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: 

• BC Startups: The Government Is Not Your Friend – Ben Fox – Medium. “This might be a little close to Canada, so international readers may not care, at first blush. But it’s a dissection —  nay, evisceration — of government programs which, while possibly well-intentioned, actually hurt new companies tremendously. When we founded Coradiant, we eschewed such handouts, and aimed consultants at reclaiming them later on. We never regretted it. Anyone considering loans, tax credits, or other government incentives for a startup needs to read this carefully.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Tragically Hip – Genius. “If you’re not a Canadian, you may not know The Tragically Hip, one of Canada’s great rock bands. They’re guitars, all the way, with lyrics that invoke Shakespeare and smalltown drama and the grit of relationships. It turns out that Mitch and I both interviewed them; I used to throw Hip Parties at a bar I ran, in which drinks were $1 for the first album, $2 for the second, and so on. To this day, when I hear Opiated, I suddenly want a beer. The band’s lead singer just announced that he has terminal brain cancer. In an almost apologetic post, the band did something very Hip-like: Announced a tour. It’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster, unavoidable, cathartic, gut-wrenching. If you haven’t heard of them, go buy Fully Completely or Up To Here or Road Apples and see what you’ve been missing. And, in the meantime, check out some of their amazing lyrics, annotated on Lyricgenius. And hug a Canadian.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Artist Jason Schulman took a single, very long image of The Shining – The Overlook Hotel. “This long exposure photo of the whole film of Stanley Kubric‘s The Shining is exactly as it should be.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Gymnast Angel Rice – Thotty Axelrod – Twitter. “This is incredible.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• When The Data Bubble Bursts, Companies Will Have To Actually Sell Things Again – Fast Co. Exist – Fast Company. “How are you going to make money? Money? The money is in the data! Data is the new oil! Haven’t you been reading all of this amazing content online? The data that consumers give us is going to make us all rich! Well, what if that’s not the case? What if data (like most things) becomes so highly commoditized that there isn’t much wealth in it? We collect data. We sell data. Money today, but is it money tomorrow? What if we actually have to go back to a world where all of these digital businesses have to do what other businesses have done in the past: actually sell stuff that people would be willing to pay for.” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Tesla Tests Self-Driving Functions with Secret Updates to Its Customers’ Cars – MIT Technology Review. “Tesla is the greatest electric car, right? What if it’s more of an OS and gateway for Tesla (the company) to build autonomous robots and vehicles? Think about it this way: Tesla cars all have an always-on cellular Internet connection. Meaning, all of these car out on the road are able to give the company a tremendous amount of real-time driving information. But, think about this: ‘The company even secretly tests new autonomous software by remotely installing it on customer vehicles so it can react to real road and traffic conditions, without controlling the vehicle.’ Yup.. wow!” (Mitch for Hugh). 

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.