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Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #653

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:

Welcome To Vanguard Estates – Flash Forward. “Playable as audio, text, and even an interactive choose-your-own-adventure, this series from Flash Forward delves into something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: What retirement will be like in a world of VR, chatbots, and automation. Technology promises to augment our declining bodies and minds in ways we’re only beginning to understand — and Vanguard Estates is a speculation on that.” (Alistair for Hugh).
‘I feel like I’m ready’: blind surfer chases world’s biggest wave at Nazaré – The Guardian. “Matt Formston is a world-class surfer who rides 20-foot swells. Oh, he’s also a competitive cyclist.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Escaping the Algorithms – Commonweal. “The Question Concerning Technology, a long 1954 essay by Martin Heidegger, has remained a foundational text for me and my professional engagement with technology over the past two decades. Heidegger’s essay argues that the, ‘essence’/job of technology is to order nature; that humans are part of nature; so therefore technology must by its essence be used to order humans, which risks undermining our humanity. The way out, for Heidegger, might lie in art: that through the act of creation humans can save themselves from the uncomfortable, and inevitable, fate of being ordered by the technologies we create. As AI starts to find its way into popular use through new tools, Heidegger once again provides a lense through which to view our engagement with these new technologies.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Was the sexual revolution a government psy-op? – UnHerd. “On masturbation, fascism and No-Nut-November.” (Hugh for Mitch).
You can’t ‘Trust’ this novel. And that’s a very good thing – NPR. “I alluded to this earlier. I have taken a major step back in my social media consumption in favor of reading books. On this journey, I have decided to sprinkle fiction into my constant diet of nonfiction and business books. It has been an interesting journey for me. This often involves texting certain friends who I know are both well-read and and have similar interests. In this instance, I reached out to Tom Webster looking for some new fiction novels that he read in 2022 that left a mark. Without hesitating, he recommended Trust by Hernan Diaz. I have been completely enthralled by this book, devouring it in under 24 hours. It really is feast for the eyes and the mind. Without giving it away (and this makes it sounds much more simplistic than it is), the book is about money, power, relationships, and public perception in the 1920s. Re-reading that last sentence would not make me want to read it… so, you’ll just have to trust me. Read it.” (Mitch for Alistair).
The resonance of books – Without Bullshit. “I really appreciate the writing of Josh Bernoff. He (still) publishes his writing daily, most of it around the art of writing a book. Most of it related to writing business and/or nonfiction books. This seems like a great article to complement my link above to Alistair. Everything he says, is something I am experiencing – at a multiple – as I continue down this journey of focusing most of my media consumption on reading books, instead of TikTok feeds and random articles that never seem to resonate and stick to my guts. There is something deep and powerful about the time spent with the book (something we’ve expressed multiple times in these spaces). Another great example is an amazing book called, Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. I’ll recommend that after reading this article, you pick up Hari’s book and dive deep.” (Mitch for Hugh).