Welcome to this 27th 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..
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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
Apple’s Double Agent. Determining the approximate sleeping time of a user based on analysis of the timing of a tweet. I search from allows you to customize the country, language, device, city when searching on Google. 2lingual.com to google search in two languages simultaneously in one window. A digital archive of documents created by industries which influence public health (tobacco, chemical, drug, fossil fuel) . Search for trends in Pinterest.
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…)
Draining the Risk Pool. Why Are 2 Million People Still Getting Netflix DVDs by Mail? Digital media companies disagree over future as SPAC market falters. Jack Dorsey’s Square Moves Closer to a Bitcoin Exchange. China tightens scrutiny on $9.3 trillion fund industry. Louer son jardin (in French , naturally). Amazon will soon be launching Amazon-branded TVs in the United States . The end of phone calls. Cars spend ~95% of their existence parked. Amazon quietly building live audio business. Apple secures first states to support digital driver’s licenses.
Our future
What will the 2056 Olympics look like? Wind Catching Systems designs giant floating wind farm. To Learn More Quickly, Brain Cells Break Their DNA. A Good Psilocybin Guide is Hard to Find. These 4 tech breakthroughs could help end aging. An ‘Ultra-Large’ $2.3 Million Megaship That Is Miles Long. The room that charges devices. World’s first crewless, zero emissions cargo ship will set sail in Norway.
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?
Why are people paying for coaches to get better at video games? Covid Has Created a Virtual Renaissance for Life Drawing. So Everything Is “Crushable” Now? China Bans Effeminate Men and Abnormal Esthetics From TV. Tech elites’ supposed indifference to fashion. Amazon’s new ‘adaptive volume’ will make Alexa speak louder when it’s noisy. Google, Facebook and Microsoft face pressure over January 6th subpoenas. Tree desks. United Talent Agency Signs NFT Art Projects CryptoPunks, Meebits and Autoglyphs.
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.
On our radar
I am working on a training session about privacy for the executive team of a client: Rite Aid deployed facial recognition systems in hundreds of U.S. stores . The risk of unintentional consanguinity: There’s No Such Thing as Family Secrets in the Age of 23andMe. Check if you data has been leaked.
I have been following for a while now the supply chain disruption, looking for more signals to understand how the pattern develops: Supply studies. Black Friday and holiday shopping season will be full of supply chain delays. Vermont Offers People $7,500 to Relocate There. Texas Winter Deep Freeze Broke Refining, Petrochemical Supply Chains. Flight Simulators for Management Education. A Bot Tracking McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines.
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for the curious mind …
World’s Busiest Control Tower conversations.Solarpunk Is Not About Pretty Aesthetics. The evidence for mushroom intelligence. A map of the theory of everything. Early-career setback and future career impact. The strange race to track down a missing billion years. Why the selfish genes metaphor remains a powerful thinking too. The mysterious disappearance of the world’s longest shrubbery. Who writes the fortunes in fortune cookies (podcast)? The Anatomy of an Amazon 6-pager.
Feeling Good
The drone over Angle Falls. The secrets of Neapolitan Street Food. ‘Einstein Ring’ Magnifying The Depths of The Universe. Random restaurants. 木漏れ日 Komorebi . Sad Topographies.