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Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #500

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:

Explaining how fighting games use delay-based and rollback netcode – Arn Technica. “Don’t let the dry title fool you. Two important things about games: They’re more fun when they’re multiplayer; and they’re fast. So how do you make fast games happen over a distance while being fair? Turns out, that’s a challenge. In some cases, you actually have to predict what a player is going to do, show that to their adversary, and then correct it when they don’t. This borders on General Relativity; and it’s a fascinating rabbithole, well explained here.” (Alistair for Hugh).
The Internet With A Human Face – Idle Words. “One of my favorite thinkers is Maciej Cegłowski, who gave a talk at Strata entitled ‘Haunted By Data.’ Many of the dire predictions he made then are all too commonplace today. So, in the wake of recent news about a startup (Clearview) that has scraped all the faces from all the worlds’ social sites, indexed them by profile, and made them available to anyone who’ll pay (primarily law enforcement, but also political operatives) I thought this other talk might be appropriate. It’s from 2014, and Maciej has a smart habit of transcribing his talks with slides alongside, so you can read it as a post. Please read it.” (Alistair for Mitch).
When Is a Bird a ‘Birb’? An Extremely Important Guide – Audubon. “While I mostly despair of the lost, idealized web I imagined I knew back in 2007 when Mitch and I were excited about podcasts, every once in a while something pops up that reminds me of the delight that that web still can bring. Such as: An article in Audubon.org (!) about the internet meme ‘Birb,’ something I missed completely, and yet recognize and imbibe with all the enthusiasm of welcoming an old friend on a visit to my city. The best is the comments.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Selective Hearing – Harper’s Magazine. “Mitch and I met back in … 2006 or 2007, I think? … partly through our interest in and engagement with podcasts.The first time I recall having a long conversation with Mitch was when I hitched a ride with him to a US-Canadian podcast conference, Podcasters Across Borders, in Kingston, Ontario. It was fun. The podcasting landscape looks a bit different now (!). Mostly for the better, and there’s a slew of great, professionally produced stuff out there, including a bunch of history podcasts that may or may not be accurate. Which, I guess you could say of just about anything these days.” (Hugh for Mitch).
How to unleash creative thinking – Strategy + Business. “Most businesses tend to think in a very pragmatic way. This kills dreams. I’m not fan of ’thinking outside of the box,’ because I have no idea what the box is and who put it there? What I do know is that a lot of my ideas don’t seem to align with how others solve a problem. I tend to think about creative solutions (not, always, pragmatic ones). I like the way that I think. I try to encourage it in myself. I sometimes find myself trying to think like others might. It doesn’t get me very far. Maybe this will help…” (Mitch for Alistair).
Old Man Blogs At Clouds – Chuck Wendig – Terrible Minds. “I have shared Chuck Wendig’s articles here before. I love the way that he writes about writing and creativity. This is a great example of it. In 2020, should we be thinking about blogs and blogging? I have been. A lot. I used to publish a blog post every day. I’ve slowed down to 3-4 per week (which still seems like too much). Why do I care? I should just keep going, right? Chuck is inspiring. He’s inspiring me. His writing makes me think and laugh. I hope that he inspires you too…” (Mitch for Hugh).