Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #152

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:

Don’t make fun of renowned Dan Brown – The Telegraph. "Possibly the best book review I have ever read. Saying more would spoil it." (Alistair for Hugh).
Creepy or Cool? Portraits Derived From the DNA in Hair and Gum Found in Public Places – The Smithsonian. "Today, when I watch a procedural thriller of a certain age, I find myself thinking, ‘one mobile phone and this whole plot collapses.’ The title of this post makes it pretty clear what’s going on. It’s not perfect–the artist is using a lot of guesswork, and only knows things like race, eye color, and propensity for weight gain. But it’s great foreshadowing. How long until our kids watch an episode of Castle or The Mentalist and shout, ‘come on, just print the killer’s face already’?" (Alistair for Mitch).
What Norway did with its oil and we didn’t – The Globe And Mail. "A nice way to go about life is: look at the things that work, and then do those things. Norway shares some important characteristics with Canada. Among other this: it’s northy, and lots of oil. But Norway seems to have been a bit smarter with what it has done with its oil, and the huge income it has generated, over the past few decades." (Hugh for Alistair).
What universal child care does for Norway – The Globe And Mail. "It’s all Norway today. Here’s an argument you don’t hear often for expensive social programs: they make your country richer. In particular, Norway has free university education, and deeply subsidized child care. Results? Norway has the most productive economy in the world." (Hugh for Mitch).
Big Data Is Watching You – The New York Times. "Evgeny Morozov is a controversial character in the online world. HIs latest book, To Save Everything ,Click, was recently published and this review in The New York Times Sunday Book Review is a fascinating read. Morozov sees the Internet from a very different perspective than most of us. And, while you may not agree with some (or all) of the things that he has to say, it’s important for all of us ‘believers’ to read the thinking of someone who hasn’t taken a swig of the Kool-Aid." (Mitch for Alistair).
The Twidiocracy – The Weekly Standard. "Maybe there’s something in the water this week. Both of my picks seem (somewhat) anti-Web. This is a rant against Twitter. Again, if all you do is think that the Internet and social media are lollipops and bellyrubs, you may be missing the bigger (and more diverse) picture. It seems like those who have access to an audience through a traditional media channel hate the fact that everyone has access to a publish button. What these people fail to realize is that the Web is what you make it. If you have too many stupid tweets in your feed, it doesn’t mean that Twitter sucks. It does mean that you suck at finding interesting people to connect to. Don’t blame Twitter." (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.