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 (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) 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:
- Neoglyphics Promo. "Now we have a computer on our wrist, and sarcasm and vitriol in our feeds. But it wasn’t always this way. Here’s a 1995 promotional video for Neoglyphics – a Web design company. Watching this video a friend pointed me at made me remember just how idyllic things were, or maybe I’m just a grumpy old man. The world has changed so much that this is almost satire at this point. Oh, yeah, and if you’re 20 you don’t remember this. Hey kids! Get off my lawn!" (Alistair for Hugh).
- It’s Payback Time – Channel 4. "I was at the BBC this week. Every time I deal with them, I’m amazed at how much good stuff they do. Heck, their iPlayer volume goes to eleven (Really. It does.) Watch this video (which seems pretty timely, all things considered) before reading about it. Did I mention I love the BBC?" (Alistair for Mitch).
- Regulate This! A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast – Freakonomics. "The ‘sharing economy’ (AirBnB, Lyft, Uber, etc) is butting up against government regulations. Great podcast talking to some of the players from both sides of the argument." (Hugh for Alistair).
- The Rise and Fall of the Biggest Pot Dealer in New York City History – The New York Times. "This is an incredible story, more so for Montrealers who can appreciate better the kinds of characters here: Jimmy Cournoyer (as the New York Times, helpfully, notes, ‘pronounced koorn-WAH-yay’), the Laval man in the middle, Mohawk smugglers in tiny boats, a Laval gangster (on probation for killing another driver in a drunk driving accident in his Porsche) who gets a job driving an elderly lady to her medical appointments (while rebuilding his smuggling operation), mixed martial arts, lingerie models, Leonard DiCaprio, snowmobiles filled with pounds of pot and piles of cash, encrypted Blackberries, and a pissed-off ex-girlfriend who walks into a police station to unravel the whole thing… Breaking Bad, eat your heart out (and please: someone make a great television series based on this story)." (Hugh for Mitch).
- Management intuition for the next 50 years – McKinsey & Company. "The next 50 years… how about the next five? We live in a world where the iPad didn’t exist four years ago and now we’re into wearables, connected devices and so much more. If you think that the last five years were crazy, just wait and see what the next five years will deliver. We’re experiencing some major shifts in how a business must act. This is a long read, but it’s a great read. It’s a little academic, but the point is clear: the stuff that I wrote about in CTRL ALT Delete is real… and it is fundamental to getting businesses to understand a very different future, when it comes to product development and revenues. For some, a piece like this is going to freak them out. For others, it’s a nice little peek into where the true opportunities are for those in business… or for those thinking that now may seem like the perfect time to do a startup. Special thanks to Deb Hinton for pointing this one out to me." (Mitch for Alistair).
- Why Indie Bookstores Are on the Rise Again – Inc. Magazine. "Well, isn’t this interesting. It turns out that when the big book retailers went public, it forced them to be innovative, high-growth and chase Amazon. Could that have done them in? This is strange. We all figured that these big book store chains were set to destroy the independent book stores. Maybe we were all wrong. It looks like the massive dinosaurs are becoming extinct and this is paving way for a new type of species. Welcome to the age of growth for independent book sellers?" (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.