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Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #495

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:

The First Woman PhD in Computer Science Was a Nun – Mental Floss. “I didn’t know this. Can the story get any better? Sister Mary Kenneth Keller got her computer science degree, but perhaps more importantly, went on to work on BASIC, which opened the door to programming for millions who couldn’t deal with the otherwise complex world of coding.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Click Here to Kill – Harper’s Magazine. “I’ve been listening to a lot of dystopian podcasts lately—the Cryptocurrency Queen, James Veitch trying to navigate the Dark Web, and Hunting Warhead come to mind. If the Internet globalized legitimate business, then here’s your reminder of what it’s done to illegal ones. Imagine getting a call saying someone had ordered a hit on you anonymously; that’s John Wick stuff.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Where Are All the Bob Ross Paintings? We Found Them – The New York Times. “Remember Bob Ross? The ‘here’s a happy tree’ painter guy from PBS? Well, can you buy one of those paintings? (No). And: Where did all those paintings go?” (Hugh for Alistair).
Jealousy List – Bloomberg. “Is it cheating to send a list of links as a link? Bloomberg journalists choose the articles they wish they’d written in 2019.” (Hugh for Mitch).
How William Gibson Keeps His Science Fiction Real – The New Yorker. “To nerds like us, it’s hard not to love William Gibson. He invited the word “cyberspace.” Is that no enough? In a world where we live in future, how does such a storied writer and thinker see the future? He tends to live (and work and write) in the present. That’s how.” (Mitch for Alistair).
That Little Free Library on your corner is at the center of a feud over a family legacy and a trademark – The Washington Post. “This is a bizarre (and, sadly, true) story about ideas, trademarks and commercialization. It’s sad, because the product is truly amazing, and a way to galvanize a community. Yet, the core idea, seems to be ripping families in two. The creator of the Little Free Library has sadly passed on, but here are his words: ‘I really believe in a Little Free Library on every block and a book in every hand. I believe people can fix their neighborhoods, fix their communities, develop systems of sharing, learn from each other, and see that they have a better place on this planet to live.’ He must be rolling over in his premature grave. What a sad story for such a great cause…” (Mitch for Hugh).