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: 

• How Game Dev Blues Led to a 300 Page Book on an ‘Alien’ Toy From 1979 – fanbyte. “The Japanese word Otaku refers to ‘a person having an intense or obsessive interest.’ And this is one hell of an obsession. Remember Alien, the terrifying R-rated movie? Well, they made a kids’ toy. And then a game developer wrote a 300-page book (Hideous Plastic) about it. That seems pretty Otaku to me.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• I tried the Elizabeth Holmes schedule, and here is how it went – The Washington Post. “I try to avoid paywalls, but this is worth it. Also, this is how I feel about all that lifehack advice stuff. Fake it ’till you make it wasn’t just a business mantra, apparently.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• What Slime Knows – Orion. “Did you know that slime mold can tell time, solve mazes and ‘learn’ patterns? What if all this time we’ve been worrying about AI taking over, and the real threat is a slime mold uprising?” (Hugh for Alistair). 
• What is your job and how much do you get paid? – reddit. “A wild reddit thread with people self-reporting their jobs and salaries. The range is of course astounding, but also the jobs that are surprisingly highly paid (eg: ‘Drive yard truck for Walmart. Make 10k a month or 120k a year’) and those that are paid poorly (eg: ‘Walmart stocker, $15/hour, about $20k a year’), and those just grossly underpaid (eg ‘I am a paraprofessional in an elementary school. I spend most of my time in a self contained Kindergarten – 5th grade classroom of mostly ‘non verbal’ students with autism…. I make around 20k a year. I love my job, but the pay is insulting.’).” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Top Authors Share Their Must Reads – Pocket. “This may be cheating… so sue me. One of my favorite (and most used) apps is Pocket. It’s where I save, tag, share, curate, and read almost anything and everything online. I don’t know how I would function without it, and it’s where I go – each and every week – to choose what I will be sharing here, within this post. I just love it. So… here’s a slew of links from the writers behind Pocket’s Best of 2021 and the articles/stories that they couldn’t help but save and share…” (Mitch for Alistair). 
• Yes, Social Media Can Sell Books. But Not If Publishers Sit on Their Hands – Jane Friedman. “This week, The New York Times published a really powerful article about followers/fans and how they often don’t convert into book sales (Millions of Followers? For Book Sales, ‘It’s Unreliable’). This is a rabbit-hole topic for me. No doubt. I see this as: One thing doesn’t equal another. A great speaker may not be a great author. A great YouTuber may not be a great author. Great books often don’t get bought (or read), regardless of who the author is. This idea that an audience giving someone attention for one thing will automagically divert that attention to something else is (somewhat) absurd. In short: I think it’s a magical unicorn that can be a great musician AND a great author. Both are very different skillsets that require a lot of work, luck and time to do well… to do both – at that kind of performance level – is rarified air. The wrong thinking that shines through in this article, is that publishing professionals believe that an audience will follow someone with a following anywhere. They won’t. Many people have commented on this article, but I really like Jane Friedman’s take on it.” (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):