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 Future Is Not Only Useless, It’s Expensive – Gawker. “I’ve been trying to understand the Web3/Metaverse/NFT noise from first principles. There’s something to it, but that thing isn’t collectible art—it’s digital identity. Just like your physical wallet, your digital one will store money and identification and receipts proving you own things. It’s that simple. But there’s a bunch of noise around the NFT bubble, and this Gawker piece is a delicious takedown.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- Santa Brand Book – Quiet Room. “If you were rebranding the jolly elf, it might look like this. Brilliant satire, and uncomfortably close to what agencies do. Plus, there’s an easter egg at the end—a link to the meeting that produced this gorgeous travesty.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- The Lock-Picker, the Lockmaker, and the Odyssey to Expose a Major Security Flaw – Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “Did you know there is a community of ‘white hat lock pickers’ who post how-to videos of lock picking to YouTube (partly in an effort to get lock manufacturers to improve their designs), and that Covid has seen an explosion of members of this community, and that a guy from Drummondville, Quebec found an easy exploit for one of the most common key-pad locks out there, and the company mostly ignored his efforts to get them to fix it?” (Hugh for Alistair).
- “Corrosive Communities”: How A Facebook Fight Over Wind Power Predicts the Future of Local Politics in America – BuzzFeed. “There’s a subreddit called awfuleverything and that’s how I feel about this story.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- Six Links Worth of Your Attention Hits #600 – Six Pixels of Separation. “I can’t just let this moment pass, so I’ll leave this usual space (where I think of a link that Alistair might like) to brag a little bit. For 11.5 years, Alistair, Hugh and I have been choosing one link for each other – never missing a week. So, 3600 links have already been shared… and there is no plan to stop. I can’t think of many things that I have done with this level of consistency, but here we are… our 600th weekly installment. It’s a true act of joy. I can’t wait to see what links they share, and I am usually quite blown away by the selection (and how they flow into one another) – especially considering the fact that we never know who’s sending what. If you’ve enjoyed these links as much as we have sourcing them for you… thank you! Here’s to my good friends, Alistair and Hugh and many more decades of link exchanges! Cheers!” (Mitch for Alistair… and Hugh).
- Brian Eno on NFTs & Automaticism – The Crypto Syllabus. “I know this about technology: I hate being dismissive about new things that seem nutty but also could also become the foundation of our future. I was there when people thought they didn’t need a web browser, email, a smartphone, email on their phone, social media, blogs, podcasting, online dating, e-commerce… and just about everything in between. There’s a current swath of criticism for all things Web3 (or Web 3.0) and many of it’s underlying technology. I love how Brian Eno thinks, so now I’m stuck at this crossroad. ‘I’ve been approached several times to ‘make an NFT.’ So far nothing has convinced me that there is anything worth making in that arena. ‘Worth making’ for me implies bringing something into existence that adds value to the world, not just to a bank account.’ With that, he’s got some interesting perspectives and I just love it when Eno muses about the future…” (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 JoelMitch 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.