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Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #634

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:

Rick Steves’ The Story of Fascism – Rick Steves’ Europe – YouTube. “This shouldn’t need much explanation. Events of recent weeks have been fomenting for years; even up here in Canada, a bunch of anti-vax protesters, having lost their main reason to protest, decided to try and arrest the Peterborough police force, backed by the self-declared Queen of Canada who pulled up in her (presumably royal) RV. It’s easy to dismiss fringe nonsense, but as this hour-long documentary shows, that’s how Fascism starts. History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes, and this sound sounds awfully familiar.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Most of Scottish Wikipedia Written By American in Mangled English – Motherboard – Vice. “File under you-can’t-believe-the-Internet. I didn’t know Wikipedia even had a Scottish version, but it does. And it’s not actually Scottish. Turns out a ‘self-professed Christian INTP furry living somewhere in North Carolina’ has written over 23,000 articles, and made more than 200,000 edits, on the site. Using a mashed-up accent—peer-to-peer is ‘peer-tae-peer’—the impact is so widespread there may be no option but to start from scratch.” (Alistair for Mitch).
This be the curse: Philip Larkin’s big problem – The Spectator. “I have, I admit, read about various celebrities and their member size (Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra are two famous wielders of large wieners), but it’s never really occurred to me to consider the literary implications of a well-endowed poet. Philip Larkin, apparently, had a big one; apparently this did the opposite of what a porn habit might lead you to suspect: he was shy and hesitant in his lovelife (and poetry), and Nicola Shulman argues that this fact should be central to our understanding of his work.” (Hugh for Alistair).
‘That’s it? It’s over? I was 30. What a brutal business’: pop stars on life after the spotlight moves on – The Guardian. “Whatever happened to Terence Trent D’Ardby? And many more.” (Hugh for Mitch).
Has emotional transparency gone too far or is oversharing at work a good thing? – WorkLife. “I’ve always believed that this was a fascinating topics to better understand. Hopefully, we are becoming more open (and honest) and can bring our full-selves to work – each and every day. With that comes many conflicts (personal and corporate). For the personal: How much of my true self do I really want my work colleagues to know (I mean, it’s not like they’re all family and friends, and I should be entitled to some level of personal privacy while bringing my whole self to work)? For the corporate: Yes, we want you to bring your whole self to work, but we also need to keep the drama and politics and everything else at bay because… well… it’s work and there’s work to do… and there’s that old saying: ‘It’s not personal… it’s business…’ (which is a saying that I have always hated). So… are we all being too transparent in our world or work and commerce?” (Mitch for Alistair).
What we gain from a good bookstore – The New Yorker. “Much like the myriad of pieces I have shared here about libraries, we need to careful if we believe that bookstores are simply a place to buy books (or that Amazon is an easy replacement of the bookstore). These are falsehoods. Bookstores are cultural hubs and an integral part of our communities. We need to look beyond the spine of dead trees and see these outposts as a place of retail refuge in a world where fast fashion and tchotchkes reign supreme. Can you find culture in retail? I believe the bookstore has more to offer than Nike when it comes to actual culture.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

Mitch Joel

Mitch 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.