Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #44

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 (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so 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 US swallowed these cups of tea to justify its imperial aims – Guardian UK. "A sad lesson in how insular, and eager to believe in the power of individuals we’ve become. The Guardian‘s Madeline Bunting sees Greg Mortenson‘s role as ‘the gentle giant of a man who stumbles into exotic and dangerous locations of which he knows little, and makes friends’ — a comforting view of America abroad as well-intentioned and welcoming. Ouch." (Alistair for Hugh).
Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer – YouTube. "So meta. That is all." (Alistair for Mitch).
Where does good come from? – Boston Globe. "One of the mysteries of the theory of evolution is where altruism comes from: if every individual is driven genetically to propagate its own genes, why do individuals (people, ants, antelopes) sometimes sacrifice themselves for the good of others? The legendary evolutionary biologist, E.O. Wilson, is making waves at age 80 with what, in the science world, is an extraordinary about-face: the dominant theory is that altruism comes from the desire to protect kin, who share genetic heritage. E.O. Wilson claims that theory doesn’t cut it, but rather there is an evolutionary push to protect the group – regardless of specific kin/genetic attachments. I pick this out because what might seem ‘obvious’ to the world at large is often a hot point of contention in science – as the mathematics must always catch up with the theories, and if it doesn’t, then theories don’t tend to stand. This one seems to have math behind it too." (Hugh for Alistair).
Amazon’s $23,698,655.93 book about flies – It Is Not Junk. "One of the most contentious issues in publishing is how to price books and ebooks. Is $9.99 too high or too low? How about $23 million for a book? Here’s a case of algorithmic pricing on Amazon gone haywire." (Hugh for Mitch).
NASA finds Earth-size planets in habitable zone – Digital Trends. "I love the Web because I am constantly finding fascinating news items this one. In the same breath, I’m completely frustrated with traditional mass media. Do you think this is a big deal? Not to ruin this very worthy read, but NASA‘s Kepler Mission has discovered ‘its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.’ Kind of a big deal, no? Instead our news is littered with how Snooki lost some weight or The Royal Wedding. Really?" (Mitch for Alistair).
What Books Will Become – The Technium. "What is a book? It’s a debate that Hugh and I will never tire of. It’s a question that I often think about it and it’s something that Hugh is constantly trying to develop upon. Well, it’s also something that Kevin Kelly (co-founder of Wired Magazine and the recently published business book, What Technology Wants) has thought about too. Not only is this long Blog post worth reading, so too are the fifty-plus comments that go along with it. Is it the format of a cover and pages? Is it the content and chapters? What makes something a book? Read on to find out what Kelly thinks." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it’s your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

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.