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…

• A Few Notes On The Culture – Iain M. Banks. “Iain M. Banks wrote some amazing science fiction. And to understand a world that increasingly feels like living in a William Gibson novel, we need more speculation. Here’s the author writing about a social group in his story universe, building from first principles. For example: You can’t can’t besiege a space-faring society without destroying its economic value, which makes rebellion easier, and over time produces internal mutual dependence (‘socialism within, anarchy without’). I’ve only read a couple of his books, but this post shows some amazing thinking. I wish more people were applying this kind of rigor to where we are with AI today.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• “Retirement Plan” (2026 Oscar Nominee) – The New Yorker – YouTube. “This Oscar-nominated short is an absolutely brilliant, heartfelt musing on life, waiting, aging, and, well, all the things I’m feeling these days.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Carney Constructs A Mega Anti-Trump Trade Alliance – Graham Lanktree, Zi-Ann Lum and Jon Stone – Politico. “Is this politics? I don’t know. Anyway, in negotiation people always talk about ‘optionality”‘ you need to have other options than just the party you are negotiating with, otherwise they have you over a barrel. Canada’s made many mistakes in the past twenty years, one critical one was not recognizing that the US was moving (under Obama, Biden and Trump) away from faith in free trade. Whether PM Carney’s gambits will work, only time will tell.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Six-Chart Sunday – Nobody Knows Nuthin’ (Spring 2026) – Bruce Mehlman’s Age Of Disruption. “A bunch of predictions proved wrong, with the data to back them up. Of the more fascinating of the gleanings is this one: Tennis guy Roger Federer won 80% of the 1,526 tennis matches he played, but only won 54% of the points. Winning overall is about knowing you will lose a lot of the time and dealing with it.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Why AI Came For Coders First, Automation Timelines, And How We’re Inside The AI Inflection – Lenny’s Podcast – YouTube. “Worth it. Such a great conversation with Simon Willison about where we’re at in tech, how it looks and feel to build stuff and, most importantly, what it (really) means for people like me (who do not know how to code). In short, sure AI can do a lot of work… but it’s not able to do YOUR work. As much as I see the frontlines of what AI can do (and where the smart people think it’s going), I’m starting to see that work (as it always has) will still rely on smart people who can learn, grow, adapt and, most imortantly, apply those skills in a unique way. Oh, also, brands matter… they really really matter. Long live marketing!” (Mitch for Alistair). 
• Six Journalists, Six Different Lines. Where Do You Draw Yours? – Florent Daudens. “I was texting with our mutual friend, Patrick Tanguay from Sentiers earlier this week, because I came across this article: 3 ways to prove you’re human online, and the headline made me laugh… and then deeply reflect. How often is my work (emails, articles, LinkedIn posts, etc.) assumed to by AI generated verses ME generated… and what does that say (about my work… or the state of generative AI)? I sent Pat the article and wrote: ‘Prove to me that you’re a human… weird times, my friend’… and he responded with this article (and a few others during our back and forth). The lines are blurring and simply dismissing AI (without thinking more deeply about what and how it’s being used) is already challenging… if not impossible.. and it’s only going to infiltrate the work more and more (whehter we like it/use it or not). So… what are we supposed to do?” (Mitch for Hugh).

If one of these sticks with you, pass it on… and let us know what earned your attention this week…

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