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Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #453

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:

De novo origins of multicellularity in response to predation – Nature. “Dry title? Check. Astonishing results? CHECK! Evolution seems awfully theoretical sometimes; one of the biggest hurdles for many people is how we went from single-celled to multicellular life. Turns out, this is trivially easy. Researchers introduced a predator into dishes of single-celled organisms; within 750 generations, multicellular life appeared in two out of five dishes. ‘Our results show that the transition to a simple multicellular life cycle can happen rapidly in response to an ecologically relevant selective pressure.’ Take that, theories.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Tinder Svindleren – VG. “Literally, ‘Tinder Swindle.’ This isn’t in English. It’s videos. It’s also an incredible story of an online swindle that should basically be a Netflix docudrama already. Watch it, and you’ll figure out what’s going on just fine. Some things don’t need translation.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Counter-Histories of the Internet – Public Books. “The internet was devised largely by utopian dreamers, who imagined a world of free flowing ideas, building and sharing culture. Turns out we got something very different. But, perhaps more of us need to think about how we can rebuild those ideals into the corners of the web that we might be able to influence.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Gustav Klimt in the Brain Lab – Nautilus. “Art, sex, neuroscience.” (Hugh for Mitch).
Nerdy Jobs – Entertainment Earth’s Toy Evangelist, A Real Job That Is Really Influential – Syfy. “There is a lot of conversation about influencers and influencer marketing. Paying someone to talk about you product, which is not something they’re deeply attracted to (and have no real connection with in relation to their work) is one thing… this story demonstrates the other side. Everyone who thinks about influence, paying for influencers, influencer marketing, etc… should give this a read. Trust is not transferable. Those with the real trust truly do create the gold. Influence isn’t about paying someone to talk up a product or service. This is influence. (Mitch for Alistair).
How Disney Built Star Wars, in real life – TechCrunch. “This article may have been written for Star Wars nerds. This article is probably more relevant to everyone who works in a business today. The devil is in the details. The success is in the details. Spend some time with this. Then, ask yourself some really serious questions about your own commitment to doing something that will have an impact. This is legacy… and there’s no arguing that Disney doesn’t look to be cutting any corners. The experience looks spectacular. And, who is not interested in building a better experience? Just take my money.” (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.