The Signals Are Talking

I assigned Signals to my online digital media entrepreneurship class — seniors and graduate students at the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University — a few weeks ago because I wanted the students to try future forecasting. I had the students articulate the signals that MTV/Viacom missed in 2005-7 that cost the company its position as the arbiter of what is in/hip/cool for youth culture. Separately, the students each had to make a prediction about new technology coming our way in 5+ years and articulate all of the signals that are talking to them now that are informing those predictions. The final assignment is for each distributed group to come up with a digital media business idea by using the methodologies in the book. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. The students enjoyed the book because it opened up a new way of thinking. The debates in the discussion boards over which of their classmates’ predictions were plausible and which were shiny objects were passionate and they drew upon the lessons in the book. Several students said they could not wait to pass the book on to friends and family. It is no small feat to get an online class super engaged in a complicated subject. I look forward to incorporating the book into my on-the-ground innovation course.

Good book.

Great book

Amy Webb is in my circle of acquaintances among the various futurists that populate LinkedIn, so when she announced her book The Signals Are Talking, I immediately added it to my Read Now list.Ordinarily, I can go through books like these in a few hours, but Ms. Web's book, even though relatively short, took me a few weeks. Why? Because every chapter required reading in small bites, thinking through the implications, jotting down notes and occasionally arguments, and in general studying it.What Amy Webb has written is no less than a primer on how to be a futurist. She lays down a coherent methodology for identifying the unusual suspects that are often at the forefront of technological and (perhaps less forcefully social) innovation, mapping out the signals as parts of broader trends, establishing time lines and viability, creating scenarios that tells the story of the impacts of this innovation, testing those scenarios with stakeholders and then building a strategy for organizations to best utilize this research to position themselves in the market.This book should be a must read for organizational strategists, investors, technologists, politicians, data scientists and science fiction authors, really, anyone whose business or area of concern is dealing with the deluge of change around us. It also helps to differentiate between what is "shiny", which often makes for great click bait but never quite materializes, and what are the deeper trends that often occur over decades, and are usually the result of multiple converging and competing factors.I would like to see a followup to The Signals Are Talking that digs more in depth into the realm of predictive analytics and how the two complement, and occasionally compete, with one another. Nonetheless I cannot recommend the Signals Are Talking high enough.

I actually read this book twice. I found it a good update of Peter Swartz's book "The Art of the Long View." It's the same book almost chapter for chapter and for that it gets 3 stars. However, Webb is an engaging writer and if you haven't read the predecessor book (which in itself was probably a retread of Pierre Wack's work) then this book will introduce you to futurism and techniques to plan for it. I'd say read this and get what you can from it. I enjoyed it.

Although retired now, during my career I spent the last part in technology strategy, and I wish this book had been published 12 years earlier. Very insightful, with lots of useful examples of how the author built the case for a variety of future scenarios. This should be on every business strategist's reading list.

Excellent review of the techniques required to read trends at the fringes of society. Webb writes well and uses cogent examples. The story she tells is very tech heavy,but that is the age in which we live now.

Every job I've ever had has asked me to forecast the future. I've done projections for new projects, new markets, new initiatives. Forecasts beyond the next few months are usually BS.Except in some cases when they aren't. Many people look at those who "guessed right" and either think they are extremely brilliant - or extremely lucky.This book helps disprove both of those assumptions. This book gives clear direction for what to look for, how to analyze and review those data points, and how to string together those signals to theorize what may be coming next. Here in early 2017, we all need to be able to analyze what's on the fringe and see how it connects to make tomorrow's mainstream - sometimes only a few weeks away, and sometimes a decade.Highly recommend the book, and looking forward to sharing it.

Llegó en buenas condiciones, además de otrogarme otro libro de regalo

This is something we all need to be doing both in our personal and professional lives.The impact of technology and how can imprison hinder our lives needs to be thought through.The future trends can be identified and we can begin to plan act and ensure ours is a healthy future

A very good explanation made entertaining and enjoyable by real world anecdotes. Provides a framework with which to look past everyday experiential get a hint at what might be coming round the bend.

Amy Webb does a great job at structuring a comprehensive model to help anyone make predictions. This book is about how the interface of different technological and societal developments bring to life different outcomes and how you can play a part in this story. Applying this model does get a little hard to grasp a long the way, but that seems to be somewhat justifiable when anticipating the future is the cause. How can you put your hands on the fringe developments that are happening right now? I have no idea! The thing is you would need to have access to those in order to properly apply the model.Anyway, some professionals say anticipation is the main competence someone can have today and this book definitely helps you understand and apply techniques to improve it.There was a lot of attention payed to researches, new knowledges and regulations but little payed to human behavior. I did miss that vein on Amy`s work. Overall, this is an illuminating read.

This and chaos exploited (although this more so) are the only qualitative trend books that teach you practical methods to brainstorm using trends, not unnecessarily bogged down.