Welcome to this 123rd 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. This is what I noticed this week, thank you for sharing with those who look into the future.
Estelle.
Competitive Intelligence
Pod Engine. Gathering information about the company's website. Using satellite imagery to tell stories. Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies.
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.
Airline announces new seating option guaranteeing an empty middle seat. Nvidia Wants to Replace Nurses With AI for $9 an Hour. Getting paid for plugging in your car. The survival of bats is crucial for maintaining supplies of foods including mezcal and rice. Walmart is buying Vizio, the television maker. Silicon Valley’s large funds for salaries and computing technology are making academics unable to compete in AI search. “Blue Zone” real estate.
Our future
Global Population Crash Isn't Sci-Fi Anymore. Future-focused thinking can be the key to business success. The dangers of AI farming. Strange metals. Getting to grasp collapse. Annual threat assessment. Depopulation forecast for numerous US cities by 2100. Uber-style pricing is coming for everything . How to Blend Worldviews for the Future of Agriculture & Climate.
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?
Porsche ‘overwhelmed’ by 10,000 orders (not including China, Taiwan and Japan) for an all-electric version of one of its iconic models, the Macan. AI for weddings. Aesop transforms Shanghai and Guangzhou stores into libraries. Warning over use in UK of unregulated AI chatbots to create social care plans. I Just Want a Normal Drink. Walmart Wants to Teach Store Managers Compassion.
Book a speaking engagement about weak signals and emerging trends.
On our radar
My work involves often helping organizations understand how to encourage their team’s creativity, and curiosity. I follow a few amazing newsletters dedicated to that topic, here are a few posts and references: The Curiosity Matrix: 9 Habits of Curious Minds. Curiosity Attractors: The Diffuse Obsessions that Shape our Lives. Rob Walker’s Art of Noticing. The Art of curiosity. A fantastic example of how to visit a city differently. Curiosity cabinets. Curiosity: Our Superpower for Just About Everything.
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 alternative search engines.
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths
The future of silk. The Most Populous Cities in the World, From 3000 BCE to Today. The British Library hack. Why memory is more about your future than your past. Exaptation and the related term co-option describe a shift in the function of a trait during evolution. The right of freeroaming. How . ChatGPT works under the hood.
Numbers
29%- total enrollment in courses teaching a language other than English at American universities is down 29.3 percent from 2009 to 2021
3/4- Over three-quarters of countries will not have high enough fertility rates to sustain their population size by 2050. Half of the global population’s future growth up to 2050 is expected to be concentrated in just eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania.
Feeling good
Stations and transfers. Eclipse track. Just sky. NASA released three new space sounds, including sonifications of another galaxy and a supernova remnant. The sights and sounds of various video game systems being switched on, from the Atari 2600 up to the newest systems.
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Thanks for reading Weak signals and other trends!
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