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, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) 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: 

• Reality Is Just A Game Now – The New Atlantis. “Gamification was once a buzzword in startup culture. Make users feel like they’re playing a game, and they’ll get addicted to the behaviors you reinforce. Now that everything has a like, share, or upvote – and a generation has been weaned on quests and grinding and combos – is it any wonder we see the world as a zero-sum game, a fight to be won rather than a future to be built together? Jon Askonas lays out this position, not just as an article, but a sort of workshop, inviting the reader to take a quiz, do some digging, and find their own facts. ‘To play an alternate reality game is to be drawn into a collaborative project of explaining the world.’ We are in a war of explanations.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Olympic Opening Ceremony Hidden Camera – With Performers In Ear Monitor – OlympicHiddenCamera – YouTube. “The opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Paris were pretty good. But for me, nothing’s going to beat Danny Boyle’s opener. I may be biased – Underworld did the music, and I’m a Brit. Hearing ‘And I Will Kiss’ brings tears to my eyes every time. Turns out that one of the hundreds of cast members snuck a GoPro into the ceremonies, and recorded the in-ear instructions being sent to the actors and dancers. If you haven’t seen the original, you may want to watch it first – then see behind the scenes for how they coordinated everyone.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• How Memorizing Poetry Can Expand Your Life – The Washington Post. “I have a good mind for concepts, not so much for memorization and mechanics. I am good at math, but not arithmetic. My university degree is in Mathematics and Engineering, but to this day if you ask me to multiply 8 by 7, I’ll probably have to work it out in my head. Similarly, we can talk all night about books I’ve loved, but I can barely quote a line from any of them. A couple of years ago, I took up the ukulele and despaired ever of being able to play music without the chords in front of me. And yet, music forces you to do both – a kind of concept along with memory – and eventually I started being able to play, to remember how to play, songs without the music in front of me. It was wonderful. I feel the same way about poems: There are a handful that I love and have read dozens of times, but I can’t recite more than a line. Still with effort, like with my ukulele, I’m sure I can memorize some poems, and maybe that would be a very good thing to do.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out – The Atlantic. “I just spent two days away with a four other friends who I lived with in university. One I see often, another I am regularly in touch with, the two others I have not stayed in touch with at all. But I was happy to spend time with them. We’re all 50-ish year old dads now with kids ranging from 6 to 23 and everything in between, and have all had our various successes, disappointments and tragedies. There have been divorces and mental health problems and career challenges and the angst of the world unfolding for our kids, and ourselves. We talked about all of this and much more over two days. I’m not sure what an ideal life looks like, but one absent of these kinds of friendships seems very sad. Yet, it seems these kinds of friendships are increasingly rare. Surely, it can’t be a good thing. This is why I am grateful to Mitch for keeping these links going, and for all of the people in my life who make efforts to find ways to keep connections strong. They take work. So, I am making a pledge to do a tiny bit more this year to keep my friendships alive. It doesn’t take much.” (Hugh for Mitch). 
• Why Discount Chain Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Is Growing While Big Lots & Others Are Sinking – Modern Retail. “If you want to see me go down a rabbit hole, just ask me about YouTube videos and comic book collectors (which led me to toy collectors… which led me to Ollie’s). We have one Ollie’s in Plattsburgh, New York (Montreal’s famed cross border shopping destination), but I’ve never uncovered much of the glory that some of these YouTubers find. Ollie’s knows how to buy (and sell) closeouts at scale. And they have massive toy/collectible/book sections. Couple that with my marketing/retail brain and this is a gem of a read. Why? Because these are the stories that you would think don’t make any retail sense… lease rando locations and fill it with cheap/cheaper treasures for people to dig through. There’s no real ‘brand’ here and it’s hard to go back to Ollie’s and find the same thing twice. Still… it works… and it also flies in the face of any retail or marketing thought leader who would argue that most of what Ollie’s does no longer works in modern retail… and… well… they would be wrong.” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Did You Know That Poetry Used To Be An Actual Olympic Sport? – Literary Hub. “I don’t normally look at Alistair and Hugh’s links first before choosing mine. I like to just see what happens when we all make our picks. I cheated (only a little) this week, because I had this article saved, but reading Hugh’s link above about poetry above… and while we’re still watching the Olympics, I simply could not resist. Now… are poets athletes?” (Mitch for Hugh)..

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

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