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Skipping Mother's Day, NFT Nightmare Scenario and a World Without Men | Non-Obvious Insights #267
Dear Newsletterest,

As I write this, two of the most idiotic annual practices in political media are on full display. The first is how media offers a "side by side" analysis after the State of the Union speech - emphasizing the false idea that everyone must pick a side. The second are the "prebuttals," which are political speeches delivered before an opponent speaks offering disagreement and criticism before they even say anything. The world would be a better place if we could kill both of these practices.

Of course, maybe I'm just in a critical mood since I started the week writing about how the Oscars failed the entertainment industry. But don't worry, there are some hopeful stories this week too - from the fascinating story of how two rivals teamed up to pioneer a less toxic method of making aluminum to the beautiful potential of new 3D scanning technology to help us all truly experience culture and history. As always, let me know what ideas this week's stories spark for you and always stay non-obvious!

Why More Retailers Should Let Users Opt Out of Mother's Day Marketing
Too many people have lost a loved one over the past year, and if it happened to be a parent ... the next few months of marketing for Mother's and Father's Day holidays may be particularly painful. Thankfully a handful of retailers like Etsy are leading the way by allowing their customers to opt out of Mother's Day marketing. The tech industry has been getting better that this sort of proactive empathy thanks to the digital afterlife industry that now describes everything from managing memorial pages on Facebook to having a succession plan for your digital assets. Unfortunately, this is not a topic that most marketers have thought about, which makes those few who do care enough to avoid causing more grief a rare exception that deserve to be celebrated. 

Making "Green Aluminum" and the Power of Forced Collaboration
Making aluminum is one of the dirtiest industrial polluters, producing 2% of all global carbon emissions. For years, producers have been working on a way to create "green aluminum" through a process that emits oxygen instead of carbon. In 2015, two rival companies (Rio Tinto and Alcoa) were close, but neither had the complete solution. Then Apple, one of their biggest customers, demanded that they work together. The resulting joint venture they formed found the answer and now is working to scale their closely guarded secret production method. How many other organizations focused on global challenges, from non-profits to manufacturers might also benefit from this type of forced collaboration? Probably many, but in most cases there is no one in a position of influence forcing them to reluctantly work together. Reading this story, it struck me that perhaps this should be someone's job in every large company. 

The Biggest World Threats: Cryptocurrency, Obesity and Societal Pressure On Men
"Men who fail to attach to partners, careers, or communities grow bitter, and seek volatility and unrest. They are more susceptible to fringe theories, and over-index on online forums filled with misogynist content and misinformation."

One of the necessary outputs of spending a lot of time thinking about global trends is that you end up reading quite a bit about world threats. Some may seem far fetched, like the threat of an asteroid strike. Others feel closer to home - like the three that Professor Scott Galloway outlines in a recent essay. Alongside his exploration of cryptocurrency destabilizing the U.S. Dollar and the threat of obesity, his first point focused on one particular demographic: young men.

In America, men drop out of school more often than women and are three times more likely to get arrested. As Galloway writes: "Despite generations of effort and real improvement in gender equality, men are still expected to be providers and are told from an early age that financial success is a critical measure of manhood." This pressure of society combined with declining prospects for men and a lack of corresponding evolution in perceptions of what it means to be a man may lead to dangerous outcomes. While imagining a world without men may make for an entertaining novel, if we really want to create a better world we need to make sure it is better for women and for men. 

Decorate Your Space By 3D Printing The World's Greatest Artwork
Founded with a mission to "bring tangible heritage to the masses" - a new platform called Scan the World is offering the 3D scans of more than 17,000 pieces of art available for free download. Over the past few years, we have seen more museums offer free digital access to their collection, so this is clearly part of a larger shift. What is interesting here, though, is the idea of making history "tangible." 3D scanning is transforming paleoanthropology too ... another case of helping humans visualize, study and experience history through real and physically recreated objects. In a time when travel has gotten harder and more education has gone virtual, it's hard to overestimate just how important this really is. 
 

The Nightmare Copyright Scenarios of NFTs Are Coming Fast
"The digital terrain should be a place where women can share their likeness as they choose, controlling the usage of their image and receiving whatever potential capital attached. Instead, the internet has more frequently served as a space where others exploit and distribute images of women’s bodies without their consent and for another’s profit." 

What if the models featured in images had legal rights to share in the profit those images generate? This is just one of the questions that the sale of a new NFT from model Emily Ratajkowski is raising and there don't seem to be any good answers. In the NFT, she seems to be trolling an art troll himself by posing in front of his "painting" which is itself featuring an image that neither he nor Ratajkowski owns, and a comment made by a random Instagram user. Who owns any of it? And who should profit? These are centuries old questions when it comes to art - as Ratajkowski points out: "works of unnamed muses sell for millions of dollars and build careers of traditionally male artists, while the subjects of these works receive nothing." Will it be NFTs that break the cycle and give power back to these unnamed muses? That certainly seems like it is starting to happen. 

Even More Non-Obvious Stories ...
Every week I always curate more stories than I'm able to explore in detail. In case you're looking for some more reading this week, here are a few other stories that captured my attention ...
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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