Ten Futuristic Cities, Bhutan's New Brand and Why Elon Musk Is The Best Thing For Twitter

Why Elon Musk Might Be The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Twitter

What if Elon Musk is actually saving Twitter ... or at least making it less of a force for misunderstanding and evil in the world? That's a perspective I explored yesterday in an article I wrote for LinkedIn. I'm sharing a quote from the piece below, but you can read the full article here >>

"Twitter is going through a dramatic change right now. Elon Musk is easy to cast as a villain in this story. And he still might be. But the cost of doing nothing and letting Twitter slowly destroy our definition of truth and warp our idea of majority versus minority opinion has long been greater than most of us appreciate.

The harsh truth is that sometimes it's better to let a forest fire burn itself out, or a long pent up volcano to erupt. At least then we can hope that what comes after is better than what we had before."

10 Futuristic Cities That May Be Built In Your Lifetime

Estimates suggest the Maldives may be entirely under water by 2050. The challenge to save it, in other words, is generationally urgent. The floating city pictured above may start to house Maldivians as early as 2024. That's the fascinating thing about this compiled list of imaginatively futuristic cities. They seem like they would only be possible in the far future, but a number of them are already being built. And some are urgent priorities for their respective governments thanks to demographic shifts and climate change. All of which is to say you should read the article linked above not as science fiction or wishful thinking, but rather as a roundup of some of the world's most fascinating cities that may become a reality within your lifetime.

Inspirational New Film Depicts One Indian Family's Chance Encounter With Neil Armstrong

The moments that unite the world are almost uniformly tragic. Wars and natural disasters are usually at the top of the list, but in 1969 it was the moon landing and Neil Armstrong that brought the world together. While the landing itself is depicted in dozens of film, hardly anyone focuses on the months after this historic moment.

Last night I attended a premiere of a new short film called One Small Visit that dramatizes the story of an Indian immigrant family's accidental encounter with the Armstrong family. Set in a time of deep racial division, the heartwarming film reminds us that human kindness has always been alive and can come from the most unexpected places. The film is quickly going viral and is in Oscar contention as well. If you're in one of the cities where they are doing a limited release in the coming weeks, you can check it out for yourself.

The Inside Story of Bhutan's New National Brand Identity

If I were to ask you one fact about Bhutan, I can already guess what you might say. You probably can't even name country's capital city (it's Thimpu!), but you likely already identify the country as the happiest nation on Earth - a place that has long measured citizen's Gross National Happiness. Now the country has undertaken a new national rebranding campaign aimed at promoting the country's commitment to sustainable travel (evidenced by the higher fees they will be charging travelers to visit).

Fast Company calls the campaign "aspirational at best, naive at worst," but for me I'm always captivated by nation branding efforts. The idea that you can define an entire nation to the world in a cohesive way and the sheer ambition of trying to do it strikes me as the ultimate branding challenge. If I ever went back to working on brand marketing campaigns, this is the first category I would pick to work on. The second would be luggage, of course.