Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #329

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 most Trumpian and Clintonesque moments in the debate (according to a computer) – Tyler Schnoebelen – Medium. “I know I’m a week late on debate topics. And I have nothing to say about the VP debate. But you know what this election needs? Data! What happens when you train an algorithm on Trump and Clinton speech patterns, then ask it to rate what the candidates said during the debate? This. And it’s pretty funny.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Is Your Data Sexist? Why Bias Matters in Artificial Intelligence – Susan Etlinger – LinkedIn. “Last week I was in New York for Strata, and my head’s still spinning from all the big data discussions. Prophet‘s Susan Etlinger is often at the forefront of data ethics, and this important piece is no exception. Go ahead and google images for ’unprofessional hairstyles.’ Notice anything? The data we use to train algorithms biases those algorithms. But editing data is controversial, and curating algorithms is subjective. Data ethics, indeed.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Monsanto Agrees to Use Gene-Editing Tool CRISPR Responsibly – Motherboard. “My job in this triumvirate of link-finders is to be the chicken little/sky is falling/the world is going to hell pessimist. So, we’ve had a few links about the CRISPR technology — which enables live ’editing’ of DNA — and the amazing ways it will change things for the better. Well, if you are chicken little, you say to yourself, yeah but what if evil Monsanto gets their hands on this tech? Well, they will. Is that a piece of sky I see tumbling down!!!?!” (Hugh for Alistair).
Heavyweight Podcast – Episode #2: Gregor. “In July of 2004, a radio program appeared on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that was the strangest thing I had heard on the radio waves: Wiretap, with Jonathan Goldstein. In the first episode I heard, the host called his mother and asked her deeply personal questions about his childhood. It was the kind of thing that I had never heard on the radio before — weird & honest & vulnerable. Wiretap, amazingly, had an 11-year run on CBC, and then went off the air. Well, host Jonathan Goldstein has a new podcast, and episode #2 is a gem of a piece: about mid-life, realizing our limits, about jealousy, the music Moby sampled in his record Play, and who gave him the CD boxset those samples come from.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny – The New Yorker. “What happens when those with success nurture and curate a new breed of startups… and it works. It’s not just about those with a brave idea anymore. Now, it’s about who you know, how they connect, who else they have connected and can you attach a brand to it? Y Combinator has done just that. They have a new president. This is him. This is how he thinks. Can startups rule the world? What about Silicon Valley?” (Mitch for Alistair).
Imagining A Cashless World – The New Yorker. “Let’s get rid of the paper already, shall we? Well, it’s not just about ending the pain of jangling change in your back pocket or the filth and strain of dealing with taxi drivers who don’t want to give change and won’t accept credit cards, anymore. Moving towards a cashless society could also change the face of crime. It could also change the face of how taxes are paid (and distributed) and more. Will it work? Can it work? Maybe, it already is in other parts of the world…” (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.