Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #104

93Is 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 (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so 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:

Hey, Did I Miss Anything? – Dan Harmon Poops. "Dan Harmon is the creator of the sleeper-now-giant comedy, Community, which is pushing many of the edges of the sitcom format (evidence a recent episode done entirely as an 8-bit cartoon game). But he’s not the writer any more. And it came as a bit of a surprise to him. Here is perhaps the most candid glimpse into Big TV of recent years, where Dan explains how it went down, in characteristically disarming style." (Alistair for Hugh).
Rockstar condemns Max Payne 3 cheaters to play only against each other – Ars Technica. "Dealing with cheaters can be a nasty business. I love it when companies come up with simple answers to complex problems. In the case of Rockstar Games, this worked perfectly: cheaters are forced to play one another, and get a taste of their own online mischief. Elegant? Yes. But as Ars points out, this could have an unintended effect: ‘we’re a bit intrigued by the potential for the ‘Cheaters Pool’ to evolve into a new mode of play that some players might actually prefer.’" – HT to my Strata co-chair Edd Dumbill for finding this. (Alistair for Mitch).
Confirmed: US and Israel created Stuxnet, lost control of it – Ars Technica. "Stuxnet was a new kind of computer virus, that in 2010 was discovered to have infiltrated an Iranian nuclear facility (which was cut off from outside networks) – and infected the hardware control systems. The worm got in through a thumb drive. There was speculation at the time that Stuxnet had been developed by the US and Israeli militaries. It was." (Hugh for Alistair).
The Curse of Knowledge – The New Republic. "Science writer, Jonah Lehrer, get put through the ringer in this rather grouchy review of Lehrer’s new book on creativity and the brain, Imagine: How Creativity Works." (Hugh for Mitch).
FunnyJunk is threatening to file a federal lawsuit against me unless I pay $20,000 in damages – The Oatmeal. "I’m no fan of litigation (who is?). I’m not sure about you, but if I was faced with a lawsuit, I would love to have the tenacity to handle it this way. And, if you think The Oatmeal is all fun and games, this dude has already managed to raise over $165,000 dollars for his charities. That sounds pretty serious to me. This one would make Kickstarter proud and it’s another reason why I love the Internet: you learn who you true fans are and what they’re willing to do when you need your back covered." (Mitch for Alistair).
If I’m not a writer then I’m nothing – Letters of Note. "Over the past while, we’ve all shared a link from the Letters of Note website. This is another beautiful one, but I’m more interested in drawing more attention to this site, in general. The idea of someone publishing all of these fascinating notes, letters and dialogs from a day and age when communications was not easy, mobile and immediate makes one truly marvel at the power of the written word: especially when it’s expensive and complex to send a message and not as easy as 140 characters or less with a flick of the thumb." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it’s your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

Mitch Joel

Mitch 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.