It’s quite distressing to realize, later in life, how many things I may have been fundamentally wrong about. So many fondly held notions can turn out to be the hallucinations of a younger and more naïve self. Recent months and years have brutally disabused me of so many concepts and presumptions. The list is long […] The post The things I’ve been wrong about appeared first on Sunwords.com by Sunny…
I heard a comedian riff on the term “inconvenience regretted” on YouTube the other day. It got me worked up too. Why do brands do this? Bland, banal, insincere messages to customers when they mess up. Oh, did we “inconvenience” you? “Regretted.” In passive voice, too! Regretted by whom? The customer rep who has to […] The post Who is regretting the inconvenience? appeared first on Sunwords.com by…
Artificial intelligence has now escaped the chat and is in the building. AI agents are being deployed by companies racing not to be left behind. An agent does not merely answer a question. Give it a goal, and it plans the steps, uses tools, acts, and adjusts as it goes. A chatbot tells you how; […] The post Can we disarm AI? appeared first on Sunwords.com by Sunny Bindra .
Strip away the shirts, flags and national anthems from this World Cup, and you might have struggled to identify who is playing. Nearly every team seemed to line up in some version of the same tactical playbook. Four at the back, three when in possession. A holding midfielder dropping deep. Full-backs pushing forward or “inverting” […] The post Why was this World Cup a sea of sameness? appeared…
A stitch in time… Actions speak louder… Don’t count your chickens… Where there’s smoke… You can, I’m sure, complete all those sentences. You even know that they are proverbs, and can explain exactly what they mean. Isn’t that remarkable? Across generations and much of the English-speaking world, people know these sayings and treat them as […] The post Why don’t we have any new proverbs? appeared…
Do you know how to pay attention? The Japanese do. From a very young age, many Japanese people learn to notice what is not being said. They call it kuuki wo yomu: reading the air. Anish Moonka explained it on Twitter (OK, X if you must). Reading the air means noticing tone, posture, and tiny […] The post Pay attention like the Japanese appeared first on Sunwords.com by Sunny Bindra .
I had a really strange experience on Kenya Airways recently. Everything went right! It started at the check-in desk. A smiling young man greeted us and was all too willing to make a complicated change to our booking. Next, the lounge, where a chef full of early-morning fizz was making omelettes at a live egg […] The post The day everything went right appeared first on Sunwords.com by Sunny Bindra…
A recent assignment in Mauritius brought a strange bird back to mind. It is on the country’s coat of arms, and all over popular culture: public imagery, tourist shops, even stamps. The dodo. The dodo is extinct, though. Mauritius has turned the dodo into a national ghost with a commercial and emblematic afterlife. Raphus cucullatus […] The post Strategy lessons from the dodo appeared first on…
What if you were in the hands of someone who told you exactly what to do? Offered to remove the heaviest burden from your life: the burden of thinking? No more uncertainty. No more difficult choices. No more lonely judgment calls. Someone wiser than you has already seen the truth. Someone stronger than you has […] The post The most dangerous person appeared first on Sunwords.com by Sunny Bindra .
Since the COVID pandemic, many restaurants exclusively use digital menus. You scan a QR code from your table, get a menu on your phone, pick your dishes, even pay for them right there. Your first meaningful contact with a human being might be when the dishes are brought to your table. It’s quick, it generally […] The post When digital eats the experience appeared first on Sunwords.com by Sunny…