I’m subscribed to a curious newsletter, Thinking About Things. Every few days or few weeks, without rule, that newsletter sends out an interesting article from somewhere on the Internet.
A couple days ago, the guy behind Thinking About Things put out a “Best of 2024” issue. And he wrote:
===
In 2024 there was a noticeable mood shift. While last year’s top articles list was dominated by articles about depression and mental health, this year’s top picks show a very different trend. Not a single article on those subjects made the cut. Instead, our readers gravitated toward the practical: personal finance, stretching, the importance of calling mom, and actionable tips for living your best life.
===
This got me wondering. Mental health in 2023… practical tips in 2024… what about 2025 then?
I got an answer for you. But first, here are a few things I think are in the water right now:
– AGI or ASI (“artificial super intelligence” — the head of AI for Google just tweeted yesterday that it’s looking more and more likely we’ll jump straight to ASI, and skip AGI)
– Serious people claiming we are already living in World War III, in case you haven’t noticed
– The Internet-wide glee over the symbolic assassination of a corporate CEO, and what it means for the future of our economic system
– Trump’s re-election, and the future of America: A new civil war, or Greenland as the 51st state?
These are “big” topics.
The world keeps getting bigger. We know more about it on the microscopic level. We know more about it on the telescopic level. And in between, every damn thing is getting immensely more complex and rich by the day.
All this complexity long ago passed human understanding, but it couldn’t kill the human desire to understand.
And that’s why my prediction for content that will win out in 2025 is content that puts limited human knowledge and understanding inside a bigger context — historical, philosophical, scientific, etc.
Yes, eventually these “big”-topic articles will grow familiar and tiresome also, like articles about depression or mental health.
But I think that people who write about “big” topics will be the attention winners in 2025, and those who don’t will be the losers, or at least the also-rans.
Let’s see in a year if I was right.
I’ll still be here, writing, inshallah, barring a 3rd World War for real, or an asteroid falling on my head.
And if you’d like to join me, and maybe write an email like this tomorrow, and get my help and motivation along the way, you can get started here — before the clock strikes 12: