Live well

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. The new series of Black Mirror on Netflix is excellent and quite sinister at times. It might just make you rethink how you use the internet and technology!
    
2. I really enjoyed Jon Ronson's new short book The Elephant In The Room. It's a quick read on the Trump campaign, conspiracy-theorist-extraordinaire Alex Jones and the alt-right. I'm a big fan of Jon Ronson's writing. If you haven't read The Psychopath Test already, I'd recommend that too.
    
3. Words of wisdom from Steve Jobs via (one of my favourite places on the internet) Brain Pickings. His thoughts on creativity and the cross-pollination of ideas are worth reflecting on.
    
4. "For as long as we've been keeping records, human beings have been on alert for the differences that divide us. Then we fixate on those differences, amplifying them, ascribing all sorts of irrelevant behaviors to them. Until, the next thing you know, we start referring to, 'those people.'" Differences by Seth Godin.
    
5. A fun perspective on AI and robotics. I particularly like the Robert Heinlein quote towards the end — What can people do better than machines? The view from 1951.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

Ipswich by night

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. You'll never hear sport in the same way again — The Sound of Sports.
    
2. A really cool interview with Barack Obama on AI, self-driving cars and the future of the world.
    
3. These two episodes of the podcast 'Criminal' are incredible. An insane (but true) story of fraud, family and pyschopathy. Episode 51: Money Tree | Episode 52: The Checklist
    
4. "It Only Takes Six Seconds To Hear The World's Most Sampled Song" — The fascinating story of The Amen Break.
    
5. Everyone wants to be more productive... right? Read this article by Cal Newport (author of this great book) and thank me later.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

A little bird told me

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. Two great pieces on having ideas. A 5-Step Technique for Producing Ideas and How to have an idea (this one's my favourite!)
    
2. More wisdom from Seth Godin (he's a regular feature here!). The chance of a lifetime.
    
3. I often like to try to imagine what the future will be like. Where technologies like artificial intelligence, driverless cars and virtual reality will take us, and how they'll change our lives. Last week, I came across the article 'Speak, Memory'. It's a fascinating read about something I'd not given much thought to at all. How the technologies that help shape our lives, change our relationship with death. It might sound morbid, but it's a brilliant piece that's well worth reading. — "When her best friend died, she rebuilt him using artificial intelligence"
    
4. Anohni on art, corporations and the music industry. Her thoughts on the state of the music industry particularly resonated with me. (Don't be put off by the weird text formatting or colour scheme of the website!)
    
5. "Yes!" to all of these. 33 thoughts on reading by Austin Kleon.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

What he says (Sent from my iPhone)

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. A conversation with Alexander Shelley (conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra & music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa) on the architecture of music and the importance of art and culture to society. It's one of the best things I've listened to this year.
    
2. A learning hack backed by science? Yes please! — The Secret to Better Learning That Most People Don’t Know.
    
3. A great post on originality by Austin Kleon titled Steal Old Stuff — "When any art form or medium becomes primarily about people imitating the dominant form, we get stifling art. If you look at all of the great filmmakers, they’re all ripping someone off but it was someone 50 years ago."
    
4. A very useful cognitive bias cheat sheet (make sure you check out the 'diagrammatic poster' at the bottom of the post) — Because thinking is hard.
    
5. If you didn't know it already, Elon Musk and his company SpaceX are awesome. Last week they announced their plans for Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species. They seem to be very serious when they say they want to send humans to Mars. Redefines what it means to be ambitious!

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

Ipswich By Night

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. "If you can learn it, it's a skill. If it's important, but innate, it's a talent." The difference between what is a skill and what is a talent is often lost or confused. As Seth Godin succinctly explains here, there is a difference and it's an important one.
    
2. The idea of being too inspired, isn't one you probably entertain too often. But seeking out inspiration versus actually doing original work is a fine balance. This is a great post on the topic by Jason Fried — "Don’t be influenced too much. Be aware of what’s great, but don’t get other people’s work too deep in your head or you’ll be doing their work, not yours."
    
3. Much to the annoyance of my brother I've watched this several times. — Monty Python’s Argument Sketch performed by two vintage speech synthesizers.
    
4. This year I've really embraced the idea of sharing more of my work and ideas for free (here's one example of that). There are obviously pros and cons associate with this, but for me, I think the upsides far outweigh the downsides. Using photography as an example, these articles both make a great case for sharing more, rather than less.
    
5. Earlier this week I finished reading Sam Harris' book Free Will. It's a mind blowing book and I highly recommend it. The audiobook read by Sam is particularly good.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.