The Myth That Women Are More Empathetic, What Countries Are Proudest and a Dancing Squirrel

Dear Fellow Non-Obvious Thinker,

It’s a big week of celebration across the world, so Happy Chinese New Year and Bom Carnaval for my Brasileiro readers! And for my American friends, one of my featured videos below is a slightly non-obvious take on President’s Day inspired by the various styles of Presidential Portraits over the years.

For stories this week, there’s a timely research report focused on what countries are proudest of their heritage (perfect timing during the Olympics) and my perspective on why the conversations among politicians to boycott the upcoming State of the Union is a bad idea. Plus, bonus stories about the top winners in Sony’s photo contest and why your chin is an evolutionary accident.

Enjoy and stay curious!

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This Week’s New Videos …

Why Boycotting the State of the Union Address Is a Bad Idea

Every year in America the State of the Union is a speech given by the President to offer a summary of how the year has been going. It’s taking place next week and some politicians are already threatening to boycott the speech and host their own political rally instead. A few weeks ago some unreasonably angry politicians on the other side decided to do the same thing by hosting their own sad Super Bowl halftime show in protest of “foreigner” Bad Bunny being the headliner. Both are terrible ideas.

The close-minded belief that if you disagree with something, the only alternative is to host your own thing instead ends up creating even more division. It also minimizes what is actually important. At a time when there is far too much media coverage of things done by the President that really don’t matter, such as what color he paints Air Force One, or what he thinks about Olympics athletes who criticize him or why he’s angry at the host of the Grammy’s. Random rants on Truth Social about hurt egos are NOT significant or newsworthy.

What the President says during the State of the Union address, or the administration’s moves to curtail the power of the EPA to protect our environment or actual stories about policy changes or stories of rampant corruption ARE significant and deserve attention as well as scrutiny and fact checking. In other words, it is not something politicians (or the rest of us) should plan to skip or ignore.

If anyone is going to boycott anything, may I suggest instead that they start with stories from once credible news sources like Newsweek that offer headlines like this: People Can’t Quite Believe the Donald Trump Photo Nicki Minaj Just Posted (story not linked – obviously).

What Countries Are Proudest of Their Culture and Lifestyle?

As I spent far too much time watching the Olympics this week, over and over from the winner’s podium you would see patriotism on display. Athletes celebrating their heritage and proudly holding up their nation’s flags. A timely piece of research from Pew this week also takes a deep dive into where the world people feel the most pride in their culture and traditions:

People in Italy are the most likely to mention something related to their national arts and culture, while Greeks are exceptionally proud of their history. Spaniards and Australians are particularly likely to praise the way of life in their country … some people are proud of their flag, especially in India and Turkey. For some, national pride is tied to the language they speak. This is common in France, Greece and Poland – but especially in Hungary. Another national symbol people are proud of is their country’s food. More than one-in-ten in Italy, France, Mexico and Spain say their national cuisine is a source of national pride.

The full research and corresponding studies offer some interesting conclusions about what people seem to take pride in today versus what they do not. Download the full research report PDF here >>

What If You Could Sue Someone for a Lack of Ethics?

Mark Zuckerberg is now standing trial for Meta’s role in making social media addictive and actively choosing to harm teenagers, or at the very least ignoring the plentiful advice and research that it saw illustrating the harm their platform was inflicting upon users. The depth of their moral resignation and unwillingness to offer even the most basic protections for their youngest users was shockingly detailed in the tell-all book Careless People that came out last year. While Meta and their legal team may have perfected the playbook on how to abandon their ethical duties and clearly they aren’t slowing down judging by recent news about how they have patented AI to take over your account when you die so it can keep posting forever.

An even bigger story about lapsed morals, of course, would be all the revelations about how many powerful men (and some women) were named in the Epstein files. They are driving widespread resignations and reputation hits, but the legal action is generally limited only to what can specifically be proven about someone’s actions if and when they broke the law. What if there were a punishment for compromising your morals and ignoring misdeeds that you knew about? In other words, a cost for doing nothing when you could have done something. What do you think – could this ever work?

The Non-Obvious Media Recommendation of the Week

BackRow

Written by a former reporter from New York magazine, the BackRow newsletter aims to offer a “fearless, honest, outsider’s viewpoint to fashion and culture coverage.” There are lots of fascinating features you’ll find here including “retail confessions” where people who worked inside fashion offer insider information about what the brands (and the celebrities who wear them) are really like. Another section has new brand and collection reviews, gift guides, the backstories behind the making of fashion content, and you can even get up to date on 2026 fashion trends as well. This one is a bit outside my usual reading list, but that’s why I enjoy it. Where else would I learn about why French women don’t want “Instagram Face“?

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week

The Doors You Can Open

What is the difference between a mentor and a sponsor—and why do you need both? It comes down to who is being influenced. A mentor is helping you to get better. A sponsor is talking about you in rooms that you’re not in and trying to get you included. They are influencing others on your behalf. In this book, author Rosalind Chow shows you exactly how to find and get better at using the help of a sponsor. More importantly, the book offers some tools and advice on how to be more of a sponsor yourself and open doors for others. A good read with a useful message that might shift how you think about showing up for the people in your work orbit who need your advocacy the most.

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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? 

Watch my new 2025 speaking reel on YouTube >>

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