Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #338

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:

How to encrypt your entire life in less than an hour – Quincy Larson – Free Code Camp. “Just because you haven’t done anything wrong, doesn’t mean you should keep things private. I think I’ve already shared an amazing video from a year ago that points out how the winds of political change can turn quickly: In the 1940s, Russia was our ally in fighting to free Europe from World War II; a decade later, we had McCarthyism. If you watched that, you may find this useful.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Fuck Work – Aeon. “We live in interesting times, as encroaching automation means the old scorecards may not be useful. America is still a manufacturing powerhouse, but it isn’t employing people to make things the way it once did; and the US didn’t invest in competitiveness. Absent a sea change in what it means to be ‘productive’, scapegoating globalization and setting up trade barriers won’t do much good. This is a thoughtful read.” (Alistair for Mitch).
The Most Disruptive Transformation in History – Richard Florida – Medium. “I’ve seen variations on this map, and this idea in various places, and it does feel – more than ever – that it explains our current political world: the split between city/country is roughly speaking what’s growing wider. I read one stat about Brexit, that 50 years ago 3% of UK residents had college degrees; today about 50% do. And the Brexit split (like the Trump split) is largely between college vs not-college. And it’s not just a political split, it’s a divergence in our fundamental understanding of the world we live in. How we fix it is… a question. Maybe we’ll find the answer.” (Hugh for Alistair).
All my dumb questions, December 2016 – Paul Ford – Medium. “Are you wondering what the future will bring? Has your basic understanding of our universe been upended? In case you don’t have any questions, Paul Ford can provide some for you.” (Hugh for Mitch).
How Humans Became ‘Consumers’: A History – The Atlantic. “Have you ever asked yourself, ‘why am I in business?’ People – entrepreneurs – will give you all kinds of answers. Here’s what it boils down to: consumers. OK, now, let’s go deep here… why does our world have consumers? What is the role of everyday buyers? Where did they come from? Deep, right? Here’s a great and insightful read that may get you thinking just a little bit differently about the world of business… and where it came from.” (Mitch for Alistair).
15 Pocket Tips and Tricks to Master Your Reading List – Zapier. “I read a lot. I know that you do too. On top of reading, the hard part is saving, reading it later, organizing it and on and on. In the early days of the web, my buddy, Joshua Schachter, co-founded Delicious. It was an amazing social bookmarking tool that allowed you to save, share and organize the massive amounts of content that was being created. Now, the Pocket app is my go to. I may, in fact, use this app as much (sometimes more) than my email app. Here are some killer hacks and trick to get the most out of it. BTW, if you’re not using Pocket, what is wrong with you?!?!?” (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.