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: 

• Housing, money laundry, speculation and precarity – Pluralistic. “Around the world, we’re suddenly changing housing from a life’s necessity to an asset. Buying up property, then renting it out, allows multinational funds, oligarchs, and money launderers to collateralize their debt and amortize their risk. It’s also a huge loophole: The US is the only nation in the G7 that doesn’t require realtors to comply with money laundering legislation. All this, and more, broken down as only Cory Doctorow can do.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Speaking Freely: Ada Palmer – Electronic Frontier Foundation. “I loved this interview with renaissance historian, Ada Palmer. Her thoughts about privacy, data, and the unreasonable power of technology to erase the past are more important now than ever. The physical world offers permanence—when you destroy, you leave a crater, and often witnesses. But when you delete something virtual, you can remove traces surgically, editing history. A sobering read for those of us who live at the intersection of tech and society.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Growing Crops Under Solar Panels? Now There’s A Bright Idea – Wired. “I’ve been tinkering a bit with solar panels and rooftop gardening, and was interested to see this great idea for how to make space for solar panels that is beneficial for growing crops as well.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Neil Young Reveals the Secrets to Hit Records – Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum – YouTube. “I promise not to send any more Neil Young links after today (for a while, anyway), but it’s been so much fun immersing myself in his music these past few weeks. I’ve done a thorough listen to every album from 1967 through to 1991 (though I did rush through the Shocking Pinks), and I think I’m a better person for it. This interview is such a delight, Neil talking about the mechanics of making hit music in the late 60s and 70s, and how critical the (mostly unknown) producers and session musicians were. These session musicians, arrangers often write the riffs and licks that make a song a hit. In particular, his discussion of the drum track on Heart of Gold (his only #1 hit), by Nashville session drummer, Kenny Buttrey, is fascinating.” (Hugh for Mitch).   
• Brene Brown’s Empire of Emotion – The New Yorker. “I had the chance to meet and get to know Brene Brown before she became a household name. Before the bestselling books, TED Talks and even Netflix special. Brene and I definitely connected, and her work resonated me with long before the ascent of her stardom that led to this massive profile in The New Yorker. This is well-deserved, but more important is her message: Emotions are not the soft skills… they are the hard skills. In a world of big tech, skeptics and the great resignation (as it’s being called), I’d recommend that everyone spend more time with Brene. If this doesn’t pull you in that direction, try reading her book, Braving The Wilderness (or any other book that she has written).” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Is Amazon Changing The Novel? – The New Yorker. “The algorithm already knows how big the market is for your book (if you’re an author). It has known for years. When we think of Amazon, it’s almost hard to remember them as the place that people would go to, simply, buy books online. They have become so much more… they have become almost everything. And, in a world of everything, it can be hard to think of what books might mean to an engine of commerce like Amazon. And, if Amazon is so big (and book sales are – somewhat – insignificant to their shareholders), what does the future of the book hold, in a world where the company that dented the book publisher’s universe suddenly isn’t focused on that industry anymore. Read on…” (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):