Is there one link, story or idea that stopped you this week… and made you think, “someone else needs to see this”?
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 made a simple pact years ago. Once a week, each of us would share one link with the others… something we genuinely believed the other two had to see. No trend-hunting… no performance. Just six ideas exchanged with intent. What started as a small ritual between curious friends became Six Links That Make You Think.
These are the six links we passed to one another this week… take your time with them…
- Training The Idea Muscle – Aadil Pickle – Alexandria. “Riley Walz is my hero. We need more mischief, more subversive thinking, and more shenanigans (I believe this so much I wrote a book about it.) AI isn’t just a prediction machine, it’s a predictability machine, a slow gradient descent of regression to the norm. If you want to put a dent in the world, be different. And this lifelong prankster is an inspiration to us all.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- The Decline Of Deviance – Adam Mastroianni – Experimental History. “Continuing in that vein – why don’t we see more weirdness in the world? This is a surprisingly data-driven look at how the world is just getting in line. High school rulebreaking, anti-social behavior, moving cities, the rise of franchise media over originals, the cover of books, web design, interior design, branding, the banality of science papers. Are we moving away from progress and towards risk-aversion? Is this how societies die? I worry more about this than I should – and worry that others don’t seem to notice it.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- Design For Amiability: Lessons From Vienna – Mark Bernstein – A List Apart. “God, remember when you used to read A List Apart and a large part of the day was spent being angry at Microsoft for IE6? Well, I like to think the web might be amiable again… while the crypto drones drop AI-powered climate change hyperbombs on the few rebel groups still resisting the Catholico-Thieltopian alliance.” (Hugh for Alistair).
- Thirty Bold Predictions For AI In 2026 – BetaKit. “Canadian tech news site BetaKit asked a bunch of techy Canadians for some predictions.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- The Unseen – Allison J. Pugh – Aeon. “The substitle of this article is: our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being. If that doesn’t give you pause about the state of our work world… The article argues that our problem is not just loneliness but depersonalisation, where people feel invisible and reduced to data. Technology and and data systems make this worse by replacing real human connection with tech interactions. How do we fix this? It requires restoring human-to-human ‘witnessing’ and resisting tech solutions that profit from the problem… and where within capitalism do we see any type of movement towards this type of work environement… as more and more workers (when possible) reisist going to the office… and those that have jobs that require presence feel like they are ‘unseen’… I guess so long as the public markets rage, this is acceptable?” (Mitch for Alistair).
- You Should Start Taking “Fart Walks” – Eric Alt – PopSci. “Candidly, I didn’t know there was a name for it… Spend 10-15 minutes after a meal going for a brisk walk and this meme will all make sense… Apparently, it’s great for digestion and the release of trapped gas. Side benefits include that it can help with weight loss, reduce bloating and may improve brain health while lowering depression risk… just make sure that you take your dog along with you, so you have someone to blame for the sounds and smells…” (Mitch for Hugh).
If one of these sticks with you, pass it on… and let us know what earned your attention this week…
Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.
Mitch Joel Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.