Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #385

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 First Woman to Translate the ‘Odyssey’ Into English – The New York Times Magazine. “Since Hugh’s spent a lot of time with translations of ancient texts, I knew this was for him. ‘So the question of whether he’s the turned or the turner: I played around with that a lot.’ I did not know there was this much ambiguity and interpretation of an ancient poem, and just how much meaning comes from the translator rather than the text, until I heard about it through new eyes.” (Alistair for Hugh).
30 Rock – Shows In The Show – YouTube. “I have absolutely no reason for sharing this other than it came up on YouTube, I watched it, and it made me laugh so hard I coughed until I nearly passed out. Seriously, sometimes stuff is just worth sharing. Queue it up when you’re having a bad day. So meta.” (Alistair for Mitch).
The Saudi Purge Isn’t Just a Power Grab – Bloomberg Businessweek. “Not a week goes by, it seems, without some new craziness happening in the world. The big shakeup in Saudi Arabia — where some of the country’s most rich and powerful men have been arrested — is new craziness. Here’s some context, if you are curious.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Something is wrong on the internet – James Bridle – Medium. “James Bridle examines the weird and very worrying world of ‘kids youtube.’ It’s messed up, and symptomatic of some fundamental problems when algorithms and bad actors start interacting in ways we can’t even quite figure out.” (Hugh for Mitch).
How To Perform During Life’s High Stakes Moments – Michael & Amy Port – TEDxCambridge. “A little background: I have known and been friends with both Amy and Michael Port for several years. Michael used to be an author and speaker in the sales and leadership space. From there, he went on to found (with Amy) a business called, Heroic Public Speaking. I have been mesmerized with their work for a long time. I’m lucky to have had some speaker training with them. With that, this is a very meta TEDx talk. It’s meta because of how they created and performed it, and it’s meta because the content is super-relevant to anyone trying to understand how to better present their ideas (which is all of us) and also an incredible lesson in what a great talk can look, feel and sound like. I’ve watched this many times already. I will watch it many times over. You should too.” (Mitch for Alistair).
How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You’ve Ever Met – Gizmodo. “I do several thing to keep the social media algorithms at bay. I’m not a conspiracy theorist or overtly paranoid at all, I just believe in being personable online (and not too personal)… for my own reasons. With that, I will ’like’ and comment on random things, not be ‘friends’ with siblings and parents and do other uncommon moves (like accept basically anybody on LinkedIn). Candidly, I also do this to see what Facebook will do to adjust, and what will it show me. It’s been wild to see how well it can connect the dots, as each year progresses. My heart sank the other day, when it recommended that I become ‘friends’ with my parents’ handyman. Whoa! That was more than a little too creepy to me. This brand new article digs in deeper (way deeper) into just how good Facebook is at making connections. You may want to start making that aluminum foil helmet right about now!” (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.