A speaker argues that understanding trends requires comparative reading across opposing viewpoints, not single sources. Using South African trends as an example, she shows how context like geography and demographics completely changes what a trend means. Without that context, any answer about trends lacks integrity.
Good. So these 2 trends that we're going to explore today are— have come from some work and lots of philosophical conversation and debate over months and years trying to understand how things really work in the world. And I've come up with these 2 trends that are basically on a continuum. We'll explore that shortly, but I feel like these are You know, when you look at a subject and you, and you read one person's opinion about a subject, if, if you are only doing very shallow research, you think, well, that's what the subject is about. But then you might find another book or another article or a video from somebody who views that same thing from a different perspective. And we see this obviously in politics and religion and how to make money and so many different things. And it's actually a good technique for a person developing their future skills to do what I call comparative reading. So if you're reading something on one side of a debate, if you really want to understand it, you pick up a book or video or article, etc., on the other side of the debate and read both of those because that will challenge your thinking. It's very easy to get lulled into a good writer and go, oh, this makes total sense, I'm going to change how I believe, you know, everything about this topic. But you haven't really thought about it because you haven't been challenged with those other concepts. So comparative reading is a very important thing to look at. When I look at trends, and especially when people ask me about trends, I was at a kind of fireside chat the other day and somebody started with, what are the trends that South Africans need to know about at the moment? Okay, well, you can't answer that, not within any kind of integrity, because it is way too broad. And there are too many things that impact South Africa. And which part of South Africa, you know, different parts of the country, different people in the country, different industries and sectors, the migrants who are here, you know, people who live in townships, people who live in Sandton, which trends are we talking about? So context is very important. So I keep kind of looking back and saying, what is behind the trends? And that's what we're going to explore today, these 2 trends that kind of encompass or form a foundation for everything else that we're looking at.
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