Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #147

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, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) 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:

• Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About – Mil Millington. "Following the breakout success this week of the Tumblr blog ‘reasons my son is crying‘ I remembered the genius of Mil Millington. Reminders both that the Internet can be equal parts cathartic outlet and mean-spirited shaming." (Alistair for Hugh).
• Teton Gravity Research Aerial Reel – The Bay Area in 4K – Teton Gravity Research. "My sister was on a movie set a few weeks ago that used a drone instead of a skycrane to get a shot. Far cheaper, and more flexible, than the alternative. These guys take it to a whole new level. Teton Gravity Research takes some of the best shots of this sort of thing. If I miss the Bay Area I’ll just watch this." (Alistair for Mitch).
• What Your Profile Picture Says About You (Hint: You’re A Douchebag) – Jesus Christ, Silicon Valley. "If you don’t like salty language, don’t read this. Otherwise, a very funny overview of profile images from the wild. I checked Alistair’s, Mitch’s and my profile pics… and Mitch and Alistair have done well. I think I failed." (Hugh for Alistair).
• One on One: Jason Merkoski and the View of E-Books From the Inside – The New York Times. "An insider view of Amazon‘s ebook empire. Fascinating. To read." (Hugh for Mitch).
• Does BuzzFeed Know the Secret? – New York Magazine. "When humans face machines in any arena that has a dollop of creativity, you can rest assured that some feathers are going to be ruffled. I love Buzzfeed. It’s a great place to go if you just want to escape into random forms of content with varying levels of quality in journalism. When founder, Jonah Peretti, announced that he was going to deep-dive into more serious forms of journalism (like politics), people scoffed. I don’t think they’re laughing anymore. It’s not so much that Peretti found the best writers or nailed the perfect headline, it’s that he uses data (big data, small data, web analytics, etc…) to better understand what works and what doesn’t. As his audience scales and he’s granted access to more data, he can build algorithms to keep those people engaged. In the end, it would appear that great writers are important… just not as important as a better alogrithm on top of it." (Mitch for Alistair).
• Why David Mamet Wants to Direct Ads Again – AdWeek. "There was a time (not too long ago) when I could recite lines from the David Mamet films, Glengarry Glen Ross, House Of Games, Homicide and The Spanish Prisoner. As someone who loves the written words, I am in love with the cadence and prose of David Mamet. The way his characters deliver dialogue and sentiment can typically, stop me dead in my tracks. Well, it looks like Mamet is going to direct some television ads (again). I often make the case that people don’t hate advertising… they hate bad advertising. I’m sitting here – hoping and praying – that Mamet delivers the goods, because here’s the thing: whenever someone known as a creative artist turns to advertising, eyebrows rise and people wonder if they’re desperate for cash because the art of advertising hasn’t done that good of a job convincing the rest of the world that it is worthy of being called ‘art.’ The irony isn’t lost on me: the branding industry has a branding issue." (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.