My Favorite Content of the Year
Recommendations contained within. Send me some of your own!
Happy New Year! Welcome to the first Nuance Node Content of the Year Awards. What a mouthful. The name of these awards, or perhaps the newsletter itself, may change next year, but creating this list has been a useful exercise for me. It’s filled with content that resonated with me in 2023, whether it was released this year or not.
I want to create more content than I consume in 2024. However, consumption is still a primary way that I engage with ideas. It is likely the same for you, so hopefully you can take something useful from this list. Curation is an important part of how we fix our content diets and find new things that challenge us, so let me know if you have any recommendations of your own.
But first, the disclaimer I still feel obligated to write. I don’t agree with everything I consume online. Actually, far from it. I don’t align myself with any of the content below or their creators. Ideological diversity makes life interesting and helps you avoid blind spots. Without further ado, let’s get to the content.
Favorite Show: Slow Horses
I thought I was done with being hooked on spy thrillers. That was until I encountered Jackson Lamb played by Gary Oldman. Unique characters and tight writing have turned this into our favorite show. It gets better each season, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.
Runner-Up: How To with John Wilson
Secondary Runner-Up: The Bear
Favorite Movie: Barbie
A lot has been said about this movie, but I think we’ll be talking about its impact for years to come. I took something out of it about societal roles that was profound, especially given that it was a Hollywood blockbuster and not an arthouse film. Go see it if you haven’t.
Runner-Up: They Cloned Tyrone
Favorite Song: DANCER by IDLES
Runner-Up: Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore (An oldie, but highly relevant.)
Favorite Long-Form Video: 2,851 Miles
My favorite long-form video is from a group that I disagreed with a lot this year. While the Venture Capital culture is full of blind spots, this talk on the perils of regulatory capture from Bill Gurley was an interesting reminder that our interventionist economy has often made corruption easier, not harder.
Favorite Short-Form Video: Dark Fantasy AI Storyboards
Art created by AI has been hard to avoid this year, for better and for worse. This was my favorite use of it by far. One person with a clear vision uses Midjourney to create evocative dark fantasy slideshows. Your imagination fills in the gaps and you end up with a clever and compelling piece of storytelling. It really made me believe that human creativity is endless, and AI will only help us push further. Enjoy.
Runner-Up: Yuval Noah Harari — Money is the best story ever told
Comedy Winner: Parallel Lines: An Eternal Beef
Favorite News Podcast: Big Technology Podcast
I dove deep on the world of technology this year, and I have learned how quickly that community can get ideological and obtuse. Fortunately, Alex Kantrowitz balances this well, bringing tech news, insight and fair discussion to the forefront without losing the listener on complex rants or purity tests.
Runner-Up: Plain English with Derek Thompson
Favorite Interview Podcast: Keen On with Andrew Keen
In a world where everyone on an interview podcast has a book to promote, Andrew Keen stuck out this year for giving no quarter. Premises are challenged often, sometimes to the point of being uncomfortable. But the end result is a better examination of the guest and their ideas. The topics are wide-ranging and he seems to follow his interests, rather than whatever the current zeitgeist mandates.
Runner-Up: Conversations with Tyler
Favorite Non-Fiction Book: The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era by Gary Gerstle
This is a great read for someone who knows when and why America turned south, but not quite how. The sequence of events, key players and turning points are all outlined here without much editorial from Gerstle himself. It’s a good reminder of political cycles, and how we are coming to the end of the neoliberal order. What comes next?
Favorite Fiction Book: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Weir returns to form in this sci-fi page turner that inspires and provokes. The universe is filled with challenges and possibilities, and this story captures it all through the eyes of a single science teacher.
Runner-Up: Interior Chinatown
Favorite Essay: Thinking Is Risky
Both this essay, and the runner up are well worth the read. Just do it, please. Both of these authors are grasping at ideas that have stuck with me since I read them. I hope to create something this thought provoking before I hang up my keyboard.
Runner-Up: The Three-City Problem of Modern Life
Favorite News Article: Controlled Burns Help Prevent Wildfires, Experts Say. But Regulations Have Made It Nearly Impossible to Do These Burns
Can we please stop shooting ourselves in the foot on this?
Favorite Technology Article: TikTok is a Time Bomb
Why we only have ourselves to blame if the algorithms undo us.
Runner-Up: How to Blow Up a Timeline
Favorite Political Article: Inside the Dissident Fringe, Where the New Right Meets the Far Left, and Everyone’s Bracing for Apocalypse
A long but intriguing look at those individuals looking for what comes after the existing world order crashes and burns.
Runner-Up: How the Right and the Left Switched Sides on Big Business
Second Runner-Up: What does Gen Z really think about work?
Favorite App: Readwise
How did I keep track of all this content you may ask? Readwise. It’s given me the ability to track and retain information better than any app I’ve tried. With highlights tools that sync with my Kindle I can keep all of my takeaways in one place. It also improves readability compared to most media sites these days, saving me time and energy.
Runner-Up: Artifact
Favorite Video Game: Victoria 3
Games are getting quite good at simulating complex systems and immersing you in history. Enter Victoria 3, a grand strategy game where you control a country from 1836 to 1936, a dynamic period of industrialization, colonization and geopolitics. Will you subjugate your enemies or become a multicultural utopia? This game is a blast for nerds like me, whether you want to change history or recreate. Just be ready to spend at least a dozen hours on tutorials.
Runner-Up: Baldur’s Gate 3
Honorable Mention: The Time Wasters
That said, not everything I consumed this year was useful or thought provoking. We all have our guilty pleasures. My wife and I watched plenty of NBA basketball, Justified, Succession and Bake Off throughout the year. I also fell back into World of Warcraft as a way to unwind in the winter months. We listened to a lot of old music, and rewatched our fair share of movies. Content can sometimes just be a comfort, and that’s okay.
Next year will surely be interesting, frustrating and perhaps even scary. In the new year, it is my wish that you make a new friend or reconnect with a loved one. Whatever we face in 2024, it will be easier to do if we aren’t alone. Until next year.