Technopolar, pocket forests and the wandering mind

Welcome to this 39th 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. This will be the last issue of the year 2021, the next one will continue in 2022, thank you for reading.

You can subscribe to this weekly newsletter here to get it directly by mail.

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

Share Weak signals and other trends


Strategic blindspots

Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new opportunities while avoiding risks from your blindspots.

TikTok is launching delivery-only restaurants. Fashion as an asset class. To Build the Metaverse, Meta First Wants to Build Stores. How Data Is Reshaping Real Estate. Postcards from a world in fire. a battery-powered TV that you can wheel around. The end of phone calls. Three ways to cultivate your creative thinking (and The art and science of mind wandering). The GameStop Game Never Stops. Car companies that do software. The Dark Side of 15-Minute Grocery Delivery. Repurposing shopping malls. A deep dive of Amazon’s marketplace. The Absurdity of Renting a Car.

Learn a new perspective and this quote:

Learning to surf is in part knowing how to ‘read’ a wave, to see if a shoulder is rideable, to discern good waves from bad amidst a field of sunlight-filled glare, to look past a wave to see what else might be coming

We have rescheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will now take place in Montreal, Canada, on April 26-27, 2022.

Our future

These are the jobs people want most – and least – after the pandemic. Fear of crowds – a ‘new normal’ shopping behaviour after COVID-19? Why Southeast Asia is having an anti-mall moment. Louis Vuitton and pocket forests. The future of urban tech. Three steps to the future. The Technopolar Moment. The World’s First Flying Motorcycle. The future of fertility. Ameca, the Future Face Of Robotics.

More 2002 trends reports coming through: Creative Trends Report 2022. Ericsson’s 10 Consumer Trends for 2030. Ford’s 2022 trends. Gartner Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022. Measuring up what we thought we knew. Nourish’s trend report. Next-generation trends 2022. Three scenarios for 2030.


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?

Water Bottle That Runs On An Operating System. New LEGO tool helps family & friends build together. ‘Aisle of Shame’. An expensive text. You never get old. Beauty stickers. Coding to socialize. Top Excel experts will battle it out in an esports. Vertical screens. A game console to play outdoors. The houseplant Reddit thread has closed to 1 million subscribers. The Tontine game. Japanese Professor Invents Lickable Television With Flavors You Can Taste.

Join us to discuss those trends and signals every Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse ( we start back on January 8). We have a panel of futurists that illustrate what those signals might mean, and an enlightened group of curious minds in the room.

Down the rabbit hole

This is a new section. It highlights a subject that lead me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors.

This week, I went down the rabbit hole on the future of urban tech through 6 big stories, and trends that act as vectors.


Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind and the polymaths …

The ladder of proof. Design Secrets. Two Thousand Years of Exploring the Wandering Mind. The secret to hospital design was solved 150 years ago. The history of html. Why We Buy Products Connected to Place, People, and Past. Where Are The Robotic Bricklayers? Fossil Labour.


Feeling Good

I thought about that a lot. A new cultural center. Public stairs. The boy who loved ships. A digital garden. A message to decode.

A year in search – keep safe everyone…

Hierotopias, pickleball and an untact society

Welcome to this 38th 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.

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.


Business models and blindspots

Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new opportunities and new business models while avoiding blindspots.

Toyota owners have to pay $8/mo to keep using their key fob for remote start. Reinventing fast fashion. The Latest Farm Product: Carbon Credits. Ghost Kitchens Are Proving to Be a Messy Business. Apple announced self-repair program. Netflix entered the gaming space.

Changing currents. New York is running out of cream cheese because of a cyber attack. China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative is moving steadily into Africa.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in Montreal, Canada, on January 18th and 19th, 2022. There are two seats left.

Our future

Predictions for Journalism 2022. What ‘The Matrix’ Got Wrong About Cities of the Future. Why people are spending millions of dollars on JPEGs. Flavor of the year. Fjord trends 2022. AI to debate its own ethics. Pollinator park. Functional Yogurt.

We provide in-house training to executive teams and board to feed their strategic planning process and investigate future scenarios. More here.

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?

A 2021 Signals Inventory. Workers Are Using ‘Mouse Movers’. Nike just bought a virtual shoe company. Teachers dash for cash. Salad in a bar. The craze for tungsten cubes. Emoji frequency. The city of Miami announced its own currency, MiamiCoin. Pickleball is experiencing a renaissance. Tyson Foods plans to automate meat plants. South Korea cuts human interaction in push to build ‘untact’ society. Sustainable food on wheels. In hatboxes, pouches and bags lie the items that define us.

Seven types of serendipity and this quote:

‘One thing a person cannot do, no matter how rigorous his analysis or heroic his imagination,” the Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling once observed, “is to draw up a list of things that would never occur to him.”

Join us to discuss those trends and signals on Clubhouse. We have a panel of futurists who discuss each Saturday mornings at 9am what those signals might mean.

Down the rabbit hole

This is a new section. It highlights a subject that lead me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors.

This week, I explored the last issue of Wired and the simulations of the future.


On our radar

I was with clients in Switzerland this week, and we took a deep dive into the future of work: Companies Are Using Webcams to Monitor Employees Working From Home. Europe studied Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance in the Workplace. MGM Resorts Job Seekers Can Try Out Roles in VR Before Starting. 18 Trends That Will Shape Our Careers in 2022. Gen Z Is Planning Early Retirement. Microsoft Seeks to Stem Employee Departures Through ‘Career Check-ins. What to Know Before You Take a Job in a Hybrid Workplace.


Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind and the polymaths …

The Mother of All Demos. How we learned how to speak emoji. Statistical Imaginaries: An Ode to Responsible Data Science. The vibe economy. Single’s Day. The Humble Beginnings of Today’s Culinary Delicacies.


Feeling Good

Ethiopia’s forest churches. Hop on a city tour. The Sounds That Make Tokyo Tick. The Museum of Lost Memories. The Leaked Recipes Cookbook.

Joyning, barndominium and antiwork manifestos

Welcome to this 37th 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 week will be our last edition before 2022…)

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.

Share Weak signals and other trends


Competitive Intelligence

This week, we focus on new search engines competitive intelligence professionals are exploring:

A RSS feed generator. Runnaroo, a private engine. An open repository of web crawl data. Searx, a privacy-respecting metasearch engine. Investigate inbound links. Cut through the clutter of scholar articles. Reverse image search. Marginalia search. The largest open database of companies ( and their tax havens…)


Strategic blindspots

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

Double-decker airlplane seats. A major outage on some Amazon Web Services. Hackers Are Spamming Businesses’ Receipt Printers With ‘Antiwork’ Manifestos. A 1997 Wired Article Predicting ’10 Things That Could Go Wrong In The 21st Century. Investing in Fine Art. Why Do DVDs Still Exist? Amazon Patents “Anticipatory” Shipping.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in Montreal, Canada, on January 18th and 19th, 2022. There are two seats left.

Our future

The virtual land boom. Ranking the art world’s 100 most influential people and trends. The top 0.01% of individuals own 11% of global wealth. Accelerating Martian and Lunar Science through SpaceX Starship Missions (pdf). With Decentralized Identity, Your Reputation Travels With You Across Cyberspace. Engagement ring buyers are taking a shine to man-made diamonds.

Trends reports coming out for 2022:


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?

Blazing a new trail in barndominiums. It’s Time to Reimagine the Future of Cyberpunk. Tik Tok’s streetart. Investors Snap Up Metaverse Real Estate in a Virtual Land Boom. Debt collectors can now text you, email you and DM you on social media. British Olympic diver and gold medalist, opens online knitting shop. Potential Matches to Compare Music Taste. The Era of the Celebrity Meal. Virgil Abloh and Mercedes-Benz create solar-powered car with transparent front hood. New Zealand Will Ban Cigarettes for All Future Generations. Mouse movers. Amsterdam introduces mandatory register for sensors.

Join us to discuss those trends and signals every Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse. We have a panel of futurists that illustrate what those signals might mean, and an enlightened group of curious minds in the room.

Down the rabbit hole

This is a new section. It highlights a subject that lead me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors.

The 24 dimensions of emotions.


On our radar

I was working this week on a project for a European client on the design of future of cities: Augmented aging in place. The Future of Urban Tech. 26 Case Studies in Design for Impact. Sponge cities. Resilient corridors. Biomimicry and the hopeful city. This Architect Is Transforming Cities With His Nature-Inspired Designs. Biophilic cities. Beds and sheds.


Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind and the polymaths …

World’s vast networks of underground fungi to be mapped for first time. 52 things Tom learned in 2021. A human collective memory. How we came to depend on the week.


Feeling Good

Light pillars. Infrared Light Enhances Versailles. Alienscapes ( or how to re-enchant your virtual backgrounds…). Hasselblad winners. Museum of Endangered Sounds.

Hyperobjects, Zettelkasten and comfort creators

Welcome to this 36th 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 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.

Share Weak signals and other trends


Competitive Intelligence

This week, we focus on tools and methodologies competitive intelligence professionals are using:

Google gives clearer picture of supply chain visibility using digital twin tech. Detecting Trucks in East Africa. Web scrapping and macros. Boutique Search Engines. A private search engine. Quantify your news bubble. Six Types Of Research That Can Unlock Consumer Insights.


Strategic blindspots

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

The emerging business of authenticating sneakers. The deficit of psycho-therapists. Playful pivots and youth goggles. Pet food and carbon emissions. Retailers who ask customers to keep items rather than return them. Capital One drops overdraft fees. Retailers are selling ads. The Awesome Importance of Imagination and this quote:

Imagination helps you perceive reality, try on other realities, predict possible futures, experience other viewpoints.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in Montreal, Canada, on January 18th and 19th, 2022. There are three seats left.

Our future

The store of the future is a communal space. The rise of e-sports will create a new type of hospitality venue. Disney to Spend $33 Billion on Content. The Design Legacy of Covid. Living robots made in a lab have found a new way to self-replicate. Six trends of non-fiction books. Seafood technology future. 15-minute delivery. Curated groceries. Years of Delays, Billions in Overruns.


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?

Join randomly streamers who do not have any viewers. Learning from comics characters. Dating blind boxes. Identification of taste attributes from an audio signal, by Spotify. Canada taps into maple syrup reserves. The Park Bench Is an Endangered Species. Plastic wrapped pillows. The emojis of the year as an indicator of the global mood. The comfort creator. Old trucks, new money. Dumb phones.

The Zettelkasten Method, to record and process signals.

Join us to discuss those trends and signals every Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse. We have a panel of futurists that illustrate what those signals might mean, and an enlightened group of curious minds in the room.

Down the rabbit hole

This is a new section. It highlights a subject that lead me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors.

This week, I plunged into Everything about physics.


On our radar

I will keynote a conference in Charlevoix on January 20-21 on future consumer behaviors: 22 trends for 2022.  Synaesthetics or how smells make shoppers spend more. Signals of business change. The consumer trends to know for 2022. Global consumer trends. Immediate Happiness And Comfort. Nobody is going to pay for smart. Where blockchain is going. How the Rise in Cyberattacks Is Changing Consumer Behavior. Hootsuite Reveals 2022’s Major Social Media Trends.

I am also keynoting next Wednesday, December 8th, the CPA Canada’s annual conference on the future of audit committees in the new digital risk environment and participate in a panel on December 7th for the International Finance Corporation (World Bank) in Washington DC on risks and governance. Will share insights next Friday not to loose the surprise effect…

Hodgepodge discovery

Articles and videos for the curious mind …

Introducing the idea of ‘hyperobjects’. Historic borders. Commute. What motivates life-long learners. Get back: how to create a single ( and creating creative workflows). Pushed around by stars. Effects of Design Aesthetics on the Perceived Value of a Product. The basics of learning curves.


Feeling Good

Every noise. All UN Heritage sites. Pillow fights. The food timeline. Wave any flag. Play the Game: Can You Get a City to Zero Emissions? Literature clock.

Rage shakes, e-textiles and gorpcore

Welcome to this 35th 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 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.

Share Weak signals and other trends


Competitive analysis

This week, we focus on tools and methodologies strategic planning professionals are using to illustrate their findings:

The data visualization legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois. One dataset, ten visualizations. How To Think Visually. We love Nathan’s work on visualization. Competitive Analysis Charts to Visualize Your Competitive Landscape.

I have collected articles and advice on how to represent data in this Pinterest board.

Strategic blindspots

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

There could be so many marketing applications for this. To Be Energy-Efficient, Brains Predict Their Perceptions. To reinvent work, we have to destroy the clock. The dangers of gender bias in design. Disney Shows Its Cards in Pursuit of Sports Betting. Against Technological Inevitability. The great tree migration. Apple announces Self Service Repair. ESG investing has a sustainability blind spot: supply chains. Desperately seeking shoe rack.


Our future

Six trends that will shake up the travel space in 2022. A metaverse for business travelers. Oxagon at Neom. Energy in Concrete Blocks. Fuel efficient private planes. E-textiles wirelessly powered by omniphobic silk-based coils. Your Boss Wants to Spy on Your Inner Feelings. Can a Machine Learn Morality? 6 Things to Think About When Designing Your Child. What will the world look like in 2031? A Conversation about Indigenous Futurisms. Twitter to combine shopping and livestreams. ‘Energizing’ Color of the Year for 2022.

Entretien en 2042 : à quoi pourrait ressembler un monde en 100% télétravail ?

We provide in-house training to executive teams and board to feed their strategic planning process and investigate future scenarios. More here.

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?

Rage shake your phone. Since when did the playlists get this specific? Can I ride my bike? Naming snowplows. The runaway student. The Moments That Make Single Life Blissful. Great depression cooking. Puppy shortage created a crimewave. I’ve been following Gentle Monster on my radar for a while, this is their latest art installation. Life-Sized Barbie Concept Car At LA Auto Show. From trash to strawberries. Gorpcore.

Join us to discuss those trends and signals every Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse. We have a panel of futurists that illustrate what those signals might mean, and an enlightened group of curious minds in the room.

Down the rabbit hole

This is a new section. It highlights a subject that lead me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors.

This initiative by Craig Mod seems the perfect way to observe tiny signals. Not only did I envy the initiative, but I am reading each day the lovely blog posts as he meanders Japanese cities.


Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind …

How ultracold, superdense atoms become invisible. The data visualization legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois. Surface Tension. Women in type. The Tyranny Of Time. Octopuses, crabs and lobsters will receive greater welfare protection.


Feeling Good

Double pendulum. City walks. The ‘Hood. Oh Billie Jean. The happy tax payer. MRI scans.

Wander prompts, weeklypedia and shade disparity

Welcome to this 35th 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 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.

Share Weak signals and other trends


Strategic Intelligence

Tools and methodologies intelligence professionals are using:

Crowdsourced software recommendations. Search engine You.com takes on Google. Hackers are stealing data today so quantum computers can crack it in a decade. Designing a Workflow For Thinking. Verify/hack any business email address. Reverse Image Search. How to Find Someone’s U.S. Court and Property Records.


Strategic blindspots

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

The Greenland connection. The average professional now spends 21.5 hours a week in meetings (42% of one-on-ones are rescheduled every week…). Should we rein cities in or embrace their biomorphic growth? The Climate Impact Map. US needs 30m new trees to combat shade disparity. China is reinventing the way the world reads. Retired Canadians are staying in their homes. What’s Harder to Find Than Microchips?

Here are some techniques this week: How to Embrace the Rule of Reversible Outcomes. Why Complexity is Different. Charts that don’t change. You Will Know Us by the Company We Keep. Imagined Futures. The Spark file.

We have started registrations for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place on January 18-19, 2022.

Our future

External Communication of Autonomous Crews Under Simulation of Interplanetary Missions. What major themes will we see in global media in 2022? Amazon now hopes to launch a total 7,774 internet satellites. Haptic Furniture. How Alibaba tracks China’s delivery drivers. Space commerce. How cyber surveillance is booming on a global scale. The Home Is the Future of Travel. Futurists have their heads in the clouds and this quote:

If you want to predict the future accurately, you should be an incrementalist and accept that human nature doesn’t change along most axes.

Trends reports for 2022 are starting to flow in: Consumer 2022. Top 10 Predictions for the Future of Connectedness. Media Trends and Predictions 2022. Winter 23-24 Color Forecast Points to Energy Shift Ahead.

We provide in-house training to executive teams and board to feed their strategic planning process and investigate future scenarios. More here.

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 silent bookclub. Does It Matter if I Eat the Stickers on Fruits and Vegetables (anyone ever read those?). Portable bathtubs. Inside Hermès’ Temporary Gym. A space dedicated to mental health, grief and mindfulness. Eterneva. Postcards’ collections ( check also the Postcards from Timbuktu!) 42% of one-on-one meetings are rescheduled every week. Price Index for All Urban Consumers. My barber-shop is rich.

A treasure trove for weak signals: Weeklypedia.

Join us to discuss those trends and signals every Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse. We have a panel of futurists that illustrate what those signals might mean, and an enlightened group of curious minds in the room.

Down the rabbit hole

This is a new section. It highlights a subject that lead me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors.

This week, I went into the Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster: Search Words by First Known Use Date.


On our radar

I am diving into the world of inclusive design for a new client in the healthcare arena: Olay develops new lids. Versatile cutlery. Mastercard indents cards. The high cost of living in a disabling world. Packaged for people with disabilities. Architecture for autism. Alliesthesia. Gallery of Designing for Autism.


Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind …

Decoding the Cultures of Hacking. Faces of opensource. The 100 Best Inventions of 2021. All the Marvels. The New Science of Clocks. The Unknown Entrepreneur Who Built UPS. Ancient concrete resilience. The Original The quiestest ’s room. Homo imaginatus. The Font industry.


Feeling Good

Christmas cannons. The meataverse. Wander prompts. Italian movie soundtracks. Track the hidden resources of wilderness land. Cythar and pastels (all in Chinese but very intuitive…).

Resicum, snowliage and aquamation

Welcome to this 34th 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.

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.

Share Weak signals and other trends


Strategic blindspots

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

AI Generates Hypotheses Human Scientists Have Not Thought Of. AI Is No Match for the Quirks of Human Intelligence. Trick your brain.

Restaurants Can’t Get Enough Ovens to Open New Stores. A severe translator shortage. Why I think NFTs will force Hollywood, Harvard, Salesforce, Nintendo etc to reinvent themselves. Hotels are growing more accepting of a new class of guest. Monetizing men’s vulnerabilities. The Intersection.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place early 2022.

Our future

500 Terabytes of Data into CD-Sized Glass Disc. The Batteries of the Future Are Weightless and Invisible. In Switzerland, a Plant-Based Hard-Boiled Egg. How might climate change affect European gastronomy? The return of touch. Renting pop-up offices. These Robots Follow You to Learn Where to Go. These instruments could change the future of music. the blueprint for our future lifestyles. Eerily Realistic Robot Arm Powered by Synthetic Muscles. A Death Full of Life.

The 2022 trends reports are starting: Ten trends to watch in the coming year. Paint companies’ 2022 colors of the year.

We provide in-house training to executive teams and board to feed their strategic planning process and investigate future scenarios. More here.

Weak signals and tiny patterns

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?

Hyper yachts. Chipmakers Are Sending a Warning. Amazon’s bizarre Supreme-like store. Spending hours cutting grass in video games (in French). Crackdown on “Excessively Entertaining” Content. Babies In Helmets. A ‘Family On Demand’. Decathlon turns the wheelchair symbol into a set of ability icons. I dream of Covid. Billionaire defends windowless dorm rooms for California students. Creating my library brought order in a world of chaos. The sleeping bus in Hong-Kong. Wild, Creative, Disturbing: Hyperpop.


On our radar

I registered with Cambridge University in the UK to an intense course on sustainable real estate: Twenty per cent of new homes in Amsterdam to be constructed from timber. Basketry Gone Wild. Carpark rooftops into urban farming sites. Sustainable living along with personal workspace: The emerging new asset class. Massachusetts to put solar panels wherever they fit. Financing urban forests.


Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind …

How 12th-century Genoese merchants invented the idea of risk. A new theory of what goodness is made of. Keen on Shepherding. Bionic Gloves Gave Pianist Martins His Hands Back. . Longevity Linked to Proteins That Calm Overexcited Neurons. The Magnificent Bribe.


Down the rabbit hole

This week, I went down the hole of Spin Masters’ techniques and misinformation.


Feeling Good

Time for Nothing. Snowliage. Create 3D models to draw. Human footprints. A beautiful timeline of leaving and waving. Nature furniture.

Skyhooks, antiwork and omotenashi

Welcome to this 33rd 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.

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.

Share Weak signals and other trends


Competitive Intelligence

Tools and methodologies competitive intelligence professionals are using:

The Ultimate Guide to Selling Data to Hedge Funds. Convert web pages to Kindle. The green search engine. Visualizing your LinkedIn network. Wireless Passwords From Airports And Lounges Around The World. Open-Source Flight and Aircraft Tracking Data. Sci-hub get (almost) any research paper in pdf.

We offer courses to learn to efficiently use online sources to gain competitive and strategic intelligence.

Strategic blindspots

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

Focalism, A Source of Durability Bias in Affective Forecasting. Mad Dash for ‘Dirt and Iron’. Subscription bars. Is Amazon Changing the Novel?. The Miracle of the Internet’s Not Breaking. Metal-Eating Bacteria. “Email urgency bias”. Omotenashi or what service is really like. Mixed tapes.

Omotenashi is good for the soul. It nurtures our intrinsically motivated, non-maximizer self

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place early 2022.

Our future

AirPods that take your temperature and monitor posture. Stratospheric balloon rides. Simulating the future of global automation, its consequences. LOve this personal electric aerial vehicle. Eyeglasses with Alexa. Cubicle appartments. Food waste feast. Ghost retailers stock up physical DTC stores. HR ghosting (in French). Young People’s Voices on Climate Anxiety, Government Betrayal and Moral Injury. Amazon’s Project Kuiper hopes to launch first two prototype satellites in late 2022. Gaze detection.

We provide in-house training to executive teams and board to feed their strategic planning process and investigate future scenarios. More here.

Weak signals and tiny patterns

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?

A luxury Electric Car To Be Designed By Virgil Abloh. Adult ‘Chatter Telephone’. A Tik Tok bones salesman. The Instagrammable Chinese Village. The “antiwork” reddit thread. Westarctica. Scripted homicides. Smart Sidewalk Protection. The yodeler who sued Yahoo. Gen Z are collecting 20-year-old iPods. Top Chinese live streamer sells nearly US$2 billion in goods in 12 hours. Tower running. Nap dresses. New Hong Kong bus tour is meant to put people to sleep. Amsterdam to oblige homeowners to live in homes worth less than €512,000.


On our radar

I am preparing a keynote on the latest consumer trends mid-January, so my radar is tuned to the following: The great consumer shift: Ten charts. The meaningful brand report. Jolty (podcast). Ideas and industries for the next 10 years. Recirculative design. The 2022 trend report.


Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind …

What Motivates Lifelong Learners. Skyhooks. China’s great pirate, Zheng Zhilong, takes on the Dutch. Reading Zimbabwe. 500 ancient Mayan sites. When did singing start? A Huge Indoor Ocean. The forgotten art of storyboarding. The theory of construction. Teahouses Offer Both Community and Solitude. Missing Apostrophe Lands a Man in Defamation Court.A Colorful History of Racing Hues. Iron, How Did They Make It? Guideline about how the use the CEO.


Down the rabbit hole

This week, I got lost in Bizzare historic events.


Feeling Good

Glaze spectrum. The Waterside Bee Hotel. You can see a bird singing in the winter. Hear How You Would Sound on Mars. Daily creative challenges with artists around the world. Donate your voice.

Birdability, hellmaxxing and carchitecture

Welcome to this 32nd 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 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.

Share Weak signals and other trends


Data Intelligence

Tools and methodologies competitive intelligence professionals are using:

Draw to search. Amazon’s Treatment of Its “Brands” in Search Results. Woman discovers Amazon has 3,534 of recordings of her. The Sheikh, the Businessman and a Hacking Mystery on 3 Continents. ‘Nanotargeting‘ Users Based Solely on Their Perceived Interests and this quote:

Researchers have developed a method to deliver a Facebook ad campaign to just one person out of 1.5 billion, based only on the user’s interests, and not on personally identifiable information

We offer courses to learn to efficiently use online sources to gain competitive and strategic intelligence.

Strategic blindspots

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

A 3 hour tour of the LA port complex to understand the container bottleneck (check also the helicopter view of containers in LA on the same theme). To invent the future, Apple goes back to the past. Wanted: 80,000 truck drivers. It’s Time to Stop Talking About “Generations”. How a shortage of glass is helping drive inflation higher. How to package nails. Will Loan Volume Shrivel as Debt-Wary Gen Z Hits Their Borrowing Prime? Know what your Friends are Listening to. The circular steam iron. The strange resurgence of cash. Hertz ordered 100,000 Teslas for $4.2 billion.

The 37-Year-Olds Are Afraid of the 23-Year-Olds Who Work for Them

“You talk to older people and they’re like, ‘Dude we sell tomato sauce, we don’t sell politics,’” said Mr. Kennedy, co-founder of Plant People, a certified B corporation. “Then you have younger people being like, ‘These are political tomatoes. This is political tomato sauce.’”

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place in January 2022.

Our future

Futurists have their heads in the clouds. Anticipating future wakes. Communities across the U.S. are paying remote workers to relocate. Steaks Will Soon Be Luxury. The creepy cyberdog.Holoportation” lets you beam yourself anywhere. New fibers can make breath-regulating garments. The cost of speaking out. Egyptian authorities ‘detain’ robotic artist for 10 days over espionage fears. Ghost stores. The future of money. The Doctor Will Cyborg You Now.


Weak signals and tiny patterns

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 emergence of jump-rope schools. A deep space atomic clock. The park bench is an endangered species. Even The Economist is selling its cover as an NFT. A plan to revive rural railways. Walmart Shoppers Can Now Buy Bitcoin at 200 Kiosks. Tik Tok’s hellmaxxing. Paper planners. Reclining airline seat fights. LEGO’s new Titanic scale model. Tomato candles. The crazy world of carchitecture. Museums Are Getting on OnlyFans. Apple just fired a leader of the #AppleToo movement. Puzzleware lets kids make (and remake) their own clothes. China’s Cell-Based Pork Maker. Bidding to Touch a 1,784-Pound Tungsten Cube Once a Year.

Join us to discuss those trends and signals every Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse. We have a panel of designers, thinkers and futurists from around the world who discuss what those signals might mean.

On our radar

I am working with a couple of clients across two continents on the longevity and vulnerability industries and the eco-system that will need to be organized around those who will want to grow old at home: A device that helps elders communicate with their grandchildren. The pleasure and need of dropping a routine.  Amazon brings Alexa to hospitals and senior living centers. The invisible elderly.

My McGill’s leadership course is kicking off in a month, and I am working on the new leadership traits required to navigate the next 10 years: The Neuroscience of Empathy: Research-Overview and Implications for Human-Centred Design. The rise of “third workplaces” (again). The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers. The third generation company. The New Age of Employee Activism. The 20 fastest growing jobs. La beauté du geste (in French, obviously). “Show your warts”.


Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind …

The statute of monopolies. Rice, Fat, Meat, Streets. A computational model for descriptive ethics. When ‘Dumb Suppers’ Were a Halloween Love Ritual. Artists and craftsmen try to preserve the sounds of old Beijing. Su Hui and the Star Gauge. Physicists make most precise measurement ever of neutron’s lifetime. Stress from the pandemic has made even basic decision-making difficult. Some Economics of Sawdust. Unfreezing the ice age.


Feeling Good

Improve your language skills with songs. Birdability. Phantom islands. The waterside bee hotel. Similar authors. The panoramic awards. Vanity license plate stories. Mesmerized by this magical pen. All the words of the world. Tomato blood for Halloween.

Unimals,key art and and rage rooms

Welcome to this 32nd 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 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.

Share Weak signals and other trends


Competitive Intelligence

Tools and methodologies competitive intelligence professionals are using:

Why we need more Boutique Search Engines. Deep learning helps predict traffic crashes before they happen. Is my Facebook activity affecting my finances? Using SEO data analytics to identify business gaps. Armed Forces Bank taps alternative data to lend to new recruits.

We offer courses to learn to efficiently use online sources to gain competitive and strategic intelligence.

Strategic blindspots

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

America’s concentration crisis. How to think about the unstoppable rise of index funds. Undercover Influencers Test the Patience of China’s Censors. Tesla officially launches its insurance using ‘real-time driving behavior’. The Rideshare Bubble Bursts. Workers are about to pivot with their feet. America’s Cash Glut. Biased Health Formulas. US VCs are becoming investment banks. The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages. US Infrastructure at risk.

Solving Problems By Leveraging Photography. Focused and Diffuse: Two Modes of Thinking. in praise of curiosity.

We have scheduled the dates for our “Strategic Blindspots” course which will take place early 2022.

Our future

How to win the future. (pdf) The future of expertise. Unimals evolve their bodies to solve problems. Building small footprints. Extreme heat is broiling people. New robots patrolling for ‘anti-social behaviour’ in Singapore. What Meetings Will Look Like After the Pandemic. A New Era in Psychedelic Medicine. Stretchable Display Thin Enough to Be Worn as Temporary Tattoo. First AI-Powered Virtual University Student. AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future. The “death positive” generation.

We provide in-house training to executive teams and board to feed their strategic planning process and investigate future scenarios. More here.

Weak signals and tiny patterns

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 rise of house paint. Rage rooms. A gamer apparel seeks new ‘chief gaming scout‘. Moving house… by private jet. Swedish plywood. Canva is worth 40bm. Self-Balancing Bikes. Minus is a finite social network where you get 100 postsfor life. It’s Getting Hard to Sell Vinyl. Portable, low-cost nuclear reactors. A Very Big Little Country, PayPal is putting Pinterest up on its vision board. Coffee brand De Koffiejongens asks men to pay a 14% surcharge.  A skincare brand fighting blue light damage. Kellog is sued over pop tarts fillings.

Join us to discuss those trends and signals every Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse. We have a panel of futurists that illustrate what those signals might mean, and an enlightened group of curious minds in the room.

Down the rabbit hole

This is a new section. It highlights a subject that lead me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors.

This week, I explored the list of list of lists.


Hodgepodge discovery

Articles for the curious mind …

Rediscovering the Recipes of Moorish Spain. The Women Who Invented Video Game Music. Amazon’s private labels. Key art. For the love of coffee. Build multi-agent simulations in minutes. Remystifying Supply Chains. Flying toasters and other 90s screen savers. Swarm intelligence. Why Birds Can Fly Over Mount Everest. Google cloud carbon footprint.


Feeling Good

Rediscovering the Recipes of Moorish Spain. Flower interpretations. The walk of life project. Fuzzy Moths Taking Flight. Iran’s Centuries-Old Windmills. The Puffer Fish. Solar protocol.