5 Takeaways From CES, Dangerous Names and America’s Disappearing Data Problem

Dear Fellow Non-Obvious Thinker,

The newsletter (and I!) are back and I have a lot to share. It’s been an inspirational past several weeks filled with adventures through Rajasthan, several days in Dubai and a whirlwind week of conversations and coverage from the trade show floor at CES in Vegas last week. The early batch of videos along with some recent travel videos have already passed half a million views on Instagram so definitely check them out here and follow me for more videos >>​

For the newsletter this week we will start, naturally, with my recap of the biggest things that stood out from CES last week. In other stories, you’ll read about the problem with e-bikes, America’s disappearing data problem, why social media followers have never mattered less, and the possibility of a Disneyland in Thailand. All that and my recommendations for the non-obvious book and media of the week too.

Enjoy and stay curious!

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This Week’s New Videos …

5 Non-Obvious Takeaways from the World’s Largest Tech Show

I spent several days touring the trade show floor talking with tech experts, trying out demos, encountering lots of weird robots and interviewing people about their visions for the future. Of course, AI was everywhere and in everything, whether necessary or not. After a few days of reflection, I had some time to compile some of my biggest takeaways from the show this year:

1. Tech for augmentation rather than replacement will continue to gain faster and more widespread acceptance.

Augmentation tech, like smarter AI-enabled hearing aids or anti-tripping shoes, seem like great innovations. On the flip side, AI holographic companions or robots that read bedtime stories to your kids were widely criticized as a vision of the future one analyst described as “equal parts solitary and infantilized.”

2. The line between solving actual problems and just enabling privileged laziness is blurry.

An AI oven that can cook for you, an automated lawn mower, a five-minute ice maker or an ultrasonic kitchen knife are conveniences of the future … but they are also a recipe for a future where we don’t need to know how to do anything for ourselves. Based on this tech, humans of the future may end up being pretty helpless, not to mention the potential luxury divide that may arise between those who can afford this tech and those who cannot.

3. The future is exciting for creators and the content we all will consume … if they embrace AI.

From automated drone videos to higher resolution, smarter cameras to more predictive software tools, the future on display for anyone who makes content was more automated, faster and more democratized. When the cost of gear and software continues to plummet, the only thing that will separate the best creators from selfie-taking amateurs is breakthrough creativity, which paradoxically will increase the value of great content and entertainment rather than killing it.

4. Health tech is going beyond wearables and now integrating full ecosystems and more holistic wellness.

Walking through the latest offerings from brands like Withings, Superhuman, Oura, Whoop, Amazfit and several others – it was clear that they are all trying to evolve beyond being companies known only for their signature wearable devices. Many are partnering with blood testing labs, integrating with other health services and generally going further than the usual sleep and workout tracking to offer everything from mental health management tools to extremely accurate tracking for ovulation cycles.

5. The biggest macro trend in tech is incremental updates with falling prices.

The AI bird-tracking feeders were slightly better than last year, selling at a lower price point. Same story with drones, AI smart glasses, large screen flat televisions and pretty much every category of tech. It’s now become an annual tradition of sorts to see products that were at a higher price last year come down dramatically in a bid to popularize the categories they come from. This trend downward is good news for consumers.

The Unexpected Problem With E-Bikes Might Start with the Name

The dangers of e-bikes are starting to get more attention. Crashes involving these bikes are more serious, have a higher likelihood of fatality and are growing problem for riders and pedestrians alike. A ​feature article from the NY Times magazine​ looks at how communities across the country are dealing with this issue and specifically features a girl named Amelia Stafford who nearly died from an accident that required reconstructive surgery on her skull. Talking about the experience now, she raises an interesting point:

Amelia calls the term e-bike “a play on words.” If the machines were called motorbikes, she believes, they would be far less popular. “But the fact that it’s called an e-bike” — evoking such everyday stuff as email, e-books or (less salubriously) e-cigarettes — “makes it accessible.”

Her friend Coral concurs. “People don’t think about them as mini-motorcycles, which is really what they are,” she says. “People think of them as ‘bikes plus’ — just, like, a little extra. It’s really geared toward younger people who don’t have an understanding of the impacts.”

Bikes have always offered independence to kids — and liberated parents from ferrying them around — but the fun factor offered by e-bikes mixes dangerously with young people’s proclivity for play, made worse because they are often not old enough to drive and don’t know the rules of the road.

Indeed, many of the accidents with these bikes include kids as young as 12 years old and the idea that the name itself might be part of the problem is one that resonates not just for bikes but also for other innocent sounding things like e-cigarettes which seem less dangerous than the real thing. This renaming strategy is one we commonly see used in business whenever sentiment goes sour.

High fructose corn syrup makers tried to rebrand the toxic sludge to call it corn syrup. Facebook rebranded to Meta after facing scrutiny about their negative impact on our brains. Philip Morris USA changed its name to Altria after decades of legal trouble. Aunt Jemima pancake mix was renamed to Pearl Milling Company after decades of criticism about its brand imagery.

Altogether these offer a reminder of just how important the names of things are for how we perceive them. Everything starts with that.

America’s Data Blind Spot Is Real … and Getting Worse

One way to control the story about what’s happening in the world is to remove any data that can prove otherwise. That seems to be the strategy at the heart of accelerating moves by the Trump administration to cancel surveys, cut staff and remove access to government data sets. Here’s an example ​recently shared by NPR​:

“For years, the Environmental Protection Agency has assigned a dollar value to the lives saved and the health problems avoided through many of its environmental regulations. Now, that has changed. The EPA will no longer consider the economic cost of harm to human health from fine particles and ozone, two air pollutants that are known to affect human health. The change was written into a new rule recently published by the agency. It weakened air pollution rules on power plant turbines that burn fossil fuels, which are sources of air pollution of many types, including from fine particles, sometimes called soot.”

Sadly, this is not an isolated case. As ​Bloomberg reports this week​, America’s statistical system is breaking down. This so-called “​war on measurement​” is being countered by a ​variety of groups​ that are dedicating time to capture and sometimes save these terminated datasets. The pace by which they are disappearing, though, is making this difficult.

Still, for me the big story here isn’t the moves from the administration to hide or defund data collection but rather the ​bravery and dedication​ of the scientists and government workers to preserve that data and wait for a future time when it can be resurrected and used once more.

Social Media Followers Have Never Mattered Less

There’s a mind-bending conclusion that many social media industry analysts are now exploring: your follower count doesn’t matter. ​According to a recent article in TechCrunch, analysts say​, “as social media becomes increasingly reliant on algorithmic feeds, creators are navigating a new normal: Just because you post something doesn’t mean your followers will see it.”

Many of us have been seeing this for months on platforms like LinkedIn where content is being actively hidden or suppressed after algorithmic changes that seem to be both ​gender-biased​ and weighted towards content that is either paid or manipulated through a ​series of “homework” tasks​ (like engaging on the platform for 15 minutes before posting or writing lengthy comments on others posts) that aim to “train” the algorithm to allow your content to be seen.

Ultimately, this reality of social media is a resetting of what really matters away from amassing lots of followers to gamifying your content, the way it’s posted, what activities you do around it on the platform and these external factors in order to get your posts to show. For creators dedicated to working within this system, this is an opportunity. For anyone else naively hoping to just have their latest posts seen by their friends, family and 1st level connections … you’re already getting left behind.

The Non-Obvious Media Recommendation of the Week

Atlas Obscura

I’m lucky to travel to lots of places around the world as part of the work that I do and I’m always up for finding new and interesting spots to go. Instead of randomly Googling or even asking AI for trip recommendations, ​Atlas Obscura​ is one of my first stops. The site describes itself as “a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places” and offers useful curated compilations of the most interesting places you can go in any city.

Many of the places that I’ve discovered for myself (such as 59 Rivoli in Paris that I ​recently did a video about​) started as a tip from Atlas Obscura. As you dig through the site, you’ll also discover an original collection of published books from the team behind the site as well—all of which is worth reading and bookmarking if you love to discover new places when traveling … or even in your own hometown.

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week

Live To See the Day

What causes some people to devote their lives to an impossible quest? From hopeless candidates who keep running for office to NASA explorers trying to discover proof of alien life, this is a fascinating book from Canadian journalist Mark Medley who spent five years traveling the world to interview people who knew they were on an impossible quest … yet chose to continue it anyway. He describes his motivation for the book this way:

“My interest is not scientific but human. What makes someone strive for something—in many cases the thing they want more than anything else—knowing they’ll only be disappointed in the end? Why would someone devote their life to a dream they know will be impossible, or at least very unlikely, to achieve?”

These are the stories of people who choose not to give up even when the world tells them there is no point to their passion. If there is a truth to be found in this sort of dedication, Medley does his best to uncover it. First published just a few weeks ago, it’s a brilliant read for the new year that might just inspire you to keep going on with that thing you love—no matter what anyone else tells you.

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About the Non-Obvious Book Selection of the Week:

Every week I share a new “non-obvious” book selection. Titles featured here may be new or classic books, but the date of publication doesn’t really matter. My goal is to elevate great reads that perhaps deserve a second look which you might have otherwise missed.

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. Looking for a speaker to inspire your team to become non-obvious thinkers through a keynote or workshop?

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