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January rolls around and not much has happened, so pundits who don’t have better ideas tend to resort to writing articles about “5 trends for next year.” They do this with the certain knowledge that if they’re off the mark, no one will remember their predictions, but if they somehow turn out to be prescient, they’ll definitely post them later on social media. I will post it on. So here are some completely reliable and unfalsifiable predictions for 2025.
1. The end of something. No New Year’s trend is complete without a prediction of “saying goodbye to something.” Vinyl records, gas cars, books, newspapers, traditional television networks, Emmanuel Macron, and American democracy. Such predictions almost always kill things off too quickly, but they can be defended on the grounds that they are directional.
2. This year will be the year of . . . At this point, I’m choosing a technology that’s been around for a while but hasn’t yet caught on, and predicting that this year will be the year of its breakthrough.
3. This year will be a breakthrough year for DeFi (decentralized finance). See, this is what I’m talking about. I don’t really understand decentralized finance, but I know it’s a blockchain problem and it’s very serious. And I bet you don’t understand it either. So as long as I know slightly more than you and have grabbed a few sentences from ChatGPT, I can project myself as someone who is truly knowledgeable about technology and financial trends. can. DeFi is the next frontier in financial services, and with Donald Trump in the White House and surrounded by people like Elon Musk and, well, people like Elon Musk, this year This may be the year when DeFi becomes mainstream. Probably not, but it just suggests that it will start looking beyond the game.
4. Withdrawal from working from home. Bosses have always hated it, so we expect another big backlash against WFH. As long as I know at least one person who has been told to come more often, that’s another big issue for me.
5. This year will be a landmark year for the Metaverse. No, it’s not. The metaverse, the virtual world where people interact with each other as avatars, is still garbage. No one knows how to use them outside of gaming, and the glasses are still ridiculous.
6. Economics. This year will be really important. This year could be a landmark year for major economic trends. Maybe it’s inflation. Or maybe it’s something else. But it would confuse unprepared governments. Also the resurgence of animal spirits in the United States. This seems like a good thing. But it can also be a bad thing. It’s a jungle.
7. The year of AI. Well, obviously I needed one of these. AI may really become big this year. I mean, it’s huge. It was bigger than last year, and it was bigger last year too. There will be some transformative breakthroughs in the AI field, perhaps on the agent or medical side. AI is making huge inroads into the workplace, some of it very important, but mostly because companies feel they need to take advantage of it.
It will definitely play an important role in securing many second class degrees. While world leaders gather in Paris to discuss how to build the “public good,” technology leaders continue with whatever they had previously planned.
8. Climate crisis. I’ll tell you the truth, it was last year.
9. Bitcoin will reach a new record high of $130,000 before pulling back significantly. Sorry, I can’t tell you the exact timing here.
10. Return of Germany. What about the return? Where was it? Last time I looked it was still there. Was there a hole in the middle of Europe that I missed? What happened to the Danube? Did it stop in Austria? Oh, I see, you were speaking figuratively.
11. There will be a new war somewhere. Ideally, it’s a country you don’t know much about. Also, existing wars will end. But I hedge the risk by predicting that the peace will prove fragile.
12. Tensions over Taiwan. To be clear, I’m not predicting conflict, but stupidly, it’s a tough one, so deepening the tension feels like a mature gamble.
13. Cybertruck. I tell you. Everyone will want one. Or maybe an electric Jaguar. One of two. Or maybe this is the year of the cyclist.
14. Let’s do this again next year.
Email Robert at magazineletters@ft.com
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