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 Life-Changing Magic Of Decluttering In A Post-Apocalytpic World – The New Yorker. “Once the drones and wilful ignorance and misguided genomic experimentation take us down a spiral of Lovecraftian doom (see my link for Mitch), it’s time to look on the bright side.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Watch the Pentagon’s new hive-mind-controlled drone swarm in action – The Washington Post. “I’m in an end-of-the-world kind of mood this week, for some reason. So here’s what I’m thinking: Semi-sentient drone swarms. ‘Due to the complex nature of combat, Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronized individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature.’ I think I’ve seen this movie.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Silent Film GIFs Reveal the Special Effects Tricks of Early Cinema – Flavorwire. “Fun set of gifs showing the craft behind the magic of some early cinema special effects.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• The Case for Not Being Crybabies – The Talking Points Memo. “OK, I give up. I can’t avoid sending political links. This one can get away with being called a ’ edia’ link… but in any case: Josh Marshall (the first independent web journalist I started reading back before the US invaded Iraq, er, 15 years ago (!?!!), tells journalists: stop whining and do your job. We can only hope.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Don’t Tell Your Friends They’re Lucky – Nautilus. “Control is a funny think. You work hard. You apply yourself. You’re smart. You’ve done everything right, so you should be successful. Right? I don’t buy it. Sorry. People get really upset when I talk about luck… and how much that has to do with the success of those that we admire. It really does come down to control. Work hard and you get lucky? Sure. I think people have a way of slanting luck in their favor. But… let’s not diminish that a lot of what looks like smarts, hard work and more is, simply, luck. Whether you like it or not.” (Alistair for Mitch). 
• Write As If You’re Already Dead – The Mission – Medium. “Well, here’s a long read on a topic that I, personally, struggle with. It’s also a long read for brands that try to create content. It’s about holding back and what that brings (or does not). It’s about how to dig deep and tell real stories. Why is this so important? Stories last and endure. We, the protein vessels of those word, do not. So, why hold back? Why not lay it all out there? I wonder what the world of advertising and content marketing would look like, if writing as if you’re already dead was job one?” (Mitch for Hugh).

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