Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #575

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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 Map of Mathematics – Quanta Magazine“This is an amazing exploration of mathematical concepts. My Just Evil Enough co-author, Emily Ross, shared it with me as we discussed ways to map out the contents of the book. I don’t pretend to understand a lot of the map — but it’s a beautiful piece of interactive media to explore.” (Alistair for Hugh).
  • Two economies. Two sets of rules. – O’Reilly. Tim O’Reilly has a knack for taking complex ideas, and boiling them down to their core causes. As a writer, I find his ability to do this absolutely infuriating: He’s just so good. This piece is no exception—it tackles wealth disparity in North American capitalism, and lays out a clear set of principles by which we measure the wealth of companies. ‘ ..unlike a bet in a lottery or at a racetrack, in the vast betting economy of the stock market, people can cash out their winnings before the race has ended,’ he begins. But the sky-high valuations of tech firms far outlast the horizon by which we can guess at their success. ‘You’d have had to wait almost 1,400 years to get your money back if you’d bought Tesla stock this past January and simply relied on taking home a share of [Tesla’s] profits.’ This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand wealth and disparity.” (Alistair for Mitch).
  • Researchers develop world-first weight loss device – University of Otago – Twitter. “Diet aid or torture device? You be the judge, but Twitter has the answer.” (Hugh for Alistair).
  • ‘At first I thought, this is crazy’: the real-life plan to use novels to predict the next war – The Guardian. “In which a group of literature professors get hired by the German defence forces to predict wars based on novels.” (Hugh for Mitch). 
  • Confronting the dark side of Canadian history – Frontburner – CBC. “We just celebrated Canada Day, but it wasn’t much of a celebration at all. If you’re not from here, you may have noticed a lot of orange and many posts highlighting the indigenous people. This podcast brings to light only a handful of the very difficult conversations and then choices our country must face. From the podcast: ‘Indigenous people have spoken of deaths and unmarked graves at residential schools for years. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission also wrote a whole volume on the issue. Still, many Canadians are shocked. Today we look at why that is, with the hosts of The Secret Life of Canada.’ There is much sorrow and work to do.” (Mitch for Alistair).
  • Days of Rage: An In-Depth Look at How a Mob Stormed the Capitol” – The New York Times. “I am one to never post anything political, but seeing as I did that on my last post… I may as well get this all out of my system. Here’s is a very powerful and well-done piece of journalism. It cuts beneath the headlines and into the actual timeline of how one country stormed their own capital. This is a gripping documentary and (very) disturbing to watch. People are angry. Politics continues to fuel this anger. Here’s a taste of how that’s all working out.” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on TwitterFacebook, 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 ;):