Dear Reader, It's issue number #500 for the Non-Obvious Newsletter this week! That's the equivalent of nearly ten years of weekly curated thoughts and the moment has me wondering about my longest active readers. So here's a question for approximately 42% of you who open this email every week ... what date did you first subscribe or start reading these insights on my blog (which started before the newsletter)? Hit reply and let me know - I'll send a signed book and offer a mention next week...
14 days ago • 6 min read
Dear Reader, Greetings from San Francisco! I am here for a speaking gig for the first time in many years and local friends tell me the city is MUCH better than it was a year or two ago when it was receiving a lot of negative publicity for the homelessness problem. It's odd to say about a city like SF, but there's a rebuilding vibe here now that makes the city feel both reinvented and unfinished at the same time. In stories this week, you'll read about why I think the failure of Neom isn't...
21 days ago • 5 min read
Dear Reader, This morning I've been thinking about momentary friends. Those people that you meet and bond with because you happen to be in the same place, but for whatever reason you don't keep in touch. You never trade phone numbers or look each other up on social media. All you have is the moment you share together. Sometimes I think our modern connected world makes those kinds of friends impossible to make but then I get reminded that they aren't. There's something unappreciated about...
28 days ago • 6 min read
Dear Reader, The newsletter (and I!) are back and I have a lot to share. It's been an inspirational past several weeks filled with adventures through Rajasthan, several days in Dubai and a whirlwind week of conversations and coverage from the trade show floor at CES in Vegas last week. The early batch of videos along with some recent travel videos have already passed half a million views on Instagram so definitely check them out here and follow me for more videos >> For the newsletter this...
about 1 month ago • 8 min read
Dear Reader, It's the last edition of this newsletter for the year! I'll be heading to India for the next few weeks and will be back in the new year with all new stories and reporting about the future of technology from the trade show floor at CES too. For this week, I did spot quite a few annual review stories which are referenced below, along with a story about how some of these AI-generated "year in review" features may be missing the mark and offering up customized slop at scale instead....
2 months ago • 4 min read
Dear Reader, It's been a delightful week without travel for me and lots of stories and catching up as I prep for next Tuesday's big announcement of the winners of the Non-Obvious Book Awards. To start, Australia's ban on social media for kids under 16 went into effect this week to mixed reactions. I share three reasons why I think it's definitely not "pointless," as some are suggesting. On driverless cars, the data shows roads are much safer when humans are NOT driving ... but there are a few...
2 months ago • 8 min read
Dear Reader, I'm in Indonesia this week for an event and sorting through more stories than usual, given the gift guide from last week and plenty of travel time on my 30-hour journey over here. The big news this week that many of you probably already saw was the announcement of our Longlist Selections for the Non-Obvious Book Awards. Those were the Top 100 Non-Fiction books of the year selected from well over 1200 entries that our team received in the past months. I'm the crazy traveler who...
3 months ago • 5 min read
Dear Reader, Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers in America - and those who celebrate around the world. I'll be hosting my family here and the day after is Black Friday - when everything goes on sale. So this week you'll see my annual Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide with a few products that caught my eye throughout the past year. As I share in the full presentation, it's tempting this time of year to focus on all the stuff (and deals) that you can find. Remember the best gift you'll ever be...
3 months ago • 5 min read
Dear Reader, All the entries are in and we're just two weeks away from making the first big announcement of the 2025 Non-Obvious Book Awards! We will share the top 100 non-fiction books of the year on December 2nd, followed by the announcement of the final winners on the 16th. Next week, we'll have a special Non-Obvious 2025 Gift Guide edition of the newsletter where I share some of my picks for the best deals of the season for the most non-obvious people in your life. Lots of special...
3 months ago • 6 min read