Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #405

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: 

• If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance.- MIT Technology Review. “The distribution of things we think matter for success — intelligence, tenacity, and so on — tend to fall on a bell curve (distributed around a mean). But the allocation of success, at least in terms of money, is a Pareto curve (a few people have a lot, a lot of people have a few.) Why is this? Turns out it’s probably luck, despite the fortunate revising history to one where they’re heroes. When people can seize on an opportunity, those to whom it falls do so, and succeed. Which means the best investment strategy may be to give money to everyone. In academic research, ‘the strategy that delivers the best returns, it turns out, is to divide the funding equally among all researchers.’ Which might be bleak news for Venture Capitalists — but could be a silver lining for proponents of universal basic income.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Sound of Fear: Room40 boss Lawrence English on the history of noise as a weapon – Fact. “Came across this recently and thought of all the things you do with sound, Mitch. It’s an interesting history of how sound has been used for power, from Biblical stories to overthrowing governments to interrogations. Must be weird, as a modern musician, to think about where your art winds up.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• John Coltrane Draws a Picture Illustrating the Mathematics of Music – Open Culture. “Fascinating insight into the genius of saxophonist and composer, John Coltrane.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Montreal elementary nixes homework, encourages parents to read with kids instead – CBC. “I met a sweary South African once who made the best case I have ever heard about how crazy homework is for kids. (I will let you imagine the accent and swear words): ‘Kids spend 8 or 9 hours a day in school. They are kids. How is it possible that they can’t learn everything they need to learn in 8 hours? What are they doing all day? We don’t expect adults to do 3 extra hours of work when they come home, why do we make 10-year-old kids do this?'” (Hugh for Mitch). 
• The very Unnerving existence of Teen Boss, a magazine for girls – The New Yorker. “Perhaps the very embodiment of the ‘hustle’ movement is this: a magazine that looks like your average teeny bopper rag, but with content all about how to become your own boss/entrepreneur. Welcome to Teen Bo$$. At first glance, I thought this was a classic parody piece. As I tried to lift my jaw from off the floor as this story unfolds, I began wondering: is this a bad idea or a great idea? Wow… what do you think? Should young teenage girls be exposed to stories like ‘How To Make Quick Cash This Winter Break’ in the same way that they’re exposed to ‘How To Make You Lipgloss Standout From The Crowd’… or are both gross?” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Why Marvel has turned to podcasts to tell new superhero stories – The Drum. “Both Hugh and I are huge podcast nerds. It’s how we met. And, we’ve been talking about this platform for well over a decade… and watching it evolve. This. This is what I like to see. Smart brand extension, a new use of the medium, and an exciting story to tell in a new way. I’m not sure if this is the future of podcasting, but it is smart, very smart, content marketing.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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