Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #245

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:

When You Are the Adversary – Quinn Norton. “I met Quinn Norton at Foo Camp a few years ago. She was serving homebrew limoncello (with an Aperture Labs label) to all comers, and telling stories. But it wasn’t until afterwards that I realized just what a fearless storyteller she was, having ventured into thorny topics like Occupy and Aaron Swartz. In this hour-long talk at HopeX, she speaks about digital privacy–not for Edward Snowden, but for smaller attackers. ‘Yes, the big bad guys still matter, but fighting a billion little bad guys probably matters more.’ A thoughtful hour on privacy.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science? – National Geographic. “There’s been a huge push-back against vaccine deniers since measles made a reappearance in North America. But, most of the rebuttals have used science to try and change behavior, and that’s precisely the wrong approach: it actually makes people dig in more. This National Geographic piece looks at the roots of unscientific thinking. Like it or not, if you’re a scientist and you want to change the world, you have to deal with the messy minds of humans.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Why reading and writing on paper can be better for your brain – The Guardian. “I’m a digital reader, and while I love a lot about reading ebooks, I’ve been thinking lately about all the things ebooks do badly. I’m not sure that ‘reading on paper’ is the necessary answer, but we have a long way to go to design digital ebook reading experiences that accommodate for the weaknesses of screens, while incorporating more of the benefits of digital. Anyway, turns out that paper is better for your noggin.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Scrawled Insults and Epiphanies – The New York Review of Books. “One of the things that ebooks handle badly is notes readers put in the margins.” (Hugh for Mitch).
Lockheed Martin’s new fusion reactor might change humanity forever – Sploid. “This world of ours will require a lot more power and energy (especially with all of the issues that oil has caused us over the years). We also want life to be a lot more like science fiction, right? Well, this is another one of those fascinating pieces about what some of the world’s biggest corporations are doing to plot the future. I don’t, necessarily, feel like this is all being done for the good of all… it’s obviously being done for capitalist reasons, but it’s still interesting to see these bigs problems being tackled. And, we all know that a fusion reactor sounds like the right kind of energy to get me one of them X-Wing fighters!” (Mitch for Alistair).
Leonard Cohen’s Montreal – The New Yorker. “One of the most iconic figures of our time. One of the most interesting cities in North America. How culture weaves through this person and the city he grew up in… and how it transcended the back alleys of the famed plateau area that inspired him so much. This happened in my backyard. It’s just a few blocks from where I am writing this. We’re all pretty lucky to live here.” (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.