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: 

• A Narrow Path – Andrea Miotti, Tolga Bilge, Dave Kasten and James Newport. “There’s a lot of debate about whether AI will save us or ruin society. Even if you don’t think about technology in a benevolent-God-versus-Terminator way, there are still upsides (accelerating innovation, creating an abundant society by solving problems in healthcare, energy, and more) and downsides (widespread economic upheaval, concentration of wealth, loss of human dignity, apathy when machines can outperform us on all tasks). But specific plans for how to walk the tightrope between these extremes are rare. So, I was heartened by this paper from a number of very thoughtful people, which lays out a more prescriptive series of steps to navigate the coming decades. Of course, according to the next link below this week, whether we’ll follow it is another question entirely.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Surgery That Proved There Is No Free Will – Joe Scott – YouTube. “Feel like the world is going a bit mad and we can’t get out of our own way? That if everyone could just stop reacting to things, and instead try to understand others, and the fact that we’re living on a big, spinning rock with finite resources, it might get a bit better? I love Joe Scott, and this video walks the line between science and philosophy. If nothing else, this video helped me to have more patience with the nonsense around us.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• The Coming Second Copernican Revolution – Adam Frank – Noema. “Don’t think we’re there yet, but fascinating overview of where astrobiology (study conditions for life in the cosmos) might lead us.” (Hugh for Alistair). 
• Bookselling Out – Dan Sinykin – The Baffler. “S.W. Welch, the storied used bookstore in my neighborhood closed recently, replaced by a fancy glasses shop (about ten doors away from another fancy glasses shop). It’s a hard market, but what should a bookstore be these days?” (Hugh for Mitch).
• We’re Entering Uncharted Territory For Math – Matteo Wong – The Atlantic. “recently, somebody proposed that our education and teaching of math changed dramatically when the calculator became pervasive. They said this in relation to, perhaps, how we might have to think about artificial intelligence and education. And how AI will change our understanding of knowledge, language, and reasoning. I don’t think it is an equal analogy. I don’t think we have a true understanding of what a potential super-intelligence might do to our own perspectives on the capacity of the brain, how we learn, how we reason and how we push ideas forward. My fear, which I have written about before, is that we will be faced with the stark reality of how simple our brains actually are. I could be wrong. Now, as artificial intelligence products improve, we are hearing marketing that includes the words ‘reasoning models’. What might that mean for science, math, biology… And more?” (Mitch for Alistair).
• The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books – Rose Horowitch – The Atlantic. “Whenever I see headlines like this or read articles like this, I am always compelled to take a beat… Hold my thinking… And ask myself, ‘Am I The Olds?’ I’m not sure where this falls, but nothing has helped me professionally (or personally) more than reading books. In some ways, I see it as a secret weapon. I half-joke at that, because of how accessible the media format is to anyone. When was the last time you walked into a library? You can get as many books as you want for free. Still… I am not surprised by the fact that it is, in fact, a superpower because it’s not something that most people do. I won’t lie, I can struggle through texts like the next person, but just knowing that I am reading books and thinking in that format more than most people is important to me. It’s not about some kind of superiority complex, but just this weird productivity component of my life that I think too many people dismiss. Then, I read this article. Now what? We have young people entering into advanced and secondary education facilities that could care less about books. What do we do about that? Are we OK with that?” (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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