Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #29

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, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for each other (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:

Temptations and Self-Control – Dan Ariely. "Dan Ariely is always fun to listen to. This video is a great example: he looks at how bad we are at delaying gratification, and how we can trick ourselves into being better behaved. It’s sad that we need to hack our jungle-surplus wetware to get it to do what we want." (Alistair for Hugh).
Disney Tackles Major Theme Park Problem: Lines – The New York Times. "Turns out, managing the happiest place on earth is a lot of work. Disney knows exactly how much you’ll wait, and when you’re getting impatient. They can even cue a parade to move you to a less crowded area. As we move into a world where machines watch–and try to optimize–our every move, will malls, banks, and employers start trying to optimize our lives? This piece in The New York Times might be a peek at tomorrow’s ‘optimized’ dystopia." (Alistair for Mitch).
10 Business Models That Rocked 2010 – scribd. "Preso from the Board of Innovation analyzing 10 successful business models from the Web in 2010." (Hugh for Alistair).
The Web Is a Customer Service Medium – Ftrain. "A brilliant essay about the nature of the Web, and why it’s so difficult for traditional media people to understand: The (successful) Web is driven, claims Paul Ford, by this question: ‘Why Wasn’t I Consulted.’" (Hugh for Mitch).
4 Predictions for Web Design in 2011 – Mashable. "Everyone is so excited about iPhone apps or an iPad-friendly version of their website that they are, in essence, forgetting how important their website still is to their business. Avinash Kaushik (the Analytics Evangelist at Google and author of Web Analytics – An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0) has a great line: ‘don’t write cheques with Social Media that your websites can’t cash.’ The truth is that I am slowly watching the rotting decay of most websites as the corporate communications and marketing teams shift their focus to mobile, Facebook, Twitter and beyond. Avinash is right, it’s a big mistake. The challenge now, is that web design has evolved too. This article should inspire you to take a look at look at your current website, and to start thinking about how it plays into your overall business strategy." (Mitch for Alistair).
The Handwritten Letter, an Art All but Lost, Thrives in Prison – The New York Times. "Dear Hugh, as someone who has a complete passion for the written words – in all of its shapes and forms – I thought it would warm your heart to know that the art of writing a handwritten letter has not disappeared in our world of zeroes and ones and touchscreens…" (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.

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.