In addition to this newsletter, I recommend some other great ones. All free. Check them out here.
Friends,
Welcome to my new readers, who came here after reading my 20 Questions for 2025. The full set of questions is available here.
There’s a phrase in book publishing called “Kill your Darlings.” This phrase means you should be willing to let go of elements in your work that you personally love but that don't serve the overall story, project, or objective. These "darlings" can be favourite sentences, characters, ideas, or creative flourishes that might feel essential to you but ultimately detract from clarity, focus, or impact. The term emphasizes objectivity and discipline in editing or refining a creative work. By "killing your darlings," you're prioritizing the work's effectiveness and integrity over personal attachment. It's a reminder that sometimes your best work comes from hard decisions and an openness to change.
I’d like to offer you the reminder that it’s time to kill your email darlings. However, you found me; if you don’t love Box of Amazing, you should unsubscribe. I won’t hold it against you - even if we are friends! You should also do an audit of emails that are clogging your inbox and you don’t open. These emails may have served a purpose to you as you grew to learn about a certain area, but you may have outgrown them - or them you. If you do unsubscribe from my newsletter, know that you have my best wishes - I hope that I was useful to learn something new at some point in your journey. For those of you who will stay, please let me know how you would like me to improve for next year.
This will be my last official email of 2024. I might not be able to help myself and send you something interesting - but as far as regular Sunday morning emails go, I’ll see you in 2024. In the meantime, I’ll be figuring out what to share with you for my 50 trends to watch out for in 2025. (here’s 2024 for those of you who want to see what the experts thought this time last year)
This week, the recommended links NEXT section contains some great tech links covering AI to help you deep-dive and prepare for 2025. Enjoy the deep dive.
Also, to help you through the festive season and into the end of the year, here is a list of links to help you plug your FOMO of what you wish you had read or watched. Go binge on what you need to! I’m reliably informed that these are the lists you need.
Books of 2024:
Guardian Best Books of the Year
Huff Post Best Books
Amazon Best Selling Books
Films of 2024:
The Atlantic Best Movies of the year
Variety Best Movies
TV
Empire: Best TV of 2024
Slant: Best Shows
I hope you enjoy some downtime.
This really has been the year of AI (again). If you want to sharpen your thinking before we get to 2025, I’d encourage you to go back through some of my previous pieces now that we are further into this phase so that they make sense in context. I would also recommend these three pieces from McKinsey, which will help give you the overview thinking for yourself and your organisation:
A generative AI reset: Rewiring to turn potential into value
The human side of generative AI: Creating a path to productivity
Thank you for being a subscriber this year, and I hope that you learned something new.
Stay Curious - and - for the last time this year - don’t forget to be amazing,
Here are my recommendations for this week:
One of the best tools to provide excellent reading and articles for your week is Refind. It’s a great tool for keeping ahead with “brain food” relevant to you and providing serendipity for some excellent articles that you may have missed. You can dip in and sign up for weekly, daily or something in between -what’s guaranteed is that the algorithm sends you only the best articles in your chosen area. It’s also free. Highly recommended Sign up.
Now
My Favourite books of the year. Any that you would recommend?
10 Charts That Capture How the World Is Changing Part 2 (Also see Part 1) - Prediction markets, generative music, and the booming experience economy are just a few indicators of seismic shifts underway. Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, which allow real-money bets on real-world events, surged in popularity during the U.S. election, mirroring a broader trend of "financializing everything." Meanwhile, generative AI is reshaping industries: tools like Google’s Orca could produce artist-mimicking music but remain unreleased due to legal concerns. The experience economy is roaring back, with Black Friday U.S. e-commerce up 14.6% year-on-year and Live Nation attendance hitting record highs. Space exploration is also accelerating, with over 9,900 satellites now in orbit, driven by plummeting launch costs. On the venture front, 2025 is expected to break a three-year drought in VC distributions, as IPO windows open for unicorns among the 1,400+ startups valued at $1 billion or more.
The Internet’s Obsession With Luigi Mangione Signals a Major Shift: The arrest of Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old app developer accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has sparked an unprecedented wave of online fandom, transforming him into an anti-establishment folk hero. Dubbed “The Adjuster,” Mangione’s alleged actions have inspired TikTok ballads, Bluesky debates, and even merchandise on Etsy, as many Americans vent their frustrations with the healthcare industry. While mainstream platforms like X showed surprising sympathy for the suspect, including memes celebrating his symbolic class-war persona, experts warn this blurring of crime and heroism reflects a disturbing shift. Notably, comments on conservative forums showcased rare bipartisan alignment, with users uniting in their shared grievances against corporate greed. Mangione’s case highlights how the internet’s obsession with “main characters” mirrors deeper societal discontent.
How WhatsApp ate the world - WhatsApp has transcended its role as a simple messaging app to become a lifeline in both crisis zones and everyday life, serving over 2 billion users worldwide. From coordinating life-saving operations during Syria's devastating earthquakes to facilitating real-time journalism in war-torn Gaza, its compression algorithms make it indispensable in areas with poor connectivity. Meanwhile, in Brazil and India, WhatsApp drives significant e-commerce, from L'Oréal’s beauty sales to booking train tickets, and even matchmaking services. As Meta integrates AI and business tools into the platform, balancing monetization with its original ethos of simplicity and privacy will be critical to maintaining its global dominance.
The Allure of ‘Microdosing’ Ozempic - The growing trend of "microdosing" weight-loss drugs like Ozempic is sparking debate, as users experiment with tiny doses to shed pounds while avoiding severe side effects such as nausea and vomiting. Advocates, including health influencers and telehealth companies, promote this approach as a tailored solution, with anecdotal success stories emerging on platforms like TikTok and Reddit. However, experts remain sceptical, citing a lack of evidence to support the efficacy of microdosing and concerns over unsupervised use, particularly of compounded, unregulated alternatives. Despite the uncertainties, some users report benefits beyond weight loss, including reduced food cravings and healthier habits, raising questions about the placebo effect and the ethics of this emerging practice.
Next
AI in 2025: Building Blocks Firmly in Place: The foundations of AI are solidifying, as 2025 marks a shift from the “primordial soup” of 2024 to an era of tangible progress. With five key players—OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, xAI, and Meta—emerging as frontrunners, the competitive landscape has crystallized, each adopting unique strategies. Notably, OpenAI leads with $3.6 billion in revenue, driven by unmatched brand recognition. Meanwhile, the AI ecosystem is undergoing a transformation: Nvidia’s Blackwell chip is launching, massive data centres are rising across the U.S., and the focus is shifting from experimentation to execution. AI search engines are emerging as a "killer app," with platforms like Perplexity reaching 10 million monthly users. As infrastructure costs stabilize, Big Tech’s dominance grows, creating opportunities for startups to innovate atop subsidized AI rails.
The phony comforts of AI skepticism: While critics argue that AI is overhyped and destined to fail, evidence mounts that it is both real and dangerous. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT now boast 300 million weekly users, making them among the largest consumer products online, while global tech companies plan to invest a staggering $250 billion in AI infrastructure next year. AI has already demonstrated transformative capabilities in 2024, from detecting tuberculosis through voice analysis to preserving endangered Indigenous languages and accelerating drug discovery. Critics focusing on AI's limitations risk overlooking its rapidly expanding potential for both benefit and harm, as these systems become more embedded in society. The challenge is to navigate their powerful and often unsettling advancements while planning for a world where AI continues to scale.
AI Is the Black Mirror: Philosopher Shannon Vallor warns that the greatest danger of artificial intelligence lies not in apocalyptic scenarios but in the erosion of human agency and the propagation of a reductive view of human intelligence. Speaking from her perspective as an AI ethicist and author of The AI Mirror, Vallor critiques the tech industry’s portrayal of humans as “soft, wet computers,” which risks undermining confidence in human reasoning at a time when it’s urgently needed to address challenges like the climate crisis and democratic decline. AI’s influence is profound, with tools like ChatGPT reaching 300 million weekly users, yet Vallor emphasizes that these systems are reflections of human intelligence, not independent minds. She cautions against conflating technological progress with human value, advocating for AI development that preserves human creativity, judgment, and moral responsibility.
2025: A Year of Living Intelligence and Unprecedented Disruption: From Amy Webb - As 2025 unfolds, three transformative technologies—AI, advanced sensors, and biotechnology—are converging to reshape industries, fueling a "Technology Supercycle" likened to the introduction of electricity or the internet. Among the most striking stats: global tech giants plan to spend over $200 billion on AI infrastructure in 2025, nearly double their 2021 investments, while Nvidia’s market value has skyrocketed eightfold to over $3 trillion. Breakthroughs abound, from 3D bioprinting that produces tissues 10x faster to quantum computing advances, such as Google’s new processor completing calculations in minutes that would otherwise take 10 septillion years. Yet, as these innovations redefine possibilities, leaders are urged to navigate the complex intersections of emerging technologies to avoid missing the wave of disruption already underway.
TMT Predictions 2025: Deloitte’s TMT Predictions 2025 paints a vivid picture of rapid technological evolution, driven by generative AI, cloud advancements, and innovative business models. As power-hungry gen AI forces data centers to adopt cleaner energy, telecommunications is bracing for regulatory-driven consolidations and embracing FinOps to optimize soaring cloud spend. Meanwhile, the entertainment world reimagines stadiums as socio-economic hubs and contemplates AI’s cautious integration into content creation. A standout prediction is the rise of autonomous gen AI agents poised to boost knowledge worker productivity, though their full adoption may be slow. From chiplet breakthroughs to silicon photonics, TMT is hurtling towards transformative, sustainable, and consumer-focused innovation.
Free your newsletters from the inbox: Meco is a distraction-free space for reading newsletters outside the inbox. The app has features designed to supercharge your learnings from your favourite writers. Become a more productive reader and cut out the noise with Meco - try the app today
If you enjoyed this edition of Box of Amazing, please forward this to a friend. If you share it on LinkedIn, please tag me so that I can thank you.
If you are interested in advertising in this newsletter, please see this link
I write a lot including updating of existing texts and I loved the bit "Kill your Darlings" recognising that I can use this concept quite extensively
Thanks!