Welcome 2024! This is the 116th 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. 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 this week, thank you for sharing with those who look into the future.
Estelle.
Competitive Intelligence
10 Advanced Google Dork Queries for OSINT Privacy Breach Identification. Social Media Investigation. People search engines. Maltego specializes in uncovering relationships among people and companies. Intelligence X is an archival service and search engine that preserves not only historic versions of web pages but also entire leaked data sets.
Strategic blindspots
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.
Hyperloop One to Shut Down After Failing to Reinvent Transit. A Demographic Time Bomb Is About to Hit the Beef Industry. CAA is cloning its clients in order to protect them. People dedicated to the art and technology of the old-school VHS — are winding up for a video store comeback. The Ozempic Effect: Social Side Effects of Medical Breakthroughs. Disney wants to patent a system for “predicting need for guest assistance”. OpenAI GPT Store launching next week.
Our future
We keep you updated on those trends and more on Twitter (which I still find infinitely better than Threads).
We Are So Not Ready for a Society Where Living to 100 Is Common. How Anxiety Became Content. This AI Trained on the Life Events of Every Person in Denmark. It Can Now Predict Their Future. Rewind.ai announced its always-recording wearable pendant. Green roads. Shared bookstores let bibliophiles meet owners with a passion.
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?
Ireland is considering giving nature constitutional rights, inspired by human rights. Analysis of Barbie medical and science career dolls. Authentication Startup Dust Identity Raises $40 Million to Get Into Sports. Women marry themselves. Carrefour lance un magasin adapté à plusieurs handicaps. Charge your phone while recharging yourself.
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 stumbled upon the Information is Beautiful Awards.
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths
Are legumes exchanging secret signals? The story of silk is a window into how weaving has shaped human history.The Microsoft Excel World Championship 2023 (video). Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain. 10 new subcultures for marketers to consider when targeting Gen Z. The Duolingo effect: How keeping the ‘streak’ is changing people’s behavior. How Lego builds a new Lego set.
Numbers that mean more
60- 60% of Gen Zs would skip a major life event—a friend’s wedding, the birth of a new family member—if they could be front row for their favorite artist’s concert.
55- People 55 and older are the fastest-growing age group in the workforce.
1m+: The number of people who used ChatGPT within its first five days. Now, a year after the generative AI chatbot’s launch, 100m people use ChatGPT weekly
Feeling good
How different languages express laughter online. Coffee receipts stories. Bernadette Mayer's List of Journal Ideas.
Image generated by Midjourney, January 2024
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Contact me at Competia with your feedback or ideas. Thank you for reading.