Six Links That Make You Think #791

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 (Just Evil Enough, Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) 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:

Canada’s Population Clock (Real-Time Model) – Statistics Canada. “When I was born, there were half as many humans on the planet as there are now. I’ve always said Canada has 30 million inhabitants; turns out, it’s now 41 million – and counting. This is the real-time population clock, thanks to Statscan!” (Alistair for Hugh). NPR Tiny Desk Contest 2023 – Andrea Gibson – Maga Hat In The Chemo Room – YouTube . “This absolutely broke me. I only heard about Colorado’s poet laureate Andrea Gibson from her death, when a friend suggested I check out her work. This piece, called ‘MAGA Hat In The Chemo Room’, is an astonishing piece of art, part humor, part lament, and all bare soul. Watch it with someone you love, then hug them close.” (Alistair for Mitch). Discord In Every Class? – Pronita Mehrortra – LinkedIn . “This is a fascinating unintended consequence of AI, that I can relate to. In this case, instructors are reporting that once-busy class Discords (internet forum/discussion space) are now silent. Why? Because students are just asking ChatGPT for how to solve question 4 or whatever. One the one hand, ‘amazing, AI is good at helping students’ … on the other hand, what happens when we remove the social building connections and … faith in humanity? … that comes from asking a question and having a fellow-human answer you? I notice this myself, I used to use Reddit for all sorts of questions about some of my hobbies: gardening, ukulele, vinegar, fermenting and ginger bug making, minor woodwoork projects, etc. I used to be delighted by the wonderful, thoughtful and human responses I got – often tens of helpful answers to simple questions. Always a delight to check Reddit the next day and see people who helped. But now I just ask GPT. Answers are fast and mostly accurate. It’s probably better for getting done what I want to get done. So much worse for my general sense of strangers being kind, and my faith in humanity’s willingness to help. How many more of these surprising side effects will AI generate?” (Hugh for Alistair).       Bringing Human Nature Back In – Francis Fukuyama – Persuasion . “Human nature is (probably?) a dirty word in much of the progressive intellectual world. In some ways the project of modern progressivism is to say: we can invent our own nature, it doesn’t exist. Francis Fukayama thinks it’s time human nature be rehabilitated.” (Hugh for Mitch).   Learners Will Inherit The Earth – Paul Jun – Kimchi & Gabagool – Substack. “So many smart themes here. The blunt truth is this: big crushes small… unless the small are willing to learn fast enough to become big. The Luddites swung hammers at looms instead of mastering them and history moved on without them. AI is today’s loom. We can posture, protest and moralize, but the bulldozer doesn’t care… it just keeps rolling. What matters is whether we have the curiosity and discipline to treat these tools as raw material, not replacement. Jun points to how industries always crumble and reform… photography went from rarefied craft to iPhone ubiquity, design from decks and delays to working prototypes spun up in hours with Cursor. The incumbents cling but the learners leap. He calls out our ‘selective outrage’ and how easy it is to decry AI’s energy use while ordering Uber Eats on the latest iPhone. Outrage doesn’t compound but learning does. That’s the hinge of the whole piece: adaptation isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s the survival tax these days. Why do I agree? Because I’ve seen this movie before. The Internet, search, social, ecommerce, mobile… every cycle rewarded the learners and left the ‘learned’ behind. AI is no different (and is, probably, a bigger deal). The choice isn’t whether to embrace it…it’s whether to stay small or get big enough to matter. Also need to hat-tip Sentiers (I think I disvered this pieceover there)” (Mitch for Alistair). Is AI The Death Of Creativity? – Brian Eno – Baratunde Thurston . “As you know, Brian Eno is one of those rare artists I could happily listen to read the dictionary… his mind just works differently, and it makes you want to lean in. In this conversation, he reminds us that technology is never just about what it was built for… it’s about the accidents, the sideways discoveries, the serendipity it unleashes. A tape recorder became his instrument. A microphone turned singers into crooners. And now AI (mediocre, to many, on its surface) could become fertile ground if you treat it like a garden, not a blueprint. Eno is less worried about the tools themselves than about who owns them, and more interested in the collective ‘senius’ of culture than the myth of the lone genius. Even the generative documentary about his life refuses one tidy narrative, offering thousands of possible versions depending on how the pieces are rearranged. That feels true of creativity, business and culture alike. Tools democratize, the old guard resists and the learners adapt. What I love most is how he frames art and technology not as opposing forces but as co-conspirators in surprise. It’s a reminder that unpredictability isn’t a bug… it’s the feature. And in that sense, maybe the real lesson is simple: keep learning, stay open and embrace the unexpected.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

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