity of young minds is usually a losing wager. Yet the fact that the US House just passed a bill that could ban TikTok if it doesn’t separate from its Chinese parent company could actually work.

It has long been known that the experience of TikTok that kids in the US have is dramatically more evil than the experience in China. One expert even described the difference as opium v...

Why the Key to Bringing Traditional Medicine Back Might Be Better Branding

Yes, this headline and the article it references are a conclusion that only a marketer could make. But it does have a point about how people react to beautiful branding in the health and wellness space. Mari Acupuncture Clinic engaged an agency to reimagine all their branding the result is absolutely stunning.

It is easy to imagine a design like this helping the business connect their services with more customers and perhaps having more people reevaluate acupuncture treatment itself for their ail...

Why Your Eggshells Might Be Cracking More (And What It Can Teach You)

Everything is connected. That’s what you might start thinking after reading this fascinating story about why eggshells are chipping more. During the avian flu, many farmers lost a lot of their chicken population and so hens are being kept “in production” for longer. Usually, a chicken makes it until about age 2 but today there are older hens around 3 years old laying eggs too. And that makes the eggshells thinner which causes more shell bits when you crack them.

Here’s why this is interesting: I ...

Mapping Apps Are Getting “Smarter” … That Might Not Be Good News

Waze announced several “improvements” this week including the ability to warn you about emergency vehicles ahead, warnings for sharp turns coming up and alert you about which lane you should be in as you enter a roundabout. In other words, they have launched features to help distract drivers who are paying attention to the road to look at their phones instead.

If you’re feeling the snark from my commentary on this, I admit I’m not impressed by these sorts of additions. Instead, I worry that a pho...

The First (And Maybe Last) Song Ever Released as a Slice of Pizza

If you think sales of music in a physical format like a CD are dead, this new single released as a slice of pizza might change your mind. It is the brainchild of thrash metal band Belushi Speed Ball and here’s a bit more about it:

“Belushi Speed Ball has a cult following for its headbang-inspiring riffs and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, complete with Spongebob Squarepants references and biting commentary on municipal waste systems. Specifically, the band is a part of the “Pizza Thrash” subgenre of thra...

The Cover Design for Our New Book Is Ready! Get a First Look Below …

A big thank you to all the people who shared their opinions on the cover design contest, I’m happy to share the final cover of the book and also the new publication date of September 10th, 2024. We are a few weeks away from sharing the early edition of the book ONLY with our advance readers and book launch team. There’s still time to join if that’s interesting for you … just click the link below!

Join the Non-Obvious Thinking Book Launch Team >>

The Yolk App Shows the Challenges of Relying on User’s Constant Creativity

Yolk is a new app that lets people “communicate through items that you see” and some reviews suggest they might be forging a new method of communication in the process. Just signing up requires you to invite a certain number of friends. There’s no way to send a direct message or use any text. And the app is only available on iPhone. Despite these limitations, Yolk is getting accolades for its ability to “lean into the social weirdness of identity building.” It works by allowing users to create a...

Why Americans Stopped Hanging Out and the Crisis of Social Fitness

A long read last week from The Atlantic offered this viral headline – Why Americans Stopped Hanging Out. Around the same time, I came across a leisure study from a bunch of marketers about how people are spending less time at bars and pubs, even as they spend more time running marathons. All of it seems to point to yet another depressing statistic about why we’re unlikely to emerge from our pandemic of loneliness anytime soon.

The more disturbing element of these stories is that the erosion o...

Ever Wonder Why Certain Flavors Of Chips Are Sold In Some Countries and Not Others? Inside The Secretive World Of Flavor Dust …

If you have ever been to another region of the world and been curious about how they ended up with the various flavors of crisps (chips to Americans) that are on store shelves, you’ll find this article very interesting. It asks and answers everything you’ve wondered about how various flavors get reduced to the flavored dust sprinkled on top of chips.

Read this article to understand the secret food science behind chip flavor development, the rationale behind why “Lasagne” flavored Lays chips a...