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:

• Collapse OS. “Okay, sure, if the world collapses, we won’t have enough plows to go around. But once we learn how to weave baskets and make arrows and divert water, how do we get tech up and running? I don’t mean Facebook  – I mean stuff like automated sprinklers and valves and the low-level machinery on which civilization relies? And how do we do this when we’re using the computer equivalent of an army surplus store: Mismatched machinery that’s mostly out of date? Turns out, there’s an operating system for that, a ‘collection of tools and documentation with a single purpose: preserve the ability to program microcontrollers through civilizational collapse.’ And once the sprinklers are running, there’s a hardware-tolerant desktop (Dusk OS) to go with it.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• It’s Time To Choose Canada – Canadian Armed Forces – YouTube. “Canada’s media game is strong these days. It seems like overnight, our stores put flags on everything and took bourbon off the shelves. Strange times make for strange bedfellows, but I did not expect to see the Canadian Armed Forces making what looks like a tourism video. I guess when we move from kinetic to memetic warfare, everything is a battlefront.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Text To Bark – Eleven Labs. “If ever there was a time, a need, for smile-inducing April Fool’s jokes, now is that time.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Wikipedia Built The Internet’s Brain. Now Its Leaders Want Credit. – Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly – Observer. “Wikipedia‘s sprawling, free encyclopedia trained all those AI models, and, surprise surprise(!), they aren’t getting anything in return. No credit, no money, few if any links. On top of that, AI crawlers are all over Wikipedia, which is a cost for them. Will OpenAI and the rest do the right thing? Don’t bet on it.” (Hugh for Mitch).  
• Watching Writing Die: An English Teacher’s Perspective – Normi Coto, PhD – Age Of Awareness – Medium. “We’re watching both the erosion of writing and the loss of language skills. That’s what’s happening in this article from a teacher relecting on her extensive career since 1992. She is observing a decline in students’ writing skills and the outcomes from that. She attributes this to the diminishing emphasis on grammar instruction and the rise of digital communication tools. I think we would all still agree that process-oriented writing methods (such as drafting and peer reviews) are valuable, but they are often supplanted by traditional grammar lessons. She laments the loss of sentence diagramming and in-depth discussions about word functions, which she believes are crucial for developing strong writing abilities. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you don’t have a strong communications game, you won’t have a strong success game. It starts with learning how to read and write… and that’s how we get to good thinking… and better ideas.” (Mitch for Alistair).
• I’m 73. Heavy Metal Just Changed My Life – Mikal Gilmore – Rolling Stone. “Being angry is normal… loving heavy metal is a great way to deal with it. You don’t have to wait until your 70s… you can start today. It’s a genre that I was drawn to from my earliest of musical influences and it still drives me. Sure, I’m not an angry (rebellious) teen anymore, but the music is a great ‘exhaust valve’ for me… and even the craziest of speeds, tempo changes and gurgling vocals can both make me laugh and get me going. It’s a great form of escapism as well. And the journalist’s conclusion? ‘It is everywhere, and it is vast. In fact, it makes for oceans. In all my years of listening to music, I’ve never encountered a genre and its subgenres — except jazz — that is so massively populated and creative. For all that we properly revere about alternative and indie-music scenes, it’s important to note that there are none more alternative or indie than metal’s scenes. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of metal bands the world over, though few get enough music press attention and none of them get much — actually, any — airplay.’ It’s always been this way… and the true fans don’t care… they listen… they go to concerts… they keep waving the flag. Horn’s up!” (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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