Welcome to this 25th issue of our newsletter “Weak Signals and other Trends”. Each week, I sift through hundreds of sources of inspiration to track where we’re heading. We discuss those trends and signals every other Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse in the summer..
You can subscribe to this weekly newsletter here to get it directly by mail.
This is what I noticed this week, thank you for reading and sharing this newsletter to those who look into the future.
Competitive Intelligence
A tool used by private investigators to create an audit trail for your online investigations. Mapping your decision making process. Here’s how to save Internet history. Ironically, tax authorities use Google maps to check your tax return (in French). Open-source intelligence challenges state monopolies on information. Checking for usernames across platforms. Google outlines future of its search engine.
Strategic blindspots
Blindspots are biases that can lead companies to underestimate future risks or fail to take advantage of emerging opportunities. We highlight in this section illustrations of such emerging risks or opportunities ( or often both…)
What if Highways Were Electric? Facebook Is Getting Into the Real Estate Business. The Parking Garage of the Future. Hospitals Still Use Pneumatic Tubes that can be hacked. Pearson’s new textbook subscription service could save students a fortune. Japan’s Gen-Z Men Spend 20 Percent More on Makeup. Hotels are learning from airlines. Forget Gender-Neutral Fashion. Chinese Men Want Women’s Clothes. Pre-order retail: Farfetch Launches New Conscious Pre-Order System.
Our future
Molecular Farming Means the Next Vaccine Could Be Edible and Grown in a Plant.. Plant-based Foods Market to Hit $162 Billion in Next Decade ( read also the Fungi Renaissance Is Here). How Afrofuturism Can Help the World Mend. Reset the clocks for burned out consumers. 100-Teen Poll: What Is Actually Cool to Buy in 2021? How the pandemic mainstreamed VTubers, Japan’s fictional YouTube celebrities. Forget the suburbs. Good bye cottagecore, welcome cabincore. Crypto platform asks hacker to become security advisor. Gen Alpha brands are reaching kids. Is the future of coffee in your freezer? SaksWorks Turns Your Favorite Department Store Into a Co-working Space. Facebook’s Metaverse Starts With Virtual reality Meetings.
Weak signals
Weak signals are indicators of a change, a trend or an emerging risk that might become significant for the future. They allow us to run hypothesis, expand our thinking, and challenge assumptions. How will you interpret those in your industry or field of expertise?
Camels banned from beauty contest over Botox. They Ditched the Office for the Farm. And Stayed. Grey Market Apps. KFC pop-up hotel includes ‘press for chicken’ button. he Latest TikTok Trend Is… Vietnamese Music About the Countryside? R.V. Life. Dark sky tourism is on the rise. Get your dog’s DNA profile. Why So Many Millennials Are Obsessed With Dogs. Young China surgery boom. CyberLandrs to Turn Tesla Cybertrucks Into Tiny Homes. Wendy’s to open 700 ghost kitchens. Blue Origin sues US government over NASA’s decision to award SpaceX lunar lander contract. Ghosts writer. The Strategy Behind Salesforce’s New Streaming Service, Salesforce+. South Korea to end its controversial gaming curfew.
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for the curious mind who likes to cross over to new fields:
Why Spanish colonial officials feared the power of clothing. The secret code of sea shells. A method to image black holes. Construction, Efficiency, and Production Systems. The largest vocabulary in hip hop. Screenshots Tell the Real Stories About Who We Are. Fontfaces. A weekly explanation in a sketch. A directory of B-corps. A pigment collection (podcast). Animals can count.
Feeling Good
Matching music to your typing. A mesmerizing way to step into art. Astronomy Photographer of the Year shortlist. Paint like Pollock. First You Make the Maps. The Berg at the airport. A website dedicated to fictional movies. Creative set-ups.
