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Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #489

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 Toxic Bubble of Technical Debt Threatening America – The Atlantic. “In software, technical debt is when you take a shortcut. You know you’ll have to return to the thing you’re building later, because it’s brittle and won’t last. If you’re a startup, this often makes sense—speed and robustness are a tradeoff. The public sector does this too (exhibit A is the perennial orange cones and deep potholes of our native Montreal.) But if you’re dealing with life-threatening, mission-critical things, technical debt can kill. Using California’s forest fires, and PG&E‘s rolling blackouts, Alexis Madrigal argues that the US is facing a ballooning bubble of such debt, and it’s a real threat.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Data Voids – Data & Society. “Search engines want to give you relevant results. Generally, they’re pretty damned good at it. But as they become a vector for misinformation—did you know 10% of kids at twelve ‘alternative schools’ in Toronto aren’t vaccinated, largely because of parents believing fake or debunked stories?—there’s an arms race between disinformation and search. When there aren’t good results, bad ones rush in to fill the void. This ‘data void’ occurs with breaking stories, uncommon terms, and more. This can be manipulated (for example, by bringing back an outdated term and flooding it with your content when people search for it). More good work by the team at Data & Society—but also food for thought for any marketer trying to capture market awareness.” (Alistair for Mitch).
This is your eye under a microscope – Physics & Astronomy Zone – Twitter. “Wow. An eye as seen through a microscope.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Condom production line at Fuji Latex Company – Machine Pix – Twitter. “How a condom is made.” (Hugh for Mitch).
Leaders Don’t Hide Behind Data – MIT Sloan Management Review. “Seth Godin normally publishes daily on his blog. The title of this article caught my attention. I started reading it, and the voice sounded familiar to. I was (semi) surprised to find that it was Seth’s article. Is management a form of hiding? Henry Mintzberg might agree.” (Mitch for Alistair).
The Slowness of Literature and the Shadow of Knowledge – The New Yorker. “This is a deep and heavy piece. As are most things written by Karl Ove Knausgaard. How long does it take to read a book? How hard should it? Whether it’s literature or science, we are often faced with content that is not readable. What does this mean? What should we do? Here’s a very fascinating (and different) way to think about what it means to write about literature and science… and how the world reads it.” (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.