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: 

• Tiny Subversions. “I spent a bunch of time looking at Tiny Subversions’ interesting projects, like Make Someone. I really love the rise of Internet tech artists, who just put interesting stuff on their website for us to chew on. This is no exception.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Very First Webcam Was Invented to Keep an Eye on a Coffee Pot at Cambridge University – Open Culture. “Speaking of Internet weirdness, and the fact that we all live in front of rectangles speaking into cameras now, here’s a piece of early Internet lore. How far we’ve come; I really hope we can reclaim some of the absurd edge cases of the Internet as we race to make it convenient and commercially viable. So few people understand what’s going on behind those apps; this is a good reminder.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• New Microsoft Study of 60,000 Employees: Remote Work Threatens Long-Term Innovation – Inc. “Remote work, after a few bumps at the beginning of the pandemic, has been pretty good for my little company. We’re hybrid now, built up some really good remote processes. Some of us go into the office for various reasons, but mostly to ‘get out of the house.’ What I have found, however, is that there is certain ‘ hinking’ work that is so much better done in person; that thinking work is the core driver of innovation. Microsoft has done an extensive study of remote work, and found that it’s good for short term work, but long-term innovation takes a real hit.” (Hugh for Alistair).   
• Airplane! Is Considered One of the Best Comedies of All Time. But 40 Years Ago No One Saw it Coming – Esquire. “Amazing that 1980 saw three of the most beloved comedy movies of my youth: Caddyshack, The Blues Brothers, and Airplane!, which to everyone’s surprise became the sleeper hit of the summer.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• “Rewilding Your Attention” – Clive Thompson – Medium. “While nostalgia can also spark new ideas and directions, I love this article because it touches at the core of where my ideas come from: the weird. The weird music. The weird comic books. The weird graphic novels. The weird books. The weird magazines. The weird documentaries. The weird podcasts. I have weird habits too. Like wandering the library (or used book store) stacks looking for books that are not in my field of interest. I find it very inspiring to walk around shopping malls (checking out the packaging of products that I would never buy and stores that I would never shop in). We tend to stick to our lanes. This bores me. Find the weird and rewild yourself…” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Inside the rise of influencer publishing – The New Statesman. “When a publishing house buys a book, there is this inherit promise that they can take an unknown work of text and bring it to a mass audience. This has worked for a long time. Not just in publishing, but in a myriad of media formats. I’ve had journalism/writing students come to me for advice on getting published as well. Both of these models seem so antiquated to me, because of technology and social media. Want to write? Write! Publish online, keep at it and build an audience. This article looks at this angle with an interesting perspective. Why would any publisher take risks when they can simply find writers who have already proved that they can both create content with consistency and find an audience? Now, this begs the question: Is that the best/only way to win at publishing? Probably not, but it’s a smart place to start.” (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):