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, 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:
- QI Versus Moon Landing Conspiracies – QI – YouTube. “There’s a lot of misinformation in the world today, and watching headlines here at home (truck convoys) and elsewhere (Rogan on Spotify), it’s clear that we’re trying to figure out what ‘true’ means in a world where everyone’s entitled to their own facts. To the rescue, Stephen Fry and the crew at QI. Sometimes the explanations are obvious, simple, boring, and bad for ratings. ‘We are in trouble as a species if people refuse to believe in things that they couldn’t actually do themselves,’ points out David Mitchell.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- A 19-year-old built a flight-tracking Twitter bot. Elon Musk tried to pay him to stop – Protocol. “If access to ‘alternative facts’ and a mistrust of anything we can’t test for ourselves is one of the ailments of the modern world, then the shift from broadcast—expensive, one-to-many communications—to anycast, where everyone can share anything with anyone else, is another massive shift. Information that was once public (but in the domain of specialists) like flight tracking is now easy to share. Is this extortion? Or simply publishing? Existing privacy law is going to have a hard time working this one out.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- Holding in the deep: what Canada wants to do with its decades-old pileup of nuclear waste – The Narwhal. “It’s hard to imagine de-carbonizing the energy economy to address climate change, without embracing nuclear. The problem with nuclear energy — other than the occasional meltown — is what we do with the waste. Canada wants to bury it in the Canadian shield.” (Hugh for Alistair).
- English Island Seeks a Landlord-King Who Likes Solitude, Seals and Beer – Yahoo! News. “Bored of your job? Your life? Want to be a king? Do you like rain and being alone? I might have a solution for you.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- Thinking Out Loud – Backlash Against Joe Rogan and Spotify – The Daily Show – YouTube. “I, stupidly, responded to a tweet that Adam Grant posted the other day about journalism, free speech, and the general state of media. While Adam’s post was opaque in content, the context was squarely aimed at the current Joe Rogan and Spotify situation. I quickly deleted the tweet. Why? I don’t feel like arguing in 280 characters, but – more importantly – it doesn’t really matter what I post, because the left and/or the right will immediate decide which ’side’ I am on. It’s frustrating. With that, I think this Trevor Noah clip provides context to a world that I would prefer to see. A world where you can like an individual, but not always agree with them. A world where people can make a mistake and have their apologies be accepted. A world where we don’t just look at a moment in time, but a body of work. A world where the context is as important as the content. A person can dream…” (Mitch for Alistair).
- Is There A Market For Saving Local News? – The New Yorker. “In the early days of the Internet and social media, I would write about the potential for local news. I figured that if everyone was focused on Google and Facebook, there might be a smart play for some local entrepreneurs (think real estate agents and others) to swoop in and buy up the local media channels (or build their own). To a degree, this has happened. Facebook is a grand example of many local private news groups that are run by people like stay-at-home parents or a real estate agent. There’s many opportunities and issues with this. Now, let’s put that aside and look at this article. What do I believe? Without local news, local libraries and more, we will lose our connections to our neighbors, be less informed about our lives, and get further trapped in the current political and big media echo chambers. It all starts at our front doors. Keep local news alive and thriving… please.” (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.
Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends):