Dear Fellow Trend Curator,

Greetings from the trade show floor at CES here in Vegas. We are roaming the halls, meeting entrepreneurs, sampling products and getting an inside look at the tech that will shape our lives in the months and years to come.

Enjoy and as I have tried to do all week here in Vegas—stay curious!

Rohit

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Want To Help LA? Curb Your Schadenfreude

A billionaire posted a desperate tweet asking for private fire support to save his home … and he was attacked for it. Turns out this particular billionaire posted in the past about lowering property taxes and generally supports politicians who advocate for smaller government. Along with that smaller government and less taxes, though, is less money to pay those brave firefighters who are currently overworked and underpaid yet still trying to save people’s homes and businesses.

Every day there also stories of celebrities who have been forced to evacuate or lost their homes. All of which is inspiring a disturbing trend of people taking pleasure in the suffering of the rich and famous. It’s not dissimilar to the viral support that popped up for accused murderer Luigi Mangione after he gunned down healthcare executive Brian Thompson. It’s easy to explain these reactions as being limited to a group of angry people who have lost their moral compass. It’s harder to take a look at ourselves.

The way we react when misfortune happens to others always says more about our humanity than it does about theirs. So if you really want to help, start by taking a look in the mirror. And if you want to do something more financial to help, the LA Times has some good suggestions.

The Hottest Innovations and Tech From CES 2025 — Insights From The Ground

I’m very tempted to put together a “best innovations” list from the world’s largest tech trade show. I did one last year and I know that’s probably the biggest thing you want to know about my experience here at CES anyway. CNET, Engadget, WIRED, Tom’s Guide and lots of other tech media have already been releasing their picks for the best, most fun products and inventions. This year, I’ve been focusing my efforts on videos and will be releasing lots of the stories over the next few weeks. The people I’ve spoken to have stories that are not just relevant for this week.

But since I know that answer will hardly satisfy you - here are some headline observations from my first few days here that go a bit deeper than what you may see reflected in some of the videos and interviews I’m producing here:

1. Today’s innovations are incremental . In our quest to always seek out what’s new and different, sometimes we don’t appreciate the small leaps that happen within technologies from year to year. Last year I saw a plant that was 30 times more effective at cleaning toxins from the air. This year the same team returned with a product that can turn ANY houseplant into a supercharged air purifier with just a few drops.

2. Fun is a use case no one wants to admit. There are some products, like waving robots or automated drink mixers that are just plain fun to use. Unfortunately, most creators are afraid of admitting that and try to find more “serious” use cases for their product when there aren’t any. The gamers are the one exception. At least they know their product is meant to create fun.

3. AI doesn’t mean what you think it does. For more than a year now, the non-techie usage of the term “AI” has generally come to describe generative AI tools for creating. Here at CES, an AI enabled automated window cleaner isn’t generating anything creative. It’s just getting smarter about how to do it’s one job faster … and using AI to do it.

4. Tech is still male dominated, unfortunately. Despite many efforts to bring more female entrepreneurs to tech and encourage their efforts, CES offers a pretty sobering reality check on just how male-dominated tech across all industries really is.

5. Marketing matters a LOT in a crowded show. I found it stunning how many booths we passed where there was no short pitch and no visible information about something other than the relatively meaningless company name. And many did not have someone charismatic to share a pitch. Tech will, and always has, died in obscurity without great storytelling to explain it.

The Slow Decline of Patriotic Branding (and Maybe National Pride Itself)

There was a time when patriotic branding was hot. That time seems to be over. According to an eye-opening new study from a sociologist at Northern Arizona University, brands that include the outline of the U.S. map or the American flag are on the decline. And this is not just happening in America—it’s becoming more common globally too. So what might this say about our future culture or the state of how people see their relationships to the places they live and call their homes?

National pride at its core comes from a sense of shared identity. The more division we see in our cultures and the people around us, the more we feel like the things that tie us to our fellow citizens are fading. Along with this erosion of a shared culture comes the feeling that we are part of a group that is defined by something other than the nation in which we live or grew up. The internet perhaps makes this even easier to find a tribe of people that are located across the world instead of the people around us. And of course there’s the loneliness and isolation the comes with living our lives increasingly online that removes us from the local communities. What would it take to bring it back? Or could we? I’d love to hear your thoughts—please hit reply and let me know what you think.

The Brilliance of Costco’s New Plan To Build Apartments On Top Of Their Stores

There is a housing shortage in many cities. And there’s a Costco in those cities. In an ambitious new project, the brand is working with LA-based developers Thrive Living to build a new 800-unit apartment complex in Baldwin Village, South Los Angeles, with a new Costco store occupying the ground floor. Nearly 25% of the apartments will be offered as low-income housing. I love the non-obvious thinking behind this idea. You have a store that is already occupying real estate. They provide many home goods people need. If you build an apartment on top of it, you can use the space more effectively and also import a whole new bunch of hyper-local customers who are likely to spend frequently at your store.

It is certainly a complex operation and the estimated costs for this first one is upwards of $450 million dollars, but the potential financial upside and value to the community could be far greater. While the project is currently estimated for completion by 2027, given the devastation in LA this week—perhaps they might accelerate their timeline and considering doing a few more of these projects elsewhere too.

The Non-Obvious Media Platform of the Week

Shelly Palmer Blog

Rather than sharing a book recommendation this week, I wanted to switch it up and share a media source that’s particularly timely right now. If you’re not familiar with Shelly Palmer, he is a tech commentator and overall insightful voice on the future of technology. At CES he hosts tours and often offers his own perspective on hits and misses from the show.

More significantly, throughout the year he posts details about the things that are happening in tech and has been very aggressive about releasing some wonderful learning courses around AI and how to use it so that people can get savvier about the tools and be less afraid of using them. For those reasons, I wanted to include Shelly Palmer’s blog as my suggestion for the first Non-Obvious Media Platform of the Week. Next week I’ll be back with both a book AND a media recommendation for you as part of this email.

Until then, enjoy Shelly’s blog and insights about tech and CES.

About the Non-Obvious Media Platform Selection of the Week:

Every week I will be featuring a new “non-obvious” media platform worth adding to your weekly rotation. People often ask me what I’m reading to get my trademark non-obvious stories in this newsletter together. My goal is to share new platforms and ideas with you which you might have otherwise missed.

How are these stories curated?