Antimemetics, splintenets, and satisficers
January 24, 2025
Welcome to this 147th issue of our newsletter “Weak Signals and other Trends”. As of today, this newsletter has existed for 4 years!
Each week, I personally sift through hundreds of sources of inspiration to track where we’re heading. If you are a new subscriber to this newsletter, take the time to send me a note and introduce yourself, I love to understand who is reading.
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I have prepared this newsletter this week from Montreal, Canada. This is what I noticed these past couple of weeks, thank you for sharing with those who look into the future.
Estelle.
Competitive Intelligence
Search for deleted tweets across multiple archival services. The Toronto school district said the PowerSchool hackers stole 40 years' worth of student data during the recent breach. Intelligence kingdoms. 13 LinkedIn Automation Tools for 2025 (and a review of Dripify). Even the CIA is testing a chatbot to help enhance counter-intelligence capabilities.
Strategic blindspots and business models
Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new business model opportunities while avoiding risks stemming from strategic blindspots. This section also is about the risks we miss.
Pioneering Psychiatrist Otto Rank on the Blind Spots of Reason. Concierge services to the wealthy to sell them highly leveled accounts on MMOs, so that buyers might be able to pretend they’re very good at video games. Taiwan reports unprecedented undersea cable damage this year. Can your car be your friend ?
Our future
An Uncertain Future Requires Uncertain Prediction Skills. The glamour of tomorrow. Singapore uses AI to improve eldercare with early detection tools . The relationship recession is going global. This week, China announced plans to launch a one-kilometre-wide solar farm into space. Denmark’s new churches are being built for faith and neighborhood alike. Colossal Biosciences Inc. is using DNA and genomics to try to resurrect the dodo, Tasmanian tiger and the woolly mammoth.
It is the time of the year when trend reports start pouring in. Until end of January, I will for each issue add in this section and track those of interest to you, with my personal remarks:
Bompas and Parr’s Future of Food 2025 Report.
The World Economic Forum Global Risk Outlook for 2025.
We keep you updated on those trends and more on Twitter and Bluesky.
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?
Researchers have conducted a study where they embedded electrocardiogram sensors in the handles of shopping carts to identify people with atrial fibrillation. Learning to read maps. The Biden administration finalized a rule that will stop medical debt from being included on credit reports. Mysterious wallpapers. The Ghost Job Phenomenon. A Dutch plant retailer’s employees get two extra days off if they choose not to fly. Malwee adds QR codes to beachwear to help reunite lost kids with their caregivers. When You Can’t Duck Layoffs: Stripe Sends Cartoon To Fired Employees.
Some of you have asked me to provide my interpretation for signals. Here is an example: Denmark Forms Crisis Ministry to Counter Cyberattacks and Spying. This is about the need to build resilient governance structures, and willingness to develop, at national levels, specialized expertise in that domain.
Book a speaking engagement about weak signals and emerging trends.
Down the rabbit hole
This section highlights a subject that led me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors: “A rabbit hole is not a distraction. A rabbit hole is your brain trying to tell you to pay attention to something you’re curious about. Ignore algorithmic rabbit holes” ( by are.na):
This week, I explored the curious world of antimemetics ( and the protecting organization)
Unpacking AI
This is a new section. Clients have asked me to dig into the impact of AI for their organization, industry, or their own work. I will add in this sections tools, or angles of interpretation that I find relevant to our community of curious minds:
An AI-powered hotel is coming to Las Vegas. Matt Clifford has published an AI Opportunities Action Plan for the UK. Therapists could train personalised LLM agents tailored to their patients’ needs. Will AI replace therapists ( meet those who use it that way)?
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths.
The world of… work enemies. The Jevon’s paradox. The WEF released its annual global cyber outlook last week ahead of the days-long gathering. Two hours reading opinions on sprinkles. Life in the Mirrorworld. The Countercultural Sanity of the Irrational. Not everything was terrible: 86 Stories Of Progress From 2024. Portable comfort and commodified rebellion: the rise of frictionless conformity.
Numbers
80bn- Microsoft to invest $80B in expanding its AI infrastructure in fiscal year 2025
14- in Niger today, the average age of a citizen is just 14.
Feeling good
Tour de France of Specialties. Aligned. A GeoGuessr alternative. A public domain image archive.
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