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14 2025 August
The “Anna Karenina Principle” That Explains How Optimists Differ from Pessimists
The first line of Leo Tolstoy’s famous novel Anna Karenina offers this observation: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its...
Read Now11 2025 August
The Rise and Fall of Drive-In Theaters
The year 1933 brought the world’s first drive-in theater. Since that moment, it’s become one of those iconic American-style exports of entertainment. Today it’s a...
Read Now07 2025 August
The Book on How NOT To Use AI Is Being Written Right Now
European payment network Klarna was one of the first fintech companies to go all in on AI. They were even featured as a case study by OpenAI....
Read Now05 2025 August
The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Defy by Dr. Sunita Sah
I ask for my coffee extra hot. Sometimes, I do that, and it comes cold anyway. There would be times when that happened and I...
Read Now31 2025 July
The Perfect Sandwich Making Guide (and Why People Ignore Press Releases)
This is a press release I just read which got me thinking: Kroger Crafts the Perfect Sandwich Making Guide The release included a powerful reminder from...
Read Now30 2025 July
The Future Will Include AI For Dynamic Pricing … Here’s What Could Happen Next
Here are two stories from this week that don’t seem to be related to one another. The first is about Delta testing AI for dynamic...
Read Now29 2025 July
The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Up the Organization by Robert Townsend
Up the Organization was published in the mid-seventies, which technically makes it just about as old as I am. The lessons, though, are actually timeless and...
Read Now28 2025 July
How AI Is Exposing the Idiocy of Influencer Marketing
Recently, an AI generated influencer went viral at Wimbledon. She wasn’t the first, but there was a firestorm of stories about how she is the...
Read Now25 2025 July
The U.S. Postal Service Turns 250—So Let’s Celebrate the Innovations They Have Given the World
For over 100 years in the early days of the U.S. Postal Service, the way mail would get sent from small towns involved a crazy...
Read Now24 2025 July
The Coming GLP-1 Buying Shift That’s Causing Brands to Panic
The big story of GLP-1 medications has routinely been about weight loss, obesity and expanded usages beyond its original classification as a way to manage...
Read Now23 2025 July
How One Longtime Brand Fan Is Bringing Back the Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is back! Appealing to grown-up geeks and younger technophiles alike, the computer aims to offer a “simpler, distraction-free computing experience” and suggests...
Read Now22 2025 July
The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell
Broadly, magical thinking describes the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect external events. Mythologizing the world as an attempt to “make sense” of it...
Read Now21 2025 July
The Booming Business of Being a Witch—Selling Spells on Etsy
There was a time when not being a witch was a good survival strategy. Apparently those times have changed. According to a new piece from...
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