Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

• So What Should We Do About AI? Let’s Count The Ways – The Society Library – Medium. “Jaimie Joyce is the founder of The Society Library, and works with the Internet Archive to create ontologies of the world’s laws. She’s an amazing interpreter of collective thought, and she’s been busy mapping the AI debate. Here, then, is Jaimie’s writeup on what we think about AI. With so many threads, it’s nice to have a loom like her.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Tenet – A Misunderstood Masterpiece – Ben From Canada – YouTube. “Tenet is a Marmite movie: You either love it or hate it. I adored it—though David Fincher‘s The Killer may have captured my top spot these days. So many good clues (the opening music plays notes backwards…) But I couldn’t explain why I loved Tenet. It felt like solving a puzzle while it was unfolding before me. This video essay did a good job of explaining what the film was about (a temporal pincer movement); why you have to watch it more than once to appreciate it; and the specific moment when you know everything is going to get bonkers.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• American Elites Are Living In A Delusional Universe. Here’s Why The Next Crisis Will Make The 2008 Recession Look Like A Garden Party – Toronto Star. “Apologies for the paywall link (I read this one in the Apple News app). In any case, Canadian gold mining and film magnate, Frank Giustra, makes the case that … well the US (and by extension, Canada) is in the kind of trouble the Spanish were back in the 16th and 17th Centuries. By conquering the Americas, and mining for its gold and silver, Spain exploded in unimaginable wealth, suddenly and spectacularly. Eventually, overconsumption, inflation, debt, low productivity, and many wars cratered the Spanish system. This was a big surprise to the Spanish, who expected global supremacy to last forever. In the USA: the trade deficit has doubled in the past 20 years, household debt risen by 2.5x, government debt has quintupled, and the Federal Reserve now holds $7.87 trillion in assets (compared to less than a billion 20 years ago), with fed assets tied to inflation. And then there are wars (Iraq/terror, Ukraine, and now likely Middle East). From a pure financial perspective, this looks really bad. It’s even worse in Canada. Maybe everything will be fine?” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Posthaste: There’s A New Crisis Looming In A Commodity 400 Times Bigger Than Oil – Financial Post. “How many problems can your brain handle at once? Climate change, AI, wars with China (or in Eastern Europe, or the Middle East), and a few others I can’t remember right now. How about: we’re running out of fresh water.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• The Best Primer I’ve Heard On Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts – The Ezra Klein Show. “I don’t know and understand nearly enough about the conflict in The Middle East. I write this because, it is extremely rare to hear anyone candidly admit their knowledge is lacking… especially online. So, what does one do? Post links and articles and create content espousing what ’should be done’? As if the struggles in The Middle East haven’t been debated and attempted to be solved by those who have a deep bench of knowledge and expertise of both the region and the people? Sure, everyone has an opinion… and everyone believes that their opinion is the only path forward. Still, I see another swath of people. Those who are letting this scary moment in time allow knowledge, education and reflection to bubble up. While I may not agree with the title of this podcast… I did find the conversation illuminating. Still… no solutions… just potential (and painful) pathways forward. It’s going to take very brave leaders to make very bold moves in the hopes that the populations will agree, and attempt to make progressive steps forward. Perilous times.” (Mitch for Alistair).
• The Controversy Over TikTok And Osama Bin Laden’s “Letter To America,” Explained – Vox. ”I hesitated to post this link. No need to attract more attention to this kind of nonsense. Still, this may act as a lighthouse case study in understanding culture, memes, the new media and the problems we are facing. Justification for terrorism as a form of ‘resistance’ is starting to become both accepted and normalized. We can’t allow this to happen. Those who will then laugh at that sentence and wonder what a proper resistance might look like, if it doesn’t include a lot of terror on everyday people are not the kind of people that I want to be around. I’ve had more than a few conversations lately with my American friends who fear that their country could be on the brink of a civil war (as if we don’t have enough problems stacking up). With that, let’s not take a small swath of stupid TikTok videos and help fuel it into something much bigger…” (Mitch for Hugh). 

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on X, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

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