Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #255

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:

The Policy Machine – Slate. “As we automate more of our lives, machines and the algorithms that drive them make more and more decisions. And while this scales well and cuts costs, it’s also horribly inhuman. This Slate piece is a sobering look at what it’s like to be up against algorithms, and a harbinger of the inequity in welfare, policing, and child services.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Story Hackers: How the Hottest Startups in Silicon Valley Are Using Content to Fuel Their Growth - Contently. “Content Marketing is hot. Buzzfeed‘s taken our love of cats and Listicles and turned it into real traffic. And big brands do it really, really well. Here’s a great explainer on how some of today’s tech darlings are engaging their audiences.” (Alistair for Mitch).
23 Shipping Container Home Owners Speak Out: “What I Wish I’d Known Before Building My Shipping Container Home” – Container Home Plans. “I love shipping container homes, at least, I love the idea of them. A bunch of people who’ve built them tell you what you should think about before you start your container house project.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Peter Thiel on what works at work – The Washington Post. “Maybe the most influential voice from Silicon Valley, Peter Theil, talks about sociopathic bosses, what a useful MBA would look like, the disconnect between Silicon Valley and mainstream America, procrastination, and the bogus ‘science of success’ (among other things!).” (Hugh for Mitch).
Cancer-stricken mother writes on her present and her family’s future – Calgary Herald. “My biggest fear is letting my family down. It’s what drives me to work harder (without question). Even when I make a mistake at work, I feel like I am letting them down. I need some work. I know. This weekend is Mother’s Day. I don’t know anyone who works harder than moms do. Working moms? Even more. Single working moms? I’m bowing down (no idea how they make it work and keep it together). This story brought me to my knees. Get some tissues ready. I can’t imagine something scarier than what this individual is facing. It puts a different slant on Mother’s Day, the feeling of letting your family down, and is a reminder about what is important in our lives. This person has much more courage than almost anybody else that I know.” (Mitch for Alistair).
Solos Under Siege: Country Radio Combats ‘Bored’ Listeners By Cutting Guitar Parts – Billboard. “This sounds like something out of The Onion. Sadly, it’s reality. I have a better idea: let’s ask authors to stop writing books and get better at Twitter and Snapchat. Is this article for real? If an artist thinks that their music needs a guitar solo and the audience likes it, what’s the problem? Have we just decided to cut them out because we’re assuming that listeners are bored? Something is really really wrong right 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.