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, 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:
- Mundia & Modia: The two worlds in which we live – Rishon Rishon. “Ever stumble across something that explains a ton of questions you had, but couldn’t articulate? I found lots to love in this post on two core perceptions of the world. I’m very aware of false dichotomies—but this duality is pervasive. If you read Iain M. Banks‘ Culture series, ultimately it’s about the battle between organic and digital, atoms and bits, as the dominant sentience in the universe. And this post posits a similar orientation among humans. A Mundian worldview says that the world is made of immutable laws, and ‘we can successfully manipulate the world by learning them.’ By contrast, a Modian worldview says that ‘the world is made of relationships between people,’ and ‘we can successfully manipulate the world by figuring out who is powerful, or by becoming powerful ourselves.’ This spills over into careers, power, politics and more. It offers a good lens for the conservatism of the elderly, the political leanings of media, and more. Mostly, this post made me think.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- Hyper-Lite 22 – Custom – CourtSports. “Okay, this is a weird link. I don’t sports. I barely understand games. But Canada is in the grip of a think called basketball, so I’ve seen a couple of games. First: I forgot what commercials were, and now they’re almost unwatchable. Worse, they’re political attack ads. But the whole thing got me asking new questions—like what they do with vacant stadiums if the playoffs end in fewer than seven games (I still don’t have a good answer to that one). And, how they put advertising on the mops. The mops. Which, of course, led me down a rabbithole—because that mop, well, it has a patent.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- Doublethink Is Stronger Than Orwell Imagined – The Atlantic. “The thing I don’t remember from reading George Orwell‘s 1984 was anything suggesting the current gleeful embrace of doublethink (saying and believing clearly false things, for political reasons, ie 2+2=5). This is true as much on the left as it is on the right, and perhaps it’s time for me to re-read 1984, it’s a best-seller again, after all (for good reason).” (Hugh for Alistair).
- Politics and the English Language – George Orwell. “I’ve posted this link here before, a few times, and I’m doing it again, since I think re-reading this essay is a valuable exercise about once a year, if for no other reason than to remind yourself of these invaluable writing/communications rules:
– Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
– Never use a long word where a short one will do.
– If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
– Never use the passive where you can use the active.
– Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
– Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- Why We Keep Playing The Lottery – Nautilus. “Just reading this headline made me think of you, Alistair. Our brains are the funniest of organs, are they not? Let’s put the mathematical odds aside (which we do). Someone has to win, right? Yes… someone does win the lottery, so why not you? That’s not math… that’s not logic… that’s not fact… that’s marketing and advertising. And, that’s about all it is.” (Mitch for Alistair).
- Going Against The Decluttering Craze: The Book Hoarders Who Defy Marie Kondo – Independent. “Years ago, Seth Godin proposed the idea that books (and other forms of media) would become more like souvenirs, as more media becomes digitized. It seems obvious now, but it felt like a curiosity back when he spoke of it. Now, we live in a world where we’re questioning what we need to own, in a world where we can pay a small monthly fee to access entire libraries and catalogues of content (think Netlfix, etc…). We’re also seeing fewer and fewer bookstores, with publisher’s putting fewer first printing’s into production. As if that were not enough, minimalism is taking hold as well. So, do we just dump all of our books, because we can access the texts whenever we need them digitally? You can have my books when you pry them from my cold dead hands. Apparently, I am not alone.” (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.