Dear Reader,
This week I've been doing some high stakes editing ... with my son for his college application essays. It's my second time through this and so I've been taking notes on all the things that I found helpful in this exercise of helping him stand out, be memorable and relay his personality in just 650 words. That challenge is not unique to a high school senior applying to college.
So this week, in the book recommendations as well as my featured podcast episode, you'll see a deep dive into college admissions. Whether that particular topic matters to you right now or not, I think you'll find some useful insights to repurpose in the universal challenge all of us face to present ourselves in a meaningful way to the world.
Beyond this, you'll also read a big SXSW 2026 announcement, insights from the most hated brand in New York, emotionally attuned vehicles, marketing lessons from flavored vodka brands and how a famous dead novelist could inspire a more valuable use case for AI.
Enjoy the stories and always stay curious!
Rohit
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This Week's New Videos ...
SXSW 2026 Announcement!
SXSW is reinventing itself in 2026! The latest session announcement just came out and I’m excited to share that I’ll be back as a Featured Speaker with a brand new talk: 5 Non-Obvious Secrets of Human Connection (For Love & Profit).
With the Austin Convention Center under renovation, next year’s festival will return to its roots with events spread across clubhouses and venues all over the city. We’re already exploring plans for a Non-Obvious Clubhouse to host our own gatherings and our signature Non-Obvious 7 Minute Meetup (join our early FREE VIP list to attend here).
The ACC might be gone, but Austin’s energy will be as electric as ever next year. I hope to see you there.
The Cormackian Challenge and What AI Could Really Do
There were two major stories this week that seem on the surface to have little to do with one another. The first is one you may have come across: Open AI launched Sora 2, their next generation video creation tool that promises to revolutionize the lifelike nature of how moving pictures can be created instantly. The second story is one you may have missed. It's all about the famously reclusive novelist Cormac McCarthy and his vast collection of over 20,000 annotated books.
For as long as AI has been a central topic in the news, we routinely hear about faster and better ways we can generate more content. The bias for using AI to create has become so prevalent that some users describe ChatGPT only as a generative AI tool designed to help you create something new. There's another side of the equation we should consider, and the life and work of Cormac McCarthy is what got me thinking about it.
Right now there is a team of several people who call themselves "Cormackians" going through every book in McCarthy's library and capturing the annotated notes he made in the margins. Rumored to have a photographic memory and widely admired for his diverse reading habits, some believe that there could be great value in cataloging and taking inspiration from his unpublished ideas. The problem is, this effort is an impossible task:
“If we were a well-funded institution, we’d take all these boxes into an empty building where we had plenty of space to work in, a dedicated team of people and all the time we needed. We can’t be as meticulous as we’d like and scan all the annotations, because we’ve got limited time and a massive amount of books to get through.”
What if there were more people trying to innovate on how to use AI for this purpose? With the recent news that Wikimedia is enabling ways for AI developers to more easily use its data, this idea of AI as a collector and perhaps synthesizer of information rather than solely as a tool for creation is one that deserves more attention. In a world where the sum of human knowledge might still be buried in the margins of a book, we should be looking to technology to try and unlock those insights for us.
Everyone Hates Friend AI and That Is Actually the Point
Out-of-home advertising can be a mixed bag. Brands can stand out for an exceedingly clever breakthrough billboard or end up alienating potential customers by turning their execution into an inescapable hellscape surrounding harried travelers (yes, I'm thinking of the tortuous PenFed jingle from the main corridor at Dulles airport). The point is, when you do out-of-home advertising to commuters, for better or worse you do have a captive audience.
For AI startup Friend AI, the strategy was to lean into the hate. Founder Avi Schiffmann knows people despise AI and his startup in particular with their "surveillance capitalism" device built to be worn around the neck and listen to your every conversation (with or without the permission of the people you are talking to).
“I know people in New York hate AI, and things like AI companionship and wearables, probably more than anywhere else in the country,” Friend.ai founder Avi Schiffmann said. “So I bought more ads than anyone has ever done with a lot of white space so that they would socially comment on the topic.”
The $1M ad campaign is already getting his brand described as the "most hated company in New York." Of course, the publicity is over the top and it's a predictably effective tactic to get people talking by fueling their outrage. The real question is, will it generate sales and trial from actual customers who want one for themselves? Actually, maybe that's not really the question because in the AI market, this doesn't actually matter.
If a founder can get people talking, inspire some trial and announce their presence to the world, it won't be long before some equity partners or potential acquisition brokers will take notice. I suspect that's really the end game here anyway, and on that metric, it is highly likely to work perfectly.
Beyond Self Driving, Future Cars May Be Emotionally Attuned Too
For all the attention on self-driving capabilities of cars coming in the future, there is a wave of research happening now into vehicle-driver interactions that is yielding some interesting results. For example, when researchers tested various types of feedback in different situations, they found some patterns of human preferences:
Vibrotactile feedback (such as a vibrating steering wheel to signal a lane shift), was preferred during negative and neutral states, while auditory signals were preferred during positive states. A combination of light and music proved most effective to promote positive emotions and engagement. However, while participants reported that the emotionally-attuned feedback helped them to maintain a calmer state, they expressed varying preferences for different feedbacks. The results highlighted “the importance of personalized feedback options”, the research concluded.
The point of the research is to take the next steps toward creating a true relationship between people and their cars. This week's announcement from Perseus about developing Europe's first AI powered electronic vehicle is another step in this direction. If you think about it, this has more potential for personalization and customization than nearly any other interaction. After all, people spend significant time in their cars, seats and sensors can be programmed to read biometrics, the auditory and sensory environment can be controlled on every level (music, video, climate, speed, etc). A vehicle is the ultimate immersive environment.
If the research pans out, this could impact just about every industry and create entirely new crossover segments. Imagine streaming a Hollywood blockbuster into the cabin of a car during a self-driven road trip. Or a health care provider using the cabin of the vehicle to administer non-invasive health assessments. Or the remote work and video conferencing capabilities of having full mobile wifi. As this research shows, self-driving is only one part of the story of the future of cars and driving. In the future, it's going to be so much more.
What You Can Learn About Marketing From Flavored Vodkas
I accidentally tried Smirnoff's Spicy Tamarind Vodka. It was a gift from a friend and I didn't have high hopes. It was more of a dare to give it a shot (pun!) and though vodka isn't usually my spirit of choice, I agreed. It was surprisingly good just in a glass with some ice, which led me down a bit of a journey to see what else I could find. It turns out many brands of vodka are quite ambitious in their introductions of flavored variants and have been doing them for decades. Absolut has standard fruit pairings like Citron and Mandarin, while Smirnoff has "Electric Guava" and a new range of flavors inspired by India.
Whether you enjoy the flavorings or stick with traditional (or don't like vodka at all), there's an interesting marketing lesson here. Vodka works for flavoring and infusions because it doesn't already have an overwhelming flavor profile. Spicy Tamarind Whiskey, on the other hand, would be a predictable flop. This introduces an interesting analogy to consider for your own marketing or other brands in other categories that you see.
There are brands and products that seem purpose built for "infusions" through collaboration or pairings. LEGO, for example, has thrived since taking on partnerships to create branded sets. What sort of partnerships could you take on that would offer a similar opportunity? You could go a more "vanilla" route like Absolut or go full "Mirchi Mango" like Smirnoff. Either way, infusion marketing could lead you to your next big creative promotional idea. And having some vodka while you do it might help too.
