Understanding Diwali, Notes from SXSW Sydney and a Talking Pet Collar

Dear Fellow Trend Curator,

Good morning from Singapore! I am headed homeward after several insight-packed days speaking and learning at SXSW Sydney for the second year. The world could definitely use more intersectional industry events like this.

In my featured stories this week, you’ll read about a new talking pet collar, the challenges of AI in school, comedic wildlife photography and a memorably non-obvious song and campaign to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House.

The most exciting thing this week, though, is that I’m happy to feature a very special Non-Obvious Book of the Week authored by my wife Chhavi! Last month she launched A Kids Book About Diwali as part of the pioneering Kids Book About series and it already has 100 5-star reviews and has been featured in some amazing media. Read more about the book in my feature below!

Buy a Signed Copy!

As you might imagine, I have some connections to hook you up with a signed copy. 🙂 The book is a great gift for kids of any age in your life or as a resource for schools to help teachers and librarians there explain the traditions of Diwali to everyone. It’s a great read for adults too. 🙂

Enjoy and stay curious!

What Funny Wildlife Photos Can Teach Us About Life

If you have ever gone out with a camera to try and capture animals in the wild doing something interesting, you might have felt that moment of elation when you manage to capture the magic moment. Once in a while, that image might even be something funny.

This week, the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards announced their range of finalists and the choices are exactly as fun as you would hope. The rules of the competition say there is no digital manipulation of AI editing allowed, promising that the organizers “have the finest team of digital detectives on the planet to make sure every image is verified. These guys are serious pixel Sherlocks, so pay attention, no cheating!”

In a time of constantly filtered or retouched images and plenty of deepfakes, this idea feels more refreshing than ever. Getting that perfect angle requires either perfect luck or plentiful patience. Usually, it’s patience.

This is a rare competition that reminds us of the therapeutic power of meditatively waiting for that perfect shot and actually getting it. As an amateur photographer myself, I know that feeling of elation is really not like anything else. All of us should make more time to take photos like this.

Student Caught Using AI, So His Parents Sued School. This is Why It Matters …

“Parents sue school after son gets punished for using AI on class project.” That’s the short summary of a story trending this week about Massachusetts-based Jennifer and Dale Harris who are suing their son’s school claiming the student handbook “failed to clarify when AI could be used appropriately.”

The story is a symbol of a confusing reality playing out in schools across the world. What’s the right way to use AI in classrooms and when (if at all) should it be banned? It also intersects lots of other issues like privilege (the student’s family can afford a lawyer), policy versus ethics, helicopter parenting (fighting kids battles for them) and terminology (is using AI considered plagiarism?)

While this seems like a relatively simple story of one kid whose parents are using legal methods to get him out of trouble, I suspect at some point a highly symbolic story of student vs. AI vs. school will become a landmark legal case that perhaps elevates all the way to the Supreme Court in the U.S. to determine what is and isn’t allowed.

Regardless of what you think about the parents and their distinctly American choice to turn to litigation as a first resort, the question asked here is undeniably important: what is an acceptable way to use AI in the classroom? We already need a better answer for that.

The Virtues of [Not] Playing It Safe

Can a song capture 50 years of one of the most iconic buildings in the world?

Tim Minchin is an Australian composer who was commissioned to answer this question last year as part of the 50-year anniversary celebration for the Sydney Opera House. He shared the story of how he did it on stage this week as part of the SXSW Sydney event.

The opera house is one of the most recognizable in the world, so ubiquitous that it’s simultaneously become a legendary performance venue and a cliché logo you’ll find on tea towels and fridge magnets in souvenir shops across Sydney.

How do you bring that story to life through music that honors the history without becoming forgettable?

For Tim, the inspiration came from writing exactly the opposite of what the entire world might have expected. His song and the ensuing campaign was called “Play it Safe.” It talks about the virtues of staying inside a box, never venturing too far and not taking risks.

Exactly the opposite of everything the Opera House represented.

In the song, he writes: “You gotta play it safe. Your mind is like a house. If you keep it locked up tight. You just might keep the world out.”

Along the way, the video is filled with historic images of the construction of the Opera House, all the criticism it received along the way as a waste of money and resources, many of the famous moments the venue hosted throughout the years including performances, protests and other memorable images.

It also brilliantly subverts with the distinctly Australian cultural mindset often described as the “tall poppy syndrome” which is defined as a societal attitude that occurs when people are resented, disliked or criticised due to their successes. “No one likes a showoff,” the song lyrics say. “No one cares what you have to say.”

And yet, when you find the right way to stand out … you can create something so culture-defining that it becomes the thing you’re known for. For a culture that has often struggled with the very idea of standing out in a crowd, the Opera House is everything Australia could be … if it let itself.

Playing it safe isn’t for everyone.

The Talking Pet Collar That Aims to Give Your Pet a Voice

It’s an idea right out of science fiction: a talking pet collar. And it’s here thanks to entrepreneur John McHale who almost lost his dog to a rattlesnake bite. This dog collar comes with the ability to select one of several preprogrammed voices and customize all sorts of settings for your pet. Some are quite over the top:

“You can select your pet’s values, like compassion, justice, and courage. There are settings for its religious beliefs, power of forgiveness, or thoughts on freedom, fate, and destiny. You can give it a take on politics and broad topics like globalism.”

In WIRED’s early review of this collar, the results were much less of a translator and more of a randomized statement generator from your pet that might occasionally match their behavior. Like a lot of very early experimental tech, it is much more novelty and fun than practical or useful. But there are a handful of promising features, such as the ability to offer a warning if the collar detects a rattlesnake nearby or an alert if the collar senses you might have forgotten a feeding. Altogether probably not enough to justify the steep annual subscription of nearly $500.

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week

A Kids Book About Diwali

Diwali is for everyone. That’s the biggest perspective you’ll get from A Kids Book About Diwali … which isn’t really just for kids. Going far beyond the usual holiday stories, this book clearly outlines the cultural traditions behind this important holiday in an inclusive way that incorporates the various traditions of the many faiths that celebrate it — including Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists.

For anyone looking to understand the meaning behind the five days of Diwali, answer kids’ questions about the holiday or just gain a better insight into a holiday celebrated by more than a billion people across the world, this book is the ideal guide.

As more schools and communities outside India add Diwali to their list of recognized holidays and the South Asian diaspora grows, A Kids Book About Diwali is the ultimate guide to this holiday that schools and families need to appreciate the meaning behind the traditions. Diwali should be for everyone. This is a book that can help that become a reality.

Buy on Amazon

Buy a Signed Copy!

About the Non-Obvious Book Selection of the Week:
Every week I will be featuring a new “non-obvious” book selection worth sharing. Titles featured here may be new or from the backlist, but the date of publication doesn’t really matter. My goal is to elevate great books 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 2024 speaking reel on YouTube >>

This Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter is curated by Rohit Bhargava.

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