Microtrends: the small forces behind tomorrow's big changes

Title: Microtrends: the small forces behind tomorrow's big changes
Author: Mark J. Penn & E. Kinney Zalesne

First i thought this book is got to do with economics similar writing style as freakonomic. But it turn out to be more like sociology (not sure if its the right category), mixed in with politics, bits of marketing behavioral and supported with stats tics (which i cant decipher at my level, but basically is just graph line suggesting increase or decrease)

What I Like:
A total of 15 chapters which in all touch on 75 different case studies he made. Instead of the usual 50+ pages for a chapter from a non-fiction book. Each case study varies 4 to 10 pages, make lazy people like me easy to read. Each chapter talks about general issues we see in daily life (US context) but not spotting the 'micro' trend.

Some example:
Love, Sex Relationship: Office Romancer, Commuter Couple
Work Life: Working Retired, Extreme Commuters
Health and Wellness: Sun-Haters (sun-tanning issue), 30-Winkers (sleep issue)
Family Life's: Pet Parents, Late-Breaking Gays, Dutiful Sons
Author came out with interesting topic title to address the issue, maybe even suggesting a 'new term' for such trends. A new term commonly heard local recently "foreign talent"

What I Dislike:
No matter how interesting the author tries to present the findings, there is still some topics which i have no knowledge on, such as Politics and Race & Religions.. So end up just reading for the sake of reading for some of these topics.

Food for Thought

"By the time a trends hits 1%, it is ready to spawn a hit movie, best-selling book, or new political movement. The power of individual choice is increasingly influencing politics, religion, entertainment, and even war. In today's mass societies, it takes only 1% of people making a dedicated choice - contrary to the mainstream choice - to create a movement that can change the world"

"An average person cannot tell the difference between 4% unemployment and 8% unemployment. If you have 100 friends, and a few more are employed or unemployed, you cant accurately gauge whether the economy is going up or down. If twenty of them were unemployed, could; in other words you can easily see firsthand the complete disasters and depressions. But you cant see the changes in the normal range of statistics. You cant really see the difference between an economic boom and a recession, which would be the difference between 4% and 8% unemployment"

Paragraph taken from the Introduction and Conclusion of the book

So any trends we can spot in our local context other than above mention foreign talent?
Actually i don't really see it as a new trend. Its has been around since the day, Sir Stamford Raffles landed on this small island (first foreign talent). We are just happen to be the foreign talents' descendants. Look at it from this perspective, it just take 2 generations to produce a "Singaporean", who are speaking better English that's all..

Will my favorite color Pink be the next new Black? Will I have children ended announcing they are attracted to their same sex? Or animals being my grandchildren? How about Internet government critics group, the ruling party for our nation?

WHY NOT, Since all it takes is 1% ?!

Trend Spotting
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