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, 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: 

• You Suck at Excel – Joel Spolsky – YouTube. “I consider myself good at Excel. And there are definitely differences between a basic user (who makes a table of numbers) and an advanced one (who realized they’re building a calculator). This is a great (and somewhat derisive) video that I learned a bunch from — aimed at people who want to level up the way they work with numbers. Also Joel Spolsky is sort of a software and startup deity.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Der Spiegel journalist messed with the wrong small town – Michele Anderson – Medium. “Fake news. And schadenfreude with an actual German newspaper. Reporter comes to town, looking for data to confirm some opinions in his head. What could possibly go wrong? Here’s a concrete reminder that we can’t lump people into polarizing buckets, even though that might help sell views and subscriptions in the short term.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• No transit, no problem – Kelly Canuck – Twitter. “It’s been pretty snowy in Montreal, so if you can’t get your car out, or get a bus, and you’re in a real hurry, you can just take your snowboard to that meeting (as long as the meeting is at the bottom of the hill).” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Detroit – Tracing Skylines – Poor Boyz Productions – YouTube. “Did you like that video of a dude snowboarding in Montreal. Urban snow sports your thing? Well, this, then, is some next level sh*t.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Digital detoxes are a solution looking for a problem – Quartz. “There is (apparently) no health benefits to doing a digital detox. In fact, it may make you more stressed out. Who knew?” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Want to transform your life? Stop chasing perfection – The Guardian. “There is no permanent state of happiness (so stop saying that, ‘you just want to be happy’) or that you want everything to be perfect (there is no perfection, and we all have our own perceptions of this). This new (is this really new?) self-help strategy is much more about stopping to do that. ‘Finally, there’s the conundrum that the self being reinvented is the same one that’s doing the reinventing – so your existing flaws invariably get baked into your vision of the future. If you yearn to become, say, more productive or empathetic or physically fit in 2019, how do you know that very yearning isn’t just another expression of your tendency to beat yourself up, which you’d be better off addressing than indulging? Or suppose you plan to conquer your perfectionism: how will you avoid getting all perfectionistic about that? There are no completely fresh starts, there is no year zero. You’re already hopelessly ensnared in the only life you’ll ever get.’ Strong read.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

DETROIT – "Tracing Skylines" – POOR BOYZ PRODUCTIONS from Cody Carter on Vimeo.