Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #352

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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 (Solve for InterestingTilt the WindmillHBS; chair of StrataStartupfestPandemonio, and ResolveTO; Author of Lean Analytics and some other books), 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 Dark Side of Roald Dahl – BBCRoald Dahl has been one of my favorite authors since I was a young child. He’s subversive, whether through Mathilda tormenting her oppressors, or Danny poaching with sleeping pills, or the BFG trapping his kin in a dark hole. Parents wonder if it’s too dark; kids lap it up. And BBC writer Hephzibah Anderson argues that this shouldn’t surprise us at all.” (Alistair for Hugh).
  • Elevated Functionality – Welcome To Techwear – Hypebeast. “With movies like Ghost In The Shell and games like Metal Gear Solid, tactical technical clothing is a real genre, having a proper aesthetic. Here’s a look inside the slightly-cosplay, slightly-Burner style that’s leaking into the mainstream.” (Alistair for Mitch).
  • Leaked video shows a new robot on wheels from Boston Dynamics – Mashable. “Yes, they are scary, these robots, but they also generate in us (me at least) a sense of empathy, a certain joy when they get that ’move’ right.” (Hugh for Alistair).
  • Living With Robots – A Conversation With Kate Darling – Sam Harris Podcast. Kate Darling is an MIT researcher on the ethics of robots. Here, she talks to Sam Harris about the emerging universe of our moral and ethical relationship with robots.” (Hugh for Mitch).
  • Secrets Of The Magus – The New Yorker. “I’ve often spoken about how powerful business lessons can be learned by studying comedy and comedians. How they think, nurture, work, edit and nuance every single word of a joke, until it can make a bunch of very diverse people all laugh at once. It’s one of the toughest jobs in the world. Well, my thinking on this topic has expanded greatly, and I’m now convinced that everybody in business should spend time studying magicians and illusionists. Not the Vegas-ilk (doves and sawing a woman in half), but the real practitioners. In fact, I’ve become somewhat obsessed with it. Especially close-up work that involves coins and cards. Here’s an older The New Yorker article featuring Ricky Jay, that is worth a read. And, you should watch his documentary, Deceptive Practices – The Mysteries And Mentors of Ricky Jay.” (Mitch for Alistair).
  • Self-Publish The Bestseller Inside Of You: A How-To – James Altucher – Medium. “If there’s anyone who understands what it takes to write a book and the entire sausage factory of what it takes to get it into print/digital format, it’s James Altucher. In this smart post he breaks it all down. Everything from why (or why not) to self-publish a book. People think that writing a book is hard. It is. Still harder is how to get it to market and get people to pay attention. There’s this glamorization of writing that is so wrong. Many think that authors like me spend their days sipping lattes and staring off into the crowded cafe for inspiration. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here’s the truth…” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.