NASA's Secret Message, the Truth About Cheese and Why Athlete's Birthdays Matter | Non-Obvious Insights #258

Dear Newsletterest,

This week NASA landed the Perseverance rover on Mars and sent back the first recording of what Mars actually sounds like. Along with a hidden "secret message" embedded in the red and white colors of the Perseverance rover’s parachute, the entire mission cleverly seemed to augment its ambitious scientific goals with masterful storytelling.

The mission and the exciting announcement from SpaceX of an all-civilian space orbit mission that anyone can apply to join are refocusing attention on space travel - and raising some big questions around how humans should be exploring space. That's the topic I'll be exploring in my Non-Obvious Insights Show today as I talk to a panel of experts from NASA and the space industry about these developments and what we can expect next.

For my stories in the newsletter this week, you'll read the truth about cheese, how workplace trust is breaking down, the shaky relationship between out of home advertising and social media and how athlete's birthdates might affect their future success. Enjoy the stories!

Cheese Isn't Actually Bad For You.

In my opinion, this is big news (probably because I love cheese). It turns out researchers are now saying that cheese isn't actually bad for you. Worst case, it's a so-called "neutral" food, and in the best case, some cheese may offer beneficial gut bacteria that actually helps you lose weight. Apart from Indian food, my favorite thing in the world to eat has always been fresh bread and cheese. Bread (sadly) is still forbidden by most diets - but at least we can break into the cheese with a little less guilt.

Do Social Media and Out of Home (OOH) Advertising Need Each Other?

Earlier this week I shared a bus stop ad for Kit Kat that had gone viral. I've shared those before. In every case, I had never seen the ad in real life. As this insightful article from marketing publication The Drum asks: did the ads even need to actually exist in real life in order to be effective? Unless there's a direct offer, the impact of OOH advertising has always been hard to measure ... but when concepts can be photoshopped onto billboards and go viral on social media, it raises some fundamental questions about the value and future of a century old advertising medium. Will social media kill the billboard, or do they need one another to co-exist? What do you think?

Workplace Trust Is Breaking Down Among Hourly and Gig Workers.

One of the bigger stories this week was all about Amazon workers in Alabama petitioning to unionize and organize collective rights in response to Amazon's notoriously aggressive performance targets and poor working conditions that had some warehouse workers peeing into plastic bottles. A related story you might have missed was about how gig workers are building and using apps and algorithms to track how they are being paid and spotting discrepancies. The theme across both stories is clear: many gig and hourly workers don't trust their employers to treat them well ... so they are taking matters into their own hands. This is what a breakdown of workplace trust looks like, and the problem seems to be growing.

What Monopoly Can Teach Us About Our Own Inconvenient History.

Have you ever wondered why the properties on a Monopoly game board are priced the way that they are? It turns out the pricing was based on the segregated streets of New York at a time when the class divide was even worse than today. This article offered a sobering reminder that the artifacts we ignore or forget may hold the key to understanding the past, if we can remember to appreciate them:

"Seldom do we treat board games as important cultural artifacts akin to paintings, songs, or movies. But commonplace objects tucked into our closets and handed down from one generation to another can tell us important things about our past."

How Athlete's Birthdays Can Determine Their Success (Sort Of)

One of my boys is born in late November, which means most of the players on his soccer team are nearly a full year older and a grade higher than him ... yet the competition is making him better. Is his younger age a positive or a negative? Author Tim Wigmore explores that topic in this article for FiveThirtyEight with some interesting conclusions. In short, there is an advantage for players who are older on a team, but it seems the advantage comes more in the selection phase. In other words, older players are more likely to get selected for elite teams earlier, but if younger players do get picked, they are more likely to emerge and grow to an elite level. This passage in particular is good news for my son and any other younger athletes too:

"To survive in the system, relatively younger athletes must develop some other performance advantage, which is likely to be skill and its attributes, such as speed, technique and decision making. During their development, these younger athletes may benefit further in skill acquisition by playing the sport with relatively older athletes."

Here's how to connect with me LIVE this week for a conversation ...

This week's Non-Obvious Insights Show will focus on how humans explore space with special guests from NASA and other experts in the space industry. Don't miss it!

Watch at 12:00 pm EST >>

Every Thursday afternoon, my friend and co-author Henry Coutinho-Mason host an audio conversation on Clubhouse about future trends.

Join TODAY at 3:30pm EST >>

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 >>

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NASA's Secret Message, the Truth About Cheese and Why Athlete's Birthdays Matter | Non-Obvious Insights #258

Cheese Isn't Actually Bad For You.

Do Social Media and Out of Home (OOH) Advertising Need Each Other?

Workplace Trust Is Breaking Down Among Hourly and Gig Workers.

What Monopoly Can Teach Us About Our Own Inconvenient History.

How Athlete's Birthdays Can Determine Their Success (Sort Of)

Here's how to connect with me LIVE this week for a conversation ...

Older messages

The Future of Events, Lab Grown Wood and 25 Lessons In Diversity | Non-Obvious Insights #257

Robotic Eyelash Extensions, the Future of Food and the Best + Worst Super Bowl Ads | Non-Obvious Insights #255

Banned Books, Endangered Cosplay and 50+ Hours of Conversations About Diversity | Non-Obvious Insights #254

Inauguration, Transitions and Why Experience Is So Undervalued In Politics | Non-Obvious Insights #253

Why Brands Redesign Logos and a Preview of the World's Most Ambitious Conversation About Diversity | Non-Obvious Insights #252

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