radical Insights.

Weekly Research and Commentary on the Future of Business and Technology.

The End of a Radical Year.

Dec 20, 2022

Dear Friend,

As the year comes to an end, we (as everybody else in the universe) look back at the last twelve months, revisit our assumptions and predictions, assess where we got things wrong (and right), and swear we will do better in 2023. All to say — we won’t bore you with this stuff and simply wish you a wonderful end of the year, a fantastic start into the New Year, and we are very much looking forward to making a ruckus with you! 🥳

Read all the way to the end and discover one truly weird species in the animal kingdom.

See you all in 2023!


Decode. Disrupt. Transform.

In this last edition of the radical Briefing we are going to disrupt ourselves and simply give you some time off. My recommendation — get a good book, some hot cocoa, and find a nice, cozy nook to read. And if you need a reading recommendation, our friend Rob Evans got me to read The Ministry for the Future which is excellent! (via Pascal)


What We Are Reading

🧠 The empty brain Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer! JaneRead

🗣️ ChatGPT Is a Tipping Point for AI ChatGPT just crossed a new threshold allowing human-machine hybrid work. Instead of prompting an AI and hoping for a good result, humans can now guide AIs and correct mistakes. What this means for humans, work, and output remains unknown. MafeRead

🌃 This is what a tech market looks like in… A global tour of urban electronics districts offers a range of colorful perspectives on how convergent tech, economic & social trends play out at street level around the world. JeffreyRead

💍 How Slack’s Marriage to Salesforce Crumbled An apparent match made in heaven that turned out to be quite a little rougher in reality. This gives a great look at the purchase and integration of Slack by Salesforce. JulianRead

Five Remarkable Chats That Will Help You Understand ChatGPT The famous chatbot explained through 5 real examples. Is it just a comedy machine or a real threat for white collar-jobs? PedroRead

📼 The Legasov Tapes Legasov was the academic who blew the whistle on Chernobyl. He recorded these tapes after the incident and just before he died. If you watched the TV show, here is the real deal. PascalRead


The Thin Wisps of Tomorrow

🦈 Jumping the shark: YouTube mega-personality MrBeast made it into Fortnite.

🚭 New Zealand bans anyone born after 2009 from ever buying cigarettes.

💨 Meanwhile, Team New Zealand breaks the wind-powered land speed record with a blistering 222 km/h.

🎷 Someone trained Stable Diffusion on audio spectrogram data, and out came this.


Internet Finds

Beavers are making a comeback! And boy, are they weird animals: Part Bear, Part Bird, Part Monkey, Part Lizard. 🦫


In Case You Missed It

🏴‍☠️ The Heretic: It Pays To Be Early

🧨 Disrupt Disruption: We got to sit down with Raphael Gielgen, Trendscout Future of Work Life & Learn at Swiss design powerhouse Vitra. It’s a fascinating discussion about the future of work, space, and leading. Listen now.


Radically yours, take good care, friend!

— Pascal, Mafe, Pedro, Vivian, and the three Js (Jane, Jeffrey, and Julian)