Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #434

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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 InterestingTilt the WindmillHBS, chair of StrataStartupfestPandemonio, and ResolveTO, Author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) 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: 

  • Bitcoin Must Die – Slugger O Toole. “My links this week are about technology and ignoring things. I’m just recovering from running ScaleTechConf in Toronto, and Supriya Syal talked about how hard changing minds is. In one of her slides she explained how we dislike a false action over a false inaction — that is, we significantly prefer not doing something we should over doing something we shouldn’t. We are wired for inaction. So, in the first of two, I’m going to talk about how Bitcoin’s power-hungry proof of work is awful. Stopping cryptocurrency mining would *immediately* give us an extra year to meet climate change goals. Ouch.” (Alistair for Hugh).
  • What’s another way to say ‘we’re f*cked?’ – Rolling Stone. “Hoo, boy. Picture a hurricane where storm surge doesn’t roll back. That’s the grim picture that climate change is painting. Sadly, we don’t look at long-term threats. As we say no to a plastic straw and pat ourselves on the back, the world is flooding.” (Alistair for Mitch).
  • A Map Of Every Building In America – The New York Times. “Stunning data / article / visualization of every building (!!!!) in the US of A.” (Hugh for Alistair). 
  • Here’s Where the Post-Apocalyptic Water Wars Will Be Fought – Earther. “I try very hard to find non-depressing links for you every week, and every week I fail. Here’s the latest, about hotspots in the world where we’re likely to see major conflict due to water shortages. Good news? Canada looks pretty blue/green. Bad news? We’re next to a country filled with guns, nukes, and a giant parched centre.” (Hugh for Mitch).
  • 5 Tenets That Will Establish Mutual Trust Between Humans and AI – Inc. “I’m not sure this is possible. Right now, machine learning and AI is doing the work that was relegated to humans. It’s also getting better and faster at it than any of us can possibly understand. We tend to think about ‘how’ businesses may be using artificial intelligence today. We don’t focus on who is already doing it, what the results are, and how it’s changing who corporations need to hire (which, ultimately, is ‘less people’). Can’t we all just get along? I think this may be a hard hill for humanity to climb, when AI truly does hit its stride. Which, of course, will happen sooner than any of us are prepared for.” (Mitch for Alistair).
  • When Things Go Missing – The New Yorker. “In a weird-ish spin on what I usually write, I don’t want to say anything about this article. I just want you to read it. It’s well-written… it’s deep… and there is meaning. I think Rishad Tobaccowala introduced this one to me?” (Mitch for Hugh). 

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