Welcome to this 72nd 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.
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I am sending the newsletter this week from Toronto, Canada. This is what I noticed these past couple of weeks, thank you for sharing this newsletter with those who look into the future.
Estelle.
Competitive Analysis
Need-based segmentation. Attitudinal segmentation. Wi-Fi data shows why Peloton is in trouble, a fine illustration of alternative data analysis. The power of competitive email intelligence. The size of the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Market 2022 – 2030. Alternative Data Reflects A Healthy U.S. Economy. Local community finder search techniques.
Strategic blindspots
Looking at the familiar with “alien eyes” allows you to unlock new business model opportunities while avoiding risks stemming from strategic blindspots.
Quiet quitting. The +2000% hike in energy prices in Switzerland. Hiring babies. Hundreds of job to build Apple’s car. Shoppable moodboards. Dealer shuffling. The single beaver who caused mass internet, cell service outages. One kitchen, hundreds of internet restaurants. Amtrak cancels some long-distance trips as freight strike threat looms. Reinventing coffee pods. Hotel, no lobby. About pallets.
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
The end of the car as we know it ? From motor control to embodied intelligence. A lunchbox-sized cube that can create oxygen on Mars. Cyborg Cockroaches Controlled by Solar-Powered Backpacks. Memory prothesis. Eco-friendly routes. Dopamine dressing. The strange world of cryotherapy, biocharging. Does Hybrid Work Actually Work? Insights from 30,000 Emails. ‘Three Steps to the Future’. Future Foods: What Will People Eat in 2050?
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?
Meta have created an AI that can reproduce the words a person is hearing by reading their brainwaves. TREE(3) is the universe’s biggest number. A publication that focuses on the experience of having a disability. Regional US foods. The half-bakery. The death cheaters. Merriam-Webster adds 370 new words to the dictionary. The lawsuit against Kochava. A game show to pay your energy bills. Berberine supplements. Google engineer put on leave after saying AI chatbot has become sentient. Shoppers of the ‘Aisle of Shame’ . $370B Decline in US Bank Deposits.
On our radar
I will be keynoting on November 4th the Annual ESG Forum by Novisto in Montreal: Billionaire No More: Patagonia Founder Gives Away the Company. Companies struggle to find ESG-related opportunities, finds Luminous. How environmental, social and governance (ESG) data providers compare. ESG trends. ‘Vision 2050. The moment of transformation’: primer for CEOs.
Numbers
31%- Americans are working 31% of paid days from home.
Down the rabbit hole
This section highlights a subject that lead me to many useful threads, or a single site, that opened many doors.
This week, I went down the rabbit hole into image synthesis .
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths
What luck in war reveals about the role of chance in life. As language evolves, who wins out: speakers or listeners? Why did the Romans create a massive, entirely impractical map of their empire? Social mobility in the digital age. The world’s unhappiest. 49 social media savants. The Birth of the Modem World. The technology that changed air travel. Making EVs without China’s supply chain is hard, but not impossible.
Feeling good
Cursor effects. Adopted. Squash, kale and corn. The urbex movement.
Image by the Fake Graffiti Generator
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Revisit: around this time last year, I published issue 28.
Thanks for reading Weak signals and other trends!
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