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.

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…