Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 11

The EPA has a marketing problem and it’s a basic one that has existed for decades. Despite being largely effective in its mission to protect American air quality and prevent toxic sludge from entering waterways, the government agency receives almost no public credit for their success. Of course, I’m oversimplifying their mission and perhaps overstating their success—but when you compare America to many other nations outside Europe, it’s clear that the moves the US government made decades ago to ...

This past month Adobe launched a super useful enhancement that I’ve been testing it for a bit. The Adobe AI Assistant has a number of features to help anyone more easily understand what contracts are actually saying. Given most contracts are in PDF format, it’s a perfect extension to have this built into Adobe. The tool allows you to easily extract a list of deliverables, find key dates and more easily see changes from one version of a contract to another. If you use your own contracts, it can a...

There is a word for people who buy a child’s game when it first comes out and then immediately try to sell it online for a huge profit: assholes.

Ok, technically the more common and polite term would be scalpers. It’s a common problem, though. Particularly when it comes to the still popular game of Pokémon where new card packs can be bought and sold online with ease. Recently, to try and curb this black market game, Pokémon Center Singapore has confirmed they will be removing the plastic wrap...

Humans are great at habituation. We can get used to it when things are great, and we can get used to it when they aren’t too. Both situations can be a problem. The secret to really being more fulfilled may lie in our ability to dishabituate. That’s the simple premise Look Again, a book that delves into the social science and research behind why challenging yourself to do this more frequently matters. It’s a message that resonated immediately for me, as did one of the opening stories where the au...

The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), is a beautifully imagined group within the United Nations that aims to make sure space doesn’t get misused as the costs for launching satellites continues to go down and the industry continues to privatize. Investor plans show there are several companies aiming to put hundreds of laser-fitted small satellites into orbit roughly 370 miles above Earth’s surface by 2030. Altogether, this many satellites could work together like a space bil...

Diplomats and trading partners don’t trust the word of America anymore. Countries are hosting summits and meetings to discuss alliances specifically omitting the US. Politicians in other countries are winning elections because they argue against America. There are even kits for sale online to help Americans who do travel abroad to disguise themselves as more universally appreciated Canadians. As an article from Fast Company this week suggests, perhaps Brand America itself has become toxic.

What if everything doesn’t need to be better? A series of 80s shows originally released at a 4:3 aspect ratio and with non-HD level filming have been digitally “enhanced” with AI to make them higher quality and in the typical widescreen format preferred now. The upscaling is a disaster.

Anyone watching immediately notices inconsistencies, weird AI-generated remnants and a wide format that cuts off critical pieces of a scene. The end result is that anyone watching will long for a time whe...

Tesla owners are disguising their cars as a sign of resistance. There are plenty of YouTube videos with tips on how to hide the evidence that you’re driving a Tesla. Others are putting bumper stickers explaining that: “I bought this before Elon went crazy.” People are selling or otherwise getting rid of their Teslas if they can afford to, and the stock is in a nosedive. All of these are a growing response to owner Elon Musk’s erratic behavior and lack of attention spent recently on running Tesla...

There are colors that you may have heard of, and more than a few that you haven’t. This highly original book takes a look at all of them and gives you all the meanings and symbolism of colors that you may never have thought about. Rated by USA Today as one of their “Top 100 Books to Read While Stuck at Home During the Coronavirus Crisis”—I’m pretty sure this was the first time I came across the book too. Since then, I have referred to it often when I’m going through an exercise to work on a book...

How can you get young people to reconnect with nature? Let them talk to a tree. That’s the creative premise behind a new campaign that features a 150-year-old horse chestnut tree in London’s Morden Hill Park, which ‘speaks’ using “real-time sensory data from over 10 sensors measuring wind speed, soil moisture, humidity, and bioelectrical signals. This data feeds into an LLM that shapes the tree’s personality and enables live conversations.”

While a novel concept, this also signals an inte...