Welcome to this 76th 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.
Substack had a small glitch that prevented some of you to see the content last week (everything is fine online), so I hope this will go smoothly this time.
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I am sending this newsletter this week from Zurich, Switzerland. This is what I noticed these past couple of weeks, thank you for sharing this newsletter with those who look into the future.
Estelle.
Strategic Intelligence and data
Visualizing the Rise of Global Economic Uncertainty. Tour Amazon’s dream home, where every appliance is also a spy. A useful Google Sheet formula to scrape web data into Google Sheets. If someone gives you a CSV file with 100,000 rows in it, what tools do you use to start exploring and understanding that data? The way you can spot beaches using global running heatmaps. Not my plate.
Strategic blindspots
Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new business model opportunities while avoiding risks stemming from strategic blindspots.
A surprising reason for the growing eyesight crisis: education. Delta Air Lines takes to the fashion runway with first-ever clothing collection. Why banks are becoming publishers. Nike announced updates aimed at curbing reselling including cancelling orders placed with automated software. Lo fi food. They all had a fatal flaw. A California Startup Is Selling Electric Vehicle ‘Subscriptions’. TikTok chases Amazon with plans for U.S. fulfillment centers. Lego parent company plans to build an education business. Netflix programs a brick-and-mortar store.
We have scheduled the dates for 2022 for our “Strategic Blindspot course” . Our next course will be offered in Montreal on October 26-27, 2022. Registrations are now
Our future
The Climate Economy Is About to Explode. Electric vehicles will become power plants on wheels. Brain zapping tech. The futurist equation ( video). Web3 technologies could be a game changer for the travel industry. The messy morality of letting AI make life-and-death decisions. Digital licence plates. The end of jobs. How pop culture went multipolar. Managed retreats in the rise.
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?
Tiktok’s operating losses triple to $7bn. Ghost hotels. Celsius Exchange Data Dump Is a Gift to Crypto Sleuths—and Thieves. The canine fountain of youth. Barilla debuts a bot and an open-source device for cooking pasta with 80% less CO₂e. New York's public hospitals serve plant-based meals by default. Marmalade sales are up ~20% since Queen Elizabeth II’s death due to mourners leaving sandwiches as tributes. Something’s Jellyfishy in the State of Italy. The sleep concierge. Diplomatic dining.
Numbers
10- £10 million worth of paintings that artist Damien Hirst will burn after promising NFT owners he’d destroy his original work after they purchased its digital counterpart.
7- Tiktok’s quarterly operating losses triple to $7bn.
Down the rabbit hole
This section highlights a subject that lead 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 visit the global command center of Google for Youtube and Google Maps in Zurich. We talked about the innovation culture and how to fail. I went down the rabbit hole into Google Cemetery.
On our radar
Looking this week on the opportunities offered by the conquest of space for a client: The potential of microgravity: How companies across sectors can venture into space. Space manufacturing startup Varda focuses on creating products in space for terrestrial applications. Aleph Farms produced the first cultivated meat in space. A space-based entertainment studio. Space bonk. Deep-space nanospacecraft: the challenges of bringing cubesats to interplanetary space.
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths
Mortality rate of children over the past two millenia. This ultra-white paint is so white, it can reflect up to 97.9% of sunlight, which could help cool planes. How BeReal became Gen Z’s favourite app. Mythical 16th century disease critters. Scientists have discovered an ultra-rare, new set of blood groups. The transformation of science. Can we design for happiness? Beyond dystopia and this quote:
“A lot of dystopian fiction is kind of an imagined prophylactic for the privileged—the idea being that if we could just anticipate it, maybe we can prevent or control it”
I like new words, this week I discovered: spoonies.
Feeling good
Airline meals. An idea for a website. Coffee stories. Friluftsliv Is the new hygge. Meet the women running Antarctica's penguin post office.
I took this photo earlier this week by Lake Lucern in Switzerland, from the top of Burgenstock.
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