The Myth of Car Ownership, a 0% Loan Experiment and Why PPT Is The Best Software Ever Made | Non-Obvious Insights #385

Dear Newsletterest,

Welcome to all my new friends from New Orleans who I met at the National Restaurant Association's The Table event this past week. It's a beautiful thing when people from so many different roles connect. More events should do that.

In my non-obvious story selections this week, you'll read about the best software ever created (in my humble opinion), the rise of AI trip planners, why car ownership might soon be a myth, the lenders who are testing a 0% interest emergency loan offering and what really happens when you dine at one of the best restaurants in the world.

Stay curious!

PS - The Choose Your Own Adventure book series that many of us grew up reading is a finalist in the National Toy Hall of Fame. Please help my friends at CYOA and vote for them to win here >>

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Who Deserves To Eat At Noma?

In honor of a memorable few days dining at some of the most legendary restaurants of New Orleans, this week's first story pick is an article from a writer who had the chance to eat at Noma Copenhagen, one of the most renowned restaurants in the world. In it, he makes this observation: "the venn diagram of people who can afford to eat at Noma and the people who deserve to eat at Noma is small."

Perhaps eating a 15 course meal that costs upwards of $1500 for two is predictably going to create some feelings of unworthiness. As he goes on to write, it is "challenging to be present at Noma because the anticipation of going to Noma is sweeter than any fruit leather you'll eat while you're there." The five hour tasting menu from chef René Redzepi is so coveted the waiting list apparently has over 10,000 names on it.

The most fascinating part of this course-by-course recap, though, is the angst with which the writer examines every offhand comment he happens to make to the waitstaff about the food. Was it the wrong thing to say? Did he unintentionally offend? What is the right thing to say? Like any event where you might cross paths with a celebrity, such experiences come with their fair share of pressure to feel like you belong. Which makes it exciting for some and ruins it for others. I suppose the difference comes down to just how much you choose to focus on others instead of yourself.

The Creator of the Greatest Software Ever Invented Just Died

Dennis Austin just died and I feel like he deserves a bit of a tribute. Maybe even a parade. He's the co-inventor, along with Michael Gaskins, of the greatest software product ever imagined: Powerpoint. Yes, I said it. Powerpoint is the best software for communicators. I use it for everything. Giving talks. Designing images. Laying out postcards. Collecting research. The only thing that I don't use this magically flexible toolfor is writing. It's the technology equivalent of red chili powder. It goes with everything.

Powerpoint is better than Canva, Photoshop, Keynote and any other communications tool you can name. Ok, I know some of you might be thinking this is extreme. What about "death by Powerpoint?" Or Jeff Bezos famously banning Powerpoint at Amazon? Or the countless terrible Powerpoint presentations we have all suffered through? I hear you.

Bullet points always sucked, but that is not the fault of the software. Anyone can drive a car into a lake. Bad presenters create bad Powerpoint. They use slides unnecessarily. They rely on bullet points as crutches. They use clip art. And they have given the software a reputation it doesn't deserve. Don't blame the game, blame the players.

Powerpoint can be a world changing tool to communicate an idea. If you know how to use it. So thank you Dennis and Michael. I hope you have been able to ignore the haters who choose to drive your product into a lake. They don't appreciate what you gave to the world. But some of us do.

The Inevitability of AI Trip Planners

A few months ago I was planning a trip to Croatia and approached a few online travel agents offering a customized holiday itinerary. I took the bait and filled in a few online forms, which triggered a handful of immediate emails letting me know a "travel professional" was working on my itinerary. An hour later, I had a 15 page PDF sent to me with a full itinerary for all the things I could do.

This was supposedly from an expert human travel expert, but the process was obviously highly automated. It's not hard to imagine AI taking the next step to fully automate this experience ... and that's what is already happening with a host of AI-driven travel planners being tested in the market right now. It's a future I am conflicted about.

As a frequent and passionate traveler, I have also worked with amazing travel professionals that created magical experiences for my family that we would never have found or booked on our own. I have also been the unfortunate recipient of a travel plan that was (in hindsight) mostly automated and that I ended up overpaying for.

There can be great value in putting your travel in the hands of a skilled professional who can not only handle logistics but also suggest and organize life changing experiences. These global curators and the role they play will survive. On the other hand, the "cut and paste" travel professional who books off-the-shelf holiday packages may soon be displaced by automation.

The Subscription-Fueled Future of Car "Ownership"

Last year, Mercedes launched a feature in their electric cars that would allow drivers to pay $60 per month for an "Acceleration Increase" that would boost their car's acceleration speed by 1 second when going from zero to sixty. BMW announced (and quickly abandoned) their wildly unpopular idea of charging car owners $18 per month to use the heated seats in their car. The car is becoming a modern day battleground to define the future of ownership. What do (or should) you really be entitled to get when you buy a car?

A recent report from the Mozilla Foundation describes cars as a "data privacy nightmare" with every major car brand failing the Mozilla Foundation's recent test, prompting them to declare cars as "the official worst category of products for privacy." According to the report, cars collect way too much data and frequently fail to install even basic protection for this data. Even worse, 84% of car brands routinely sell user data without informing drivers and don't offer any way to opt out of this data collection.

When you combine this track record of terrible data security with aggressive efforts to monetize car features that used to come standard, there are plenty of signs we are headed toward a future where even the idea of car "ownership" may feel like a myth. All of which is making my 2009 Toyota Sienna look better and better.

Why Lenders Are Testing A 0% Loan Product For Emergency Expenses

Credit Unions have long been one of the most empathetic sectors of the financial industry in creating products that put people first. Now several are testing a 0% loan product that can help people who need short term cash infusions from $500 to $3000 to get a loan immediately and pay it back after 12 months without incurring any interest. To ensure they don't accidentally impact a borrowers credit rating, payments (whether on time or late) are not reported to credit bureaus and the entire product is wonderfully crafted with empathy for real people at the heart of it.

This is the type of innovation that would be amazing to see more often in the financial services industry. One that doesn't prey on vulnerable consumers but rather gives them a chance at financial relief from difficult circumstances without setting them up for long term servitude and debt trying to pay back the money. The college loans sector could use a product like this too.

Even More Non-Obvious Stories ...

Every week I always curate more stories than I'm able to explore in detail. Instead of skipping those stories, I started to share them in this section so you can skim the headlines and click on any that spark your interest:

How are these stories curated?

Every week I spend hours going through hundreds of stories in order to curate this email. Looking for a speaker to inspire your team to become non-obvious thinkers through a keynote or workshop? Watch my new 2023 speaking reel on YouTube >>

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The Myth of Car Ownership, a 0% Loan Experiment and Why PPT Is The Best Software Ever Made | Non-Obvious Insights #385

Who Deserves To Eat At Noma?

The Creator of the Greatest Software Ever Invented Just Died

The Inevitability of AI Trip Planners

The Subscription-Fueled Future of Car "Ownership"

Why Lenders Are Testing A 0% Loan Product For Emergency Expenses

Even More Non-Obvious Stories ...

Older messages

Poetry In Parks, Veggie Palm Scanner, UFO Videos and the World's Cheapest Solution To Global Warming | Non-Obvious Insights #384

Abolishing Wilderness, Underwear Without Pants and the Death of Bathtubs | Non-Obvious Insights #383

Lazy Girl Jobs, the Future of Accessibility and the Team That Lost 17,000 Times | Non-Obvious Insights #382

Wearable Insects, Travel Guide Scams, Image Cloaking and Why Japan Is Hiring the Elderly | Non-Obvious Insights #381

Why Paris Travelers Faint From Culture Shock, a Weight Loss Culture War and the Horrors of Deep Fake Love | Non-Obvious Insights #380

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