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Snickers Launches Plan To Sell Candy Bars Based On Emotions

Forget using tech and big data for personalization – Snickers has a better idea … just let people tell you how they are feeling. The new versions of their “hunger bar” (as they are now calling their product) which will come out in June 2018, branded along with the emotion that they might fit with (like Salty&Sweet … Read more

Nissan Will Make Its Electric Cars “Sing” To Protect Pedestrians

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Electric cars are too quiet. For years, unsuspecting pedestrians accustomed to listening for cars would walk into the road in front of electric cars, unaware of their proximity. At the Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan proposed an interesting solution: they will make their new cars “sing.” As creators continue to innovate to make tech as human-friendly as possible – … Read more

Why You Can Focus In A Noisy Coffee Shop, But Not A Noisy Office

For years one of my favorite tools for writing is a website called Coffitivity which simulates the background noise of a coffee shop. I find this little tool a perfect backdrop for writing and use it almost every day. In this article, author David Burkus shares some research behind why having this type of “white noise” in … Read more

How Diverse Are US Newsrooms? Not Very …

In this data visualization, the shift in diversity of both race and gender in newsroom staff and leadership across the country is analyzed with some interesting results. The newsrooms overall, as you probably expect, are overwhelmingly white and skewed toward men. More interesting is the fact that over the past 15 years the Washington Post and NY Times have … Read more

Google’s Cupcake Problem Shows The Dangers Of Tunnel Vision

Recently Google engineers tested a Maps feature that equated the distance you walk to a number of mini-cupcakes you would burn off in equivalent calories. The only problem is, their fun little cupcake idea was a trigger for some people with eating disorders and others were just annoyed at the unsolicited suggestion. The feature and … Read more

BBC Newscaster Realizes On Air That A Story Isn’t Newsworthy

In this short video of a BBC newscaster reporting  about the “Royal Baby” announcement, you see a rare moment of truth where newsman Simon McCoy shows us what he really thinks about reading a relatively unimportant announcement as if it was “Breaking News,” when he knows it clearly isn’t. Which leaves us with the perfect … Read more

How Chicken Feathers Could Be The Future Of Home Insulation

It takes some serious Non-Obvious thinking to dream up using discarded chicken feathers as a super efficient home insulation material – but that’s the idea from a London duo who created “Aeropowder” and are testing its fire safety before making it a commercial product. I love these kinds of stories because it takes something we … Read more

IKEA To Sell Some Products Via Other Retailer Sites

It is sadly rare to see a brand that is truly great at self-disruption but IKEA is one worth watching. They made the bold announcement this week that they would pilot test shipping products via other retailer sites instead of only their own. Combined with its recent acquisition of TaskRabbit and their experimentation with augmented reality, the brand … Read more

Google Buys Apple, Smart Hacker Probably Makes Millions

Did you hear Google was buying Apple for only $9b? The story went out over the wires earlier this week and immediately triggered automated investment bots to start trading in Apple stock, jumping the price from $156 to $158 (not an insignificant jump). Then the story was quickly taken down and attributed to a tech glitch. … Read more

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Rohit is the author of 10 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.

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