Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #344

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 Life-Changing Magic Of Decluttering In A Post-Apocalytpic World – The New Yorker. “Once the drones and wilful ignorance and misguided genomic experimentation take us down a spiral of Lovecraftian doom (see my link for Mitch), it’s time to look on the bright side.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Watch the Pentagon’s new hive-mind-controlled drone swarm in action – The Washington Post. “I’m in an end-of-the-world kind of mood this week, for some reason. So here’s what I’m thinking: Semi-sentient drone swarms. ‘Due to the complex nature of combat, Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronized individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature.’ I think I’ve seen this movie.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Silent Film GIFs Reveal the Special Effects Tricks of Early Cinema – Flavorwire. “Fun set of gifs showing the craft behind the magic of some early cinema special effects.” (Hugh for Alistair).
The Case for Not Being Crybabies – The Talking Points Memo. “OK, I give up. I can’t avoid sending political links. This one can get away with being called a ’ edia’ link… but in any case: Josh Marshall (the first independent web journalist I started reading back before the US invaded Iraq, er, 15 years ago (!?!!), tells journalists: stop whining and do your job. We can only hope.” (Hugh for Mitch).
Don’t Tell Your Friends They’re Lucky – Nautilus. “Control is a funny think. You work hard. You apply yourself. You’re smart. You’ve done everything right, so you should be successful. Right? I don’t buy it. Sorry. People get really upset when I talk about luck… and how much that has to do with the success of those that we admire. It really does come down to control. Work hard and you get lucky? Sure. I think people have a way of slanting luck in their favor. But… let’s not diminish that a lot of what looks like smarts, hard work and more is, simply, luck. Whether you like it or not.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Write As If You’re Already Dead – The Mission – Medium. “Well, here’s a long read on a topic that I, personally, struggle with. It’s also a long read for brands that try to create content. It’s about holding back and what that brings (or does not). It’s about how to dig deep and tell real stories. Why is this so important? Stories last and endure. We, the protein vessels of those word, do not. So, why hold back? Why not lay it all out there? I wonder what the world of advertising and content marketing would look like, if writing as if you’re already dead was job one?” (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.