Dear Reader, Greetings from Austin, Texas! I'm here speaking at PerspECCtives as the Fall conference season is officially upon us. If you're in the DC area, I do have a talk coming up in two weeks for senior IT professionals and there are a few open registration spots left. Other cities I'll be in over the next two months are Chicago, NY, Toronto, LA, Punta Cana (DR) and Tampa. If you're in any of those and want to join a non-obvious gathering, hit reply and let me know. For stories this...
7 days ago • 8 min read
Dear Reader, Are we losing the ability to wonder? In a world filled with easy answers, we all need to discover places where we can engage our curiosity without immediate gratification. Labor Day weekend is one of the busiest travel times of the year in America and whether you're heading somewhere or just staying local, this week we just launched an idea that might inspire you to go out and engage find your own places to wonder. The Unwondering Project is a curated collection of fascinating...
14 days ago • 8 min read
Dear Reader, Robots running full speed into walls, chai (not chai tea!!) in India, why we judge illegal things to be less moral and dispatches from one of the world's quirkiest car shows are all part of what you'll find in this week's curated collection of the non-obvious. In other exciting personal news, after months of effort gathering content, strategizing and building, I relaunched my website! A few features that are now (finally) online include a keynote speaking section with customized...
21 days ago • 7 min read
Dear Reader, It's nearly back to school time for many and so the lead story this week is about another side of AI's impact on the classroom from a teacher's perspective and a reminder for those of us with school-going kids that maybe what we need to remember most is to keep our empathy for those moments when people get their AI usage wrong. In other stories this week, you'll read about the thankfully fictional idea of the wearable AI grandfather and the potentially dangerous results we might...
28 days ago • 6 min read
Dear Reader, Can a dating app that removes swiping and suggests exactly one date a week really work? What is every critic missing about Roku's new 24/7 TV channel dedicated to showcasing AI creators? Why will Anthropic's latest announcement about watermarks on generated text and images probably fail? These questions are spotlighted in this week's newsletter which digs into the latest non-obvious stories like these and shares another Future Word of the Week as well as a media recommendation...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
Dear Reader, Happy Anniversary to websites! Today is the 35th anniversary of the first website ever being posted all the way back in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee. It's a big day in the history of the web and also sobering to think that the web has only really been a reality for 35 years. And look at us now. In stories this week, you'll read about a new poll about how Americans really feel about whether kids should learn a foreign language in school. Spoiler alert, I'm not as supportive of it as...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Dear Reader, The big achievement this week was finally relaunching the Non-Obvious website with the full archive of 150+ past trend predictions (along with longevity ratings), book overviews, bonus downloads and everything Non-Obvious all in one place. If you have a moment, please check out the site and let me know what you think! For stories, you'll read about the new phantom drone, why being born left or right handed might be a myth, and why using employees as paid influencers might (and...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Dear Reader, I'm back from journeys through Turkey and there's lots of news to share this week. You'll find the usual non-obvious compilation of stories, of course ... including stories about the "Mississippi Miracle," the glorious second life of decommissioned buses, the plague of AI generated bird photos and a bonus story about self-destructing plastic. Beyond the stories, there's a new feature in this week's newsletter that you'll find every week moving forward: the Non-Obvious Future Word...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
Dear Reader, It was a whirlwind start to the week as I made it on a last minute trip to LA to see the World Cup match between Canada and South Africa. Lots of excitement, a late goal and dancing celebrations with Canadians on the street were all part of it, as it was a chance to turn watching way too much soccer on TV over the past few weeks into a real life experience. In between the matches, I've been putting the finishing touches on Future Words as we head towards our publication deadline,...
3 months ago • 6 min read