Hypnotic Dining, Pet Cloning and the Hidden Shame of Unvaccinated Deaths | Non-Obvious Insights #303

Dear Newsletterest,

I'm on the road in Orlando today and while I don't miss these quick 24 hour trips, being at Disney with their delightfully branded fire hydrants and perfect Florida weather was a nice break from the sub zero temperatures at home. It was also a lovely place to sit by the water and curate some stories to share with you. This week's edition features pet cloning, the food metaverse, recyclable toothpaste tubes, how fifth graders imagine the future, and a thoughtful exploration of why we buy so much stuff for our stuff. Enjoy these stories and welcome to all my new subscribers from the Orlando event!

How Instagram Petfluencers Are Using Cloning To Bring Their Pets Back

Courtney Udvar-Hazy has run an Instagram account featuring her dog Willow for years. When Willow passed away, she turned to the company that (in)famously cloned Barbara Streisand's dog to create a clone of Willow. The procedure costs between $35,000 to $50,000 and is becoming more popular among "petfluencers" desperate to bring back a beloved pet that they also happen to have been making a living from online.

Losing a pet is a traumatic experience, but for those who have built a business around their pet ... choosing to bring them back has an emotional AND a financial ROI. Yet those who admit to cloning a pet also endure snarky comments about "zombie dogs" and criticism about how much they spent on the procedure. Will their example lead pet cloning to be more widespread?

The author of the article believes so, noting that "these furry duplicates are normalizing the world of animal cloning—and they could be ushering in an era of petfluencer immortality." So pet cloning could become common. That is a horrifyingly glorious concept.

Why Is Canadian Architecture So Bad?

An article in The Walrus this week posed a provocative question about Canadian architecture: why is it so bad? After interviewing government officials and well known architects in Canada, the author writes that a big part of the challenge comes down to pressure on organizations and their leaders to demonstrate that they are spending responsibly ...

"In many instances, 'build cheap' also means 'build ugly'—not because good design necessarily costs more but because we have conned ourselves into believing that it does."

In too many design situations, decision makers are reluctant to chose the best or most creative solution because it may result in the perception that they overspent to get it. So instead we end up with uninspired design and ordinary buildings. It seems that only way to change this reality is if great architectural ideas can be sold alongside a compelling demonstration of how they can be executed in a value-driven way.

Hypnotic Dining, Food Metaverse and Other Experiential Food Trends

This week UK Experiential design studio Bompas & Parr released an insightful new report on the Imminent Future of Food and there were several ideas there worth reading. From the potential for hypnotic dining to alter your state of consciousness during a meal to experiments with virtual food experiences in the metaverse, the report is a "tasting menu" of sorts into food trends to watch in 2022.

Other interesting trends mentioned in the report include Geophagy for Health(the upside of eating mineral-boasting soils), the rise of Dates, Road to Excess (why people will take a hedonistic attitude towards food) and why tea is the new coffee. Download the full report PDF here >>

People Are Hiding That Unvaccinated Loved Ones Died of COVID

Before the vaccines, dying from COVID was a tragedy. Today, those same deaths increasingly come with an interrogation, often conducted online, about the vaccine status of the person who passed away. And if they happen to be unvaccinated, the lack of empathy and criticism starts. Here's what one patient advocate had to say:

“I have people reaching out to me confiding on a more one-on-one level that they’re struggling and they want to talk about their loss, but they don’t feel safe. They’re afraid they will be attacked or they’re afraid of their loved one being attacked.”

As a result of this backlash, people feel compelled to hide the real cause of death for their loved ones and keep it private instead. This is sad, and may be leading to what author Kenneth Doka describes as "disenfranchised grief"—a situation "when a living loved one doesn’t feel they can fully grieve because of the societal taboos around a loved one’s death."

As the article rightly notes, it's not true that every unvaccinated person is an anti-vaxxer, and the frustration among the vaccinated for those who aren't is rapidly transforming into cruelty. The death of a loved one is still a tragedy, whether it may have been preventable or not ... which means we all have a chance to practice more empathy and understanding for those who die and their loved ones. Regardless of their vaccine choices.

Is It Ever Possible to Avoid Buying More Stuff For Your Stuff?

Are you buying stuff for your stuff? That was the question that inspired this article from WIRED contributor Paul Ford all about the challenges of buying with more intention. The first problem, he writes, is that "certain kinds of stuff simply attracts more stuff." Your cell phone needs a case and apps. Your home needs furniture.

The second issue that follows soon after is that "each thing, each unit of stuff, came with its own pet stuff—a stand, a foam cover, cords, a manual, a little drawstring case. The supply chain is fractal: Zoom in on your stuff and there's more stuff, ad infinitum."

Sadly, Ford's journey through this thought experiment ends in a rather unsatisfying way: with him content to try and understand the supply chain behind all this stuff. What if we actually could find new ways to rethink our endless consumption of stuff? One way to do it is to intentionally choose products that make a conscious effort to offer less. Refillable items are one example. Another is package free products. And let's not forget the most obvious solution: buy less stuff in the first place.

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?

Every week I spend hours going through hundreds of stories in order to curate this email. Want to discuss how I could bring my best thinking to your next event as a keynote speaker or facilitator? Watch my new 2022 speaking reel on YouTube >>

Want to share? Here's the newsletter link:
https://mailchi.mp/nonobvious/303?e=f7921ac548

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Hypnotic Dining, Pet Cloning and the Hidden Shame of Unvaccinated Deaths | Non-Obvious Insights #303

How Instagram Petfluencers Are Using Cloning To Bring Their Pets Back

Why Is Canadian Architecture So Bad?

Hypnotic Dining, Food Metaverse and Other Experiential Food Trends

People Are Hiding That Unvaccinated Loved Ones Died of COVID

Is It Ever Possible to Avoid Buying More Stuff For Your Stuff?

Even More Non-Obvious Stories ...

Older messages

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