I wrote something recently about telling the story of performance. Sue Loh emphasis the importance of understanding what makes people tick:
Performance engineers need to be an interesting mix of data-lovers and people-whisperers.
A magnificent piece of writing from Michael, examining the influence of Sergio Leone on George Lucas.
An addendum to the excellent Everything Is A Remix series, focusing on the influences on The Matrix.
Part two of Kirby Ferguson’s series focuses on films. Creation requires influence.
Duncan Watts works at Yahoo Research? I had no idea! Ironically, it was Gladwell's Tipping Point that first led me to Watts' work.
A nice well-illustrated article from Larissa Meek pointing to some design trends that can be applied to the Web.