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:
- The Privilege of the Future – Dangerous To Those Who Profit From The Way Things Are. “This may be the greatest thing I have seen on how different the world is depending on where you’re from. Madeline Ashby explains why privilege informs those who think about the future. ‘It’s easy to imagine an optimistic future when you’ve been successful. It’s easy to be hopeful when your hopes have been fulfilled, when your faith has been rewarded. And crucially, the people shaping our futures — the ones developing our apps, writing our laws, deciding our policies — are the ones who reject pessimism simply because they’ve never needed it. They have never understood the danger of hope. They cannot know the vulnerability it requires. They have not been vulnerable, in that way.’ Sobering thoughts during a pair of North American electoral cycles.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- Big Data, Big Computers, Big Trouble – Gary Smith. “I met Gary Smith all too briefly a couple of weeks ago. He’s got a fascinating mind when it comes to data and economics. He warns that when you comb through data with a pattern in mind, you’re bound to find one — whether it’s meaningful or not. ‘Thirty years ago, calling someone a ‘data miner’ was an insult comparable to being accused of plagiarism. Today, people advertise themselves as data miners. This a flaw, not a feature. Big data and big computers make it easy to calculate before thinking, it is better to think hard before calculating.’ Stats, but worth it.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- The Late, Great Stephen Colbert – GQ. “Stephen Colbert soon will be taking over the The Late Show hosting duties from David Letterman. We mostly know Colbert as a satirical rightwing cable blowhard character… but, he’s going to be ‘himself’ with his new gig. What’s that going to look like?” (Hugh for Alistair).
- Picasso on Intuition, How Creativity Works, and Where Ideas Come From – Brain Pickings. “Basically: do the work. Keep working. Keep at it. Keep going. That’s where ideas come from.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- Study of Holocaust survivors finds trauma passed on to children’s genes – The Guardian. “We’re learning more and more about how we operate as sentient beings. There’s that saying, ‘the mind navigates the body.’ If you’re mentally not feeling great, it is often manifested in physical ailments. The link between our mental health and our physical health gets closer with every new discovery. Like this one. So, maybe the next time you feel inclined to tell someone, ‘it’s all in your head,’ what you should really be saying is, ‘it’s all in your DNA’?…” (Mitch for Alistair).
- When Everyone Is Doing Design Thinking, Is It Still a Competitive Advantage? – Harvard Business Review. “It used to be that businesses did not understand (or even care about) the value of design. Now, design is taking the center stage. It’s hard to be a successful brand without strong design, in this day and age. Even cheap, copycat brands are thinking about good, strong and functional design. Not just the physical look of things, but how the brand comes together. Yes, design is at the center of everything… including business these days. And, it is glorious.” (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.