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: 

• The Lesson Of The Moth – The Writer’s Almanac. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how all the motivations our ancestors had, the vices like fatty food and fornication, are just a tap away. We can click for food, porn, or weed; we can play games where we’re the center of the universe. Stuff we used to strive for is abundant, and we’ve lost our ability to strive. Maybe that’s the ennui of a digital, real-time world. I guess I don’t post poetry often, and I don’t remember where I came across this, but it’s beautiful. ‘But at the same time i wish there was something i wanted as badly as he wanted to fry himself’.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Dad Who Vlogs His Holidays – Sarah Woolley – X. “Time for a palate cleanser. Sarah Woolley has been sharing videos of dads recording themselves. I’ve linked to a particularly excellent one of a grandfather recording a vlog of his cruise for the grandkids, but there are hundreds of these, in one long thread. They’re delightful, and a reminder that for all the toxicity and ageism on the Internet, there’s also connection and authenticity and lasting memories.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Data On Education And Wages Don’t Show Systemic Racism In Canada: Study – National Post. “There is a lot about our zeitgeist that I find uncomfortable. Largely, that we seem to keep making some outrageously large societal changes without a clear sense of the data. Here’s some data that suggests good news about Canada and how systemically racist we are or aren’t. These data seems to suggest that, at the very least, being non-white itself won’t make you less or more likely to succeed in educational attainment or economic success.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Comedians Only Care About Comedy – The Atlantic. “I’ve always loved comedy, but it was the 2002 Jerry Seinfeld documentary, Comedian, that really opened my eyes to the craft of comedy. It is perhaps the most naked of art forms: People can pretend to like a Jackson Pollock painting, but if you tell a joke and people don’t laugh, there’s nowhere to hide. What was also fascinating about that movie was the degree to which, ‘the only thing that matters is the laugh.’ For many comedians, truth, loyalty, morality are all out the door if there’s a laugh to be had. Here’s a new book that examines how comedy is made.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Artificial General Intelligence Is Already Here – Noema. “This is contentious… it is political… it is curious. Since the emergence of ChatGPT, the question about AI’s ability to truly think and act like a human (or better) has been hotly debated. It is not something we can easily toss aside as hype and grandstanding. Really (really) smart people – like the authors of this article – sit at the vanguard of this technology. They are developing it… they truly know its innards more than someone like me. Now, be forewarned, there are equally smart technologists that are extremly dismissive of the stance taken in this article. The ones who would disagree with this premise go so far as to argue that most of this generative AI is just a clever web interface able to mimic intimacy with a knowledge base that isn’t even as good as Wikipedia on a really bad day. What does this mean? Take everything with a grain of salt, but it’s quite possible that The Matrix may be a documentary, after all…” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Meet The Renegades Of The Intellectual Dark Web – The New York Times. ”In the past few weeks, I have shared content from independent thinkers like Eric Weinstein, Sam Harris, the Triggernometry Podcast and more. I had not dug deep into the backgrounds of these individuals. But, when I did, I discovered this article from 2018. It turns out there is this interesting ‘collective’ called the Intellectual Dark Web. Who knew? What do they do? What do they stand for? There are some traits (and there are many differences and divided arguments). Typically, they oppose identity politics, political correctness and cancel culture. These people tend to be from both left and right sides of the table… and are always up for a debate or verbal throw-down. Like comedians without the comedy? Interesting times…” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

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