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Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #450

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:

This guy holds the Guinness World Record for collecting spreadsheets – Fast Company. “I love retro as much as the next guy, but this is a bit excessive. I’m sharing this for a specific thought I had when I first read it: Once upon a time, there were dozens of spreadsheets, shipped on disc. Today, there are two (Excel and Google Sheets) plus some aspirants (Airtable) and also-rans (Numbers). The way that software goes from novel to foundational—and with it, the variety in the market—is astonishing. So is how moving from software (ship-and-forget, updates each year) to services (a new version every time you reload the page) changes the industry. How far we’ve come.” (Alistair for Hugh).
MoonPie Wrote the Best (Worst) Ads You Didn’t See on the Super Bowl – AdWeek. “There was a big advertising event recently that ran sports in between the ads. These days, I’m less interested in ad design and more in how we co-opt other platforms (anyone remember the Old Spice live ads, built with input from reddit and other corners of the Internet?) You probably already saw this, Mitch, but with that criteria, MoonPie beat everyone. They sourced and published weird ad scripts, then made one and shared it—carefully avoiding the name of the notoriously litigious Big Sporting Event—to the immense gratitude of social media.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Capitalism’s New Clothes – The Baffler. “How technology and ‘surveillance capitalism‘ will reshape society. ‘Forget the cliché that if it’s free, ‘You are the product. You are not the product; you are the abandoned carcass.'” (Hugh for Alistair).
No thank you, Mr. Pecker – Jeff Bezos – Medium. “Those of you who think we don’t live in a virtual reality simulation are kidding yourselves. Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, has been told to stop publishing stories critical of the National Enquirer in the newspaper he owns (The Washington Post), or the National Enquirer will, maybe, publish dick pics Bezos along with steamy text messages. Bezos takes the initiative and writes a blog post (on Medium), addressed to David Pecker, CEO of National Enquirer’s parent company. Title: ‘No thank you, Mr. Pecker.’ Someone must be scripting this universe we live in.” (Hugh for Mitch).
Mystery mud on new volcanic island baffles Nasa scientists – The Guardian. “We have seen it all… until we see something that we have never seen before. How fascinating is this? We’re so locked into fame culture (politics and celebrities and scandals) that we don’t spend enough time and attention on stories like this. A new island? Three years old? New flora and birds? Mysterious mud? This isn’t science fiction. This is science!” (Mitch for Alistair).
Spotify, Music, and Podcasting: The Meteor is Coming – Tom Webster – Medium. “When it comes to podcasting, my good friend Tom Webster is one of the smartest. This week, podcasting got some serious validation (and further pushed towards mainstream). This is good news for people like Hugh and I (who have been toiling away in the medium for well over a decade). What does Spotify’s move mean? Is this just the beginning? Here are some of the best insights on audio/podcasting and how it’s changing, evolving and (who would have guessed it) becoming a truly dominant form of media (again).” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

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.