Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #358

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 Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, HBS; chair of Strata, Startupfest, Pandemonio, 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 Political Impossibility of What to Wear With Your Flak Jacket – Racked. “There is so much about this article that is of the times: War, a media culture, and the clashing of cultures and perceptions. ‘You don’t put stuff on your head if you’re president,’ President Obama told the US Naval Academy’s football team after they offered him a custom helmet. That’s politics 101.'” (Alistair for Hugh).
• This Lawsuit Goes to 11 – Bloomberg. “Looks like their suit goes to eleven. Decades after the mockumentary that inspired a generation of comedians into awkwardtainment, the people behind Spinal Tap decided they deserve some monies. Because of film industry shenanigans, they were denied revenue — but they’re going after it.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Roger Penrose On Why Consciousness Does Not Compute – Nautilus. “Brilliant physicist believes that the weirdness of (human) consciousness might be a fundamental property of the universe, and is most likely explained by quantum mechanics.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Can China Replace the West? – The New York Review of Books. “Here is a jaw-dropping set of statistics: In the year 2000, China’s economy was about 12% the size of the US economy (measured by purchasing power parity). It was 50% by 2011. By 2014, China’s economy was already the largest in the world. So, in the space of 15 years China has gone from a significant, but relatively small economy, to the largest in the world. That is extraordinary. What’s going to happen next?” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Federal report: AI could threaten up to 47 percent of jobs in two decades – ArsTechnica. “We just want to ignore the things that we do not like. This is so upsetting. I know what you’re thinking: This will also bring on new types of jobs and work. Has anybody really done a proper deep dive into this? If a human’s future is simply managing the technology, that leaves some large and gaping holes in our society. So, as much as well like change, I wonder how true that is? What kind of world are we really creating, and do the inventors truly know what the invention will be used for?” (Mitch for Alistair).
• The psychological importance of wasting time – Quartz. “We tend to think that boredom is bad. That wasting time is… well… a waste of time. This was one of the big ‘a-ha’ moments that I had at the TED conference last week in Vancouver. If technology is training us that things never end (think about the infinite scroll of the newsfeed on Facebook or the choices you get on Netflix) and we never reach the ‘end’ of anything, we begin to train our minds and bodies to keep on keeping on. Not feeling like there is ever a break in anything, could create a very different type of human thinking being. I don’t know about you, but the best of ideas typically find their way when I’m doing nothing at all. And, candidly, doing nothing at all stresses me out… apparently, I’m not the only 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.