⏩ The Future Normal: Fast Forward
🛰 NASA’s storytelling; 💪 gig workers fight back; 📚 AI recruitment bias; 🪑 IKEA disassembly instructions and more...
Welcome!
More quick glimpses of The Future Normal for you. Each one not only hints at what’s around the corner, but also gives us a deeper truth about trends and innovation.
Your challenge: who do you know that can run with these insights? The future is ours to build, together.
NASA’s Perseverance successfully lands on Mars
🔮 #FutureNormal // It’s still too early to tell exactly if and when space travel will be be part of our lives. But it was hard not to be stirred by the recent images being beamed back from Mars. David Mattin’s analysis of what it all means is well worth reading.
💡#TrendTruth // Humans love stories. NASA leaned into this with its secret message ‘hidden’ in the parachute. No matter how exciting your project (and landing on Mars is pretty damn exciting!), you should always be looking to engage and delight your community.
Gig Workers Gather Their Own Data to Check the Algorithm’s Math
🔮 #FutureNormal // Even if they can’t unionize, then might gig economy workers fight back in other ways? An inspirational (& yet also deeply depressing) piece about how surveillance works both ways.
💡#TrendTruth // Tech is both disempowering and radically empowering. Like all tools, its effects will be defined by the legal and cultural structures in which it is wielded.
Sitting in front of a bookshelf? This AI recruitment tool thinks you’re smart.
🔮 #FutureNormal // More and more of us will be working for algorithms. The pitch is that removing humans from decision-making will reduce errors and biases. This shocking study shows how far from the truth that is.
💡#TrendTruth // When it comes to innovation, the reality is always messier than the glossy brochure. That doesn’t totally invalidate the trend, but it does require us to be skeptical.
The music industry makes more money but has more mouths to feed ($ FT paywall)
In 1984, a mere 6,000 music albums were released in the UK. Today, streaming services make available a similar volume — 55,000 new songs — every single day.
🔮 #FutureNormal // The creator economy is booming. At least in the aggregate, and for the hits at the top. Li Jin has written about the need to create a creator economy middle class if we want to see this continue. We should: creative diversity benefits society.
💡#TrendTruth // Scarcity and abundance aren’t fixed. Gatekeepers created scarcity (who can be a musician), but removing them simply creates others (visibility & attention).
IKEA offers ‘disassembly instructions’ to extend life of its products
🔮 #FutureNormal // The bigger picture here is that IKEA has pledged to become climate positive by 2030. If they can get there, it will be hard for any large company to aim lower.
💡#TrendTruth // Yes, in truth this is ‘just’ a tiny PR stunt. But it’s a powerful one, given that it implicitly highlights the inherent flaws in IKEA’s current business model. I’d bet this made a number of employees very uncomfortable. Are you brave enough to do something similar?
👋 Join us on Clubhouse!
This newsletter is where we’re writing the book in public.
Your tips and comments are already helping shape the content, but now we’d love to take this to the next level and hear your thoughts directly. Last week we had a great conversation around virtual fashion, this week we’ll be touching on the future of space exploration and other Future Normal news stories.
Join us live on Clubhouse, later today at 1530 EST, 2030 UK & 2130 CET.
👉 Add it to your calendar here
That’s all this week. Thanks so much for reading.