Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 75

Cursive Writing Is Making A Comeback. And It Might Make You Smarter.

While it may seem nostalgic, a growing number of schools are going back to teaching cursive to children thanks to growing evidence that writing by hand improves unaided memory, retention and may even help improve IQ. As one researcher noted, “we found that children until about grade six were writing more words, writing faster, and expressing more ideas if they could use handwriting—printing or cursive—than if they used the keyboard.” It seems writing in cursive is a skill we may have too hast...

An Inside Look At The First Robotic Microapartment Design

As apartments get smaller and urban areas get more crowded, real estate companies and residents themselves will look for more creative ways to use limited space. A new robotic “microapartment” hitting the market now may offer an interesting solution focused on creating a living space smart enough to adapt at the touch of a button to the situation whether its time for bed or having a few friends over to watch a game on TV. As these sorts of pilot projects gain popularity, this use of technolog...

Why The NFL’s Newest Stadium Will Have $2 Hot Dogs and $5 Beer

In a league often defined by greed, with unscrupulous owners who are sometimes hated by their entire fan populations (like Daniel Snyder of the Redskins), it may come as a surprise that there are some who do care about more than the bottom line. Instead of requiring vendors to buy expensive sponsorships and then subsidize them with insane prices, Falcons President Rich Mckay lets vendors charge what they would on the street – making his new stadium the lowest priced for food in the NFL and ho...

Are Millennials Really Killing Harley Davidson?

Millennials are being blamed for the recent woes of casual dining restaurants like Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebees and even more established brands like Harley Davidson – but is that really fair? This article looks at some of the reasons why the revered motorcycle brand may be suffering and whether the brand is actually failing to appeal to younger consumers, or whether the shift toward automated transportation is to blame instead.

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Love non-obvious stor...

How A Small Food Tour Explains Arab Culture In Michigan

Five years ago, Devon Akmon, director of the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan was inspired by a food tour experience to create something similar to help outsiders understand the Arab culture through food. His program called Yalla Eats! has been running since then and offers a chance to get something anyone who has ever shopped in an ethnic grocery store has likely wished for … a personal tour through unfamiliar food. Cuisine can bring cultures together. This was a perfect e...

Uber Releases Its Original Pitch Deck From 2008

Despite their recent troubles and exit of embattled CEO Travis Kalanick – the rise of Uber is one of the undeniable success stories from Silicon Valley. This week co-founder Garrett Camp shared the original Uber pitch deck from when the company was just a concept seeking funding. Although it is just 25 poorly designed, the presentation delivers the most important points and passes the test for simplicity both in terms of the idea but also in terms of what they are asking for.

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The Mask That Displays Your Emotions In Real Time

Rather than wearing your emotions on your sleeve, a new product called the Hyperface lets you wear them on your face. The idea from London-based designer Eun Kyung Shin is to use a visor-like headset to create a new visual method for communications where we could understand each other more deeply without depending on emotional intelligence. It is the perfect use for learning technology like AI which will get smarter over time and use what it learns about our emotions to operate in more human-...

Books Are Getting “Swearier” And This Is What It Means …

Apparently the shift towards swear words in book titles and content has not gone unnoticed by researchers. As Cory Doctorow notes in this article: “books are getting swearier and [researchers concluded] that this is a bellwether for a growth in the value of individualism.” I have definitely noticed this shift in non-fiction books (The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck, You Are A Badass and F*ck Feelings to name a few) but the connection to a rise in individualism explains a lot about our collec...

How To Spot A Fake Viral Video

For a crash course in figuring out what is real and what isn’t online, who better to turn to than a YouTuber who has built a reputation out of debunking viral videos and showing what techniques they have used. While you could go frame by frame to see the tricks, the more useful conclusion from this piece is that the first step is to question whether something is actually real. In a world filled with fake content, this simple habit of skepticism first is a powerful lesson that we should all he...

Nokia Wants To Be Known For Digital Health And VR

Though most people still think of Nokia as a cell phone maker, that unit of their business was sold off to Microsoft years ago and the brand has slowly been focusing its attention elsewhere. Now the brand wants to build its reputation around digital wellness and VR. Yet changing this type of long held perception about a brand is a hard thing – particularly when that brand continues to license its name to make new products in the category they no longer want to be known for.

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