Hello there clever clogs!

Yesterday we hosted our festival wrap up of the themes and highlights from Cannes Lions and Nudgestock. If you missed it, watch this space, because we'll be sharing the recording next week 🤩

In the meantime, we've decided to bring you some of the hot topics raised in this very newsletter, like brand authenticity, creativity under constraints, and, of course, AI. Whether you love it or hate it, we've got you covered in this edition of weekend reads. Enjoy!

Big love,

Chris & the 42courses team

• Is Perplexity the new Google? One does not simply overthrow the most successful search engine of all time overnight, but many people regard Perplexity as the go-to AI for research. Here's why.
   
• 18 fun facts about the Sony Walkman: It was one of those once-in-a-generation, culture-shifting products. The Sony Walkman was invented, marketed and sold in fascinating ways, and this list tells all.
   
• If you're sick of AI and love being sworn at, read this: with a big pinch of salt. This hilarious diatribe is written by a data scientist who wants to slap the next person who talks about AI changing the world.
   
• How to get brand purpose right: and the laughable cases where brands have tried to be high minded, and got it embarrassingly wrong - written by Brian Millar, which is always a treat.
   
• The best thing you can do for your brain: It's not eating salmon, it's not doing an ultramarathon, it's far easier than that! The author of The Brain, David Eagleman, tells us why healthy brains need novelty.
   
• How The Simpsons was born: From The Art Of Creative Thinking by Rod Judkins This funny anecdote illustrates the power of constraints and what thinking under pressure can really do sometimes.

• 1324 - Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire, arrives in Cairo on his way to Mecca with a procession of 600,000 men, 12,000 slaves, and 80 camels carrying 136 kg of gold each. 🏜️
   
• 1595 - Astronomer Johannes Kepler has an epiphany and develops his theory of the geometrical basis of the universe. 🌌
   
• 1877 - The first Wimbledon Men's Tennis: 27-year-old English player Spencer Gore wins the inaugural event. 🎾
   
• 1903 - The first Tour de France: French rider Maurice Garin wins the inaugural event. 🚴
   
• 1912 - A meteorite of estimated 190 kg mass explodes over Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona, causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town. 🌠
   
• 1922 - American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller is the first to break the 1-minute barrier for 100m freestyle; he swims it in 58.6s. 🏊
   
• 1940 - Adolf Hitler orders Great Britain to surrender - they politely decline. 🇬🇧
   
• 1941 - BBC World Service begins playing Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th Symphony as a Morse code symbol of V for victory "...-". 🎼
   
• 1985 - Christa McAuliffe is chosen as the first school teacher to fly aboard the space shuttle. 🚀
   
• 2018 - The largest intact sarcophagus of its kind ever found (2,000 years old) is opened in Alexandria. It contains three skeletons and zero curses. ⚰️