Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #300

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:

Mergence-Accommodation Conflict: Why Bad 3D Literally Makes You Sick – Sports Video Group. “I’ve tried good VR (the HTC Vive is absolutely stunning). But bad VR is off-putting. Some pundits even think it will accelerate ageism, because the older you get the more easily you develop motion sickness. One problem is that while things might look near or far, your brain knows they’re all on a screen near your head. This is also why augmented reality goggles that let you see the real world, but layer things atop it, can be worn for longer. This piece explains it better than I can; and if you think it’s esoteric, wait a year.” (Alistair for Hugh).
This Eerie Virtual Flood Will Scare You Into Giving A Damn About Climate Change – FastCoDesign. “I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at AR and VR this year, but some of the most amazing interactive installations are just Big Art. Here’s one that ran in The Netherlands, and simulated actual sea levels of global warming using lasers and lenses. I’d love to see this set up in major urban areas; when Florida found out all its garages were underwater, political sentiment would change pretty fast.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Julie Rubicon – Facebook. “Robin Sloan got a pretty freaky story posted in his encrypted private Dropbox, and not only is Facebook watching, but they already know what you are going to think about it.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Modelled After Ants, Teams of Tiny Robots Can Move 2-Ton Car – The New York Times. “I happen to know that Mitch is crazy about robots. So, he’s probably seen this. But, if not, the moral of this story is that when we welcome our robot overlords, they might just be much smaller than we thought they would be.” (Hugh for Mitch).
I, narcissist – vanity, social media, and the human condition – The Guardian. “It’s one thing to think that Facebook, YouTube and whatever else digital is just an extension of media. It’s not. We are media. And, in doing so, we are reprogramming our brains. Some may think that is not a big deal. I don’t agree. Brains don’t just reprogram. We’ve been engineered in a very specific way, and any change to that will cause a whole lot of psychological trauma. Think social media is all about likes and sharing? Think again…” (Mitch for Alistair).
The Final Months of Brooklyn’s Most Cluttered Bookstore – The New Yorker. “What a mess! A glorious, beautiful, treasure trove of written words mess! How many bookstores like this used to exist in your neighbourhood? Many are saying that the indie bookstore is seeing a resurgence. Something tells me that this is not what they’re talking about. That being said, I love book caverns like this and – as I travel – I always hope to find a retail book jewel like this one. While I have never been to this one, I am sad to see it go.” (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.