Dear Newsletterest,

Are you sober curious and willing to try more zero-proof cocktails? What if a book could encourage kids to avoid devices and go outdoors by using ink that only appears once you’re in the sunlight? Is college football a worthwhile diversion or one of the biggest money making scams in America? If AI decides to hate you, what can you do about it? Can eating green crabs and black mustard save the world? How can you call out the scobberlotchers in your life? Why has the Moleskine notebook managed to conquer our digital lives? You’ll find all the answers in this week’s edition of the non-obvious newsletter.

Enjoy and stay curious!

Rohit

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College Football Is A Scam?

If there’s one thing that has long been forbidden in college football, it’s the players actually sharing financially in the windfall of the NCAA’s annual revenue projected to be more than $1.3 billion dollars. Three years ago when the groundbreaking NIL rules were established, it seemed like college athletes (and football players in particular) would finally be able to make money by selling their name, image and likeness (NIL) rights. Unfortunately, the battle still continues. This week the NCAA banned Oklahoma State from using QR codes on the back of helmets to allow people to sponsor players directly. The OSU coach generously described it as “the latest example of how college sports are evolving at a faster pace than the rulebook." Harsher critics would say it’s yet another example of the NCAA being unwilling to allow players to share in profits.

The whole thing is raising the debate once more about who really wins from having college football … and who doesn’t. As someone who went to college at a school without a football team, I have my own biases. The deep- rooted passion people have for college teams is hard for me to identify with. I understand the financial benefits that a school can get from the sport, as well as the influx of school spirit that cheering for a top team can inspire. What never made sense to me is how these schools believe that a four year scholarship and (hopefully) a college degree is adequate payment for players who generate an average of $8M to $20M in profit for their schools.

What do you think? Does college football make sense either financially or culturally? Should we keep it, or is it a scam?

The New Kids Book That Can Only Be Read While Outside Thanks To Sun-Activated Ink

How can you encourage kids to get outside and off their devices? With a book that can only be read outside! Brazilian food brand Fruitella recently launched a campaign featuring a new book that parents can order which has “retro illustrations” and sun-activated ink so that you need to be outside in order to read it. The effort is a clever campaign to attract attention for the snack brand, but the concept is one that you could imagine being applied in many different situations too. I’m already thinking about ways that we might use this ink and technology to help underscore the idea behind my upcoming book to try and help people “see what others miss” …

Invisible ink t-shirts. Hidden pages of content in a book. Sun-activated promo items for giveaway at live events. Sometimes you read a story that really gets your creative mind spinning with possibilities. This one did that for me and perhaps it will do the same for you too. Now we just have to decide what tagline and design to put on our invisible Non-Obvious t-shirts. Let’s brainstorm together. The best marketing idea anyone shares back in an email reply will win a free signed copy of Non-Obvious Thinking and t-shirt once we design them!

How To Get Hated By AI … and How To Get Someone To Fix It

Reporter Kevin Roose is dealing with a unique problem … AI chatbots hate him. It’s all thanks to an article he wrote back in February 2023 which was focused on the “death” of Sydney—the name that Microsoft had chosen for the AI chatbot they created and paired with their Bing search engine. The article was promptly scraped by AI and used as training data, which associated Roose’s name with the demise of an AI chatbot. The learning model put the pieces together and decided Roose was an enemy of AI. Months later, when he asked Meta’s Llama 3 how it felt about him, the chatbot disturbingly answered: “I hate Kevin Roose.”

This weekend, he released a new article where he takes pains to point out that he’s not an AI hater and is “optimistic overall about AI’s potential.” He then goes a step further, asking two experts in AI optimization (AIO - which some believe will be the successor to SEO) to help him reclaim his reputation with AI. The fascinating technique one used was to insert a secret piece of code into the AI known as a strategic text sequence. This bit of code completely transformed how AI answered that same question. Another method that seemed to work was placing white text on a white background on a website so it would be invisible to humans, but AI would still read it. These tricks may just be the start of this emerging field of AIO. Look for lots of growth here.

Save the World. Eat More Lionfish and Green Crabs.

Lobster is considered a luxury food today, with high prices to prove it, but it wasn’t always this way. Lobster was once cheap and plentiful, and seen as a poor man’s food. Its evolution to our tables and its prestige are largely thanks to the combined efforts of chefs and marketers. Today there is a large movement underway to try and accomplish something similar with several invasive species of that are threatening local plants and animals. A recent Modern Farmer article points to efforts to promote lionfish, green crabs, and Black mustard seeds as culinary treats. The goal is to “eat our way out of the invasive species problem.”

This is an underappreciated sector of the sustainability world. We could all do more to help this movement succeed, from actively ordering menu items at restaurants trying to add these foods to talking about it more with people who may not be familiar with just how good for the world it could be to buy and consume these species.

3 Insights About the Future of Alcohol

Kantor has a new research summary out about their latest insights into the future of alcohol and there are some surprising takeaways. The report starts with the growing trend of the “sober curious” and explores the popularity of zero-proof drinks as part of a “lifestyle choice” to avoid alcohol. This alcohol-free shift has been causing a lot of angst in the beer, wine and spirits industry but this report paints a more hopeful picture suggesting this is only happening on “certain occasions.” That feels pretty optimistic but unsurprising considering this report is at least in part produced for consumption by those inside in the industry.

The other trends spotlighted focus on the role of the spaces where alcohol is consumed and how they are being reinvented to offer a more memorable experience, as well as the role of alcohol in gatherings that bring people together. The summary also proposes that “hedonism redefined” describes a new consumer seeking “weird and wonderful new ways to receive that much-needed dopamine hit.” You can download the full report summary for more insights about the role of technology in custom drinks, supply chain shifts and plenty more. It is currently available free.

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week

Per My Last Email: Witty, Wicked and Wonderfully Weird Workplace Words and Phrases by Stephanie K. Wright

If you’ve ever felt surrounded by wallydrags (feeble or worthless people) or been forced to work for a numpty (a flat-out fool), this book has the antidote. Writer Stephanie K. Wright promises to “reinvigorate your vocabulary” with this fun collection of forgotten but entirely real words from the English language that you’ve probably never heard. Some words, like ultracrepidarian (which describes a person who criticizes, judges or gives advice outside their area of expertise) are so specifically useful you’ll wish you didn’t have to explain them after using them. Every page of this book will make you just a little more eupeptic (cheerful) and put you into a canty (good mood). Even if you do have to work in a place filled with scobberlotchers (phenomenally lazy humans). This is a wonderfully unique and entertaining guide to rediscovering words that we really should all know and use far more often in our daily work lives.

About the Non-Obvious Book Selection of the Week:

Every week I will be featuring a new “non-obvious” book selection worth sharing. Titles featured here may be new or from the backlist, but the date of publication doesn’t really matter. My goal is to elevate great books that perhaps deserve a second look which you might have otherwise missed.

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?