Understanding the framework for trends is as important as understanding the trends themselves.
What we do (food, shelter, entertainment) rarely changes, but how we do things can change a lot, and rapidly too.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs hasn't changed very much over the years, if ever.
Be careful not to miss the forest from the trees. It's easy when you are too deep in analysis.
Because of its union contracts, GM must run its plants at 80% capacity, minimum, whether they make money or not.
More people die each year from falling coconuts (~150) than from shark attacks, yet it is easy for the sensationalism to overpower the facts.
Focus on what is right, rather than who is right.
In 2005, Drs. Warren and Marshall were awarded the Nobel prize for discovering that ulcers were caused by bacteria rather than excessive stomach acid, despite years of contrary belief and criticism by their peers.
Virtually all "new" ideas are the synthesis of ideas in two or more fields. It is in the combinations of seemingly disparate concepts that new ideas are created.
Most "Ripe Fruits can ben seen by many in different fields, but only by making the proper connections can the individual "fruits" result in an understandable picture and begin to make sense.
Things that we expect to happen always happen more slowly. e.g. How things like online video, social networks, and micropayments failed in the Internet boom of the 90s, but are starting to thrive now, and how other "inevitable" technologies have yet to go mainstream.