Carewashing, compound interest, and shield clothes
July 19, 2024
Welcome to this 130th issue of our newsletter “Weak Signals and other Trends”.
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. Thank you for your patience, this newsletter took a bit longer to be published as I went on vacation. This is what I noticed these past couple of weeks, thank you for sharing with those who look into the future.
Estelle.
Competitive Intelligence
Google will start traversing the dark web for you later this month, generating “Dark Web reports” that’ll flag if your personal data has been leaked online. A search engine for RSS feeds. A search engine for ideas. Rolliapp and Fighting Disinformation on Social Media.
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.
Logical fallacies: Seven ways to spot a bad argument. Trust Issues: Compound interest can help save for the future, or it can bankrupt the world. Uber will pay you $1,000 to ditch your car for five weeks. As Sea Levels Rise, Insurance Retreats. How Amazon’s hiring of Adept AI startup avoids antitrust scrutiny. Carewashing alienates employees. To Hike Prices, Companies Are Refreshing Old Products For New Uses. The Societal Cost of the Marriage Decline. Satellite Mega Constellations Could Jeopardize Ozone-Hole Recovery.
Our future
The UN says the world’s population will peak in 2080. How Elon Musk and SpaceX Plan to Colonize Mars.Generation Z is unprecedentedly rich. The Digital news Report du Reuters Institute. Meta filed a patent application for user authentication using a “combination of vocalization and skin vibration. Careful technology. Les grandes tendances food. Japan's abandoned houses wipe $25bn off nearby property value. The Loneliness of the American Worker.
We keep you updated on those trends and more on Twitter.
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?
How the Notes app became Gen Z’s Clueless outfit generator. The beauty of a close-up. Grocery stores are now tourist hotspots. What tree rings can teach us about avalanches. Etsy is cracking down on AI-generated products with new “Creativity Standards” that require sellers to label whether there was “human involvement” in making a product. Seeing culture through a new lens. Shield clothes. Record numbers of people are starting up new small businesses.
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 a search engine for ideas.
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths
It's a Bird, It's a Plane. What the Athletes Will Be Eating at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Thirst made visible. Quand les entreprises font fructifier leur histoire. If dragons were real, how might fire-breathing work? The Art of Translation. How Insulin Helped Create Ant Societies. The Augustinian Settlement. An Ancient Greek Astronomical Calculation Machine Reveals New Secrets.
Numbers
184%- From 2020 to 2023, global demand for Turkish television series was up 184 percent
42%- 42 percent of U.S. streaming subscribers actively subscribe, cancel, and resubscribe to streaming services based on whether or not shows they like are on the network
78%- Dealer financing is a massive profit center for automobile dealerships, and 78 percent of vehicles are dealer-financed.
Feeling good
Magic Color Picker. Calculating empires. BBC Sound Effects.
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