Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #181

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:

• Bjork Explaining Television Is Everything You’d Imagine Bjork Explaining Television to Be – The Atlantic. "I have seen pixies and they are real." (Alistair for Hugh).
• Changing Minds and Changing Towels – Psychology Today. "One of the things I spend a lot of time talking about these days is how to get people to change their minds. Not just the data that shows they should, but actually getting their behaviors to change, too. It’s a tough problem, because we often make decisions subconsciously. Habits that have served us well in the past guide us in the future, as any dieter or nail-biter will tell you. Here’s a good example of this in practice: What’s the best way to get a hotel guest to re-use their towels? What kind of message compels, rather than just informs? ‘simply changing a few words on the standard sign, guests… were 26% more likely… to recycle their towels.’" (Alistair for Mitch).
• Sony Seeks ‘SmartWig’ Patent for Hairpieces With Sensors – Bloomberg. "Sony vs. Apple vs. Google vs. Amazon. Sony 1, everyone else, 0. Let the battle for our technology future begin." (Hugh for Alistair).
• Battle of the Band: Jawbone UP vs. 3M Tegaderm Band-Air – Carol Torgan. "Band-aid vs. Jawbone UP. Band-aid 1, everyone else, 0. Let the battle for our technology future begin." (Hugh for Mitch).
• Climate Change Is Creating Anxious Fish – The Atlantic. "What do you make of a title like this? Do you think that humans are the only ones stressing out over our ever-changing world? Well, it turns out that a lot of the bad things human create and try to dispose of is now stressing out the fish. That could make you laugh, but it’s not all that funny at all. Stressed out fish will do erratic things. The truth is that we can all cry about climate change all that we want, and the harm that it causes is not as direct as we may think (pollution, etc…). Another proof point that everything on our planet is connected and that we have little knowledge of the depth of the damage that we are creating as we try to evolve." (Mitch for Alistair).
• The Ghostwriting Business – Priceonomics. "There seems to be this strange, somewhat, newish trend of young and up n’ coming business book authors who brag about the fact that they not only didn’t write the books with their names on them, but that they actually don’t read that many books at all. It bothers me. But, I think it bothers me only because of my love of writing and creating long-form content. I’m probably more jealous than anything else. From the reader’s perspective does it matter? Who cares if the author spoke the words to someone, or if someone came up with a voice for an individual who struggles with writing but has a great story to tell? The audience isn’t being duped anymore. More often than not, the ghostwriters are getting their names on the covers and – to a lesser degree – becoming celebrities as well. Still, I struggle with it…" (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.