How The Fate of the World Might Come Down To Marketing and Other Stories | Non-Obvious Insights #244

Dear Newsletterest,

My favorite thing this week was an ad from Twitter that made me laugh, but also made me worried. The ad featured "interruption dad" (the guy who was doing a BBC interview when his daughter hilariously burst into the room while he was live on air) and promoted a disturbing new feature on the platform that you can read about below. Other stories this week include digital brand resurrections, college courses from the future, an interesting new documentary about algorithmic bias and the one thing you really need to stop doing if you really want to be "woke."

Is the Fate of the World About To Come Down To Marketing?

The cure has been found. Actually, multiple cures. Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and even a random Swedish startup you've never heard of are all fast tracking potential vaccine treatments for COVID-19. It's the moment most of us have spent nearly a year (has it been that long?!) waiting for. Some estimates say treatments might start by the end of 2020. But will they be safe? And assuming they are, which one should you take?

Unlike other medical scenarios, the vaccine (at least initially) is looking like it won't be a single thing. There will be options. And even though the global rollout will limit what is available to any of us, how will people decide which vaccine to take? How will the medical community decide which one to prescribe? And how will we address the predictable and inevitable stupidity of the anti-vaxxers who will never believe any vaccine is safe?

None of these are questions of science or politics. They are questions of marketing. Who will tell a better story more persuasively is the real question. In other words, who will be better at marketing? The fate of the world might indeed be up to marketing. Just in case you needed something else to panic about.

Twitter Accidentally Admits It's Platform Is A Noise-Filled Hell

Remember that "interruption dad" who was doing a live interview on BBC back in 2017 when his daughter burst into the room? He's back in a cute new ad from Twitter promoting a new feature where you can decide who comments on your posts and who you want to silence. The ad is a surprising admission from Twitter that their platform has become a noise-filled cesspool of the worst human "conversations" imaginable.

So of course, instead of removing the noisemakers, they introduced a new feature to help you cancel the noise for yourself and make sure you only see comments or posts from people who think like you. Who cares if the rest of those idiotic tweets that you'll never see are fueling a black hole of misinformation making the world worse? At least you don't have to read those tweets for yourself.

WIRED's Course Catalog For 2073 Helps You Imagine The Future

What would students learn in college 50 years from now? This fascinating exploration WIRED of potential future college courses in 2073 offers some powerful thoughts packaged in short observational course titles. Millennial Gerontology, for example, will examine how to deal with Millennials who are now in their twilight years - including a focus on the devastatingly realistic concept of "end-of-life student loan debt counseling." Other course include the nature of our "beef-driven society," The Literature of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and The Biology of Animal Rights - where "students will clone a sheep, then apologize to it." The full list of courses is entertaining and will awaken your imagination for the future ... as great science fiction should.

Want To Be "Woke?" Stop Making Fun of Hillbillies and Rural Folks.

The same people who would not dare to say an offensive word about anyone often keep one type of person they are unafraid to ridicule: the dumb hillbilly. A "hillbilly" is a slang term for an unsophisticated person ... usually used by intellectuals to describe people who live in a rural location and who they assume lack formal or higher education. As this article justifiably argues, if we want to bridge the global divide between those who live in cities and those who live outside them, we all need to find more ways to interact with these so-called "hillbillies," instead of judging or dismissing them based on our own stereotypes of what they believe or who they are.

Documentary Explores Algorithmic Bias. Every Human Should Watch It.

A new documentary film called Coded Bias is opening around the world this weekend from filmmaker Shalini Kantayya and features MIT Researcher Joy Buolamwini talking about her groundbreaking research into algorithmic bias. The world's technology is largely coded by a homogenous group of white men whose unconscious bias color everything from online search engines to facial tracking software. The evidence of this bias is widespread, from the algorithm that blocked kidney transplants to black patients to the well documented problems with facial tracking technology. I'm excited to watch the film this coming weekend - it's streaming virtually from theaters starting today.

Tower Records and Why Digital Brand Resurrection Might Be A Thing.

Tower Records, a brand that went out of business nearly 15 years ago, is coming back in digital form. It's a resurrection that was planned for SXSW 2020 but postponed after the cancellation of that event. The brand refresh and reintroduction is one of many presumed dead brands that are making comebacks in recent years - including Kodak, Pan Am and classic video games. It's yet another example of the Revivalism trend I wrote about in Non-Obvious Megatrends. Even VR is being used to go back in time to experience 17th Century Prague, or 19th Century iconic (but now closed) retail experiences. The more technology gives us unique ways to look forward, the more it might be giving us moments where can look the other direction too.

Book Release of the Week:

Excerpt from the book:

"Cloth making is a creative act, analogous to other creative acts. It is a sign of mastery and refinement. The story of textiles is a story of famous scientists and forgotten peasants, incremental improvements and sudden leaps, repeated inventions and once=ever discoveries. It is a story drive by curiosity, practicality, generosity, and greed. It is a story of art and science, women and men, serendipity and planning, peaceful trade and savage wars. It is, in short, the story of humanity itself -- a global story, set in every time and place."

Buy on Bookshop >>

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

This week on the Non-Obvious Insights Show my special guest will be Dr. David Campt - who you might remember from his viral appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah where he shared advice on how to speak to your racist relatives. Just in time for the holidays, he'll share his best insights on how to have any tough conversation. Watch the episode here >>

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 >>

How are these stories curated?

Every week I spend hours going through hundreds of stories in order to curate this email. Want to discuss how I could bring this thinking to your next event as a virtual speaker? Visit my speaking page >>

And a word from our sponsors ...

The Diwali holiday brings the world premiere of Akshay Kumar's newest Bollywood blockbuster Laxmii coming straight to your home exclusively on Hotstar! Stream all the newest Indian movies with subtitles plus entertainment, live cricket, live news channels and much more on Hotstar today for only $4/month. Learn More >>

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How The Fate of the World Might Come Down To Marketing and Other Stories | Non-Obvious Insights #244

Is the Fate of the World About To Come Down To Marketing?

Twitter Accidentally Admits It's Platform Is A Noise-Filled Hell

WIRED's Course Catalog For 2073 Helps You Imagine The Future

Want To Be "Woke?" Stop Making Fun of Hillbillies and Rural Folks.

Documentary Explores Algorithmic Bias. Every Human Should Watch It.

Tower Records and Why Digital Brand Resurrection Might Be A Thing.

Book Release of the Week:

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

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