2023 Trends, Plans and Predictions

It's all about being ahead of the game

Hello from London!

The return to normality after a rapid end of the year, some time out and a minor bout of Covid have been a bit like trying to drive on the wrong side of the road in reverse in manual. Most of the time this week, I have been a bit like Evan, unable to put two words together. I hope for much personal improvement in week two.

We set our personal goals for the year as a family - and amongst them, I’m committing to (even) more education this year - a return to books and a heap more courses - because to achieve mastery, one must become a student. If you haven’t set your personal goals for the year, this weekend might be a good time to do them. They’re more than just simple resolutions. They’ll help plan out your ambitions for the year. Be smart and do them! It’s also rewarding to do with your significant others. We keep ours simple: what was good, what was bad [in the previous year], followed by SMART goals for the year ahead, followed by hopes for each of your family members, and significant others for the coming years. It’s fun to revisit mid-year, end of the year and in years to come to see where your mind was at.

If you need more structure, try Year Compass, Doist, The Ultimate Annual Review or Sahil Bloom’s Annual Review.

If you haven’t checked out my piece on the most intriguing trends to expect from this year - do check it out. It took a bunch of time to read around - and what I’ve extracted should help you form a view of what exactly is happening in our tech-driven world

Of all the trend pieces, here’s what I think you should read

1. The Top 50 Trends - Spend 25 minutes skimming this. Deep dive on the ones you find interesting

2. Rethinking Everything - Marian Salzman always brings innovation to thinking.

3. Outrageous Predications - A bit of fun, but perhaps not that unrealistic. Will help promote your own thinking process.

4. Connecting the dots - The pulse of what is happening in the world

5. Fast Company Expert Predictions - 40 industry experts play back their best tech predictions.

6. Accenture Song - Life Trends from the people behind the Fjord report.

7. 9 Forecasts for The Near Future, With Implications - From Scott Belsky, one of the sharpest narratives of the year, covering how life and work will change.

8. 23 for 23 - The Hustle says it how it is.

9. Dan Barker’s GDrive - Dan downloaded all the PDFs to save you the hassle. Go get what you need.

10. Spacecadet - 100+ trend reports, 1000+ predictions. A bit of an overload, but some of you need this!

You will notice the new format of this newsletter - please let me know your feedback on whether you like it or not.

& if you like this email, especially to my new readers, please do share this with your colleagues, friends by forwarding this email or sharing it on whatsapp, facebook etc.

Stay Curious,

Rahim

Here are my recommendations for this week:

Now

1. 50 Emerging (Technology) Themes to watch out for in 2023 and 100 reports to read if you really want.

2. Made in USA: XBB.1.5 fastest spreading variant since first Omicron wave - variant after variant. It’s pretty much normalised for us now.

3. A recession is coming for most developed nations in 2023, and this is where economists predict the worst - Yup. UK.

4. Is modern life ruining our powers of concentration? Or is it because you are a slave to modern life.

5. How to Feel Like You Have More Free Time Even If You Don’t - …how to get your concentration back.

Next

1. The 10 biggest scientific breakthroughs of 2022 - there actually was sone good news from last year.

2. NYC education department blocks ChatGPT on school devices, networks - while we start to see imaginative ways that ChatGPT will help humanity, there will be some pushback, until the value can be seen and controlled. This will be an ongoing story this year. The good, the innovation, the bad actors, the misuse, the main players. ChatGPT may have been first to get to the psyche of the mainstream but it remains to be seen whether Google or anyone else takes the space. Feels like it will be like the search engine wars of the late 90s.

3. How China is building a parallel generative AI universe With walled technology gardens, this was always going to happen. Expect more in India, Russia etc.

4. Your Cellphone will be a Satphone - not a big deal for me - as we are already super wired, but a big deal for those who live (and explore) in the wilderness.

5. How TikTok Became a Diplomatic Crisis - it’s been bubbling for years - can we imagine the next 5 years without TT?