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: 

• How Complex Systems Fail – Richard I. Cook. “What keeps me awake at night is the sheer complexity of modern life. We sit atop complex, brittle systems that, if they collapsed, would render most of humanity helpless almost overnight. Nuclear War: A Scenario and Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and The World sit in my reading queue after The Ministry for the Future. I’m super cheery. I came across this list of the attributes and vulnerabilities of complex systems, and as I reflect on the calls for ‘efficiency’ in government, I can’t help thinking that many of the ‘inefficient’ layers are also redundancies, backups that have grown over the years. And that by stripping away the dead cells, we might also remove some of those redundancies.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Following Wildfire – TenTree. “Part tech tool, part PSA, this website draws attention to the growing wildfire problem in Canada. It claims to scan social media for images that might contain spreading fires. If an image contains fire or smoke, the tech looks at local weather and terrain to rate the risk of spreading wildfire. I can’t quite tell if it’s real, or even useful (and I’m increasingly skeptical of things I can’t touch or test myself). But it’s beautiful.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Is Consciousness Everywhere? – Christof Koch – The MIT Press Reader. “Integrated Information Theory is an intriguing approach to the question: ‘what is consciousness?’ IIT uses an empirical and mathematical approach to explain consciousness as the result of a system, like the brain, processing information in a connected and organized way that can’t be split into separate parts. You can apply this to humans, of course, but also bees and even some cells. Not, however, computer systems. By the way, I spent more time than I would like to admit in a lovely conversation with ChatGPT to help me understand why GPT isn’t considered conscious by IIT criteria. GPT insists it isn’t conscious.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• In Praise Of Print: Why Reading Remains Essential In An Era Of Epistemological Collapse – Ed Simon – Lit Hub. “The push and pull of the world feels overwhelming at times these days – so much seems to be shifting under our feet, from domestic politics, to the meaning of right and left, to geopolitical structures, to our (and our kids’) relationships to technology and knowledge. It does feel like tilting at windmills, but I – a long-time advocate of digital reading – have made my little adjustment: I am reading books in paper again. I suspect my revolution won’t save the world, but, I am enjoying it, and that’s something.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• My Smartphone Was Ruining My Life. So I Quit. – August Lamm – The Free Press. “A few years ago, our mobile service provider had a major outage. It was at the same time as Montreal ComicCon. I spent the day diving into dusty comic book boxes, taking in so much pop culture – from manga and video games to action figures and local artists – and the best part of the day was this feeling of ’not being attached’… not being accessible. Not being able to go ‘elsewhere’ from where I was, physically, and simply not being reachable (and it not being my own choice/fault). It was… freeing. At the beginning of this week, I was thinking about that day (and how I felt) and toyed with the idea of deleting all social media apps from my iPhone and iPad. I didn’t do it. I’m in that weird place where I feel like I really need all of this connectivity and, at the same time, that I don’t need any of it ever again. Am I the only one?” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Band Aid – The Making Of The Original ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ (New Documentary, 2024) – Live Aid. “Back in the eighties, there was a trend. Musicians (from different genres and geographies) would rally together around a cause, record a song, donate their time and profits to the charity of choice. The model continues today, but it has evolved. It has been almost forty (!!!!) years since the ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas‘ was released. This was the UK’s version (and the first one to kick off this trend) that Bob Geldolf and Midge Ure led. It’s a rogues gallery of famous musicians, and it’s fascinating to see them hang out, meet one another and give their time to alleviate famine in Ethiopia. What really struck me? The lyrics of the song (pretty cringe by today’s standards), the lack of diversity in the line-up, the fact that no one has a phone and is so ‘present’… unreachable… and just how much the times and culture has changed since 1984. It also comes with a lot or criticism these days. Still, if you’re a Gen Xer, this will hit you right in the nostalgia… promise…” (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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