Tattoo tourism, snow leopards, and ordinary culture
April 25, 2025
Welcome to this 153rd 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.
You can subscribe to this (roughly) bi-weekly newsletter here to get it directly by mail.
I have prepared this newsletter this week from Singapore.
This is what I noticed these past couple of weeks, thank you for sharing with those who look into the future.
Estelle.
Competitive Intelligence
An advanced search tool for investigators, reporters, and researchers. Search Discord servers. Search a list of key infrastructure. A search engine for diagrams. Reuters has launched a daily ephemeral newsletter to track customs duties around the world.
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.
The local library where you can borrow a new outfit. Walmart No Boundaries. Amazon Turned Drivers Into First Responders in Europe Experiment . On unstable ground. AI-generated images can exploit how your mind works − here’s why they fool you and how to spot them. Archer And United Want You To Take A Plane To Your Plane. Houses of worship might be the answer to America’s housing crisis.
Our future
Now influencers are teaching fans how to not spend their money. Three worlds in 2035 ( full survey results here). Beats + Bytes, released a detailed trends report on the intersection of music, tech, and marketing. AI 2027.
We keep you updated on those trends and more on Twitter and Bluesky.
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?
Middle-Aged Man Trading Cards Go Viral in Rural Japan Town. Belgian teens arrested with 5,000 smuggled ants. The Rise of Tattoo Tourism. Six ‘snow leopards’ to watch for in 2025. People are using OpenAI’s GPT-4o image generator to create images of themselves as action figures. Sperm racing. There’s a black market for rare Lego bricks.
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 Eyes on the Future - Signals from recent reports on emerging technologies and breakthrough innovations.
Unpacking AI
This is a new section. Clients have asked me to dig into the impact of AI for their organization, industry, or their own work. I will add in this sections tools, or angles of interpretation that I find relevant to our community of curious minds:
The Death of "I Don't Know". The Future is Questions. You can’t call your parent every day — but we can.
On our radar
I am working on a mandate to identify, and redefine a corporate culture: How to Identify Cultural Patterns and Improve your Strategic Thinking. Culture is ordinary. And this quote:
“Culture is ordinary: that is the first fact. Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, its own meanings. Every human society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and learning. The making of a society is the finding of common meanings and directions, and its growth is an active debate and amendment under the pressures of experience, contact, and discovery, writing themselves into the land.”
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths.
‘Artificial Nap’ Could Provide Benefits of Sleep—Without Sleeping. If you are interested in OSINT, here is a list of books on the subject . The Jevon’s paradox. The rise, fall, and rise of the status pineapple. American Crying. Culture is ordinary. Asian content is now mainstream.
Numbers
74%- The hiring increase for accountants in 2024.
2612- Boeing 737 airplanes that may require repairs
60bn$ - Africa is betting $60 billion on AI development, an amount that represents 2.2% of its GDP.
Feeling good
The midjourney feed. Food mood. The one minute park. Optical toys. Generate curved text.
Share your favorite issues of the newsletter, or send friends - or random strangers…
Thanks for reading Weak signals and other trends! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work.
Contact me at Competia with your feedback or ideas. Thank you for reading.