Unbossing, boomranging, and threnody
June 13, 2025
Welcome to this 156th 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 these past couple of weeks, thank you for sharing with those who look into the future.
Estelle.
Competitive Intelligence
Brazil’s dWallet program will let citizens cash in on their data. You can find a person on several platforms through their photo. Search for key infrastructure. Bloomberg expands alternative data offering. AI Competitive Intelligence Software. Turning off Google Search AI.
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.
Zara introduces a new “travel mode” feature in its mobile app. Those couples are inviting strangers to their wedding to finance it. Uber today revealed a new type of account, called Senior Accounts. Inside the race to find GPS alternatives. Tariffs could accelerate store brand growth. Slate truck reimagines vehicle ownership through four key trends.
Our future
A foresight lexicon. Large Hadron Collider Physicists Turn Lead into Gold. The rise of the bionic advisor. The rise of the layoff culture. How Does Gen Z Travel So Much? Payment Plans. Tech giants in the Gulf are building to dominate digital life. You’re not ready. From Prompts to Proteins: How AI Is Revolutionizing Molecular Design. The Future Possibilities Index. Advertising giant WPP forecasts 2025 to be the first year that creator platforms will bring in more ad revenue than “old media.”
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?
Inside the Wildly Popular World of Medieval Combat. Why Gen Z Doesn’t Like Opening Bar Tabs. Why Moderna Merged Its Tech and HR Departments. China is developing AI-powered, robotic “guard dogs” for its Tiangong space station that can push unwanted objects away from it. Louis Vuitton enters the icecream business in style.
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 the AI Hallucination Cases Database.
On my radar
I am preparing a presentation on The Future of Work: Gen Z Is 'Consciously Unbossing' to Preserve Their Mental Health. Why boomeranging is booming. Employee surveillance software is spreading with VC funding. Workers use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude in secret. Why Moderna Merged Its Tech and HR Departments. Fully AI employees are a year away, Anthropic warns. Your circle of competence: should you stick within it or step outside of it?
Hodgepodge discovery
Articles for curious minds and the polymaths.
Tool to identify poisonous books developed by University of St Andrews. Friction has become a class experience. Rome’s Trade Self-Destruction. Looted from Syria, sold on Facebook: antiquities smuggling surges. The entrepreneurial state. The Value of Proportionate Fines.
Numbers
500- more than 500 companies that sold alternative data in 2017, a number that ballooned from less than 50 in 1996.
1000- Deloitte has offered each of its employees $1,000 worth of Legos
63%- 63% of employees said they’d accept a pay cut if it meant they could work remotely
Unpacking AI
The first trial of generative AI therapy shows it might help with depression.
Feeling good
The threnody place. Uber lost and found. Hear to there. The library spy. The X-mapping city.
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