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Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #636

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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: 

  • Unheard Voice: Evaluating five years of pro-Western covert influence operations – Stanford Digital Repository. “There’s a lot of news about foreign governments influencing domestic politics in Canada and the US. But it’s easy to forget that most of the big Internet platforms are in the US, and that the West has plenty of interest in shaping foreign affairs. In July, Twitter and Meta took down a covert propaganda network that tried to promote US interests overseas. The two platforms then handed over the data to Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory, who dug in. Here’s what they found.” (Alistair for Hugh).
  • air up. “A relative from England visited me last week. We talked about things that haven’t made it across the cultural gulf. Air up is one. As a species, we really are at peak unsustainable things, and this is as good an Exhibit A as any. In their own words, ‘Air Up is so much more than a water bottle — it’s a hydration revolution’ that ‘transports carefully-crafted flavors to olfactory receptors.’ Yeah, this is an air freshener you attach to your water bottle. But that copywriting is just… 👌.” (Alistair for Mitch).
  • The Incredible Story of the US Army’s Earth-Shaking, Off-Road Land Trains – The Drive. “As part of my engineering degree, I had to take mining course, mining and minerals, and I recall being astounded by the size of the trucks used to haul ore: in pictures the trucks look more or less like Tonka trucks, until you see one with a person standing beside them. They usually stand (with protective helmet on) about half the diameter of the wheel. In the 1950s the US and Canadian governments decided to build a series of 65 radar stations all along the Canadian arctic coastline, called the DEW Line. The problem of how to haul material to build them was solved, in part, by giant land trains.” (Hugh for Alistair).
  • Rick Beato on the Theory of Popular Music – Sean Carroll’s Mindscape. “Physicist and podcaster Sean Carroll talks to ex-music-producer and current YouTuber, Rick Beato, about music.” (Hugh for Mitch). 
  • The Office Is Dying. It’s Time To Rethink How We Work – The Ezra Klein Show. “Is the workplace of tomorrow a brand new and exciting opportunity, or is how we work so radically changed from life before the Covid pandemic? This is a question that fascinates me. And, as described in articles and shows that I have shared in previous weeks, I do not know where I stand on this… and I vacillate on how I feel about it… daily. In this podcast, Ezra Klein has a fascinating conversation with the husband and wife writing dynamos (Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel) behind the book, Out of Office – The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home. It’s a great look into why things are so confusing when it comes to work and where we do it.” (Mitch for Alistair).
  • The Rise of Workplace Surveillance – The Daily – The New York Times. “Here’s another podcast about work and office culture… but this is much more horrific than the link above. It paints a bleak picture of what some companies are doing in the name of productivity and efficiency. It also creates a counter-point for those that think working from home is a much better life-balancing way of living. I’m not sure I could work for an organization like the ones mentioned in this show, and I’m doubtful that any of the managers at these companies would want their work lives so dramatically surveilled. What a scary and fascinating look at work from home… with a 1984  Orwellian slant that will scare you right back into the office…” (Mitch for Hugh).

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