Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #214

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:

What We Can Learn From Past Anxiety Over Automation – The Wilson Quarterly. "I’m a big believer that, as a society, we aren’t ready to deal with abundance; worse, that capital concentration will ensure that the boon of automation and software will be increasingly poorly shared among humanity. I get into a lot of arguments with people, particularly stubborn everyone-for-themselves Libertarians, about such things. But I’ve also had great discussions, and several memorable ones have come from my friend Kamal Jain. He posted this riposte to one of my recent Luddite polemics. Since those who can’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it, it’s worth a read." (Alistair for Hugh).
How I made $40k within Shopify’s trial period – That Shirt Was Cash. "Saying, ‘the rate of change is increasing’ is a business platitude. It’s always increasing. But one of the things that digital channels has allowed is massive, rapid experimentation. This fairly tongue-in-cheek post details how Shirtwascash (a shoestring version of Spreadshirt) made $40K –before the trial period on its shopping cart software had even ended. Retailers of the world, take note: this is how your empires crumble." (Alistair for Mitch).
The Sci-Fi Writers’ War – Slate. "Life imitating art? The power of writing? Russian-financed propaganda? In a strange revelation about the conflict in the Ukraine, it turns out that for the past few years writers in the East of the country have been producing a small stream of dystopian sci-fi novels about armed conflicts between Russian-speaking Ukranians in the East and the Western-grazing government in Kiev." (Hugh for Alistair).
The Secret of Minecraft – Medium. "Robin Sloan takes on the amazing world of the videogame, Minecraft, and muses about its implication for everyone creating art of any kind." (Hugh for Mitch).
Jon Stewart – The Sound Of Virginity – Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. "Without a doubt, Jerry Seinfeld‘s Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee is one of the most interesting video series on the Internet today. The concept is simple: Seinfeld calls up one of his comedian buddies, they go for a drive, have some coffee and talk about life, the life of being a comedian and the awkward ways that comedians live. It’s awesome. Each and every episode. HIs latest is with The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart. It does not disappoint." (Mitch for Alistair).
I’m Ira Glass, Host of This American Life, and This Is How I Work – Lifehacker. "Is there anything better than listening to what Ira Glass and his team pull together for This American Life? I think not. As someone who creates content, we often talk about the power of great storytelling for brands. We can teach it. We can encourage it. But, the truth is, that it’s hard… very very hard… to be a great storyteller. Ira Glass is a great storyteller. How does he work? Wow, this Lifehacker piece delivers in spades. I’m a huge geek for pieces of content like this. So, when my buddy, Nilofer Merchant, linked to it on Facebook, I could not resist but to devour it… and share it with you as well." (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

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.