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, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so 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:
- Tourist Fakes: The Quest – Part I, Foreword – CoinTalk. "My friend, Shane Simmons, is a screenwriter, aviation buff, and film critic. Until recently, I didn’t know he was also into coin collecting. When Shane was in Europe this year, he set upon a quest to buy fake coins. Which, it turns out, is difficult since the vendors insist that they’re real. What’s it like to buy something that both buyer and seller know is a fake? Funny, as it turns out, and Shane chronicles the experience in a series of five posts on the CoinTalk forum. The URLs for the other posts are http://www.cointalk.com/t171490/, http://www.cointalk.com/t172980/, http://www.cointalk.com/t174346/, and http://www.cointalk.com/t175779/, since it’s a bit hard to follow the threading on the forum." (Alistair for Hugh).
- The Ansognosic’s Dilemma – Opinionator – The New York Times. "In a recent Vanity Fair Proust questionnaire, Tina Fey said the trait she most deplored in orders is people who are proud of their ignorance. This piece by filmmaker Errol Morris offers a possible explanation for our preference of what Stephen Colbert dubbed ‘truthiness’, instead of actual facts and debate. The nut of Morris’ piece is this: Smart people know they’re not as smart as they could be; but incompetent people lack the ability to understand their own incompetence. It’ll make you feel smart for reading it — but maybe you’re kidding yourself." (Alistair for Mitch).
- Jeff Bezos With A Super Awesome Explanation Of Why He’s Not Scared Of Failure At Amazon – Business Insider. "How Amazon approaches risk, and doesn’t fear failure." (Hugh for Alistair).
- Why GM Couldn’t Be Apple, According to a Former GM Exec – The Atlantic. "How businesses driven by cost estimates and savings (the American auto industry) will drive itself into the ground; while businesses focused on customer joy (Apple) will prevail." (Hugh for Mitch).
- Groupon is Effectively Insolvent – Minyanville. "I’m not much of a finance guy, but this was a fascinating read as both a business owner and an entrepreneur. It’s easy to get caught up in the mass media financial news hype about a company. It’s equally fascinating to read how individuals dissect and analyze a story as interesting as Groupon‘s IPO. It makes you think twice (and want to dig a little deeper) when something is presented to the masses as ‘the next big thing’." (Mitch for Alistair).
- Bulb In, Bulb Out – The New York Times Magazine. "What would the world be like if the lightbulb – as we know it – went the way of the dodo bird or the eight-track tape player? There are so many technologies that haven’t really had any major breakthroughs in almost a century. The light bulb is one of them. We live in a world where we transition from desktop PCs to smartphones like we’re buying fresh underwear. It’s easy to forget and not marvel at so many things that haven’t changed or had a level of innovation… until now." (Mitch for Hugh).
Now it’s your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.
Thanks for these links, Mitch. I though Seth’s post this week about the future of FREE content was one of his best ever. It really points to the inevitable direction this digital revolution is taking us. I think it’s a must read. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/06/discovery-free-145.html
I am inspired by your post so started my own 6 links http://bit.ly/jSpo7k
The one that stood out for me this week was Seth’s Blog “Getting funded is not the same as succeeding” actually states what a lot of us are thinking with the recent trend of tech IPO’s and VC throwing money at ideas not businesses. http://bit.ly/mO6YrZ
I have followed this blog for years. Kal is a great artist uses the blog format well. Her art was ripped off recently and she has now taken up the cause. I like how she’s done it here.
http://www.lovelife.typepad.com/
She’s not big business, but she shows how being true to yourself and your voice makes for good marketing.
Regarding the link#2 in the post:
There is a term for that.
The ‘impostor syndrome’ is where competent people find it impossible to believe in their own competence (illusory superiority), and it can be viewed as complementary to the Dunning–Kruger effect, in which incompetent people find it impossible to believe in their own incompetence.