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 (Just Evil Enough, 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:

• He’s Anti-Democracy And Pro-Trump: The Obscure ‘Dark Enlightenment’ Blogger Influencing The Next US administration – Jason Wilson – The Guardian. “Elbows up time. Plenty of friends have asked my opinion on what’s going to happen in Canada/US relations. I don’t have many predictions, other than the fact that people need to work on their ability to adapt to changing circumstances. But two documents have informed many of the people in positions of power, and they’re both readily available. The first is a seldom-discussed writer named Curtis Yarvin, who Vox says has spent more time ‘gaming out how, exactly, the US government could be toppled and replaced’.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Project 2025 Tracker. “The second document is Project 2025. If you want a detailed outline of the tasks the new administration set for itself, it exists. This tracker catalogues what the plan calls for, and how much of it has been accomplished (subject, of course, to oversight by elected leaders, rulings by judges, and ultimately, the willingness of law enforcement and the military to follow their orders). I try really hard to be non-partisan in these links, and offer these without commentary. But I think I speak for the vast majority of Canadians when I say I hope my friends to the South are reading these.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• The Final Frontier? How Humans Could Live Underwater In ‘Ocean Stations’ – Katherine Latham – BBC. “Seems attractive right about now.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, And The Future Of The West – Alexander C. Karp – Goodreads. “Mitch thinks we might just be living in a simulation where someone really played around with the settings recently and now down is up. In that vein, I myself would not have guessed, ‘Hugh suggests book by CEO of Palantir‘ on the bingo card of life. Yet, I listened to a recent interview with Alex Karp on Honestly, and found at least some of what he had to say compelling. I am enjoying his book right now, and trying to get my head around whether it actually makes sense. Like much of the politics of the world right now, it’s hard to parse the tension between libertarian/freedom, and government-driven mass initiatives. Looking forward to a lunch with Mitch and Alistair to sort this all out.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• OpenAI’s Metafictional Short Story About Grief Is Beautiful And Moving – Jeanette Winterson – The Guardian. “I’m starting to think that people who don’t believe AI can be creative are, simply, lost. In fairness to that statement, I think the same about most humans who believe that their opinion on what makes something creative… or art… is also the actual defition. A comic book is art to me and, perhaps, trash to someone who loves oil paintings in the theme of realism. I can’t tell you how many people sideeyed my taste in music gorwing up and now those artists – 30 years on – are still selling out arenas and are beloved. So… it’s subjective. Now, take a read of this. Thoughts? I don’t care whether you like it or not (that’s taste… not art). And, would you think about it differenlty (or have read it differently) if you didn’t know that this was an AI output? Interesting times…” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Brian Eno On What Art Does – Faber Books – YouTube. “I was telling someone the other day (I can’t remember who) that Brian Eno is an interesting person to me. I enjoy (but can’t claim to be a fan) of some of his music… some of his production work… but when he talks or is being interviewed? Well… that I can’t stop looking at. I find how he talks about music, art, technology and creativity way more fascinating than his other outputs. This seemed like the perfect compliment to my link above. Eno has a new book out called, What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory, co-authored with Bette Adriaanse. It’s a tricky question: Why do we like music? Or a specifc musician? Or a style? I love this question, and while the book doesn’t come out for a few days I have it pre-ordered and will dive into this rich mystery of life asap. Now, let’s link the two concepts together and ask a greater question: Why don’t we like art created by something not human (think AI)?” (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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