Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #457

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: 

• How tax brackets actually work – Vox. “I remember a time when Schoolhouse Rock! taught a generation of Americans (and their eavesdropping Canadian neighbors) how government worked. It feels like we need an update on simple explanations of things like tech, finance, statistics, critical thinking, and more. This is a pretty good example of a simple explanation that figures front and center in current political discourse.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Sparkle Unicorns And Fart Ninjas: What Parents Can Do About Gendered Toys – NPR. “If I’m completely honest, half of my reason for using this is the amazing headline. But the other half is something I’ve struggled with as a parent; my daughter likes Beyblades, Pokemon, WOW and robots. Yet it feels like toy companies haven’t got the message. Some studies have shown that design can increase female adoption (pastel-colored lego; hiding the wheels on the Wonder Workshop robots) but this is something entirely different, and it’s surprising that it’s increased in recent years.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• The European Copyright Directive: What Is It, and Why Has It Drawn More Controversy Than Any Other Directive In EU History? – Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Uh-oh, Europe has a new copyright law, and it could be a disaster for the web as we know it.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• A Three-Day Expedition To Walk Across Paris Entirely Underground – Longreads. “There is something so fascinating to me about the underground engineering needed to keep huge cities such as Paris working, and the idea of (illegally) traversing the entire city using this infrastructure is the highest kind of adventure, that I will happily read about because I will never do it!” (Hugh for Mitch).
• The Enormous Numbers Behind Amazon’s Market Reach – Bloomberg. “Whenever anybody mentions Amazon, I feel like they don’t truly understand what Amazon is… and what Amazon does. I just came across this article – and I know how much of a sucker Alistair is for data visualization – so this should rock everyone’s world. It’s one thing to hear about their numbers – separately and in many different articles or news programs – it’s another thing to see it laid out like this. Behold the massive-ness that is Amazon…” (Mitch for Alistair). 
• Maybe becoming a poet just for the praise was not a good move – Literary Hub. “I don’t think that this article is just for poets… or writers. I think that this article is for anybody who wants their work to be appreciated. It takes a lot of effort to make a decision like this. I, for one, always wanted an audience for my work. It begs the question: am I doing it for the audience or because of the content. You may think that there’s an easy (maybe even an obvious) answer here. It is not that easy.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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