Biscoffs, ecocide and vantablack

July 23, 2021

Welcome to this 22nd 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 (we’re on this week!).

You can subscribe to this newsletter here to get it directly by mail. As we all need to recharge batteries, this newsletter will move to a bi-monthly frequency starting in July and for the summer:

This is what I noticed this week, thank you for reading and sharing this newsletter to those who look into the future.

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 sections illustrations of such missed opportunities as well as what happens when you can think sideways.

Sixty years of climate change warnings: the signs that were missed (and ignored). Pacific island of Nauru sets two-year deadline for U.N. deep-sea mining rules. The Impact of Intangibles on Base Rates. Creating the space for curiosity to expand into. A majority of Millennial and Gen-Z investors are taking personal loans or borrowing from friends and family to invest in stocks. Humans tend to make problem-solving unnecessarily complex. Find a job with TikTok Resumes.

Our future

Greenland suspends oil exploration because of climate change. A Ford patent to identify and mitigate autonomous vehicle odors. Farewell, Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy. Are we getting weirder? Legal experts worldwide draw up ‘historic’ definition of ecocide. Post-quarantine retail therapy: teeth whitener, wigs and… camping gear. In the Future, You Won’t Own Any Gadgets. UK’s first interactive virtual grocery store. Miami is the first city in the world with a chief heat officer. America’s Tastemakers.

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?

The disappearing sound of airports. Deep in rural China, bitcoin miners are packing up. Google launches new tool to help cities stay cool. U.S. seeks to speed rooftop solar growth with instant permits. Are you a decorative peacock? Why Is Tinned Fish ‘Hot Girl Food’ Now? Gen Z’s Unlikely Home Decor Obsession: DIY Rugs. A new generation of leisure seekers. 14-year-old Zaila Avant-garde Won the Scripps Spelling Bee. Near-expired food a new fad among young consumers. Rock in China. A Universal Typeface by Kosuke Takahashi That Combines Braille and Visible Characters.

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind as you like to cross over to new fields:

Richard Russell edited Dow Theory Letters for 57 years. Flying Is Back and So Are Biscoffs. First, you make the maps. Bats’ brains are built for navigation. The sink in the hall: how pandemics transform architecture. Self-organization in natural swarms of Photinus carolinus synchronous fireflies. A 51,000-year-old carved bone is one of the world’s oldest works of art. How Plant Cells Know When to Stop Growing. There will never be another airport like Hong Kong’s Kai Tak.

I like to learn new words. This week, I discovered Vantablack.

Feeling Good

Do nothing. A website is a room. Find a color palette based on words. Random street view. Local residents most precious objects. Concert roulette. Play with the sandbox. A curated selection of music for listening and dancing in small, safe spaces.

Ise Jingu, half-life of knowledge, and recursive islands

July 10, 2021

Welcome to this 21st 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.

You can subscribe to this newsletter here to get it directly by mail. As we all need to recharge batteries, this newsletter will move to a bi-monthly frequency starting in July and for the summer:

This is what I noticed this week, thank you for reading and sharing this newsletter to those who look into the future.

Strategic blindspots

Unknown knowns. The Miami Building Collapse and Humanity’s Tragic Fight for the Future. The half-life of knowledge. How Twitter users can generate better ideas. Learning on the last mile: how an “unqualified” 27-year-old Zimbabwean teacher created a top tutoring academy on WhatsApp. America has eight parking spaces for every car. Sometimes, paying attention means we see the world less clearly. Clothes that last: a collection of unisex clothes that expand to fit the wearer. Kodagu teacher builds treehouse classroom to overcome patchy internet. Changing radiation limits ( linked to changing assumptions…).

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in an hybrid format in the fall (in classroom for fully vaccinated participants – online option for the others).

Competitive Intelligence

Echo dots stores your data even after you reset them. A microcontroller search tool. Neeva is an ad-free search alternative from ex-Googlers. Quants turn to machine learning to unlock private data. A primer for private company research.

Our future

The rise of euphoric beverages. Meet the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers of 2021. In Germany, the real-life plan to use novels to predict the next war. What if biohackers injected themselves with mRNA? What are we going to wear? How consumers plan to shop past Covid. Attention recession. The potential stickiness of pandemic-induced behavior changes in the United States. Power of Tik-Tok. Facebook and assisted shopping. Are advertisers coming for your dreams? Remote neurological examinations.

Weak signals

Youtube theater will be a new 6,000-seat life entertainment arena. The big tuna sandwich lawsuit. This app shows pedestrians the shadiest walking route on hot days. The Chinese content farms behind TikTok. The Nelk Boys. An App That Helps You Get Your Stuff Back From Your Ex. What’s with area codes? Renters Could Collect Home Down-Payment Points With Credit Card. Movable, floatable housing. The relatives frozen in time on Google Street View. Telfar Is Designing Liberia’s Olympic Uniforms.

On our radar

In this section, I will share some of the content I come across as I work on specific mandates for our clients. This is what I worked on this week:

Unless you have been living in a deserted island the past few weeks, it has been hard to miss the phenomenal illustration of climate change. Here are a few signals: This app shows pedestrians the shadiest walking route on hot days. Oregon’s buckled roads and melted cables. Has climate change hurt or helped farmers ? Hotter than the human body can handle.

I am working on a training program for a client’s HR team on the new workplace: Microsoft issues its new Future of Work report. Noise and worker productivity. Will Holograms Become Incorporated In The Workplace? Hiring for creators has increased 489,000% since 2016. Remote work is the new signing bonus.

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind as you like to cross over to new fields:

The impossible briefs (interplanetary football anyone?). A map of mathematics. The Method of Loci: Build Your Memory Palace. The Alt-Tour, a self supported Tour de France. Poignant: Marking time. Chess and politics. How ancient people fell in love with bread, beer and other carbs. Industrialization increased the number of objects and thus the colors we can name.” ( see also why it took us thousands of years to see the color violet) Cities and modes of conduct. Storytelling and Narrative Anthropology.

This article really got my attention this week about knowledge transfer: Ise Jingu and the pyramid of enabling technologies.

… the most important technology at Jingu is social – it’s the transfer of skills and techniques from one generation to the next, ensuring the temples and artifacts can continue to be reproduced accurately. This sort of knowledge is difficult to document – it exists as reflexes and muscle movements that are beyond the reach of language, or as decisions that are so context and environment dependent that it’s infeasible to explain them.

I like to learn new words. This week, I discovered recursive islands.

Feeling Good

An archeologist stores historical landscapes (in French). Dusttodigital archives forgotten sounds. A beach nearby. Where Gladiators Prepared for Battle. What can I do with those lego bricks? Operation nightwatch. Turning doodles into photos. Concert roulette.

eVTOL, digital DNA and desinnovation

June 25, 2021

Welcome to this 20th 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 Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse.

You can subscribe to this newsletter here to get it directly by mail. As we all need to recharge batteries, this newsletter will move to a bi-monthly frequency starting in July and for the summer: http://competia.substack.com

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 trove of data about your competitors. The secret codes you’re not meant to know . Tech Companies Are Training AI to Read Your Lips. Brave, a new non-tracking search engine. The biology image detective.

Blindspots

Blindspots are costly biases that can lead companies to underestimate future risks or fail to take advantage of emerging opportunities. This week, we focus on the mindsets required to spot strategic blindspots and think sideways:

The most famous case of blinspots: What can we learn from the rise and fall of Kodak? The biggest stereotypes about young, unemployed Africans. The direct-to-consumer powerhouse you’ve probably never heard of . Nokia’s Collapse Turned a Sleepy Town in Finland Into an Internet Wonderland. Could all your digital photos be stored as DNA? In Argentina, cheap government-issued notebooks sparked a musical renaissance.

En francais, désinnover.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in an hybrid format in the fall.

Our future

Musicians Are Pinning Fresh Hopes on Twitch. What Is a Flying Car? It’s a eVTOL. Some brands do much better on the secondhand market than others. The store of the future won’t have any merchandise at all. Development of non-linear music. Mining Ancient Innovation for Future Solutions. Apple struggles to make healthcare its legacy. Reinventing the vehicle ( thank-you La Mutante for the scenario). How farmers and scientists engineer your food. Hired by an algorithm. Camouflage tech that makes soldiers invisible. Japan is proposing a four-day working week. Eight trends that will define 2021. Scientists might have spotted tectonic activity inside Venus.

Weak signals

A $50,000 Mind-Reading Helmet. Final call for the in-flight magazine? Scientists convert used plastic bottles into vanilla flavouring. Fast food swags. Hundreds of Southwest flights canceled after two disruptions in 24 hours. Pairing water with wine. How Zombies Are Shaking Up the Puzzle Genre. How the boom in pet ownership is shaping hospitality. Amazon is reportingly destroying millions of items. . Google new store. The rise of therapist influencers. The Caffè Sospeso. Clever Billboards Are at Dog-Eye Level. The fake decor trend ( good, as I could not figure out how to interpret this).

On our radar

In this section, I will share some of the content I come across as I work on specific mandates for our clients. This is what I worked on this week:

GenZ behavior trends and how they might become also emerging habits of other generations: GenZ productivity tips on Tik Tok is booming. GenZ is snubbing high fashion. Swipe surge. Gen Z media consumption habits. Gen Z and millennial employees embrace the concept of ‘Polywork‘ and a quote for all of you polymaths:

“I’ve never liked the idea of just doing the same thing every day,” he said. “I have multiple interests that I’m passionate about and they’ve naturally become different streams of income for me. Modern working attitudes and flexible technology allows my generation to juggle a multitude of things in a way we’ve never been able to before.”

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind as you like to cross over to new fields:

Truth, Reading, Decadence. Creative devaluation. How to think about pleasure. The politics of biodesign. A lifetime of systems thinking. Mama bear or seizing The Middle: Chess Strategy in Business. Why Your Inner Circle Should Stay Small, and How to Shrink It. A website is a room. Let’s build a chip. ESG is missing a metric: R for resilience. A scientists has tracked indigenous tweets to make an inventory of rare language speakers. The container for curiosity.

You have asked me to suggest newsletters that inspire me, so I will suggest one each week: “Understand the future, how Tech shapes it”

Feeling Good

Words that don’t translate. Do you know shadowlogy. Do nothing for 2 minutes. Check who is dominating the conversation. Touring in an RV. Antarctica first flag.

Trolleys, wing foils and omnibility

June 18, 2021

Welcome to this 19th 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 typically discuss those trends and signals every Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse: the next date will be on June 26th.

This is what I noticed this week, thank you for reading and sharing this newsletter to those who look into the future.

Blindspots

Want to understand how a pyramid scheme looks like? Decrypting this particular cryptocurrency: “Mind-Bending Magic of Self-Paying Loans“. What corporate boards can learn from Boeing mistakes. The trolley problem. “Great resignation” wave coming for companies. The Enduring Issue of Unauthorized Subcontracting at Burberry. Plastic Rain Is the New Acid Rain. Biases with credit scores. NVIDIA and the battle for the future of AI chips.

Our future

Bold threads. Modern meadow. Why the Hybrid Workforce of the Future Depends on the ‘Geriatric Millennial’. Midnight Trains aims to reinvent sleeper trains as a ‘hotel on rails’. The democratizing power of social media stock market (Dark Mirror anyone?). AI is learning how to create itself. Why the car dealership of the future looks like a midcentury modern living room. Meet The Aircraft Of The Future: Socially Distanced Double-Decker Cabins. Equity Financing for Influencers. Materials that can capture atmospheric carbon. Ageing process is unstoppable, finds unprecedented study. Omnibility.

Weak signals

Private equity firms buying up suburban neighborhoods. Netflix: The Store! My captain, my hero. Street Coffee. The economic and academic consequences of fraternity membership. Ferrari’s Partnerships in Food and Fashion. Millennials Are Obsessed with *This* Boomer Travel Trend. Singapore officials fret as Gen Z consumers take to ‘buy now, pay later’ schemes. Build an understanding of what physical, emotional, and societal barriers: Adidas Has Released “Period-Proof” Workout Leggings. Wing foiling. The first NFT-driven newsletter. Spotify’s Clubhouse competitor Greenroom launches today. Did Cristiano Ronaldo Cost Coca-Cola $4 Billion in One Day? .

I like new words. This week, I heard about ABCD5G: AI, Blockchain, Cloud, Data, and 5G.

On our radar

In this section, I will share some of the content I come across as I work on specific mandates for our clients. This is what I worked on this week:

It is hard not to pay attention of the new cyberhacking industry: Inside the Market for Cookies. The rise of cybersecurity debt. Graphs are a matter of life and death ($). Critical Infrastructure Sectors. Inside Israel’s lucrative — and secretive —cybersurveillance industry. Ransomware highlights the challenges and subtleties of cybersecurity. Shining A Light On Security Blind Spots. Authorities Seized The Largest Stolen Login Marketplace On The Dark Web.

Our consulting engagements can be found here.

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind as you like to cross over to new fields:

How to Map Nothing. Preserving Syrian design history. Check if your email has been compromised in a data breach. A guide to the latest buzzwords, trends, creators and memes. Removing highways. The best places to find extraterrestrial life in our solar system, ranked. The clever folds that kept letters secret. The alphabets at risk of extinction. The Big Oil Instagram Influencers Are Here.

You have asked me to suggest newsletters that inspire me, so I will suggest one each week: Innovation and Trends in China.

Feeling Good

This image for me is the symbol of 2021- and Millenials’ branding of vaccine on Tik-Tok. A dance of light and pasta making. May’s best science images. Sounds from around the world in an online database of soundmaps. Universal paperclips. Bucket list: Norway Is Preparing to Open Its $723 Million Megamuseum, Home to ‘The Scream,’.

Nonmachinables, PET-ernity and ASMRs

June 6, 2021

Welcome to this 18th 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 Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse.

You can subscribe to this newsletter here to get it directly by mail most Fridays:

This is what I noticed this week, thank you for reading and sharing this newsletter to those who look into the future.

Blindspots

Blindspots are costly biases that can lead companies to underestimate future risks or fail to take advantage of emerging opportunities:

We love the inverted thinking here: LineCon—the conference that takes place while waiting in lines. Millions of Americans could face eviction as housing protection expires in June. Intel CEO reiterates warning that global chip shortage could last years. Cyberattack hits world’s largest meat supplier. What if your device would register every screenshot that you grabbed of a text conversation, and notify the other participants. Plan Continuation Bias. Major Shipping Firms Warn of Worsening Congestion at China’s Yantian Port. Japan’s karoshi culture was a warning. We didn’t listen.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in an hybrid format in the fall.

Strategy making

This is a new section, which will pop-up once in a while. It highlights provocative thoughts on strategy formulation and innovation:

Adding is favoured over subtracting in problem solving. Von Clausewitz on War: Six Lessons for the Modern Strategist. Mastering the building blocks of strategy. The business value of design. Here Are the 17 Ways You Make Illogical Decisions ($ – for the French-speaking readers, I recommend this book on illogical decisions) The new digital edge: Rethinking strategy for the postpandemic era.

We assembled 193 strategic frameworks and analysis techniques on Pinterest. Competia also offers a course on Advanced Analysis Techniques.

Our future

From smart to people-first cities (Cities are collapsing into our homes). How data is changing the future of beauty. Eating As Dialogue, Food As Technology. Spotify wants to suggest songs based on your emotions ( and the patent is here). Incremental housing projects. A ‘catalog for the post-human’ imagines body augmentation products of the future. Scientists Just Proved the Human Brain Can Support an Extra Body Part. Life in 2050: A Look at the Homes of the Future. This company thinks wood pulp could be the future of EV batteries. Lifestyle trends 2021-2022 ( we like the “New era of care”). ‘The silver tsunami is coming’: Inside the quest to help seniors age at home.

Weak signals

Meme-based dating. We all need a positive environment: Affirmative Club to share art and receive affirmative feedback. PET-ernity. Funerals for expired domain names. A new oil-cryptocurrency alliance. String beads. Le retour du bibelot. Designer Creates Wearable Third Eye That Lets You Walk Safely While Looking at Your Phone. ASMR sounds to reinforce product safety perception ( hint: there are 235,000 members in this Reddit ASMR chat). Floating Coworking Space That Looks Like Organic Cells. Chinese Gen-Z’s addiction to bubble tea. The Great Camp Cooking Boom. How the boom in pet ownership is shaping hospitality. Twitter teams with climate vet to launch local weather news service. The Great American Cleanup: Deodorant, Teeth Whitener Fly Off the Shelves. Italian Artist Sells Invisible Sculpture for More Than $18,000.

I like new words. This week, I read about “cozy futurism”.

On our radar

In this section, I will share some of the content I come across as I work on specific mandates for our clients. This is what I worked on this week:

I am updating the course “What social media matters for boards” I developed for the Institute of Corporate Director, and which I will teach in the next couple of weeks in Montreal, Winnipeg and Halifax. Here are the latest social media crisis: AI-powered insurance gone wrong (here is the original thread). Nestle is in a middle of a new controversy about healthy products. SEC said Elon Musk’s Tesla tweets violated settlement agreement. Spain’s New Postage Stamps Were Meant To Call Out Racism. Instead They Drew Outrage.

I am working on a project about shop-streaming and new digital habits and am looking towards Asia for insights: Live video-shopping. As brands take livestreaming more seriously, hosts become a hot commodity. What the West Can Learn From China’s Live Commerce Success. Customer retention with chat ( more stats here). Ten trends for China e-commerce. How Taobao Turned Product Listings Into Entertainment. Inside Kate Spade’s influencer-driven strategy.

Our consulting engagements can be found here.

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind as you like to cross over to new fields:

The Nonmachinables. Decomposition of Materiality and Identities.The Secret Psychology of Sneaker Colors. The cheapest luxury. The gout du moche. A deep dive into the physics of bowling-ball design. The busy trap. Fonts analytics. The impact of nature co-design (pdf). Science fiction thinking for tech & film. How a combustion engine works. Interested in math? Hundreds of research seminars are available online.

You have asked me to suggest newsletters that inspire me, so I will suggest one each week: I really like “Your daily digest of youth culture”.

Feeling Good

Urbex explorations. Do you speak GenZ. The Stanford geospatial network model of the Roman world. United Airlines Wants to Bring Back Supersonic Air Travel.

En francais: dériver…

De-cruiting, cremating diamonds and capex spending

May 28, 2021

Disrupted

We keep an eye on companies, large and small, who are challenging assumptions. Here is our sample this week of surprising twists around new customer segments and business models:

The florist that sends rotten flowers after a break-up. Ethereum Closes In on Long-Sought Fix to Cut Energy Use Over 99%. Delivery Drivers Are Using Grey Market Apps. Do you know how to de-cruit? Innovating for the minority. Gagner sa vie en dormant. Made-To-Order Clothes Are A Secret Weapon. A photo app that bans selfies is blowing up online.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in an hybrid format in the fall.

Our future

On Gojek’s gamified platform, the rules change, and the drivers lose . A blind man can make out objects again after an optogenetics treatment. Airbnb thinks remote work will change travel forever ( see also: Try out a new city). It’s not remote work, it’s closer work. An investment bonanza is coming. Mature branding. Twitch’s Rockonomics. Gas stations that double as dining destinations. Google Ventures-backed Merlin Labs is building AI that can fly planes. Students at @Yale wrote an amazing 30-page constitution for Mars. Firms are rediscovering their love for capex.

An Ethnographic Approach to foresight.

I will participate on June 9th in a panel : “Chartering the future: looking forward” with amazing global innovation officers at IKEA, Nokia , Procter & Gamble (Cindy Soo , Trond Arne Undheim , Leslie Shannon , Steve Brown , Betsy (Elizabeth) Bluestone and Cindy Soo).

Weak signals

Cremation Diamonds from Ashes and Hair. Gnome shortage: Lockdown and Suez canal blockage blamed. Dog macarons. Japan creates a Ministry of Loneliness. ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ YouTube Video to Be Deleted After Selling as NFT for $760,999. The Instagram Accounts Helping Gen Z Navigate Existential Dread. Florida signed into law the Stop Social Media Censorship Act. The Pandemic Has Changed Their Shower Habits. Japan is naming a Ministry of Loneliness. TikTok is blocking alpaca influencers. A gender-neutral line of nail paint .

I like new words or learning about the origin of words. Bluetooth was the epithet of King Harald Bluetooth who united dissonant Danish tribes into a single kingdom.

On our radar

In this section, I will share some of the content I come across as I work on specific mandates for our clients. This is what I worked on this week:

Having joined a new board in this industry, I have been intensively reading about the future of construction: The Strange, Soothing World of Instagram’s Computer-Generated Interiors. Warren Buffett to Offer a Fresh Approach on Modular Construction. Office ecosystems. A Skyscraper Made of Stacked Farmhouses, Lifted by Crane Into the Structure .

I have worked this week with the executive board of a client, facing important conflict at work, partly due to collateral damage from a long pandemia: Five Signs that Workplace Conflict is Escalating during this time of COVID-19.

Our consulting engagements can be found here.

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind as you like to cross over to new fields:

The Intelligent Forest. A Brief History of Smell-O-Vision. Examples of medusa charts. Mexico City Could Sink Up to 65 Feet. Goodbye to the Future: The Last Days of Tokyo’s Nakagin Capsule Tower. The untold story of the vegetable peeler that changed the world. A Stopping the Manipulation Machines. You are a network.

You have asked me to suggest newsletters that inspire me, so I will suggest one each week: I really like Stéphane’s weekly 15 Marches.

Feeling Good

Descriptive Color Names Dictionary. An Invitation to the Cicada Party. Is this a polygon? The Pachama projects. Stunning, hidden patterns of animal movement . The light pollution map. A mesmerizing timelapse that visualizes the rotation of Earth (thread).

DOTMLPF, appucino and zombie fires

May 21, 2021

Competitive Intelligence

Tools and methodologies competitive intelligence professionals are using:

Ping An Asset Management zooms in on NLP models for sentiment analysis. Measuring dollar value of patents. Law firms face struggle to meet competitive intelligence needs. An extreme view of competitive intelligence from the US. Latest innovative report on Competitive Intelligence Tools Market by 2028. Scenario planning for supply chains. A new feature in Anthology‘s Academic Economics tool uses predictive analytics to help institutions plan for possible financial futures.

Blindspots

Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new opportunities and avoid missing emerging risks

The chip shortage could lead to an era of hardware innovation. Business model for autonomous cars: Volkswagen says it can profitably sell a self-driving system for €7 an hour. All Those Electric Vehicles Pose a Problem for Building Roads. Deadly Fungi Are the Newest Emerging Microbe Threat All Over the World. Business model and The prison phone kickback game. Is the entry-level job going extinct? The Rome scenarios.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in an hybrid format in the fall.

Our future

Tech giants have all become creator companies. The Andromeda galaxy photo taken by Hubble. Make Way for the ‘One-Minute City’. Getting rid of jetlag: Advanced Acclimation and Protection Tool for Environmental Readiness. China starts large scale testing of its Internet of the future. Office eco-systems. Top ten professions after the pandemia. K Line and Airseas win approval for kite-based propulsion system. BIG designs battery-metals plant, ships and underwater robots for undersea mining company. How Parking Destroys Cities.

Weak signals

Ghost kitchens’ new urbanism. An interspecies currency. No more snow days. TikTok Is Starting A Job Site Targeted To Gen-Z. New dating app only works on Thursdays. a guide to creator economy. The trophy tree. Mayo Clinic and Kaiser finance hospital-at-home care. Appucino please: how TikTok is permanently changing Starbucks. The tarot deck of corporate conversations. Google’s first retail store. A minimalist smart phone for GenY. Slow travel is back: how train travel picks up again (in French). Why brands are getting weird on social media. Why more young Chinese want to be civil servants.

I like new words. This week, JJDIDTIEBUCKLE: A mnemonic acronym taught so Marines can remember their 14 leadership traits: Judgment, Justice, Decisiveness, Initiative, Dependability, Tact, Integrity, Endurance, Bearing, Unselfishness, Courage, Knowledge, Loyalty, Enthusiasm .

On our radar

In this section, I will share some of the content I come across as I work on specific mandates for our clients. This is what I worked on this week:

I will keynote Anges Québec’s event on June 3rd, called “Ready for Tomorrow”: Bias Is a Big Problem. But So Is ‘Noise.’ People view the future through the narrow lens of their expertise. How Bayer’s Catalyst Fund Built The Right Culture For Innovation. The strong impact of weak signals.

Our weekly chat on Clubhouse last Saturday focused on the future of space ( we were even joined by an astronaut!). Here are some of the resources mentioned if you missed it: Is Mars ours? Apollo 11 and space law. The Institute of Air and Space Law . Elon Musk’s SpaceX inks satellite connectivity deal with Google Cloud. Faraway NASA probe detects the eerie hum of interstellar space. Space traffic. Earth in time. A new study, reports a spiral galaxy named BRI 1335-0417 formed less than 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.

Our speaking engagements can be found here.

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind as you like to cross over to new fields:

A new book, Patented, reveals the forgotten designers of everyday items. The untold story of how Florence Nightingale used data viz to save lives. What we learned in a year of crafting. In the 21st century, every life experience is a monetizable data point. Zombie fires . In case you were wondering: the secret to giraffes’ cardio-vascular. Who invented the wheel? How Albert Einstein’s Son Tamed the Mississippi River. A stunning new school for girls in the desert of India. Why Everywhere Looks The Same.

You have asked me to suggest newsletters that inspire me, so I will suggest one each week: a few signals spotted this week come from Adrian Monck and his Agenda Weekly.

Feeling Good

Where are the sharks? Drip drop. Fin to fin. Visit the catacombs, 3D. Google launches an experiment to hear color. Watch Accurate Recreations of Medieval Italian Longsword Fighting Techniques, All Based on a Manuscript from 1404.

Bladderwack, squishy, and local mesh

May 14, 2021

Quant data and HumanInt

We are focusing this week on a series of tools and techniques that investors and hedge funds teams are using:

Expert Networks: A Billion Dollar Opportunity. Sometimes messy, sometimes over-aggregated, alt data is still taking over. A fascinating quant exchange for those researching sources. +55,000 Economic & Financial Datasets covering 120 countries and 10 exchanges. 22,752 datasets and 777,203,436 series. The Yale databases. The Quandl Alternative Data Catalog. Web scrapping ( or just use a Chrome extension). YipitData is a data aggregator that sources web data, [anonymized] consumer receipts, and survey data. 1010data aggregates credit card data from third-party providers, For commodity intelligence, we like Shipmag. Landmark search. Email receipts data.

Blindspots

Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new opportunities and avoid missing emerging risks

Local mesh was always a fantasy as a competitor to cellular. News influencers. Tempting… These beautiful Italian towns will pay you to work remotely. TikTok launching jobs service for Gen Z. Vaccine deserts: Some countries have no COVID-19 jabs at all. An electric vehicle (EV) uses 6x as many mineral resources as a fossil fuel car. A Single Biopsy From This Cow Can Make Millions of Handbags. Here’s how climate change could cause insects to destroy our crops.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in an hybrid format in the fall.

Our future

Like Sweatpants, Squishy Furniture Is In (our offices will become homy..). Robots will make doubling China’s GDP by 2035 look easy. Tesla updating software of a fleet in parking lot looks like the aliens are coming. Stopping black patterns. Future of (fast)food: With Gay Burger, the pop-up model got an influencer twist . After a year of Zoom meetings, we’ll need to rebuild trust through eye contact. Is Mars ours?

Weak signals

Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? An Investigation. This app lets you buy whatever food your favorite restaurant has leftover at the end of the day. This theater unveils the plot by snail mail.How the pandemic made fonts friendlier. Introducing the “ Emoji Subcommittee for the Unicode Consortium”. Millions: the platform helping combat athletes monetize their audiences. Retail spaces reinvention: Selfridges to Offer Wedding Ceremonies at Luxury London Store. Tokyo Is Getting An Esports Gym.

I like new words. This week, Bladderwrack, which is part of the “food grade beauty products” meta trend.

On our radar

In this section, I will share some of the content I come across as I work on specific mandates for our clients. This is what I worked on this week:

Our past session on Clubhouse focused on some of the latest ideas in design for the future of work. We spoke about colors, scents and shapes: Blue is an Elusive Color. One Artist Just Invented a New Shade. Sense: The book that uses sensory science to make you happier. An amplifier of thoughts. MIT’s color-changing paint could make your iPhone look different every day.

I taught this week in Switzerland for IMD a course with 5 simulations of situations/dilemnas corporate directors can face in this digital era. Here are some of the most challenging ones: Volkswagen admits its name change was an April Fools’ Day prank. A ‘Worst Nightmare’ Cyberattack: The Untold Story Of The SolarWinds Hack. What boards can learn from Hootsuite’s ICE snafu as whistle-blowers turn to social media. Burger King gets grilled for ‘women belong in the kitchen’ tweet.

Our speaking engagements can be found here.

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind as you like to cross over to new fields:

Return on invested cat. The Lack of Small Talk Is Breaking Our Brains. I always loved the history of fonts. A fascinating investigation of how a 19 year-old could create 7.7M fake comments (pdf). How Gravity Is a Double Copy of Other Forces. One of the World’s Oldest Science Experiments Comes Up From the Dirt. How Filippo Brunelleschi, Untrained in Architecture or Engineering, Built the World’s Largest Dome at the Dawn of the Renaissance.

You have asked me to suggest newsletters that inspire me, so I will suggest one each week: a few signals spotted this week come from Patrick Tanguay’s Sentiers 🙏

Feeling Good

Five decades of Met Publications on art history, available to read, download or search. A bucket list. Mindgame: the red faced cube. A virtual ocean. Lights at sea. Just a cloud. Form and function: some of the most beautifully crafted surf boards in the world.

Mindcraft, Ampersand and hyper-colors

May 7, 2021

Welcome to this 14th 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 Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse.

This is what I noticed this week, thank you for reading and sharing this newsletter to those who look into the future.

Trends Intelligence

We are focusing this week on a series of tools and techniques that foresight teams are using to spot weak signals and trends:

Spotting trends in a fast-changing world. Your spreadsheet’s new best friend to map patterns. A Journey to the End of Time – timelapse of the future. Pour prédire l’avenir, engagez des romanciers. Touching the future. The problem with prediction. How to build a breakthrough …the secret of Backcasting. Articles + Resources + Interviews exploring the eco-system of influences impacting the future .

Blindspots

Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new opportunities and avoid missing emerging risks

All These Balls Are the Same Color.

Is Amazon Building The Next Generation Bank? What is the Fastest-Growing Sport? Developers struggle to meet demand for e-commerce storage space. Why Shoppers Are Obsessed With ‘Summer Camp’ Jewellery. Stockpile of Unfinished Ford Super Duty Pickups Missing Chips Is Now Visible from Space. IBM says it has created the world’s first 2 nanometer chip.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in an hybrid format in the fall.

Our future

N.Y.P.D.’s Robot Dog Returns to Work, Touching Off a Backlash. Google’s Plan for the Future of Work: Privacy Robots and Balloon Walls. US Army Explores Equipping Robots with Living Muscle Tissue . How do you teach someone to write in a world of robot authors? Brands are testing out OnlyFans as a marketing channel. The World’s First Robot Lawyer. Mindcraft. Coworking , third-wave style. Slum dwellers in India get unique digital addresses so that residents can use Google’s plus codes to direct deliveries and medical care to their front doors.

Weak signals

Cities appoint ‘Chief Heat Officers’ in response to warming threat. Meet the Renaissance Man Obsessed with Mushrooms. Tiffany Just Launched a New Line of Diamond Engagement Rings—for Men. Colorado legislature passes bill to allow human composting. How Pixar Uses Hyper-Colors to Hack Your Brain. A supermarket in a museum.

On our radar

In this section, I will share some of the content I come across as I work on specific mandates for our clients. This is what I worked on this week:

Business Scents- I am keynoting another conference on the future of the office for the hybrid workforce. This week, I studied the scents ( the weak signal Eau d’Office was already in our last week’s newsletter): The Rise of Digital Olfaction. The people trying to save scents from extinction. The Internet Of Senses And The Virtual Future Of Work. Wake up and smell the workplace: how aroma is changing behaviour.

The longevity economy is a recurring research for me. Here is a take on digital afterlife: The digital afterlife industry is here to help you plan your death. The digital afterlife industry. Making It Easier to Honor a Loved One on Facebook After They Pass Away. What happens to crypto-assets once you die. Creating a digital will. The data we leave behind.

Our speaking engagements can be found here.

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind as you like to cross over to new fields:

The beauty of the ampersand and other keyboard symbols. TikTok and the Vibes Revival. Such an amazing tale of what happened: The Untold Story Of The SolarWinds Hack. Lego share soothing new ‘White Noise’ playlist of the sound of Lego bricks. People With ‘Too Many Interests’ More Likely to be Successful, According to Research ( hurrah for polymaths!). 99% invisible. What Data Can’t Do.

Feeling Good

The super yacht in Amsterdam. Sweden, Dressed in Summer. Educational TikTok Accounts ( I love the Rijk’s Museum account). A garden vision. A digital collection of roots system, hand-drawn. A 104 years old timeless style.

Pour les francophones: Le Tiers-Livre ( hint: check the page about ambition).

Did you learn something today? Share your favorite issues of the newsletter, or send friends – or random strangers…

Share Weak signals and other trends

And do not miss the next issue:Subscribe

Contact me at Competia with feedback, or ideas for what to write about. Thank you for reading.

Yolo economy, archaic humans and lofi

April 30, 2021

Welcome to this 13th 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 Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse.

This is what I noticed this week, thank you for reading and sharing this newsletter to those who look into the future.

Strategic Intelligence

We are focusing this week on a series of tools that competitive intelligence teams are using ( we also on occasions add relevant privacy-related articles):

Central bankers’ emotions are latest frontier for quants ($). Apple’s AirDrop leaks users’ PII, and there’s not much they can do about it. How does scenario planning work in the age of Zoom? A growing problem of ‘deepfake geography’: How AI falsifies satellite images. The Galaxy OpenSyllabus. How to Cover Your Tracks Every Time You Go Online. A mind-map of related subreddits to help you find new niches.

We are collecting strategic analysis techniques on Pinterest. Here are 190 of them.

Blindspots

Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new opportunities and avoid missing emerging risks

Cozy futurism. Solving problems like a detective. Amazon’s 1st Kuiper megaconstellation satellites will launch on a ULA Atlas V rocket. The Plane Paradox: More Automation Should Mean More Training. Artificial Intelligence Is Misreading Human Emotion. Should Overpaid CEOs Be Replaced With Artificial Intelligence? Propelled by Amazon: Inside the Washington Post’s ambitions to be a SaaS power player. China starts large-scale testing of its internet of the future.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in an hybrid format in the fall.

Our future

Welcome to the YOLO Economy. Microsoft is thinking about giving wellness recommendations based on a user’s biometric data and data around work events. 5 visions of the future from the WEF’s Global Technology Governance Summit. This does not exist. Which jobs grew the most over the quarter? Ankle exoskeletons can greatly increase walking speed. The MIT future of cities issue. Can We Live to 200?

Weak signals

Eau d’office: Miss the smell of the office printer? These candles recreate our prepandemic life. Degree’s new deodorant is designed with disabled people in mind. Ok Zoomer: the app that creates your presence on Zoom. The Olympic movement is dipping its toe into esports. Google Maps will soon default to ‘greenest route‘ . Curbside rocks. These Dutch cities will allow only zero-emission deliveries by 2025. Online used car sales are booming. Tipping is taking over the internet. Introducing You to ‘Airport Culture‘, Gen Z’s New Favourite Pastime.

On our radar

In this section, I will share some of the content I come across as I work on specific mandates for our clients. This is what I worked on this week:

I have paid attention to “social media whistleblowing” as I prepare a new training simulation module for IMD’s High Performance Boards program on May 5th: Breaking Camp. Instagram whistleblowers. I wrote an article about Hootsuite a few months ago. From whistleblower laws to unions: How Google’s AI ethics meltdown could shape policy. Ubisoft’s #MeToo Reckoning, Two Months Later.

Our speaking engagements can be found here.

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind as you like to cross over to new fields:

AI and the paperclip problem. Digital analytics optimizing products and portfolios. Stanford study dives deeper into genetic differences between modern and archaic humans. Cosmic Map of Ultrahigh-Energy Particles Points to Long-Hidden Treasures. the legendary Hagoromo Fulltouch chalk. 15 French volunteers leave cave after 40 days without daylight or clocks.

I like to discover new words: this week, I learnt about Lofi Music. Lofi spiked because it’s commonly used as a productivity tool. In fact, loyal listeners claim that lofi music boosts concentration and focus so I paid attention as I study the future of the workspace.

Feeling Good

Spring poetry. A trip to Montreal with Leonard Cohen in 1965 is a glimpse into a singular poetic (and funny) mind. Trails of winds. Digital florists.