Articles

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #522

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, Interesting Bits, 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 Web Falls Apart – Baldur Bjarnason. “In the early days, we thought the price of social media was seeing a few ads. Turns out that the price was more like a complete upheaval of democracy as we know it. The biggest online platforms combine global reach with ravenous algorithms desperate for our attention. So, it’s no surprise that as these modern-day town squares struggle with free speech, surveillance capitalism, and regulation, they’re coming apart. Dozens of new, niche platforms have sprung up to bridge our social distancing. This piece from 2019 is interesting in hindsight.” (Alistair for Hugh).
6 lessons learned to get ready for the next wave of Covid – DJ Patil – Medium. “Since we started doing this nearly a decade ago, we’ve studiously avoided political links. And I’ve been trying to avoid Pandemic-related ones, too, since there are far better sources than me. Well, one of those sources is DJ Patil, who I’ve come to know over the years through O’Reilly Media. DJ was Obama’s Chief Data Scientist; and he’s spent the last hundred days working tirelessly with California, and governors of many states. For free. Oh, and he helped found LinkedIn‘s Data Science team. This clearly stated post doesn’t point blame—it points the way forward. I really hope our government up here in Canada is reading it too.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Tikanga- Fulu Miziki Kinshasa Music Warriors – YouTube. “A happy thing that I discovered this week was Fulu Miziki, a band from the Democratic Republic of Congo who play on instruments built from trash, and wear crazy costumes.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Fulu Miziki – Kinshasa’s Music Warriors – YouTube. “Once was not enough, so here’s some more from Fulu Miziki!” (Mitch for Hugh).
The travel industry will survive COVID-19, but with big changes – Fast Company. “You might think that airbnb is in trouble because of Covid 19. You would be wrong. You may think that flying by plane somewhere is going to be the same as it was (but with masks and temperature checks). You would be wrong. So much will change about travel until we can get this pandemic under control, and the virus (somewhat) resolved. This has had a massive (and surprising) impact on the the work that I do… and my reason for being. So… what phase of grieving does this find me in? Acceptance… maybe?” (Mitch for Alistair).
Being David Sedaris – BBC. “This one goes back a ways (it was recorded in the late 1990s and last close to three hours long), but it’s filled with brilliant moments of insights. What does it take to lead a creative life? David Sedaris knows. I’ve posted links about him (and his writing) here before… for good reason. If you need to ‘get away from it all,’ but want to understand the value of simply living your best life, this would be a fascinating place to start… If you like this and have access to his MasterClass, I’d tackle that one too.” (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.