Non-Obvious 2018 Edition. Rohit Bhargava

UnSelling

      Artfully lacing stories together to pull out simple, yet powerful trends, Rohit offers a blueprint for making trend identification a key component of your business strategy. The format of his book makes it easy for the novice to adopt these principles, and for the expert to glean pearls of wisdom. While the title is Non Obvious, your next step should be obvious —read this book today!

      —JOEY COLEMAN

       Chief Experience Composer at Design Symphony

      Non-Obvious is a powerhouse ‘must read’ for corporate executives, marketeers and product and service developers. Rohit Bhargava provides valuable, entertaining and easily understood sideways insights into critical trends shaping the near future. He lifts the lid on the myths surrounding the dark arts of trend prediction and offers very practical guidance on how to spot, curate and capitalize on Non Obvious trends.

      —ROHIT TALWAR

       Global Futurist and CEO Fast Future Research

      Copyright © 2018 by Rohit Bhargava

      All rights reserved.

      Published in the United States by Ideapress Publishing.

      Ideapress Publishing | www.ideapresspublishing.com

      All trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

      Cover Design by Jeff Miller/Faceout Studios

       Cover Photo by Javier Pérez

      Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the Library of Congress.

      ISBN: 978-1-940858-31-9 (e-book)

      Proudly Printed in the United States of America

       by Selby Marketing Associates

      Special Sales Ideapress Books are available at a special discount for bulk purchases for sales promotions and premiums, or for use in corporate training programs. Special editions, including personalized covers, custom forewords, corporate imprints and bonus content are also available. For more details, email [email protected].

      To my parents – for always giving me

       a chance to see the world in my own way…

       even if it wasn’t always non-obvious.

      AUTHOR’S NOTE:

       The 2018 Edition – What’s New

       and Non-Obvious?

      This is a book about learning to predict the future.

      It is also printed with a date on its cover, reflecting the fact that every year I rewrite and replace about 40% of this book with all new content.

      The simple belief of this book is that the secret to predicting the future is to get better at understanding the present. The only difficulty is, the present is always evolving.

      Throughout the year my team and I spend more than a thousand hours scanning tens of thousands of stories, conducting dozens of interviews, attending and speaking at over 50 events, reading or reviewing more than 100 new books and then combining all that research to identify 15 trends that will change the world in the coming year.

      Whether you have read a previous edition of this book or not, a lot has changed in this year’s edition. Here’s a quick summary:

       All new interior design featuring easier to read charts and layout

       Updated Appendix featuring ratings of over 100 past trends

       Completely updated and rewritten Parts I and III

       And of course, 15 more trends for 2018 featured in Part II

      While it will be tempting to focus only on the new, I highly encourage you to check out the past and previously predicted trends as well. You will find the answer there to the one question everyone asks: did your predictions come true? The other thing you will discover is that new trends don’t make old trends irrelevant.

      Rather, trends are meant to describe an accelerating idea and if those past predictions were actually “non-obvious” when predicted, then they may become more obvious over time–but still ring true.

      Whether you actively seek to understand the future or find yourself curious about the past, this book can help you do it. The most important thing I hope you will take away is the belief that there is real value in seeing the world in a more “non-obvious” way and curating ideas and trends for themselves. The world needs your innovation and ideas. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

      Rohit Bhargava Washington DC December 2017

      INTRODUCTION

      _

      “I am not a speed reader, I am a speed understander.”

      ISAAC ASIMOV, Author, Historian and Biochemist

      _

      Nearly 150 years ago the Dewey Decimal Classification System ambitiously introduced a method to break down the published volumes of the world into ten main categories. Isaac Asimov has written at least one book in nine of them.

      In his prolific lifetime, he wrote nearly five hundred books on topics ranging from his beloved science fiction series to a two-volume work explaining the collected literature of William Shakespeare. He even wrote a reader’s guidebook to the Bible.

      Though he was celebrated for his science fiction, Asimov never defined his work using a single category. When asked to name his favorite book, he often joked, “the last one I’ve written.” He cannot be described only as a scientist or a theologian or a literary critic.

      He was, without question, a writer and thinker with an incredible curiosity for ideas. In fact, he used this curiosity to maintain his grueling schedule of publishing, which at its peak resulted in about fifteen books per year. His secret, if there was just one, seemed to be in his ability to juggle multiple projects at once.

      When he became stuck during writing (which indeed happened to him just as it does to any writer), Asimov would simply move on to one of his other in-progress projects. He never stared at a blank sheet of paper.

      He credited his ability to focus on so many areas at once to his voracious appetite for reading and his capacity for being a “speed understander.” What if you could become a speed understander like Asimov?

      I believe we all can.

      The simple aim of this book is to teach you how to notice the things that others miss. I call this “non-obvious” thinking and learning to do it for yourself can change your business and your career.

      The context within which I’ll talk about this type of thinking is business trends. For better or worse, most of us are fascinated by trends and those who predict them. We anticipate these predictions as a glimpse into the future and they capture our imagination.

      There’s only one problem—too many trends are based on guesswork or lazy thinking. In other words, they are obvious instead of non-obvious.

      This book was inspired by the landslide of obvious ideas we are surrounded with and our desire to do something better with them.

      In a world where everyone is one click away from being a self-declared expert, learning to think differently is more important than ever. Observing and curating ideas can lead to a unique understanding of why people choose