Non-Obvious Megatrends

About the Author

Rohit Bhargava is on a mission to help the world be more open-minded by teaching others how to be non-obvious thinkers. He is the founder of the Non-Obvious Company and is an entertaining, original, and “non-boring” keynote speaker on innovation and trust. Bhargava is the number-one Wall Street Journal best-selling author of six books and has been invited to deliver keynote presentations in 32 countries around the world. His insights have been utilized by prestigious organizations such as the World Bank, NASA, Intel, Disney, Colgate, Swissotel, Coca-Cola, Schwab, Under Armour, NBC Universal, American Express, and hundreds of others to win the future.

Main Idea

In "Non-Obvious Megatrends: How to See What Others Miss and Predict the Future," Rohit Bhargava reveals ten revolutionary new megatrends that are transforming how we work, play, and live. This book serves as a guide to developing the mindset and skills necessary to identify and leverage these trends to propel one's business or career into the next decade. Bhargava emphasizes that the key to thriving in the future lies in better understanding the present through non-obvious thinking.

Table of Contents

1. The Art of Non-Obvious Thinking
   • Introduction
   • Be Intentional
   • The 5 Mindsets of Non-Obvious Thinkers
   • The Haystack Method for Curating Non-Obvious Ideas
2. How to Apply Non-Obvious Thinking for Fun and Profit
3. The Non-Obvious Megatrends
   • Ungendering
   • Revivalism
   • Protective Tech
   • Flux Commerce

The Art of Non-Obvious Thinking

Introduction

Seeing what no one else sees is often described as creativity, and we live in a world that celebrates it. But finding the solution to a particularly tricky problem or discovering a world-changing idea takes more than creativity. As Rohit Bhargava points out, Isaac Asimov earned the reputation of “the man who knows everything” by writing nearly 500 books in his prolific lifetime. Asimov credited his creative thinking to his legendary appetite for reading and learning about everything he could from a young age. “I am not a speed reader,” he once said. “I am a speed understander.”

In today’s world, we are inundated with content, and most of it is not good. Digital tools have made it easy for everyone to share ideas, even if they are one-dimensional or idiotic. To navigate this deluge of bad content, we rely on algorithms and one-dimensional opinions shared on social media. However, this method of skimming through information does not make us smarter.

Be Intentional

You can’t understand the world better simply by reading about it as much as possible. You do so by being intentional about what you pay attention to in the first place. What if you could become a life-long learner, curious about the world and able to see, understand, and expect things others miss? What if you could use that skill to understand patterns, spot intersections, and see around the corner to develop an observation of what the future might hold? And what if, once you put all the pieces together, you could actually learn to predict the future? Through non-obvious thinking, you can change your life.

The 5 Mindsets of Non-Obvious Thinkers

According to renowned Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck, most people have either a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. People with fixed mindsets believe that their skills and abilities are set, while those with growth mindsets believe that success is the result of learning, hard work, and determination. Beyond having a growth mindset, non-obvious thinkers adopt five additional mindsets to propel themselves and their organizations toward the future.

• Be Observant: Pay attention to the world and train yourself to notice the details that others miss. It’s not just about seeing the big things but also the small, seemingly insignificant ones. Observing people’s body language or starting a conversation with a stranger can offer new insights.
• Be Curious: Ask questions, invest in learning, and approach unfamiliar situations with a sense of wonder. Engage with “brainful media” and explore topics you know little about to fuel your curiosity.
• Be Fickle: Save interesting ideas for later without over-analyzing them in the moment. Often, connections and meanings become clear only after setting ideas aside for a while.
• Be Thoughtful: Take the time to develop a meaningful point of view and consider alternative viewpoints. Avoid the temptation to respond quickly without fully considering the implications of your thoughts.
• Be Elegant: Describe ideas in beautiful, deliberate, simple, and understandable ways. Eliminate unnecessary words to distill your ideas and make them easier to comprehend.

The Haystack Method for Curating Non-Obvious Ideas

When thinking about the future, many people fall into the trap of describing transient and meaningless phenomena as trends. Bhargava defines a trend as “a curated observation of the accelerating present.” The Haystack Method involves five steps to curate trends effectively: