I started Friday’s Finds in May 2009 as an attempt to capture what I was finding on Twitter, as I had joined that platform in December 2007. I felt that I was making a lot of connections but at that time it was difficult to search and retrieve tweets.  So I started curating weekly compilations. After a few years these became fortnightly and remain so. Next week marks 10 years of my Friday’s Finds. I now have a decade of links and references that I have found to be of professional or personal interest. I often search these in my ongoing research or for client work. They add to my social bookmarks on Diigo. Last year I compiled a list of the best finds of 2018. You can also go back and see what were the best finds of 2013.

Here are some finds from the previous fourteen nights [a fortnight].

@GeorgeMonbiot — “If you asked me: ‘which industry presents the greatest environmental threat, oil or media?’, I would say ‘the media’. Every day it misdirects us. Every day it tells us that issues of mind-numbing irrelevance are more important than the collapse of our life support systems.”

Pete Seeger on Combinatorial Creativity by @BrainPicker

“In solving a problem, you often have to make connections between two things that aren’t usually connected. You know, E.M. Forster, the novelist, was asked, “What are your words of wisdom for future generations?” He said, “Only connect.” … Your brain often suppresses such idle connections because you’re busy with the business of the day. You’re doing whatever you’re supposed to do. But there come times when you’re no longer doing what you’re supposed to do and you’re just kind of rambling, making strange connections.” —Pete Seeger

Ernst & Young Removes University Degree Classification From Entry Criteria

“Our own internal research of over 400 graduates found that screening students based on academic performance alone was too blunt an approach to recruitment.

“It found no evidence to conclude that previous success in higher education correlated with future success in subsequent professional qualifications undertaken.”

The political landscapes of Brexit Britain and Weimar Germany are scarily similar

“It would be trite to draw the modern parallels too tightly. Nevertheless, there are similarities with today’s Brexit-derived politics that cannot just be dismissed. Here, as in Weimar, extra-parliamentary politics exerts great influence. Here, parties of the left and the right that could have cooperated to help uphold public trust in the wake of the referendum have not done so. Here too, large parts of the centre-right are intimidated by, and increasingly share, many of the prejudices of the far right.”

Image by Asier Sanz via Estelle Metayer