Immortal Animals, the Overemployed, One-Click Lawsuits and the Savvy Women Who Inspire Me

Who are the non-obvious business heroes that inspire me? Can a platform really get you paid by using AI to search the Internet for organizations who owe you money? What happens when cars are designed as “cocoons” with no rear windows? Are the overemployed, bored and attention seeking setting the world on fire just to watch it burn? Can animals really be immortal?

These are some of the questions you’ll discover in this week’s edition of the non-obvious newsletter. Lots to read and share, so enjoy and as always just hit reply to share your thoughts about any of them back with me!

Most of My Business Heroes Are Savvy Female Entertainers. Here’s Why … 

For our new book, I’ve been recording a fair number of podcast appearances and one of the favorite questions for interviewers is to ask “who are your mentors or sources of inspiration?” Every name I share is usually a female entertainer. Beyoncé. Taylor Swift. Rihanna. Oprah. While each one is famous for her talent, the stories of their business acumen and smart decision making are gaining more widespread appreciation too.

A story this week about how Taylor Swift managed to avoid getting caught up in the whole FTX scandal by “asking one simple question” is just the latest example. The article offers a timeline of the artist’s “bold business moves” and offers more context for how strategic she has been in managing and growing her brand into an empire.

Oprah did the same thing when found her purpose and left network TV to own her own studio. Beyoncé too decided to leave her record label’s predatory deal behind and own her own business and rights. Rihanna leveraged the biggest stage of the year at the Super Bowl with her savvy product placement.

The legacy they are leaving is far more inspiring than the one left by former corporate icons like Jack Welch whose trail of destruction is finally catching up with them. So yes, I’m driven by the examples of these women who branch out to start their own brands, take ownership of their success, refuse to accept predatory industry middle men and build platforms that raise others up too. They inspire me to try and do the same thing in my own way.

A Car With No Rear Window and the Tradeoffs of Progress

Instead of the usual rear windshield, Swedish EV car maker Polestar’s latest SUV has no rear window and instead offers a high-definition rearview camera in it’s place. The design choice is inspiring plenty of comments online. Logically, if all the technology in the car always works then a high def camera might offer more visibility. If it always works, that is.

So this one design choice manages to get to the heart of the debate about so much of tech innovation. Some people believe we should create without any need to look back while others feel like we always need to build with a backup plan in place. Ultimately, there is only thing both sides agree on: you really can’t have both. 

The Plague of the Overemployed, Bored and Attention Seeking

There is a growing community of workers who find themselves multiple side hustles while usually working a full time job as well. Often fueling their multiple gigs through a proficiency using AI tools like Chat GPT, they call themselves the “overemployed”. This story fit into a larger theme I noticed across multiple stories this week that were essentially about the effects of bored or attention seeking behavior from (mostly) young men.

There was the story of a guy who decided to randomly throw $200,000 out his car window in individual $100 bills which brought Interstate traffic to a stop. Or the guy who hacked a right-wing commentator’s Twitter account because he was bored. Or the US military document leak that was apparently caused by a guy trying to show off for other guys in a chat room. These stories have a common thread. The people involved aren’t acting out of some grand vision or purpose. They are trying to make a quick buck, cure their boredom or look good for their friends. Hardly the motivations of master criminals. 

What We Can Learn From The Curious Case Of The Immortal Jellyfish

Imagine an animal that could live forever. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it because one might already exist. The jellyfish known scientifically as Turritopsis dohrnii is nicknamed the “immortal jellyfish” because it indeed could live forever. Research shows that “when this creature becomes damaged for whatever reason, it can revert to a blob of living tissue that eventually develops back into a polyp, and once again its developmental process repeats.” Sadly, jellyfish don’t have brains and are therefore not recognized as sentient in the way that octopus, lobsters and crabs have been. So while this jellyfish could live forever, it probably isn’t aware of it which seems like kind of a waste.

Still, the idea of death is so fundamental to how we think about living organisms. Questioning this basic assumption about all life is an irresistibly non-obvious thought exercise. If a jellyfish can live forever, what else might we discover in the 80% of the ocean that still remains unexplored?

How the “Robin Hood of the Internet” Is Using AI To Save People Money, Sue Robocallers And Create Controversy

The latest prompt from controversial DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder earned him $210 in unclaimed money from the California government. For the past several months, Browder has been tweeting about all the experiments his firm is running using AI to fight on behalf of consumers to get money back, take on spammers and just be plain entertaining in the process. Recent efforts include having AI engage spam chatbots in endless conversations, creating a tool to allow for a “one-click lawsuit” to sue robocallers for $1500, and having AI negotiate a discount on a customer’s Internet bill.

In all, Browder’s efforts have earned him plenty of criticism and followers. And while he does deftly create outlandish situations to generate attention (like offering $1M to allow his robolawyer tech to argue a case before the Supreme Court), many of his efforts do indeed seem militantly beneficial for consumers and damaging to those who profit from manipulating or harassing people. So is DoNotPay really the new “Robin Hood of the Internet,” or just another short lived usage of AI that captures the attention of the moment? Let me know what you think!

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 inspire your team to become non-obvious thinkers through a keynote or workshop?  Watch my new 2023 speaking reel on YouTube >>