Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #464

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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 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: 

  • The Standard Model – Joyland. “This is a long piece about the 50th anniversary of the most powerful piece of scientific knowledge we have—the standard model of physics, which explains much about how the universe works. But also, it isn’t. It’s about systemic bias, and racism, and the lies we tell ourselves about genius. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was excellent.” (Alistair for Hugh).
  • What Happened After My 13-Year-Old Son Joined the Alt-Right – Washingtonian. “As a parent, I can better imagine what it would be like to drift apart from my offspring. Our job is to launch them into their own orbit, but we can hardly control whether they hit escape velocity or decay and burn up in the harsh atmosphere of the modern world. This isn’t a narrative, it’s a horror story—and cautionary tale about taking things too far in either political direction. ‘An internet chorus of alt-right sirens sings their song of American History X to my kid and he turns into the evil twin of Alex P. Keaton‘.” (Alistair for Mitch).
  • A mysterious gut doctor is begging Americans to throw out “this vegetable” now. But, like, which? – Vox. “Somehow the best way for publications to make money on the web is with the most crass, crappy adverts. Here’s part of the story of why.” (Hugh for Alistair).
  • Against Advice – The Point. “Why advice is (mostly) useless.” (Hugh for Mitch).
  • The making of Amazon Prime, the internet’s most successful and devastating membership program – Vox. “A well-worn question I get asked from business leaders is, ‘how did we get here?’ The easy answer is technology, connectivity, social networks, mobile, etc… Maybe the more ‘real’ answer can be found in these nuanced business models, and how they have directly impacted consumers. Not just the choices and brands that consumers like and want, but the complete rethinking of how they buy. What an incredible read this is. Take the time to read this… and then think deeply about what business looks like today.” (Mitch for Alistair).
  • This is NOT a Review of Hell’s Shadows by Dean Klein – Sci-Fi And Scary. “The thing that most people don’t understand about authors is the amount of time, energy and self that is put into a book. A book is not a movie, TV show or album. That may seem obvious, but think about it another way: a book is as big of a production as these other media formats, but it is (mostly) done is complete isolation… the act of one writer. A good book is a ‘many-year’ production. Authors will often compare a book to the creation and nurturing of a baby (without a partner). So, what happens when someone tells you that your baby is ugly? What a crazy story this is…” (Mitch for Hugh).

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