Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #640

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: 

• America’s Throwaway Spies – Reuters. “With the protests in Iran, Russia’s attack on Ukraine, sabre-rattling in the South China Sea, and North Korea nearing nuclear status, foreign intelligence is a vital part of national security, and can even defuse aggression when shared strategically or revealed in public. But getting inside insular countries is hard, and the people who spy are in constant danger. This Reuters report documents the CIA‘s efforts to peer inside Tehran, and the oversights that abandoned dozens who risked their lives.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Face-Blind – The New Yorker. “I can’t see faces. At least, not in my head. I have a hard time recognizing people — an almost fatal flaw for someone who runs events — and it’s almost impossible for me to visualize even my daughter’s face when I close my eyes. One of the great things about the Internet is the ability to compare things with a very specific population, and I’ve learned that this isn’t as uncommon as I once thought. This 2010 article on prosopagnosia isn’t quite how I function — Oliver Sacks definitely had it bad — but it’s a good reminder that no two humans see the world in the same way.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• We met Ata Kak, the Ghanaian dance-rap enigma back after 25 years in the shadows – Fact Magazine. “I’m going to a concert tonight for the first time in three years. Ata Kak seems like a fun place to start.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Case Closed? – On The Media. “Remember Serial, the podcast sensation that made podcasting, the true crime investigation of a teenage murder in Baltimore? Here’s an update.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse – The Guardian. “I am about to sit down and have an in-depth conversation (once again) with one of my favorite thinkers in the world, Douglas Rushkoff. He has a new book out called, Survival of the Richest – Escape Fantasies of Tech Billionaires. It’s a must-read (actually, everything he does is worthy of your attention). This is an excerpt from the book, and it paints a pretty dreary picture on the state of tech, politics, economics, the climate, and… well… basically everything. How can we solve this all? Douglas believes that we need to want to help one another. It’s just that simple. Knowing that – as humans – we are (and should be) a lot more inter-dependent. It may seem like a simplistic answer to a myriad of complex macro and micro problems, but it makes sense… and I’m on board. Team Human FTW!” (Mitch for Alistair).
• How to become an expert – Psyche. “I am a sucker for long articles like this. Could there be a more opaque word than ‘expert’? People have used it to describe me (which is extremely uncomfortable and unfounded), but then it’s used to describe others who – in my point of view – are not experts. And that’s the trap. My definition of expert is probably vastly different than yours. My inability to use it in a title in relation to others who have self-appointed themselves as an expert, could be a case of better self-marketing or it could be legitimate. Who decides? And, more importantly, how does one actually become an expert?” (Mitch for Hugh). 

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