Dear Reader,
It's been a week of writing on the new book for me and I'm thrilled to share the final cover for Future Words (coming in October). Starting next week, we will be announcing our program for early readers who want to go behind the scenes and read the book before anyone else ... but as a subscriber to the Non-Obvious Newsletter, you can join early and see progress on the book over the summer.
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Outside of the work on the new book, the stories this week continue to explore the cultural relevance of this graduation moment where so many young people are making big life changes. You will also read this week about which messages and messengers talking about humans over AI are resonating (and why), a surprising new Olympic sport announcement and why centuries-old baobab trees in Madagascar are now under threat. Plus, videos on how to understand multiple generations and a visit to a bookstore that reframes the world.
Enjoy the stories and stay curious!
Rohit
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This Week's New Videos ...
The Most Important Reminder About Tech Is Appearing Everywhere
Every week I read stories of a rising revolt against automation, evidenced by everything from workers posting trade secrets after being displaced by AI through to university students actively booing commencement speakers who promote about AI. At the same time, there are plenty of companies and leaders creating their own form of "human-washing" where they are outwardly communicating a people-focused mission while simultaneously replacing people with AI. What does it take to stand out and be seen as actually human-centric?
This week there was also a story about Etsy's new marketing campaign focused on why human moments still matter. The effort works because the message feels true to what Etsy has always offered: a fair platform for real people to create things they are passionate about and sell them directly to customers. Then there was the story of former Apple tech guy Steve Wozniak getting cheers for his commencement address where he spoke about how students already have AI: "actual intelligence" ...
Speaking to graduates earlier this month, the 75-year-old reflected on decades spent working alongside engineers attempting to recreate human cognition through software and hardware. He joked that despite all the advances in computing, the most reliable way to make a brain still “takes nine months,” drawing another round of laughter from the audience. Wozniak encouraged students to think independently and resist treating AI systems as substitutes for genuine understanding or intuition.
In future weeks, these sorts of stories will continue to pop into all of our feeds and reinforce the same idea. This is a great thing. The more we all hear this reminder that AI cannot and should not substitute your ability to think for yourself, the more likely it is that all of us will make better choices about how we use the tools that are available to us.
The Newest Olympic Sport Features Humans Jumping Instead of Horses
Many of you know that I'm a big Olympics fan. After attending 6 Summer Olympics so far, I definitely have some opinions about sports that belong in the Olympics and sports that don't.
The Equestrian events have never been my favorites. Any sport where your performance is dictated by the bond between a human and an animal might be fun to watch, but has always felt to me like it doesn't belong in the Olympics and typically generates considerable backlash every year. I was thinking about this after reading the announcement this week that the LA 2028 Olympics will be removing Equestrian show jumping and replacing it with an "American Ninja style" obstacle jumping competition.
LA28 will debut Obstacle which features a head-to-head race over a Ninja-style sprint course, taking the place of Horse Jumping. Athletes accumulate points in the first three events to determine their starting position for the Laser Run. This final event is a combined running and shooting event where athletes start with a delay corresponding to the number of points between them and the leader. The first athlete to cross the finish line is the winner. This multidimensional contest demands unparalleled physical and mental resolve, calm precision under chaotic conditions and provides spectators with an ever-changing, highly-exciting viewing experience.
The move is another in a sequence of shifts by the LA28 organizers to add new exhibition sports that are likely to attract a new and younger audience to watch the Olympics while increasing the modern appeal of the Games. The criteria used to decide which sports get added has 35 different factors including a sport's global popularity, youth appeal, gender equality, and operational costs.
The Accidental Truth About College (from Jensen Huang)
What's the best thing to study for the future? As we continue through graduation season, it's a relevant question for us all to think about - whether we are far away from our college years, have never attended one or are just graduating now. In a recent talk from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, a point he shared which started getting attention suggested that it doesn't really matter what kids study in the AI era as long as it helps them build their storytelling, creativity and judgement. The subtext that he doesn't say is that the fields of study that arguably help build those skills most are exactly the same ones that often students are told to avoid because of the flawed belief that they don't teach the sort of hard skills required to enter the workforce.
Philosophy, Linguists, English, Religion - these are all courses of study that were discounted and minimized for years. And it is true that graduating with a degree in any of these may have made it more difficult for you to get that first job out of college. As the thinking always went, what kind of employer hires a philosophy major? In five years, the longtime answer to that question may change.
The most valuable commodity in a future team member may be their capacity to think differently, adapt to change, and communicate clearly with the people (and machines) around them. As enrollment in computer science degrees continues to nosedive year after year, perhaps more students are discovering this new "golden ticket" for themselves. When AI can code anything you want, the most valuable skill anyone can have is knowing what to ask it to build in the first place.
