How To Change a Voter's Mind and the Robotic Door Saving Halloween Trick-or-Treating | Non-Obvious Insights #241

Dear Newsletterest,

We are just a few days away from the US election, and I'm happy to share that only half of the stories this week are about something political. That's a better ratio than the global media right now. ;-) We start off with a brilliantly non-partisan campaign from Nando's, followed by a guide to changing someone's mind, to a radical idea for changing the way electoral maps are drawn. In between, you'll read about the robot reinventing Halloween trick-or-treating in Covid times, the Wiggles worst song and how paint could save the Earth.

Nando's Reminds Us All To Vote In This Brilliantly Non-Partisan Ad

With less than a week to go until the US Election, more brands actively taking sides. Case in point: the CEO of Expensify emailed 10 million customers to tell them to vote for Biden. No stranger to taking a stand, this time Nando's stuck with what could have been a tired reminder for people to go and vote. Instead, they launched their secret "undemocratic meal" - which let people place an order where Nando's could choose what they get. It didn't end well. The message? Don't let someone else vote for you. Make your own decisions.

Reeses Creates a Hands-Free Trick-or-Treat With a Robotic Moving Door

Ahead of the only day of the year where it's acceptable to quietly steal what your kids earn (fun size Snickers!), there are many communities that are limiting the candy-gathering tradition due to Covid. Two years ago, the team from Reese's created a "candy exchange vending machine" where kids could exchange their least favorite candies (um, Almond Joy) for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups instead. This year, they built a remote controlled robotic door that can go from house to house and distribute candy. It's clever, fun and exactly the kind of breakthrough creativity that gets people talking. Now we just have to figure out what to do with all those bars of Almond Joy that no one wants ...

How To Actually Change A Voter's Mind (Yes, It's Possible!)

It seems impossible that any American could be undecided at this point about who to vote for. So trying to change anyone's mind would seem like the ultimate waste of time. In political campaigns, however, there is a method for changing minds and it involves the hard human work of listening, empathizing and being willing to have a personal conversation instead of an argument. Not everyone is good at this. In politics, this skill is known as deep canvassing, and this article on how to do it has some valuable insights for any moment when you might struggle to shift someone else's perspective too.

A Whiter Paint That Could Make The Earth Cooler (Literally)

A team of engineers from Purdue University have created a whiter white paint that can keep surfaces up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than their ambient surroundings. For years, activists and scientists have talked about the opportunity for us to reimagine how we use roofs. Yet it's still a futuristic idea. Like many other global challenges, it's possible that this is more of a communications problem than a technological one. What would it take to persuade people to shift how they think about roofs as a dead space to a living one?

This Reimagined District Map Could End Gerrymandering

Just about every new election season, there's another conversation about the inherent unfairness of the current electoral college method for selecting a President. How can a candidate lose the popular vote and still become President?? Yet the reason for the system is logical ... to prevent candidates from ONLY campaigning (or caring about) the biggest cities and forgetting about anyone in between. So how can this be fixed? One bold idea is to group the country into regions based on geography instead of by States. The problem, of course, will always be that the politicians in charge of fixing this problem are the ones who benefit from having it broken in the first place.

Home Depot Fills The Remote Education Gap with Virtual Field Trips

Home Depot announced this week that they will be adding a series of Virtual Field Trips to their DIY online resources. These "kid-friendly tours" will have topics ranging from plant genetics to supply chain, all "broken down into creative, interactive, digestible videos with accompanying DIY projects that bring the excitement of traditional field trips to family households." Why don't more brands do this? At a time when kids are learning virtually and teachers are struggling to keep them engaged and interested, having more content like this would be a gift. Hopefully Home Depot can inspire other brands to follow their lead.

Book Release of the Week:

Book Summary:
From the Cover: "In virtually every walk of life, robotic systems can make labor more valuable, not less. Frank Pasquale tells the story of nurses, teachers, designers, and others who partner with technologists, rather than meekly serving as data sources for their computerized replacements. This cooperation reveals the kind of technological advance that could bring us all better health care, education, and more, while maintaining meaningful work. These partnerships also show how law and regulation can promote prosperity for all, rather than a zero-sum race of humans against machines."

Buy on Bookshop >>

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Want to watch past episodes? Just visit my YouTube channel to see a full archive of all my previous guests. Watch the full playlist on YouTube >>

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How To Change a Voter's Mind and the Robotic Door Saving Halloween Trick-or-Treating | Non-Obvious Insights #241

Nando's Reminds Us All To Vote In This Brilliantly Non-Partisan Ad

Reeses Creates a Hands-Free Trick-or-Treat With a Robotic Moving Door

How To Actually Change A Voter's Mind (Yes, It's Possible!)

A Whiter Paint That Could Make The Earth Cooler (Literally)

This Reimagined District Map Could End Gerrymandering

Home Depot Fills The Remote Education Gap with Virtual Field Trips

Book Release of the Week:

Join the Non-Obvious Insights Show this week ...

Older messages

My New Book Announcement and More Non-Obvious Stories! | Non-Obvious Insights #240

Virtual Cuddling, Dark Stores, the INC 5000 Conference and an Interview with Dan Pink | Non-Obvious Insights #239

Inappropriate Onions, Tattoo Robots, Translating Whale Songs and How Teachers Would Fix Zoom | Non-Obvious Insights #238

How Humor Inspires Change, the Pathetic Debate and Heat Activated Stamps | Non-Obvious Insights #237

Filming Goes Into Space, Democracy-Saving Deepfakes and Why Netflix Cancels Shows After 2 Seasons | Non-Obvious Insights #236

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