Exploding Topics
Aspiring Generalist is an Understandary project.
Exploding Topics
I'm a big fan of publications and services that point me toward potential areas of interest I wouldn't have otherwise known about or thought to look for.
Exploding Topics is a platform I play with periodically, in part because it allows me to see how trends in various categories ebb and flow over time, and in part because I almost always discover terms and concepts I wasn't aware of—but which are taking off in some corner of the internet at that very moment.
Today I learned that "ocean cleanup" has been on a tear over the last month or so, "blanket hoodies" are really popular right now, with interest up more than 200% compared to three months ago, and a plant-based supplement company called Athletic Greens has been killing it the past year, with interest up more than 260% over that period and an average of about 74,000 searches a month as of November 2021.
That last point is important: these trends are both surfaced and measured according to online metrics like search terms and social media conversations. So they're biased towards things that are being discussed and searched for online, and these metrics can be gamed in all sorts of ways.
Despite those caveats, I find Exploding Topics to be an interesting curation service because it sticks a pin in things that don't otherwise show up on my radar, and quantifies (if imperfectly) how popular they are within their relevant industry or social circle.