Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #632

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: 

• Stephen Fry in support of Extinction Rebellion: ‘Something has to be done’ – Extinction Rebellion – YouTube. “Carbon is nature’s perfect battery. Nothing stores energy better than hydrocarbons, and on its own, growing and burning things is a completely closed cycle. Nature has been ‘charging’ the carbon battery for 3.5 billion years, and we’ve ‘drained’ much of it in less than a thousand years, filling the atmosphere with more carbon than nature can absorb. Oh, and nature’s ‘battery’ grows its own solar cells. That’s going to be hard to out-innovate. A far bigger, more existential, problem is that we’re using up the battery. Even if we stop producing carbon, the only way humanity becomes a sustainable technological civilization is if we use less energy than we can capture from the sun (as solar power, sustainable logging, hydroelectricity, and so on). This is a pretty simple truth — it’s just that we don’t like saying it out loud. I spent last weekend working on a manifesto for a climate innovation conference, trying to think through new ways of framing the climate crisis that is now pretty clear for all to see. I found a ton of excellent resources, and really liked this talk from Stephen Fry, who tackles the sense of futility we all feel head on. Well worth the time.” (Alistair for Hugh).
  
• Politics & College – Farrah Bostic – Medium. “I am a huge fan of Farrah Bostic, and she’s become a friend over the years. Most people tweet their outrage when they disagree with something; Farrah runs a survey to prove her point. In response to Scott Galloway saying states’ positions on reproductive rights wouldn’t have consequences for their educational institutions, she decided to find out. She does studies like this for a living, and conducts them well. Her conclusions: ‘Colleges and universities in states that are making themselves famous for abortion restrictions, a lack of gun restrictions, and an intention to roll back rights for the LGBTQ+ community should be very, very concerned.'” (Alistair for Mitch).
• A California professor spends his summers living on an 80-square-foot boat and sailing through America’s river communities. Here’s a look at how he built the floating cabin with just $5,000 – Business Insider. “Every summer I go camping with my family on some private land, not zoned for a house. I’ve built a couple of simple outdoor structures, this year a camp kitchen. Next year maybe I will try my hand at building a shanty boat (!).” (Hugh for Alistair).
• The AI That Disrupts Radiology Won’t Read X-Rays – Future Health – Joel Selanikio. “Fascinating window into the front lines of the kinds of domains, and ways in which, AI will have transformative impacts, sooner than we expect.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Is Scott Galloway the Howard Stern of the Business World? – The New York Times. “I promise that I had this article locked and loaded for Alistair long before I saw his choice of links for this week. My point (which might be swayed based on Farrah’s article above) was based more on the idea (and the hope?) that intellectuals are the new rock stars. I like this idea. I’ve often wondered why first editions of business books rarely have much collectible-like value (they should) or why people don’t clamor to smart words as much as they do to rock stars, chefs and TikTokers. Maybe our world will (and should) change?” (Mitch for Alistair).
• James Acaster being chaotic good on Channel 4 Shows for (Nearly) 30 Minutes – Channel 4 – YouTube. “Another staple of a proper Montreal experience is the Just For Laughs comedy festival. Yes, they were a client of mine (many eons ago)… and, yes, I am still friends with many of the leaders and creative visionaries who have developed the festival into a global platform for comedians. A personal favorite comedian of mine is James Acaster. If you haven’t seen his special, Repertoire, on Netflix… well, just stop everything and watch that first. I had the chance to see James live and in person last weekend (and, it was the second time that I’ve seen him live). He is original, different and doesn’t let up – each and every time. I was dying of laughter the entire the entire time. I’m just a huge fan… who can also harness the power of YouTube to watch hours and hours of British television appearances that he’s made over the years. Here’s just an amuse bouche…” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.