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 (Just Evil Enough, 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:

• AI Diplomacy – Every. “We made top AI models compete in a game of diplomacy. Here’s who won: The thing about Large Language Models is you can get them to play any game that has clearly defined rules. Which means you can learn about the strategies they employ to win. That’s what Alex Duffy did, not only pitting AIs against one another, but having them privately journal their thoughts. It’s a good update on benchmarks that cease to be useful as they become part of new models – until the AIs recognize that they’re being surveilled, and pretend to be nice on purpose.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Memory Paradox: Why Our Brains Need Knowledge In An Age Of Ai – SSRN. “The memory paradox: Why our brains need knowledge in an age of AI: Mitch, I feel like you’ve been waiting for this research paper for years. And frankly, it could be your next book. It’s a scientific take on something we’ve all been noticing: ‘Drawing on insights from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and learning theory, we explain how underuse of the brain’s declarative and procedural memory systems undermines reasoning, impedes learning, and diminishes productivity.’ In other words: use it or lose it – those who give in to the siren song of easy mental labor will lose in the long term.” – And, as a bonus, Hugh offers his tldrr AI tool for those who won’t read the whole research report. (Alistair for Mitch).
• Art As A Verb – John Miedma – Substack. “John Miedema writes about unfinished and messy art, the implicit invitation that is part of the creation and sharing, and reminds us that the human desire to create is both elemental and unquenchable. As we all struggle with the risks and uncertainty of the current and coming years, it is always good to step back and think about the ways in which our own lives embrace these ideas, and to what degree what we put our energy into helping ourselves and others ‘to art’.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• AI Signals The Death Of The Author – David J. Gunkel – Noema. “… and that is a good thing, argues David Gunkel. In the old days, the author conferred authority, meaning: you choose which authors you trust to tell the truth. But as AI becomes the purveyor of more and more of our information, the source becomes the Borg, disconnected from an author, and is so amorphous that there is just no information we can trust implicitly. The ‘author’ isn’t visible or knowable. Hence, we will become more critical in how we approach the information we receive. My commentary: there is a difference between ‘should’ and ‘will’. But surely how and why we trust information of all kinds is going to undergo a radical change.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• The Brutalist. “I don’t mind being late to the game on certain things. This movie was released in 2024 and had some good showings at the award ceremonies (from what I remember). With that, I had never seen this movie. Clocking in at over 3.5 hours, this one took me several nights to get through. That might be more of an indictment on my age rather than the performance and production. Still, there was something so strange about watching this movie at this moment in time thinking about politics, the local issues we face, the international issues we’re facing and the global challenges. This movie probably stirred many more emotions in me this week than it would have if I seen it when it came out. If you haven’t had a chance to watch it, I was able to catch it on Amazon Prime and would recommend it to anybody who wants to both escape the current moment and think deeply about what happens when atrocious things are done to people and how we’re all forced to build new lives (and help one another)… it wasn’t easy then… it’s all so complicated for many right now…” (Mitch for Alistair).
• WTF? Marc Maron Ends His Podcast After 16 Years – Chortle. “In most cases, the podcaster doesn’t make an announcement – they simply stop showing up, stop publishing, stop recording and just lose their steam. Trust me, I get it – I’ve been doing a podcast for close to 20 years. Every Sunday… the conversations are over an hour long… I’ve been doing it without break. 52 brand new episodes every year. I don’t write this to brag. Marc Maron Is done, and I totally get it. I feel like I’m just getting started, and I don’t have nearly the audience, stature or wealth from the same type of work. Why do I keep going? I keep going because I can’t imagine not doing it. And to me, that’s one of the best reasons to do anything. Do I care if the content resonates with an audience? Of course I do, but more importantly, my show is a bit of an exhaust valve for my life. It allows me to spend an hour talking to someone on a very focused topic and having a deep and rich conversation. My hope is that it resonates with the audience as much as it does for me. The day that it no longer works for me, that’s the day I’ll pull a Marc Maron. Until then, I’m so happy he was able to elevate the entire platform of podcasting and bring it more into the general public’s Zeitgeist. That’s the real gift here. Oh, and in case you’re curious, I had a chance to interview Marc about podcasting back in 2013. Pretty wild.” (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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