Hot pink, feral girls, and typing horses
May 27, 2022
Welcome to this 59th 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. We passed 1,000 subscribers this week, thanks to your word of mouth.
I am writing you this newsletter from Istanbul - I have been traveling for work in Europe for the past couple of weeks , from Switzerland to Turkey.
You can subscribe to this weekly newsletter here to get it directly by mail.
This is what I noticed this week, thank you for sharing this newsletter to those who look into the future.
Competitive Search and Analysis
17 Hidden Google Tricks. Building a Geospatial Data Refinery for Climate Intelligence. Ethical, easy-to-use and privacy-conscious alternatives to well-known software. Understanding the Role of Location Technology in Retail Site Selection. ESG news sentiment data now available through Bloomberg. How social media posts could affect credit scores.
Strategic blindspots
Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new business model opportunities while avoiding risks stemming from strategic blindspots.
The Incredible Shrinking Car Dealership. More U.S. subprime borrowers are missing loan payments. Gaming is the real advertising opportunity. The quitters are at work. Modular /pop-up hotels. Carpenter shortage. Matching friends, not just dating. AstraZeneca reviews diversity in trials to ensure drugs work for all. Brands are reinventing the shower. Condé Nast isn’t a magazine company anymore. Hotels Using NFTs to Create a StubHub for Lodging Reservations. Amazon unboxes a fashion 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 open.
Our future
Good genes are nice, but joy is better. Solar foods. Navigating the net zero era. The network effect on attrition. Interviews in the metaverse. Pay with a smile. A New Space Academy in Colorado Will Train Private-Industry Astronauts. About horizon scanning. Experiential learning and VR will reshape the future of education. Is Earth’s core going rusty? Renault connect EV owners to private plugins.
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?
Combating fraud in parmesan cheese. Trademarking Tik-Tok danse moves. Hot pink fury. Coinbase Tests App for Employees to Grade Each Other During Meetings. Walmart deploys drone delivery in six states. Feral girl summer. New US lab to create versions of atoms never recorded on Earth. Reviving your sense of wonder. Florida prepares to shoot remains of 47 people into space. Iceland Wants You To Leave Your Out-Of-Office Emails To Its Horses. Chanel to Open Private Stores for Top Clients. Moving in with other adults.
Join us to discuss those trends and signals most Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse. We have a panel of futurists that illustrate what those signals might mean, and a fantastic group of curious minds in the room.
On our radar
Two years ago, at the very beginning of the pandemic in April 2020, I researched for a client (using our proprietary technique of analyzing weak signals) how the world would look like after what I called then the “Long Emergency”. One of the 5 macro-shift I identified then in these early days was “scar-city”. I wanted to revisit this week how government policies help - or not - food scarcity: Facing shortages, Canada taps its strategic reserves of maple syrup. China to tap pork reserves for second time in eight days. Europe braces for return of wine lakes as coronavirus dampens demand. What Will the U.S. Government Do With 1.4 Billion Pounds of Cheese? Switzerland Will Reconsider Decision to Stop Stockpiling Coffee Following Public Outcry. WTF Happened to Government Cheese?
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths …
How a verbal paradox shattered the notion of total certainty in mathematics. On nominative determinism and the power of names. How websites die. A system to engage the crowds. Who is in your wallet? Reflections on passenger time. Inflation Takes a Toll on Spending Habits, Regardless of Income or Wealth. The evolution of writing. The best places to find extraterrestrial life in our solar system, ranked.
Feeling Good
Quiet links. Chimes around the world. Billions of fireflies coordinate to light up an Indian nature reserve. Inspiration by sampling.
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Contact me at Competia with your feedback or ideas. Thank you for reading.