Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #151

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:

Nikola Tesla’s Amazing Predictions for the 21st Century – Smithsonian. "Some of these were spot on (the EPA, robotics); others were just plain weird or evil (eugenics, forced sterilization.) But given that most of Tesla‘s life looks like that of a displaced time-traveler from the 21st century, it might be worth thinking about, anyway." (Alistair for Hugh).
The Matrix Retold by Mom – Pixels Per Second. "One of the most challenging things in marketing and product design is cognitive overhead, which Bump‘s Davie Lieb has written eloquently about recently. Each of us approaches something with a lot of context, and when we try to market it to others, we fail to see the world as our customers do when they lack that context. Here’s a good example: A guy watches The Matrix with his mom, then tries to get her to explain it, then animates the results. Every product designer and copywriter needs to watch this." (Alistair for Mitch).
Allowing Knives on Planes? Yes, It’s a Good Idea – Bloomberg. "As a relatively frequent traveler, I have seen my fair share of security line stupidity, but I’ve never really seen objections to security policies articulated as clearly as this: every dollar and minute you spend on security stupidity is a dollar and minute you don’t spend on doing security right. Security done right can be counterintuitive, and confiscating knives is probably a big waste of time, says Bloomberg." (Hugh for Alistair).
Every page is your homepage: Reuters, untied to print metaphor, builds a modern river of news – Nieman Journalism Lab. "Something I’ve noticed over the past year: a whole lot of very good, very interesting design thinking going into (some) news/magazine sites. Here’s a preview of Reuters‘ new look. The ‘homepage’ isn’t so exciting, but I love what they’ve done with individual articles, turning them each into a home page in a very clever way." (Hugh for Mitch).
The Money Shot – Vanity Fair. "Facebook buys Instagram for about one billion dollars in the same month that Kodak files for Chapter Eleven protection. Just that part of the story alone is enough to send you on a long, strange trip through the world of innovation, digitization, technology and the new economy, but what really happened? How did a deal like this go down? What can other startup learn from Instagram’s meteoric rise and how deals in Silicon Valley get done. This Vanity Fair piece deconstructs Instagram’s 18-month journey from idea to sale, and it’s one of the most compelling stories about our brave new world that I have read in a long time. Keep a notebook handy for this one." (Mitch for Alistair).
How a First-Time Author Got a 7-Figure Book Deal – The Blog of Tim Ferriss. "This one should take you about an hour to read (if you take it seriously). Maybe longer is you really want to score a major book deal. Not a week goes by that someone, somewhere doesn’t contact me for counsel on how to score a book deal, but I think that this blog post offers more insight, wisdom and knowledge than anything I have been through personally (or have read in a book, magazine article or online). The always-amazing Tim Ferriss hands the reigns of his blog over to John Romaniello to tell his amazing story of how he conquered the book publishing industry, but what takes this post from amazing to extraordinary and ‘must-read’ is Ferriss’ additional commentary and links (of which you should click on and read as well). Not to be outdone by Ferriss, the one hundred-plus comments from his community also contributes tremendous color and depth to this topic. So, before you head on out and self-publish your book, you may want to take a read of this." (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.