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: 

• Text Is All You Need – Ribbonfarm Studio. “A longform piece on what it means to abdicate personhood. Venkatesh Rao says we’ve had six ‘Copernican moments’ that force us to reconsider our place in the universe, from the heliocentric solar system, to relativity, and now to machines that can converse as well as humans. I kinda like his conclusion: ‘I think what is left is the irreducible individual subjective, anchored in dubito ergo sum. I doubt therefore I am.'” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Psychology Of Human Misjudgement – Charlie Munger. “Charlie Munger died late last month. The longtime collaborator of Warren Buffett, he’s widely loved for aphorisms and observations. Here’s a talk he gave in 1995 on all the reasons why humans make bad decisions, nicely animated. I’m always amazed at how gullible we all are, even when we’ve been warned.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• As California’s Redwoods Recover From Fire, An Astonishing Fact Emerges – San Francisco Chronicle. “Nature is amazing. In 2020, California wildfires destroyed huge stands of 1000+ year old redwoods, left them a kind of cemetery of 300-foot tall charred towers. But six months later, tiny buds started to appear. The buds had been buried in the bark of the trees as an insurance policy, and drew on decades-old stored carbon and sugars that the trees had held in reserve. These trees and forests can only take so much, but many have survived even these horrendous wildfires.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• The Vast Majority Of Americans Support Housing Policies That Are Widely Illegal – Business Insider. “North America is in the throes of a housing crisis, Canada is probably worse off than the US. Housing just costs too much, with the combined increase in real estate prices and increased interest rates on mortgages squeezing everyone. There are so many factors that lead to this state of affairs, but one is housing and zoning policies in North America, which privilege single family dwellings over other forms of housing. In the US, about 75% of residentially-zoned land prohibits anything but single-family homes. This is costly, restrictive, and ends up making for less pleasant cities. Most people want different rules, ones that allow for apartments near train stations, for hotels and offices to be converted to housing, allow multi-family buildings on any lot, more affordable housing on church land, more offices near stores and restaurants, backyard apartments, etc. Many of these sensible things are illegal in much of North America. Incidentally, one of the reasons Montreal is such a great city is that at least in much of the city, our zoning supports these kinds of denser, mixed use neighborhoods.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• How To Build A Better Motivational Speaker – The New Yorker. “While this is a profile of professional keynote speaker, Jesse Itzler (who is beloved because he walks – and runs and raps – the talk), it is also a deep dive into the business world of professional speaking. So, if you speak for a living (like Alistair and I do) or if you’ve never been exposed to the strange ways that this business works (and, yes, I have found myself in multiple situations over the almost-twenty years that I have been doing this, texting a peer with the simple words: ‘Is this really a job?!!’). For the record, there are all kinds of professional speakers and while ‘motivational speaker ‘is a big component to this business, I would tag myself more as a business meeting presenter… I’m less motivation (rah rah rah rah) and much more business insights (‘ahh, I could bring that to my own work’) kind of speaker. Still, here’s a great story about what it takes to truly be an ‘expert’ and someone worthy of owning the stage…” (Mitch for Alistair).
• The 138 Best Book Covers of 2023 – Literary Hub. “I usually shy away from ‘best of…’ lists, but ’tis the season (as they say). I’m also a sucker for a great book cover. And, in a world where so many book covers are afterthoughts or derivative of someone else with a bestseller, nothing gives me more warmth and that feeling of ‘oh, this is so well done’ as a great book cover. Here’s a massive run through over one hundred of the best best covers of the year, and many of them are inspiring. And, yes, we always judge a book by its cover, regardless of the old trope that we should not.” (Mitch for Hugh). 

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

Charlie Munger: The Psychology of Human Misjudgement from Tiny Capital on Vimeo.

Before you go… ThinkersOne  is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement  and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.