Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #252

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:

Choose Boring Technology – Dan McKinley. “A great manifesto on why we don’t want to be surprised by the tech we rely on.” (Alistair for Hugh).
In the Age of Information, Specializing to Survive – The New York Times. “We’ve always had too much information, apparently. And we’re getting smarter. But where, asks this post, are the Edisons and Michaelangelos, the geniuses who synthesize across domains? One answer may be that we simply cope with information by specializing. Historian and physicist Stanley Goldberg said of Einstein, ’ t was almost as if he were wearing special glasses to make all that was irrelevant invisible.’ I want my glasses!” (Alistair for Mitch).
Generation X Is Sick of Your Bullshit – Gizmodo. “The best part of this Mat Honan article is the comments … wherein a series of earnest Gen Y’ers explain why Mat Honan is wrong (and why Gen X sucks). And Gen X just leans back on its sofa, with a sigh, nods, says, ’ ou’re probably right,’ closes its eyes and tries to think of that scene from Heathers instead of listening to whatever it was that Gen Y is going on about.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Cell Phones in Africa: Communication Lifeline – Pew Research Center. “Data about cell phones in Africa are always amazing to me. In Nigeria, 89% of people have cell phones, and 27% have smartphones. Meanwhile, landline penetration is near zero.” (Hugh for Mitch).
Inside Moleskine’s Plan To Sell You More Than Just Notebooks – Fast Company. “Moleskine is a company that I love. I also love Field Notes. I keep notebooks stashed everywhere. I don’t fill them up and move on to the next one. I use all different kinds for a myriad of reasons. I have a Moleskine collection. Not by decision, but, I just can’t stop… and I don’t know why. That’s a half-lie. These books scream to me: ‘put some words in here!’ My MacBook Air can give me a similar vibe, but nothing like a good Moleskine. In an Evernote world (and yes, I know they have done some work together), I wonder if there’s a huge future in notebooks. If there is, my bet is on Moleskine.” (Mitch for Alistair).
11 Books By CEOs That Will Teach You How To Run The World – Business Insider. “I was really surprised by this list (and not in the good way). I spend a ton of my time slogging through business books (it’s my genre of choice). I haven’t tackled all of these, but I have read a lot of them. Are they the best of the best? I guess that’s subjective, but for my dollar, I’d have chosen some work from people like Tom Peters and Douglas Rushkoff (to name a few) that go a whole lot deeper and wider. What would be on your list?” (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.