Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #368

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:

Nihilist Startup Haikus – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. “I’m going to wax poetic this week, because I had a couple of videos that, on rewatching, were way too dark. So, let’s start with these short pieces on startup life, which should resonate pretty well. My favorite?
SOW. ROI by EOD. OK LOL.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Ancient wisdom from the neural network – Lewis And Quark. “Seems like you can use machine learning to generate new ideas pretty easily these days. While many of the aphorisms this coding experiment generated were nonsense (‘A fox smells it better than a fool’s for a day’), a human editor could easily use this raw material to create new things that seemed genuinely original (‘A good anvil does not make the most noise.’) Putting to rest, perhaps, the question of creativity: The future is algorithm-augmented humans.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Umbrella-sharing startup loses nearly all of its 300,000 umbrellas in a matter of weeks – Shanghaiist. “How will you protect yourself from all the tech bubbles falling from the sky if your local uber-for-umbrellas stand has no umbrellas left because they’ve all been stolen?” (Hugh for Alistair).
2 Chickens Break Up Rabbit Fight – YouTube. “Maybe we just need to put the chickens in charge.” (Hugh for Mitch).
AI And ‘Enormous Data’ Could Make Tech Giants Harder To Topple – Wired. “More data means more performance. We are quickly leaving the world of ‘big data’ as we enter into the world of ‘enormous data’. Now, if you follow this trail, and believe that data is the new oil (it’s not just a turn of a phrase… think about it… it’s true), we now have companies with ‘enormous data’. So much so that it’s going to be ever-harder to regulate, topple or understand the competitive landscape. Oh… this is one article that will boil your noodle.” (Mitch for Alistair).
How to Create a Perennial Bestseller – The Tim Ferriss Blog. “This is an epic guest post on Tim Ferriss‘ blog by my buddy, Ryan Holiday. Ryan is known as one of the people who is modernizing stoicism, and has many best sellers under his belt. His upcoming book, Perennial Seller, is coming out soon. Here’s a massive and hugely insightful read about how to write a book that matters… and sells. This is his behind the scenes thinking and it’s glorious.” (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.