Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 61

The Truth About Fox News: It Isn’t Fake.

Calling Fox News fake is a common theme among the people in my social media circles, but I have long been curious about their reporting and why so many people seem so deeply influenced by it. I’m a frequent reader of their stories and consistently have it as part of my overall media diet even though I often disagree with the stories there.

This week, I did a little experiment over a two day period to capture multiple headlines to see if I could identify a theme or pattern. There clearly was. In...

5 Ways To Conquer Zoom Fatigue

We are tired of Zoom.

It’s not just Zoom, but the idea of being on video all day that is straining our relationship with the same video technology that once seemed like it might offer us a salvation from the isolation of working remotely. The fatigue is predictable, and growing. There are also some several solutions that offer insight into how we can all deal with this challenge. Here are a few that emerged just over this past week:

1. Make the Experience Better

Microsoft launched their Togethe...

How Afrofuturists Think Different and Why the Questions They Ask Matter

“Futurists labor over questions about the nature of Android consciousness and empathy. Afrofuturists ask how race might be wired into Android consciousness and whether the android world might be as divided as ours is.”

I admit, before reading this article on Afrofuturism from WIRED, I hadn’t considered some of these questions related to the future — and I’ve read quite a bit about it. This was a blind spot for me and this excellently argued article helped me to realize it and articulated exactly...

How To Conquer Loneliness & Isolation With Remote Work

Last week I attended a virtual book launch event hosted by Cadre where former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy spoke about his new book Togetherness. The premise of the book is that loneliness is an underappreciated public health epidemic – a particularly relevant topic today at a time when many people have been forced into working isolation and offices have been closed.

It is a topic that I talk about in my latest guide on how to be effective while working remotely and doing virtual presentations a...

The Non-Obvious Insights Show – Episode #218

It’s been a busy week with my last night’s inaugural edition of my new Non-Obvious Virtual Summit which focused on the Future of Learning (watch the replay here). And a double header today with a SXSW Session virtual keynote at Noon EST, followed by another episode of my new Non-Obvious Insights Show (video below). There are some good ones from the pizza shop owner who made money by ordering underpriced pizzas from his own restaurant through Doordash and the surprising truth about air pollution....

Non-Obvious Insights Show – Episode #217

There is a little bit of everything in this week’s email, from robotic dogs enforcing social distancing to jazz hands replacing handshakes. Last week I also started a video show to share my thoughts on these stories as well as giving you an inside look at some of the stories that didn’t make it into the email.

Here are the stories covered this week with links for further reading:

Coronavirus: Robot dog enforces social distancing in Singapore park – https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technolog…

Your N...

The Non-Obvious Insights Show – Episode #216

After writing my weekly email newsletter for just over four years, one of the questions Im most often asked about is the stories that didnt make it into my newsletter. I spend hours every week reading and compiling the most fascinating stories to include but I usually only share around six stories. What about the rest? Last week I decided to start live streaming a video show where I would talk not only about the stories of the week, but also talk about some of the stories that were left on...

What I Learned From Doing 15 Virtual Keynotes In 21 Days

Six weeks ago every event got cancelled, postponed or moved to virtual. Like many professional speakers, I started delivering my talks virtually. But taking a 45 minute talk and doing it over Zoom doesnt work. Its too long, tech gets in the way and it just feels boring.

I knew I had to get better at this.

So I started researching. At first it was YouTube videos. I watched a 34 minute overview on selecting the right cardioid microphone. I took notes from a masterclass from a Hollywood lighting...

10 Futuristic Ideas Becoming Reality Faster Because Of COVID-19

For the past ten years Ive been a collector of innovative ideas. When I write about them and interview the people behind them, I know they are far ahead of their industry. Over the past month as our entire culture has been upended by the arrival of the COVID-19 virus, one of positive side effects I have been watching is a rapid normalizing of ideas and technology that might have seemed too dangerous or risky to try.

Here are ten of the biggest ideas gaining momentum, along with some...

5 Reasons Virtual Meetings Suck (And 5 Ways To Fix Them)

With the concerns about a global health pandemic, the necessity of shifting more events and meetings to be virtual is on everyone’s mind. There’s only one problem: most of us have spent too much time in virtual meetings that are a waste of time.

I should know, I’ve probably spoken or participated in well over a hundred over the past years – both as a virtual keynote speaker and a remote workshop leader.

Some of them have sucked.

But I don’t believe that virtual meetings or presentations...