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:
- An incomplete list of skills senior engineers need, beyond coding – Camille Fournier – Medium. “Camille Fournier packs a lot of wisdom into everything she writes. Her blog is basically a book on managing technical resources; this list should be part of an interview for every senior technical candidate.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- Astroturfing, Dr. Evil, and N.Y.C.’s Elite Schools – z3dster – Medium. “I skimmed Ryan Holiday‘s book Trust Me, I’m Lying as part of research for Just Evil Enough. It’s a pretty simple thesis: The economics of blogging means it’s easy to get a shocking, and likely untrue, story covered by minor bloggers; and then you can work your way up the PR food chain to get larger sites—desperate for clicks—to use those smaller ones as references. Here’s a great dive into uncovering a fake grassroots campaign, because it turns out content management systems like WordPress are leaky as hell.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- Evergreen, Ever Sun, Ever Moon – tumblr. “If you like (or hate) Jane Austen books/movies/TV, you may well get a kick out of this. (This is – I think – images from a Discord conversation posted on tumblr? Or whatever, something internetty. It’s funny anyway).” (Hugh for Alistair).
- Nokia’s Collapse Turned a Sleepy Town in Finland Into an Internet Wonderland – Quartz. “How the collapse of Nokia unleashed thousands of smart engineers to work on other cool things, in a small city 120 miles south of the arctic circle.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- Modern Music’s Death By Auto-Tune – Rick Beato – YouTube. “I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos about creativity, culture and how people breakdown their process. Part of it is that it inspires me. A bigger part of it is that I believe (maybe foolishly) that within these dissertations and conversations I will finds answers that will unlock where the world is going. So, will understanding auto-tune change the future of business? Maybe. This is great breakdown of how a technology used to make a product better (and by product, I mean ‘music’, in this sense) has actually removed the humanity from it while also creating something else. Fascinating. Take a watch…” (Mitch for Alistair).
- Leonard Cohen’s Legacy With Adam Cohen – Broken Record Podcast. “I will admit that I was never a huge fan of Leonard Cohen (which, I know is heresy for a Montrealer who loves art, music and culture), but I have been turning the corner in the past few months like a full 180 degrees). From watching documentaries, to listening to his music, to exploring conversations about Cohen and his life. In this podcast, his son, Adam Cohen, sits down with famed music producer and record label big wig, Rick Rubin. There’s so much in here about creativity, expectations, how we live, how the world sees us, how we see the world, and so much more. This is a very rich conversation about a musical and poetic legend and the shadow it can cast. Listen to this… and I hope you find the same Leonard Cohen rabbit-hole that I’ve been digging down deep into…” (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 ;):
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.