Trends

What do we expect for 2021? Here’s what our analysts had to say…

The esports market is booming. League of Legends, the most popular esport, broadcast a world final that drew more viewers than the Super Bowl in 2018. Last year the event was hosted in Paris, and tickets sold out within seconds. 

Helen Ruth Elam (AKA “Baddie Winkle”, AKA “Bad Lil Baddie”) has 3.7m followers on Instagram. She is 92 years old and says she’s been “stealing ur man since 1928!!”

Even with the growing importance of technology, people play a pivotal role in the success of any organization. A recent study by the consulting firm Korn Ferry, along with the Centre for Economics and Business Research, put the global economic value of human capital at $1.2 quadrillion, more than 2x the value of physical capital like technology. That figure is expected to grow in the coming years.

Think about the biggest sports fan you know. Has that person ever bought a different brand of dish soap because it was on sale? Probably.

The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked each sector of the economy, but few realms have felt the effects more than education. With campuses closed across the US, preschoolers and PhD candidates alike are cooped up at home, trying to keep learning in the midst of the crisis. 

What is your job as a futurist?

Which industries do you foresee this crisis affecting the most in the long term?

Josh Wolfe believes that society’s outcasts are the ones who hold the secret to human progress. And he’s dedicated his life to spotting them early. 

This article is part of our “Brainstorm Breakdown,” in which we riff off ideas Sam & Shaan have discussed on their “My First Million” brainstorms. Here, we dive deep into spam tech that’s designed to fight the scourge of unwanted calls and texts.