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:
- World’s Fastest Train – Shanghai Maglev at 431km/h (268mph) – Wayne Yeung – YouTube. “One of the things I love about traveling abroad is seeing how other countries innovate on public transit. North America’s love of personal transportation and quirks of its geography have stalled the development of communal transport. I stood on a street in Germany and saw pedestrians, bikes, cabs, a tram, and a train go past all at once. But for some reason, here at home we’ve gaslit ourselves into thinking we have the best transportation in the world. To counter that, here’s a video of a Maglev train in Shanghai hitting 431 km/h. Who needs a plane flight when a train will do?” (Alistair for Hugh).
- Wheel running in the wild – The Royal Society. “Ever feel like you’re on an endless treadmill? Maybe you just like it. Researchers set up a hamster wheel, designed to give domesticated pets some exercise, in the wild. Turns out lots of creatures — including not just shrews and rats, but even slugs and frogs wanted a turn. Slugrace is the new ratrace.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- Lessons From an Architect in a Time of Crisis – The MIT Press Reader. “Doing less, building less, or less-often, replacing less frequently; building to last, to reuse. These all are better strategies for the environment than (simply) building green, or deploying green technologies. How to rethink architectural practices for a future we all want to inhabit.” (Hugh for Alistair).
- The Superheroes of Beautiful Kinshasa – Blind Magazine. “The Democratic Republic of Congo has some of the richest natural resources in the world (cobalt, coltan, diamonds, gold and oil), and yet is the eighth poorest country on the planet. In the poverty-stricken, trash filled streets of Kinshasa — capital of a country let down by its leaders, exploited by the rest of the world — has emerged a collective of artists, transforming trash and themselves into the fantastical, beautiful nightmare of Ndaku ya. La vie est belle.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- How to Grade Papers Written by AI – Douglas Rushkoff – Medium. “When new technology arrives, I am always curious to know what Media Theorist (and one of my favorite thinkers) Douglas Rushkoff has to say. He’s also an academic, so this article really brings it home in a more personal way. If an artificial intelligence can now cogently write essays and papers for kids in school, what is a teacher to do? The answer is (maybe) more technology or (maybe) a different way to teach/assign work… and, obviously, a little bit of both and many other things. Here are some thoughts from Rushkoff who is on the frontlines of this, as technology (once again) changes the rules about how we learn, what we need to learn and (maybe) what learning actually is.” (Mitch for Alistair).
- The end of the high school essay – Seth Godin. “Once we’re on the topic of ChatGPT, artificial intelligence and doing the work, he’s another (equally good) perspective from Seth Godin on what happens next. It’s no surprise that Seth’s approach and answer to the challenge is to do the opposite of what we’re currently doing: ‘When we’re on our own, our job is to watch the best lecture on the topic, on YouTube or at Khan Academy. And in the magic of the live classroom, we do our homework together.’ And, while, he goes deeper and more philosophical than this, I’m left wondering how the educational system will truly act in a world where kids are grouped by age (not learning level/skill) and ranked (mostly) by memorizing and regurgitating as the metric for getting to the next grade or school level.” (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 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.