Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #504

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 Google Got Its Employees to Eat Their Vegetables – Jane Black – Medium. “Nudges and incentives are good ways to get people to change their behaviors. This is an interesting look at what’s possible when money isn’t an object—but the underlying lessons are useful for society in general.” (Alistair for Hugh). 
• Face ID compatible respirator masks – Face ID Masks. “Started as a joke. Turns out there’s a real need. This is genius (and creepy as hell, but I kinda hope it catches on).” (Alistair for Mitch).
• The Professor of Denial – The Chronicle of Higher Education. “I have a theory that I can’t quite articulate, but it goes something like: modern liberalism and democracy emerged because of the proliferation of communications technology (printing press, radio, TV), where publishing information had a cost, which limited their production, meaning that ideas has to compete to get intellectual marketshare (and votes), which meant there was a real interaction between ideas and the people who held them, vying for limited infospace. But in a world where publishing is free, and info infinite, ideas don’t have to compete any more, and so can grow and morph independently of each other without the need to interact. Which means democracy won’t work any more. What will? I don’t know.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• The Super-Rich Are Being Scammed on Their Private Jets – Bloomberg. “Something tells me this was approved by an editor who was having trouble meeting her viral article quota for the month. In any case, get your tissues out for this tearjerker.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• The a16z Marketplace 100 – Andreessen Horowitz. “Looking to build the next big thing? Make sure it’s a marketplace. That was a little sarcastic. Only a little. It seems like the hottest companies that venture capitalists will throw pounds of money at is someone building a marketplace (or turning what they have into a marketplace). ‘Over the past few decades, marketplaces like eBay, Airbnb, Uber and Lyft, Alibaba, and Instacart, have become some of the most impactful companies in the world economy. Collectively, millions of individuals and small businesses make a living operating on these platforms, where hundreds of billions of dollars of goods and services trade hands each year. Today, ridesharing platforms alone account for roughly 1 percent of US household income and there are an estimated 75 million gig workers in the US, and growing, according to the Fed. By possessing powerful network effects, marketplaces can become huge economies themselves. Over time, such companies have revolutionized a series of diverse industries, from travel to food to childcare. Marketplaces are at the center of many of society’s most important trends—the gig economy, the new generation of creative work, microentrepreneurship, and beyond. There’s much more to come. As investors in Airbnb, Instacart, and many others, it’s no secret that we’re bullish on (if not obsessed with) marketplace companies.’ So… what’s your marketplace play?” (Mitch for Alistair). 
• How Saudi Arabia Infiltrated Twitter – BuzzFeed. “This reads like a spy novel. A crazy story about the extent that individuals and organizations will go to get what they want. If this isn’t turned into a novel and then a blockbuster thriller movie, I will be shocked. With that, it’s a stain on Twitter and foreign government’s spying strategies. Hard to imagine that this actually happens in real life. It just goes to show you how naive I probably am.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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