This week’s post will be a little different. There will be links to several podcasts, but not a lot of notes on those. Instead I thought I’d share a couple of vehicles I use every year to recap what happened in various ways. As always, including content here is not an endorsement of any or all opinions therein. These are just sources that have proven interesting or thought provoking on a regular basis. I’ll order these from least likely to be offensive to most likely to question the sanity of the author.
I have no idea who this guy is, but I read this every year. It’s a quick read with random and interesting facts. Most of them are probably true.
This is always a great reminder of the many things that dominated the news cycle but were really unimportant. And he’s funny.
I’m linking to one podcast here, but this is from a series of 5 (so far) that Jocko has put out over the last month. If you are in to New Year’s resolutions, give these a spin. He lays out how he thinks about setting and achieving goals. The podcasts are between 8 minutes and 33 minutes long. Just look for DEF: 01 - DEF: 05 in the regular Jocko Podcast feed. I’ve stolen some of these ideas for my 2024 plan.
This is a very smart fellow. Whenever there is a big tech merger, dazzling new technology announced, or some confusing news in the tech space - go to his blog. He will be miles ahead of everyone else in understanding and explaining what is happening. You could discover two year’s worth of reading in his one year review.
Tyler Cowen is one of the two bloggers on Marginal Revolution. (Quite possibly the best blog in the history of the internet.). He is a polymath who can apparently read a book in about 5 seconds. Want to know the best classical music of 2023? The best non-fiction books of 2023? etc… just go browse through his lists and it is unlikely you will find a dud. My entire collection of classical music is culled from his yearly best of lists and it is amazing background music for tuning out noise and getting work done.
Dave Collum is a professor of Chemistry at Cornell. He’s incredibly bright and one of the most contrarian people who can find an audience of any size. You will have a hard time agreeing with more than 50% of what he writes, but also have a hard time proving exactly why you disagree. One of his previous year in reviews was the best take-down of the climate change industry I've ever read. If you take all of his writing at face value, you will find yourself burying gold bars in the back yard and swearing at random strangers. This is the year end reading I most relish because of the completely different perspective he has on everything. Enjoy.
(Here is a podcaster interviewing him about the review. Just skims the wave tops, but a good listen.)