Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #497

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: 

• 2019 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary – Supreme Court. “I’ve carefully avoided politics in these links, despite an abundance of things to share. But this is nonpartisan, in the most important of ways. It’s the year-end letter from the US Chief Justice, in which he warns the judiciary to hold true to nonpartisan decisions—a particularly crucial message in a time when much of the judiciary is accused of political affiliation. Again, get ready for an interesting year.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• I (28M) created a deepfake girlfriend and now my parents think we’re getting married – MIT Technology Review. “I got an Oculus Quest for Christmas. It’s qualitatively different from its predecessors. It just works, out of the box, and even a neophyte can use it competently in around five minutes. And the more we have immersive interfaces, the more people will want to live in them. Here’s another piece of fiction that sounds all too real. 2020’s going to be an interesting year for humans.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Meaning and Mayhem – The New York Review of Books. “The symbolism of the Calabrian mafia.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Adele Carpool Karaoke – The Late Late Show with James Corden. “James Corden hosts The Late Late Show. He loves singing, as evidenced in his Carpool Karaoke segments, in which James is joined in a car by a celebrity, usually a singer, and they sing together. Here he is with Adele.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Welcome to the Era of the Post-Shopping Mall – The New York Times. “I’ve spent the holidays down in South Florida. If retail is struggling, clearly, nobody told the people and tourists down here. It often takes 45 minutes to leave the shopping mall’s parking lot… and every store (from mall to strip mall to big box stores) seem popping with excitement and commerce… I’ve seen some shops not manage to understand e-commerce and omnichannel, but if this is the post-shopping mall era, somebody should tell the thousands of people who keep cramming into these many shopping malls.” (Mitch for Alistair).
• The 20 Best Works of Nonfiction of the Decade – Literary Hub. “You will be hard pressed to find a bigger non-fiction book nerd than me (especially business books). There has been way too many ‘best of’ lists when it comes to books lately. Still… it’s this kind of linkbait that I can’t resist. So I click. Most times, I like to self-gloat about how many books I’ve hoovered over time. Then, a list like this comes along. I see the title, my chest puffs up, my shoulders shift in self-pride. I just know that I’ll be perusing the list, self-patting myself on the back over how many of the titles I’ve read. Well… I’m a big enough man to admit it when I’m wrong. Dead wrong. After looking through this list, I have a lot of reading to do. Some good reading.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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