Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 9

Inside the Relentlessly Cheerful Campaign of Zohran Mamdani

Amidst all the coverage of what some news outlets described as a  “political earthquake​” with relative newcomer Zohran Mamdani defeating longtime NY politician Andrew Cuomo in the primary for the Mayor’s race, there was this ​fascinating summation​ of the campaign run by the 33 year old Indian-American candidate:

“Mr. Mamdani ran a relentless and cheerful campaign focused on affordability in a city that has grown too expensive for an expanding circle of residents, with zippy videos and catch...

The Perfect Astronaut of the Future Is Changing—Here’s Why It Matters

In the late 1950s, NASA recruited 11 men aged 25-48 for a unique experiment that has today been mostly forgotten. The participants, ​known to history mainly as the “Gallaudet Eleven”​ had one important factor in common: they were all deaf. For most of the next decade, scientists “measured the volunteers’ non-reaction to motion sickness on both a physiological and psychological level,” aiming to improve their understanding of how the body’s senses work when the inner ear doesn’t receive gravitati...

New Event Planner Survey Suggests Celebrity Keynote Speakers May Be a Waste of Money

I have “shared the stage” with Jay Leno. That’s industry lingo for saying that I was the second (much less expensive) keynote speaker at an event that Jay Leno was headlining. Yes, it was a thrill to meet him. But his set mostly consisted of jokes about his current pharmaceutical needs as an older gentleman along with some stories sprinkled in from his time hosting The Tonight Show.

Anytime I’m at an event alongside celebrities, I have to admit I do wonder if the ROI on their big fees was wor...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: The Power of Onlyness by Nilofer Merchant

Starting with her own powerful story of standing up for herself, this book from author and thinker Nilofer Merchant is a play-by-play guide on how to craft your own unique identity in the world and use it to stand apart from everyone else. Nilofer calls this your “onlyness” and the book features the stories and profiles of many people who have done this in big and small ways throughout their own lives. Each chapter breaks down their stories, what you can learn from them and some actionable highl...

Denmark’s Radical Archaeology Experiment Is Paying Off in Gold and Knowledge

It is a beach cliché to see random idiots with metal detectors and sifters trying to find everything from loose change to diamond earrings. Using the idea of digging for treasure is reserved for the slightly desperate, mostly unhinged or overly optimistic. In Denmark, the ​government is encouraging these treasure hunters​ … and it may be working. Last year the government “deputized private detectorists to unearth artifacts buried in farm fields,” and the artifacts they are finding are unearthing...

The Dangerous Fiction of the AI Reality Filter

It seems like the perfect hack. A series of prompts that anyone can input into a generative AI tool like ChatGPT in order to ensure that it doesn’t “hallucinate” but instead gives you responses based on reality. And it works … sometimes. Unfortunately, sometimes isn’t really good enough and there are many real-world repercussions that are starting to emerge. A piece in the NY Times this weekend was titled “They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.” It explores the gr...

A Lesson In Marketing Strategy From the Cheetos Shape Hunt

Searching for Cheetos that are shaped like anything is a fairly idiotic way to spend your time. It’s also surprisingly popular despite its idiocy. The thing about Cheetos is that people love to see things that aren’t really there in the shape of their Cheetos. At one point, the brand famously created an entire museum to house the most unique discovered Cheetos shapes.

Now in a newly launched campaign there’s a cash prize attached for someone who gets picked because their Cheetos discovery bes...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week:

All the Living and All the Dead by Hayley Campbell

The first time I read All the Living and All the Dead, it was an easy pick for the Most Original book winner in the 2022 Non-Obvious Book Awards. Fueled by a childhood fascination with death, the author tells the story of “people who have made death their life’s work.” In a time when the most frequent depictions of death we see are the fictionalized stories of near-heroic serial killers in TV shows and movies, this book offers a unique and no...

How To See Through a Manipulated Headline (A Retailwire Case Study)

One thing I often talk about in this newsletter is honing our media literacy. This week I found a perfect case study to illustrate how you can do this. Let’s start with the story headline from a site called Retailwire.com:

Majority of Americans Aware of New Tariffs, but 40% Aren’t Making Any Changes to Purchasing Behavior: Will This Trend Continue?

Right away, I noticed the numbers seem off: 40% is not a majority. It also therefore seemed suspicious that this was already declared a “trend....

The Secret of Optimism and the New Peruvian Airport

Earlier this week when I arrived in Lima, it was in their brand new airport that is less than two weeks old. People in the city had lots of questions. Did I have issues? All the local news apparently was focused on reporting about the problems. My experience was flawless. The airport was new, fast, easy to navigate and delivered a simple travel experience. That, unfortunately, is a boring story. So the opposite gets reported … and people assume everything is worse than it is.

On stage, after ...