How to Cultivate the 'Ability to Foresee the Future' in an Age of Information Overload. Off Topic's First Book, 'Future Search: The Art of Finding 'What's Next' from the Sea of Information,' Available for Pre-order Today!
Cross Media Publishing Co., Ltd. will release 'Future Search: The Art of Finding 'What's Next' from the Sea of Information,' the first book by Tetsuro Miyatake and Miki Kusano of the popular podcast 'Off Topic,' on September 18, 2026. This business book explains practical thinking methods for cultivating the ability to foresee the future in an age of information overload, and pre-orders begin today.
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- 📰 Published: May 8, 2026 at 01:57
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Cross Media Publishing Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Koichiro Kobayakawa), which primarily publishes business and practical books, will release the book 'Future Search: The Art of Finding 'What's Next' from the Sea of Information' on September 18, 2026.
This book is the first by Tetsuro Miyatake and Miki Kusano of the popular podcast 'Off Topic,' which has accumulated over 100 million plays.
The two, who have been deeply exploring the latest US tech, business, and culture information for about seven years, have systematized how to cultivate 'the ability to foresee the future' in an age of information overload. They explain it in Off Topic's unique style of 'getting to the essence while digressing.' This is a practical thinking guide for searching the future, aimed at entrepreneurs, marketers, creators, and everyone who wants to forge a path in the coming era.
◆Related URLs (Our website, etc.)
Amazon https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4295412279
Rakuten Books (with bonus) https://books.rakuten.co.jp/rb/18611190/
Rakuten Books (standard edition) https://books.rakuten.co.jp/rb/18611189/
●Why past success formulas no longer work — The era where 'context' is scarce
YouTube gained users by sending emails to bloggers, Tinder spread by touring university campuses, and early D2C brands grew rapidly with Facebook ads. The mistake many entrepreneurs make when hearing these famous success stories is simply copying the measures and actions. However, the reason they worked at the time was precisely because 'they were effective only in that specific context.'
US economist Tyler Cowen said, 'Context is scarce.' It is said that 90% of the data existing in 2023 was generated in the last two years, and YouTube generates approximately 720,000 hours of video content per day, while TikTok generates approximately 3,000 hours. Information itself is overflowing. What is truly scarce is the 'picture on the box' that shows how disparate puzzle pieces fit together — in other words, context.
In this book, the specific techniques for deciphering this context and foreseeing the future are named 'Future Search' and systematically explained.
●Off Topic's 'Future Search' 3 Steps — Information Gathering, Framework Building, Multi-layered Perspective
The core of this book is the three steps necessary for Future Search.
Step ①: Gather information — How to build a reliable 'trust network' and construct your own information sources. Author Tetsuro Miyatake subscribes to over 200 newsletters on Substack and checks about 100 of them daily. At the same time, he emphasizes the importance of incorporating 'active randomness' to avoid being trapped in a filter bubble.
Step ②: Build a framework — A thinking method that, instead of consuming single news items as 'dots,' finds 'lines' from multiple data points and forms hypotheses. In the case of MrBeast's chocolate brand 'Feastables,' the process of building a framework is specifically shown, not just as news that 'a YouTuber sold something,' but as 'creators becoming the next generation of entrepreneurs' and 'values of status are changing.'
Step ③: Deepen understanding — The ability to delve into a single phenomenon from multiple perspectives such as technology, business, culture, and history, and to find interconnections.
This book introduces examples of multiple frameworks refined by Off Topic and provides a foundation for readers to build their own frameworks.
●Pop culture foreshadows the future — Why understanding culture becomes a business weapon
Another major feature of this book is its direct discussion of the importance of pop culture. There is a clear ripple effect: 'youth culture → SNS → C-向けサービス (consumer-oriented services) → B-向けサービス (business-oriented services).' Slack can be seen as the B2B version of WhatsApp, and Zoom as the B2B version of FaceTime.
As the research of economic historian Joel Mokyr shows, culture changes before economic growth. The British Industrial Revolution was also underpinned by a cultural evolution in attitudes towards science, as evidenced by the analysis of over 170,000 books.
Furthermore, this book uses abundant examples such as Apple's '1984' commercial, the 'villain-making' strategy seen in the beverage brand Liquid Death, the concept of 'Composing Culture' seen in McDonald's Travis Scott Meal, and the full scope of rapper Lil Nas X's viral strategy, to explain 'why understanding culture...'
This book is the first by Tetsuro Miyatake and Miki Kusano of the popular podcast 'Off Topic,' which has accumulated over 100 million plays.
The two, who have been deeply exploring the latest US tech, business, and culture information for about seven years, have systematized how to cultivate 'the ability to foresee the future' in an age of information overload. They explain it in Off Topic's unique style of 'getting to the essence while digressing.' This is a practical thinking guide for searching the future, aimed at entrepreneurs, marketers, creators, and everyone who wants to forge a path in the coming era.
◆Related URLs (Our website, etc.)
Amazon https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4295412279
Rakuten Books (with bonus) https://books.rakuten.co.jp/rb/18611190/
Rakuten Books (standard edition) https://books.rakuten.co.jp/rb/18611189/
●Why past success formulas no longer work — The era where 'context' is scarce
YouTube gained users by sending emails to bloggers, Tinder spread by touring university campuses, and early D2C brands grew rapidly with Facebook ads. The mistake many entrepreneurs make when hearing these famous success stories is simply copying the measures and actions. However, the reason they worked at the time was precisely because 'they were effective only in that specific context.'
US economist Tyler Cowen said, 'Context is scarce.' It is said that 90% of the data existing in 2023 was generated in the last two years, and YouTube generates approximately 720,000 hours of video content per day, while TikTok generates approximately 3,000 hours. Information itself is overflowing. What is truly scarce is the 'picture on the box' that shows how disparate puzzle pieces fit together — in other words, context.
In this book, the specific techniques for deciphering this context and foreseeing the future are named 'Future Search' and systematically explained.
●Off Topic's 'Future Search' 3 Steps — Information Gathering, Framework Building, Multi-layered Perspective
The core of this book is the three steps necessary for Future Search.
Step ①: Gather information — How to build a reliable 'trust network' and construct your own information sources. Author Tetsuro Miyatake subscribes to over 200 newsletters on Substack and checks about 100 of them daily. At the same time, he emphasizes the importance of incorporating 'active randomness' to avoid being trapped in a filter bubble.
Step ②: Build a framework — A thinking method that, instead of consuming single news items as 'dots,' finds 'lines' from multiple data points and forms hypotheses. In the case of MrBeast's chocolate brand 'Feastables,' the process of building a framework is specifically shown, not just as news that 'a YouTuber sold something,' but as 'creators becoming the next generation of entrepreneurs' and 'values of status are changing.'
Step ③: Deepen understanding — The ability to delve into a single phenomenon from multiple perspectives such as technology, business, culture, and history, and to find interconnections.
This book introduces examples of multiple frameworks refined by Off Topic and provides a foundation for readers to build their own frameworks.
●Pop culture foreshadows the future — Why understanding culture becomes a business weapon
Another major feature of this book is its direct discussion of the importance of pop culture. There is a clear ripple effect: 'youth culture → SNS → C-向けサービス (consumer-oriented services) → B-向けサービス (business-oriented services).' Slack can be seen as the B2B version of WhatsApp, and Zoom as the B2B version of FaceTime.
As the research of economic historian Joel Mokyr shows, culture changes before economic growth. The British Industrial Revolution was also underpinned by a cultural evolution in attitudes towards science, as evidenced by the analysis of over 170,000 books.
Furthermore, this book uses abundant examples such as Apple's '1984' commercial, the 'villain-making' strategy seen in the beverage brand Liquid Death, the concept of 'Composing Culture' seen in McDonald's Travis Scott Meal, and the full scope of rapper Lil Nas X's viral strategy, to explain 'why understanding culture...'