Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #45

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 Predator Tracking Algorithm – TLD. "A student in the UK may have beaten Microsoft‘s Kinect tracking system. As the videos on this site show, it’s amazing what you can do with a webcam these days — from haptic interfaces to facial recognition. Cheap, ubiquitous tracking can help the disabled, provide better security, and much more." (Alistair for Hugh).
The Management Myth – The Atlantic. "Think a management degree makes you smarter? Matthew Stewart says study philosophy instead. ‘They were supposed to save the business,’ said one client manager, rolling his eyes. ‘Actually,’ he corrected himself, ‘they were supposed to keep the illusion going long enough for the boss to find a new job.’ Ouch. (Alistair for Mitch).
The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science – Mother Jones. "Why it’s so hard to change people’s minds: ‘We apply fight-or-flight reflexes not only to predators, but to data itself.’" (Hugh for Alistair).
Inside Apple’s Q2 Numbers – Monday Note. "An analysis of the continuing extraordinary financial performance of Apple." (Hugh for Mitch).
Techcrunch Editor Discloses Investments, Admits To Conflicts Of Interests – Silicon Valley Watcher. "Techcrunch editor, Michael Arrington, is never one to shy away from controversy. This week was no exception. The Twitter feeds lit up with news that Arrington is an investor in many start-ups – the exact same type of companies that he is writing news items about. The question is one of ethics: can the editor of a well-respected publication (owned by AOL – a public company) give fair and balanced coverage if he, himself, is an investor? Tom Foremski weighs in with one of the more salient pieces on the topic." (Mitch for Alistair).
NYT Tool Visualizes the Life of a News Article – AdWeek. "I love links. I love linking to other types of digital content and I believe that linking makes text three-dimensional and way more interesting. This story fascinated me: ‘The New York Times‘ R&D team introduced a new tool that can track the lifespan of a news story. Project Cascade visualizes the way a Times story spreads through the different layers of social networking sites to pinpoint why stories gain traction or fall flat.’ How the NYT will monetize this is beyond me, but it’s webby and it’s cool." (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.