World Modeling, Anti-Surveillance Products and a Hotel Suite That Rewards Human Kindness

Dear Fellow Non-Obvious Thinker,

Greetings from Austin. This week in stories, you’ll get an inside look at the making of my new keynote that I’ll be debuting from the stage tomorrow here at SXSW. There’s also an exploration of why “world modeling” may be the scary new future of AI, the rise of anti-surveillance products and also a hotel suite that can only be booked as recognition for human kindness.

Enjoy the stories this week and if you’re in Austin for SXSW, come and join one of our events so we can meet up in person!

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This Week’s New Videos …

Secrets of Human Connection and My Deeply Personal Annual Challenge

You know when they describe a moment as a calm before the storm? That’s tonight in Austin as I get ready for a whirlwind four days at SXSW where we’ll be hosting or participating in 16 events. There is a crazy surprise simultaneous book signing with over 25 authors. A Foresight “Improv” session where all of us make up the content on the spot. I’ll be recording a LIVE interview for the Non-Obvious Show Podcast with Under Armour founder Kevin Plank and of course we’ll be bringing back our signature Non-Obvious 7 Minute Meetup.

Most nights this week I’ve been up refining and rehearsing my new keynote that I’ll be debuting at SXSW this year: 5 Non-Obvious Secrets of Human Connection (For Love and Profit). Yes, that photo above is the storyboard for the talk. Every year it’s an intimidating challenge to create a new talk. Maybe more so when you make your entire brand about being non-obvious, which raises expectations.

Every year, on the night before this talk, I’m always worried that it won’t land and that I should have stuck to the talk that I already know will work. When you do something for long enough and you know people love it, sharing something new and untested is scary. Especially in front of thousands of people expecting you to be as good (or better) than the last time they saw you. The pressure makes me nervous, but I also need it.

Consistently architecting and delivering a new keynote here at SXSW year after year makes all of my other talks better. I suppose that’s why I say yes every time. If I don’t see you in Austin, I’ll be sure to share the full video of my talk after they share it too. Then I’d love your thoughts on what was (or wasn’t) working so I can keep improving.

The AI Startup That Raised $1B While Betting Against Generative AI

When a Turing Prize winner raises over a billion dollars to create a new model for the future of AI, people should be paying attention. Yann LeCun and his company AMI Labs are planning to build “world models” instead of large language models. These are models that are designed to learn from reality instead of predictive text. More importantly, he believes that in six months, every AI company will be talking about world modeling. It’s cause for excitement and concern, as tech writer Shelly Palmer shares in his newsletter:

“I love this journey, but the tech also terrifies me. I keep asking myself what scares me more: a future where AI fundamentally misunderstands how the world works, or a future where it actually understands the world completely. Both scenarios have kept me awake recently.”

There are a lot of questions right now around what exactly world modeling is, how it can be trained and how it might be corrupted. For now, it’s a space to watch and a term to bookmark.

A New Product That Imagines an Anti-Surveillance Future

Anti surveillance

One of the biggest viral tech stories this week was an announcement from a company called Deveillance that announced a product called Spectre 1: the first smart device that stops unwanted audio recordings from happening around you. This is an emerging category around anti-surveillance that is likely to continue to rise as people get frustrated by tech that seems to be always watching and reporting on their movements. Others have called it “tech cloaking” (a lovely Star Trek reference), but the idea is that products and services that enable this will be more popular with future consumers.

As Deveillance founder Aida Baradari explains:

“People should have a choice over what they want to share, especially in conversations. If we can’t converse anymore without feeling scared of saying something that’s potentially taken out of context or wrong, then how are we going to build human connection in this new age?”

The Spectre 1 won’t be out until later this year and is likely to carry a hefty price tag of about $1,199 but the category envisioning is one that will continue to grow in appeal and almost certainly these prices will come down as more people finally choose to take privacy into our own hands and protect themselves from being surveilled.

The Non-Obvious Media Recommendation of the Week

SXSW Magazine

For years, SXSW has been producing their magazine as a preview of what’s happening at the show. Whether you’ll be in Austin or not, this magazine is a great source of cultural signals, music performances, emerging artists and fascinating stories. It’s also a particularly timely read right now as the event is about to start. For all those reasons, the SXSW magazine is my pick for the non-obvious media of the week.

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week

Don’t Be Yourself

The provocative title of this book describes its premise but rather than being an exaggeration, Don’t Be Yourself actually does lay out a pretty convincing argument for why “you do you” is probably the worst advice you can give anyway. Filled with interesting non-obvious advice that goes opposite to the cliche advice you often hear – this is the prefect book to share with anyone who feels overwhelmed by the demands of our culture and wants to do things a different way.

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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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