This is my 3rd Year in Review. Here are my reviews for 2020 and 2021.
Books
In keeping with what I’ve done in the past, I’ve listed the books that I not only read, but might actually recommend to someone:
It feels like a short list (because it is!):
Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart by Gordon Livingston
Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble by Dan Lyons
Pee Wees: Confessions of a Hockey Parent by Rich Cohen
Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks
These are the books I read in 2019, 2020, 2021.
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Newsletter
They say if you are hitting a significant percentage of your goals, you’re not dreaming big enough. To my recollection, I’ve never reached one of my writing goals. So I guess I’m dreaming big!
Each year I set out to publish a newsletter once a month. This year I was 10 for 12. Past Monthly Memo issues are archived on my website.
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Best Presentation
I normally watch at least one presentation each year that really blows me away or fascinates me. I didn’t watch many this year so the sample size is small. So I’m going to link to Clay Christensen’s TEDx talk from 10 years ago that I referenced in my newsletter last month.
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Movies and Shows
I’m sure I watched some good movies this year, but nothing is front of mind. I’ve been working my way through the Madam Secretary and the Mad Men series.
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Best Buys
Several years ago I bought one of those fancy juicers that can extract juice from things I don’t even think about yielding liquids (I’m looking at you carrots). It works great, but cleaning it is a pain. I found this juicer from OXO. Its about 90% as effective (at least with citrus) and 1/10th of the clean up.
This year I found myself doing quite a bit of data entry and needed additional screen space. This iPad / iPhone stand works great. It essentially turns my iPad into a second monitor and you can charge your device while it’s on the stand.
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Favorite Software
I’m still a big fan of Evernote and Feedly. Other than email, these are the only two programs I use daily.
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Podcasts (Read: Audio Books)
I really shifted away from podcasts this year in favor of audio books. I don’t like listening to audio books of nonfiction because I find myself wanting to highlight passages with no good way to do it without my Kindle in front of me. With autobiographies I rarely have that problem.
This year I listened to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall. At over 20 hours, it took me through an entire season of cutting the lawn. Not quite as good as Greenlights, but it’s close.
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If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Happy New Year,
John