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:

• Who Is Creating The Non-Human Army – Hank’s Channel – YouTube. “Meanwhile, the inimitable Hank Green looks at bots on platforms like X and Bluesky that appear to simply exist to disagree. The conclusion I’m drawing from this link and my next one below is that … 1. Humans and machines will soon produce content that is indistinguishable, if they haven’t already. 2. A society that must act collectively on things like roads, healthcare, pollution, or wildfires requires common truths. 3. Machines can destroy common truths; therefore… 4. We will need a way to distinguish humans from machines. This will probably be digital identification, and platforms where humans are clearly identified. Anyway: interesting times.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Really Dark Truth About Bots – Benn Jordan – YouTube. “Today I’m all about the bots. Benn Jordan is a musician and music producer, but he casts a wide net. He once built a device that beams targeted sound at someone’s head, reflecting slightly delayed versions of their own words in a way that makes it impossible for them to speak clearly – for the lulz. Recently, he went on a deep dive about the sprawl of fake accounts online: Who creates them, why they exist, and more. It got so far into politics that he feels the need to reassure regular viewers that he won’t do too much more of this. Honestly, every person who wants a functioning democracy should watch this and hold screenings with their friends.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Brick – Take Back Your Time – App. “One of the themes of my life in the past decade has been a constant struggle against the siren song of my phone. I am an info junkie, whether it is news, enlightening articles or podcasts, I eat them up like junk food. Not to mention cat videos, the FellingGoneWild subreddit (egregious mistakes cutting down trees), and sundry other nonsense. A number of years ago, I stopped using X and Facebook, which has been a great life quality improvement, but my nighttime routine has continued to be a problem: What I would like to do is read a book, what I usually do is scroll on my phone. I got myself the Brick for Christmas. It’s a little magnet you stick to your fridge, and a companion app that lets you choose what apps to allow at different times, so for me for sleep time: Kindle, Audible, music. I tap the Brick with my phone and everything except those apps are blocked. In order to unblock them, I have to get out of bed, go downstairs and tap the Brick again. I was skeptical, but it has been brilliant.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Canada’s Next Prime Minister – Pierre Poilievre – The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast. “Is it all right if we talk Canadian politics for a minute? This will be my last fully political link of the year, I promise. I could list a bunch of disclaimers about sending this link, but I won’t bother. Instead I will say this: The decade of Trudeau reign has delivered the following for our country: Canada now ranks last among OECD countries for productivity growth, GDP per capita, business investment, expected growth in next thirty years, and housing affordability. At the same time we rank highest for household debt. Getting clear information about political positions of the parties is shockingly hard, so I was curious to hear what Pierre Poilievre has to say for himself. My metric for analyzing politicians/parties is: how closely do their positions track mine in identifying priority problems that need to be solved (secondarily, and where I have less confidence in my own instincts: do I think their proposed solutions are the right ones?). Here is an unedited/unfiltered (and very friendly) two-hour interview with Jordan Peterson (whom, FWIW, I find to be a tiresome character).” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Black Hole Plasma Jets Seen Traveling At Record Speeds Leave Astronomers Stunned – Daily Galaxy. “I wanted to shake things up (just a little) this week. Get us all out of our own heads and the politics, wars and news cycle that seems to be crippling us all (in one way or another). Let’s look together to the stars (and distant galaxies beyond). Let’s think less about the here and now and more about the potential… and the stuff we don’t know. ‘Astronomers have captured a groundbreaking phenomenon at the brink of a supermassive black hole located at the heart of galaxy 1ES 1927+654, 270 million light-years away in the constellation Draco. For the first time, plasma jets have been observed in real-time as they erupted from the black hole, traveling at record-breaking speeds. Adding to the intrigue, rapid X-ray oscillations near the black hole’s event horizon hint at a dynamic environment that has left scientists stunned and eager to uncover more.’ I’m not going to claim to fully understand what this means or how this changes our day-to-day life, but this does remind me that what we know pales in comparison to what we don’t know… and that there are always bigger/unknown forces at play that we don’t even know about and are just beginning to comprehend. So… deep breaths… and enjoy the marvels of the universe as it unfolds before us…” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Pico Iyer’s Wide-Awake Silence – Nautilus. “I have been reading the work of Pico Iyer for many years. I was fortunate enough to meet him a few times at the TED Conference and he’s been on the podcast, Six Pixels of Separation. As I prepare for his return to the show, I was reading an advance copy of his latest book, Aflame, over this past holiday break and it was one of those books that I did not want to end. From his meditative writing style to the stories he weaves in this one about losing his house to a wildfire (not the current one, but how timely this all is) to what solitude, silence and retreat has done for himself (and others). It’s a beautiful book (one that I highly recommend) and until my conversation with Pico goes live (in the next few months), I would recommend reading this article and picking up his book… lots of wondrous food for thought.” (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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