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:
- Larry Harvey: The Mind Under the Hat – Burning Man. “Burning Man‘s founder succumbed to cancer this week. But, talk about a life well lived! His past is pretty varied, and fascinating, and underneath it all there’s a tremendous sense that the craziest things can happen if you just embrace chaos with a smile. Here’s one (of many) looks at his life.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- 2017 Founder’s Letter – Alphabet. “Google/Alphabet founder Sergey Brin isn’t a man of many words. That he quotes Dickens at the opening of this brief letter about the promise and peril of algorithms is fitting; as Dickens was reflecting on the rise of the industrial era, so Brin is thinking about automation and replacing neurons with bits. Worth reading, and I, for one, am glad someone thoughtful and scientific is at the helm of an organization with the reach and power of Google.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- Pure CSS Francine – Kottke. “I cannot quite get my head around this, but here is a digital ‘painting’ done entirely with HTML + CSS.” (Hugh for Alistair).
- Style Is an Algorithm – Racked. “I love Spotify‘s weekly curation of music their algorithm thinks I will like. Not everything hits, but I’ve discovered many new bands and artists I never would have heard otherwise: in my creeping middle-age, with work and kids, I have very little time to do whatever one does these days to discover new music. Spotify fills this need for me. A friend of mine, resolutely analogue, and a music aficionado, is borderline disgusted by my reliance on Spotify to find things I will like. We’ve never talked much about his reasons, but I suspect it has something to do with the emptiness of just being presented options to choose from, without doing the hard work to find them. There is value in the work, the stories, the journey to discovery, that is lost when you rely on an algorithm. ‘I just want to listen to music I like,’ I might say. ‘That’s not enough,’ he might answer. I’m sympathetic to this view — like many of us, I am growing increasingly disturbed by the ways in which the digital utopia I/we dreamed of more than a decade ago has gone off the rails, and been perverted. I should have expected it; we should have expected it. Kyle Chayka thinks we need a new movement, like organic food: choices that are Algorithm Free.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- ‘Catastrophe’: French museum discovers half of its collection are fakes – The Guardian. “Real stuff can be fake news too, apparently. This is one of those articles that makes you question humanity. There are so many unanswered questions in this tragic piece. Just imagine: a museum in your city builds an impressive collection of a local artist only to find out – years later – that most of it is fake. Within this story also lies many lessons about consumers, marketing, branding, what we believe and, ultimately, why did it take so long for someone to realize what had happened here? Fascinating.” (Mitch for Alistair).
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Jordan Peterson is on a crusade to toughen up young men. It’s landed him on our cultural divide – The Washington Post. “This fellow Canadian has become a lightening rod. Some just love, love, love him, and many see him as creating (and verbalizing) the realities of a cultural divide. I find myself drawn to his content. Is he the next motivational brain that the world needs? Is he as controversial as the media (and others) are making him out to be? Is he simply telling it like it is (and that’s often a hard pill to swallow)? Tough to know, but he is making waves, and listening to his thinking (whether you like it or not) may be a good first step in bringing the many divides that we all have… and are so deeply attached to.” (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.