A Key Factor in Creativity: Boredom

What's the next big trend on the horizon? Being present. Branding expert and author Martin Lindstrom joined The Glenn Beck Program on Thursday for a fascinating discussion about cultivating creativity. His book Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends documents how to harness the power of tiny bits of information in order to discover the next big thing.

Lindstrom was hired by the world's leading brands to find out what makes their customers tick. In his quest, he spent 300 nights in strangers’ homes, carefully observing every detail to uncover their hidden desires, and, ultimately, the clues to a multi-million dollar product. A modern-day Sherlock Holmes, he noted three major consequences of being engaged every waking moment with technology and managing life.

"The first thing is we don't connect with people anymore. I spoke to a bartender the other day, and he told me he never speaks to his customers anymore because they're on their phones. The second thing is we don't see things anymore. We don't observe things anymore, and it's a bit bad. But the third thing is even worse. We never get bored anymore. And boredom, or that pause in our life, is the foundation for creativity," he said.

Lindstrom, who wrote his book in a swimming pool, calls it "the water moment."

"Some people have it in the shower, some people when they're running, when they're in the car --- but people feel this is an unproductive time. Do you know what? It couldn't be further from the truth. You actually need to have a break with yourself, and that moment will help you to reflect on things," Lindstrom said.

Listen to this segment, which includes an intriguing case study on the LEGO brand, from The Glenn Beck Program:

DOC: Joining us now, Martin Lindstrom. Hey, Martin, how are you?

MARTIN: I'm doing well.

DOC: I love the people who talk about trends because that's really what it takes if you're in business or even if you're just promoting yourself at work or trying to get better jobs. If you know trends, you know where to fish; right? You know where the fish are going to be.

MARTIN: Absolutely. And I think what it helps you to do is be one step ahead of everybody else. So it's a matter of picking up those small clues around you. And basically translate that into a new direction five minutes before everyone else realizes this is a direction; right?

DOC: Yeah, absolutely. Give me some example of some of the trends that you think are on the horizon.

MARTIN: Well, I think there's three challenging trends. The first trend is that we are not present anymore, and that would be the next big trend. Let me give you an example. And be honest here, Doc. If you're standing in a bar and you're waiting for a person to show up, the person is late and the first thing you do is grab something with your phone, do something with it, anything with it.

DOC: Martin, please, I don't go to bars. Those are negative places. Alcohol I don't associate with such people. I mean, if I go to church, I'll do that if they're late with the sermon.

Yeah, we all, we grab our phone. If you're bored for a second at the doctors office or anything, the phone's on; right?

MARTIN: Exactly. That is the issue. There's three major consequences with this. The first thing is we don't connect with people anymore. I spoke to a bartender the other day, and he told me he never speaks to his customers anymore because they're on their phones. The second thing is we don't see things anymore. We don't observe things anymore, and it's a bit bad. But the third thing is even worse. We never get bored anymore. And boredom or that pause in our life is the foundation for creativity. So what we see happening right now is that being present is disappearing. And the counterbalance to that will be the more present. So people on cruise ships, on concepts, concepts going up 15 percent. People going to the farmers market up 70 percent. So really training people to be present and pay a fortune to be present because we're never present anymore; right?

DOC: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. If your mind is occupied on all of this stuff we have to think about, and we a lot more stuff to think about every day. Just trying to remember all the codes for your passwords for your computer and everything and all of the stuff we have to do. Everybody has to be on social media and multiple platforms and all of this. If your mind is filled with all of that stuff, you're not going to have time to just think what could I do that would be creative in this area?

MARTIN: When I wrote the book small data, I wrote it in a swimming pool.

DOC: I would have thought the papers would get wet or the computer would --

BRAD: Thank you.

MARTIN: I'm pretty impressed right now, actually.

DOC: Waterproof paper. It will be the rage for writing books in swimming pools.

MARTIN: I call it the water moment. And some people have it in the shower, some people when they're running, when they're in the car. But people feel this is an unproductive time. Do you know what? It couldn't be further from the truth. You actually need to have a break with yourself, and that moment will help you to reflect on things. It gives you a cause. Because here's the issue. Think about it. The first thing we do when we wake up in the morning is to grab our phone; right? So we work in the bed. And let me just remind you the main purpose to be in the bed is two purposes but not three; right?

DOC: Right.

MARTIN: We go to the bar, listen to this. This is crazy. We did a study the other day with young kids, boys from the years of 15 to 18 years of age. And this is so crazy. One third of these young kids were on the phone in the shower; right?

DOC: Writing books. Writing books.

MARTIN: Of course. Paper-based; right?

DOC: Yeah.

MARTIN: And then what is happening is we're doing our work in the bathroom, we're doing our work when we have our breakfast, we're doing our work on the way to work in our car. And then we're doing private stuff at work; right? What's so fascinating about this and scary is we never have a transformation moment anymore. We never transform from one state of mind to another. And you know what's happening with your computer. We never reset it anymore. It's just on all the time. And we all know if we don't do it, it gets slower. Well, that's the case with our brains. We actually get slower right now. So we need to create these transformational points in our lives to become more creative, to become more present. And actually to connect to people more. And that is the biggest downside right now.

So you ask me what is one of the trends? It's definitely that. And now think one of the things you have to do is find your personal water moment, and that helps you to pause for a second.

BRAD: Martin, this is Brad. I'm here with Doc. And I'm familiar with some CEOs that do something called creative fitness, basically, where they'll have a logic problem that they have to solve. And they'll go off and do something like knitting. Something that uses the other side of the brain. Is that along the same lines? Does that give your brain the same break?

MARTIN: It does because here's the issue: When you -- that's called the chicken cage syndrome and let me explain this for a moment. A story was done seven years ago where if you put a chicken in a cage, and it stays that cage for half a year and one day you open the gate and push the chicken out, it will walk into the beautiful green grass with the birds singing and after ten seconds, it will go 180 degrees back into the cage. And I call that the chicken cage syndrome, and we're all suffering from that. In our daily lives we're so packed with duties, we almost act like robots because we have no space to be different. So what the CEOs are doing, what these creative talents are doing is to free themselves up from going back to the chicken cage and force their mind to be different. And I think in many ways coming back to the small business theme, I think this is in many ways what a business leader has to do because this is a way you point out a trend before everyone else. Because if you stand in a cage, while it's a little bit like you can't see the forest with just trees. You see it from your own angle. But if you jump out of that angle and see the world completely differently, that's where you see business opportunities. And think -- I guess, the best way to illustrate that is to really take you back to a brand like LEGO. You guys are familiar with LEGO; right?

DOC: Yeah.

MARTIN: So in 2013, 2012, the LEGO company was closed to bankruptcy. Can you believe that? And back then, the LEGO brand had learned that there was something called the instant gratification generation. These young kids had no patience for anything whatsoever and wouldn't have the time to play with Legos. Guess what? The executives basically concluding using big data and all of this stuff that forget about the small bricks. Let's create gigantic building blocks so you can build a castle in half an hour rather than six hours. So to do that, they change the size of the LEGO bricks and December 2013, the sales drop was 31 percent and time management goes into panic. Now, what you normally would have done is think let's create more big blocks and stuff like that. But the LEGO team did something differently. They jumped out of the chicken cage and the way they did that was to move to young kids' bedrooms, literally. So they end up in the home of an 11-year-old kid, a German kid. And they're sitting on the bedroom floor, they ask this kid one, simple question. What are you most proud of? And this kid, he pauses for a second. He points at himself, and on himself is an old warn down pair of sneakers. And of course the team from LEGO is completely perplexed thought he would say Sony PlayStation or Nintendo or something, but he doesn't. So he takes down this pair of sneakers and asks him why. And the kid is replying back, well, I'm the best skater in town. But the evidence I have for my friends is the wear and tear on the side of the sole. You see, when you're a really good skateboarder, you slide down the skateboard, and it creates the wear and tear on the side of the sole.

And of course the team from LEGO realizes that very second that this is the revolution for Legos. This is the answer. Because this kids has tens, hundreds, if not thousands of hours of time to fine-tune the sole on their sneaker, why wouldn't they have time to play with Legos? So they change the bricks back to the small bricks, they event the LEGO movie, which was number two in the U.S., and also team up with Harry Potter and Star Wars and today LEGO is not only the number one toy brand in the world, it was recently announced to be the biggest brand in the world. And all of that began with an old, worn down pair of sneakers. And this is my message to both of you guys and all of the listeners is that we see the world from one point of view. You have to wake up. You have to go out of that chicken cage and start to pick up what I call small data. And this is really seemingly significant observation you pick up in the daily lives which actually represents an amazing opportunity no one has seen.

DOC: We're going to go ahead and tweet out a link. It's MartinLindstrom.com and the book is small data. The LEGO story is just one like many that's going to help you as you look for future trends to brand yourself, help your family, or start a business or further your business. Martin, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

MARTIN: You're welcome.

DOC: We'll tweet it out again. It's MartinLindstrom.com.

Is the U.N. plotting to control 30% of U.S. land by 2030?

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A reliable conservative senator faces cancellation for listening to voters. But the real threat to public lands comes from the last president’s backdoor globalist agenda.

Something ugly is unfolding on social media, and most people aren’t seeing it clearly. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — one of the most constitutionally grounded conservatives in Washington — is under fire for a housing provision he first proposed in 2022.

You wouldn’t know that from scrolling through X. According to the latest online frenzy, Lee wants to sell off national parks, bulldoze public lands, gut hunting and fishing rights, and hand America’s wilderness to Amazon, BlackRock, and the Chinese Communist Party. None of that is true.

Lee’s bill would have protected against the massive land-grab that’s already under way — courtesy of the Biden administration.

I covered this last month. Since then, the backlash has grown into something like a political witch hunt — not just from the left but from the right. Even Donald Trump Jr., someone I typically agree with, has attacked Lee’s proposal. He’s not alone.

Time to look at the facts the media refuses to cover about Lee’s federal land plan.

What Lee actually proposed

Over the weekend, Lee announced that he would withdraw the federal land sale provision from his housing bill. He said the decision was in response to “a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies,” but also acknowledged that many Americans brought forward sincere, thoughtful concerns.

Because of the strict rules surrounding the budget reconciliation process, Lee couldn’t secure legally enforceable protections to ensure that the land would be made available “only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.” Without those safeguards, he chose to walk it back.

That’s not selling out. That’s leadership.

It's what the legislative process is supposed to look like: A senator proposes a bill, the people respond, and the lawmaker listens. That was once known as representative democracy. These days, it gets you labeled a globalist sellout.

The Biden land-grab

To many Americans, “public land” brings to mind open spaces for hunting, fishing, hiking, and recreation. But that’s not what Sen. Mike Lee’s bill targeted.

His proposal would have protected against the real land-grab already under way — the one pushed by the Biden administration.

In 2021, Biden launched a plan to “conserve” 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. This effort follows the United Nations-backed “30 by 30” initiative, which seeks to place one-third of all land and water under government control.

Ask yourself: Is the U.N. focused on preserving your right to hunt and fish? Or are radical environmentalists exploiting climate fears to restrict your access to American land?

  Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor | Getty Images

As it stands, the federal government already owns 640 million acres — nearly one-third of the entire country. At this rate, the government will hit that 30% benchmark with ease. But it doesn’t end there. The next phase is already in play: the “50 by 50” agenda.

That brings me to a piece of legislation most Americans haven’t even heard of: the Sustains Act.

Passed in 2023, the law allows the federal government to accept private funding from organizations, such as BlackRock or the Bill Gates Foundation, to support “conservation programs.” In practice, the law enables wealthy elites to buy influence over how American land is used and managed.

Moreover, the government doesn’t even need the landowner’s permission to declare that your property contributes to “pollination,” or “photosynthesis,” or “air quality” — and then regulate it accordingly. You could wake up one morning and find out that the land you own no longer belongs to you in any meaningful sense.

Where was the outrage then? Where were the online crusaders when private capital and federal bureaucrats teamed up to quietly erode private property rights across America?

American families pay the price

The real danger isn’t in Mike Lee’s attempt to offer more housing near population centers — land that would be limited, clarified, and safeguarded in the final bill. The real threat is the creeping partnership between unelected global elites and our own government, a partnership designed to consolidate land, control rural development, and keep Americans penned in so-called “15-minute cities.”

BlackRock buying entire neighborhoods and pricing out regular families isn’t by accident. It’s part of a larger strategy to centralize populations into manageable zones, where cars are unnecessary, rural living is unaffordable, and every facet of life is tracked, regulated, and optimized.

That’s the real agenda. And it’s already happening , and Mike Lee’s bill would have been an effort to ensure that you — not BlackRock, not China — get first dibs.

I live in a town of 451 people. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, housing is unaffordable. The American dream of owning a patch of land is slipping away, not because of one proposal from a constitutional conservative, but because global powers and their political allies are already devouring it.

Divide and conquer

This controversy isn’t really about Mike Lee. It’s about whether we, as a nation, are still capable of having honest debates about public policy — or whether the online mob now controls the narrative. It’s about whether conservatives will focus on facts or fall into the trap of friendly fire and circular firing squads.

More importantly, it’s about whether we’ll recognize the real land-grab happening in our country — and have the courage to fight back before it’s too late.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

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By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

  

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

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The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

   USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

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If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

   Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

 

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.