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Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #474

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 Battle of Grace Church – The Cut. “A riot among the one percent: Everyone loves some Schadenfreude. And when it’s New York elites against nouveau-riche Instagrammers, well, I’ll taste that guilty pleasure. Can’t wait for the Netflix series.” (Alistair for Hugh).
20 Years of Blogging: What I’ve Learned – Anil Dash. “We had Anil Dash at Startupfest this year. He’s an Internet OG—how many of you have been consistently blogging for 20 years?—and has fascinating opinions on everything from Prince to diversity to startups. This is a good post not just for what he says, but for what he links back to, and how his views and the world have changed in that time.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Tiny Apartments and Punishing Work Hours: The Economic Roots of Hong Kong’s Protests – The New York Times. “I remember landing in Hong Kong 1995 and thinking: ‘my God, this is the sci-fi future.’ I found out – only later – that Hong Kong was where much of the original Blade Runner was shot, and for good reason. Reading this about Hong Kong housing, and thinking about our own housing markets, I wonder whether this is the future for us all?” (Hugh for Alistair).
The Launch – The California Sunday Magazine. “The most thrilling, and disturbing, article about an apple you are likely to read this week.” (Hugh for Mitch).
A World Without Mad Magazine – The New Yorker. “A world without Mad Magazine is a world that I don’t want to live in. I was sad, mad and upset when Mad Magazine first collapsed. It played a huge part of my teenage (and pre-teen) development. It was my first window into parody. It was my first true love, when it came to various types of comics and approaches to the art form in one place. I read the magazine. I collected the pocketbooks and I loved Alfred E. Neuman as the host of the show (and a nerd like me). I was excited when the brand made a comeback, and then quickly let down by the quality of the newly launched content. So, this is not a surprising end. It’s just sad that in a day and age where parody is a bigger part of comedy and comics than ever before, that Mad Magazine couldn’t find its footing. Still… let’s never forget!” (Mitch for Alistair).
One of this year’s Booker Prize nominees is just a 1,000-page-long sentence – Quartz. “Talk about a run-on sentence! All kidding aside, I love this. How can we experiment more with words, sentences, structure and what, exactly, is a story? I have yet to read this ’sentence.’ Is it even possible for one sentence to be one thousand pages long? I think my elementary school English teacher might take issue with this. I, for one, welcome our new literary overlords.” (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.