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: 

• Invisible Roommates – Everyday Experiments. “If you’re a parent, you may have been subjected to the smarmy first-world-problems cartoon drama of talking animals that is The Secret Life of Pets. What about the everyday objects that surround us? Part of an IKEA-funded experimental series, Nicole He‘s Invisible Roommates project is ‘an augmented reality (AR) application that would make visible how the devices in your home interact with one another.'” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Twitter Has Turned Us All Into Trolls – Ed Zitron’s Where’s Your Ed At – Substack. “Ed Zitron‘s not wrong. Should the court of public opinion be able to deny someone employment, forever, because of something they did? What’s the statute of limitations on public notoriety? The simple mechanics of Schadenfreude at scale are frightening, and this is a good discussion of where we should strike a balance.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Voodoo Macbeth – Wikipedia. “In 1936, a 20-year old Orson Welles mounted a production of Macbeth in Harlem, the entire cast African-American actors, set in a fictional Carribean island. The production was dubbed Voodoo Macbeth. The rehearsals were picketed by the Harlem Communists, worried that ‘Welles had cast black actors in order to create a comic or burlesque version of Shakespeare.” Instead, it was, by all accounts, a truly excellent production, with opening night drawing three thousand more people than could be seated in the theatre, a sold-out run, and near-universal praise in the press. Said Welles in 1982: ‘By all odds my great success in my life was that play. Because the opening night there were five blocks in which all traffic was stopped. You couldn’t get near the theater in Harlem. Everybody who was anybody in the black or white world was there. And when the play ended there were so many curtain calls that finally they left the curtain open, and the audience came up on the stage to congratulate the actors. And that was, that was magical.’” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Men At Lunch Iconic Photograph Documentary – Docuspace RP – YouTube. “Ever seen that picture of eleven construction workers in New York, circa 1932, sitting on a beam at the top of an unfinished skyscraper, with Central Park and Manhattan spread our 800 feet below them, just eating their lunch? Here’s a documentary about that pic.” (Hugh for Mitch).  
• How a rise in remote employment may impact post-pandemic work life – PBS NewsHour. “What will a ‘real’ return to work look like. I see many organizations shifting to a fully-vaccinated and fully-operational work environment (like it was before the pandemic). I also see many stories of 3-4 days in the office, and the rest done remotely. I also see many stories about businesses going fully remote. I’ve heard stories about people who can’t wait to get back to the office. I’ve heard stories of people who never want to go back to the office again. It’s a mixed bag. This leads me to believe that it will be a very lumpy road back. I watched this news segment, and one thought kept popping up in my mind: Nope. It’s not going to be this or that… I don’t think anybody really knows. I believe we will also experience a gap between what leadership wants and what the team wants (tension will ensue). It will be interesting.” (Mitch for Alistair).
• The Age of Reopening Anxiety – The New Yorker. “I’ve been very respectful of the rules during the pandemic. Whatever it takes to get back to something that feels ’normal’ (which, admittedly, seems to be a moving target these day). The view in Canada is (clearly) very different than the view in the United States (in terms of what’s opening and who’s doing what). Things are still fairly tight up here, even as it begins to open up. The light at the end of the tunnel is definitely getting brighter and approaching quicker with each passing day. I’ve had numerous conversations with some very smart and high-performing executives who are grappling with real anxiety. The thought of ‘going back’ will not be an easy path. Read above for the impact on business. Read this for the impact on individuals.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends ;):