Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #121

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 (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

The Silent History Is The Most Fun Ebook Yet – 52 Tiger. "Every time I make time to sit down with Hugh, he makes me reconsider what books are… and what they can be. Not just enhanced content, but true interaction. Well, this time I’ve found something for him. The Silent History is an interesting mobile app, that’s also a book, which has locational triggers. Think geo-caching, applied to narrative. And it’s crowdsourced, too. Awesome." (Alistair for Hugh).
I am Alexander Rhodes – the Suspicious Onlooker, aspiring actor, and #8 overall on IMDB thanks to Reddit. AMA – reddit. "Here’s an interesting story of unintended consequences. It seems IMDB chooses photos for its movie profiles based on their popularity. That means an actor who’s more notable gets more visibility. Well, leave it to Reddit to break the Internet once again. This is a multi-part story: first, Alexander Rhodes, AKA "Suspicious Onlooker" in the forthcoming, Jack Reacher, told Reddit he was in the film. Which made the Redditor Horde visit the site. Which boosted his ranking on the film. Which resulted in another story. Which drove more traffic. Which meant he ranked higher than, say, Tom Cruise, the movie’s star. An interesting tale in algorithms gone wrong, and the power of Internet fame." (Alistair for Mitch).
Amazon goes backward to move forward – The Globe & Mail. "Amazon is an amazing company, because there is so much focus on what they do. If you’re in the ebook space, you may have complained (as I have) about the terrible typography on Kindles (the new ones are much better), and wondered why it is that Amazon didn’t fix it. One of the reasons is this: Amazon defines the core benefits to its customers of its products, and focuses relentlessly on those benefits, to the exclusion of other things. For Kindle: easy access to books anywhere, any time. Typography takes a back seat. This short article explains Amazon’s early product development phase: the product manager writes a press release for the finished product, listing product benefits, and iterates until the story is exciting enough. Then they start building." (Hugh for Alistair).
The Most Revealing Job Interview Question – Referly. "Great interview question for when you are hiring: ‘I want you to explain something to me. Pick any topic you want: a hobby you have, a book you’ve read, a project you worked on-anything. You’ll have just 5 minutes to explain it.’" (Hugh for Mitch).
Recalibrating Therapy for Our Wired World – The New York Times. "Have you ever been in therapy? It’s a process. For most, it’s a long process. Is there an app for that? We live in a world of instant gratification. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at your smartphone. It’s blinking, buzzing and telling you stuff. Constantly. Live. In real time. There’s a new email, Twitter‘s waiting for you, your friends have updated their Facebook status and more. Those little pings are giving you immediate feedback and gratification. So, what’s a therapist to do? How does psychology and helping people change in our new digital era? Read on…" (Mitch for Alistair).
The Elephant In The Room – The Huffington Post. "When I was a music journalist, I had the chance to interview Jason Bonham. Jason had a very famous father: legendary Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham. At the time of my interview, Jason was releasing a new album for his band, Bonham. Jason – like his dad – is a drummer. As rumors stirred over the years of a potential Led Zeppelin reunion, no one ever doubted that Jason would fill his father’s shoes. While that moment never really materialized besides some one-off shows or appearances, I would – over time – wonder what it was like to be Jason. Don’t get me wrong, he’s done fine, but it can’t be easy to be the son of someone that many consider to be one of the greatest rock drummers of all time. Let alone being his son and trying to establish yourself as a credible drummer in your own right. Now, imagine what it’s like to be the daughter of author Kurt Vonnegut… and a writer as well." (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.