2019 year in review
Reading time: 5 minutes
We’ve made it to 2020, we’re living in what sounds like a made up movie future!
I started off 2019 working on a guide on focus and energy based on what I was reading and had read in the past. Essentially, an approach to staying healthier mentally, as a follow up to my physical health guide.
I moved in April and have been spending the rest of the year furnishing the new place, organizing things, and figuring out what to put up on all the added empty walls.
Blocks Edit turned two years old, and got some new features including: mobile editing, integrations, editor design updates, and an open source email template framework. We also had our first conference booth!
Blog posts
Highlights of posts I’ve written both on the blog and on the Blocks Edit Build Better blog. This year I also started adding links to the blog of the best stuff from my Twitter.
- Attention deficit - how our phone is a distraction in not only wasting our time, but wasting our attention, and why we should be aware of how we transition our attention from one thing to another
- Information overload - on how we process information
- Having privacy online - maintaining online privacy and what it looks like to have privacy we have control over
- Email editors - the types of visual email editors and how each works
- Plant-based the lazy way - how I've been eating plant-based this past year and the habits I've developed
Books
- Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky - a bunch of tactics on concentrating on work that's most meaningful
- Zero to One by Peter Thiel, with Blake Masters - puts in perspective what the point of a startup is and dives into the essentials that make one successful --from strategy and purpose, to the core team, to distribution and marketing
- Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday - ways our ego creeps into everything we try to accomplish and how to keep it in check
- Deep Work by Cal Newport - focusing on work that yields the most results in concentrated time periods
- The Dip by Seth Godin - finding what makes your work/idea/product/service special and doing it so well/making it so good that you start to get attention for it, because everyone wants the best of everything
- Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares - using marketing channels effectively by focusing on the ones that are most relevant to your product
- How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne - a very deep understanding of what it means to be free and how to analyze and realize what your own personal version of freedom
TV shows
I enjoyed more shows this year than even movies as streaming services continue to have more great things to watch.
- Russian Doll (Netflix) - if you like Groundhog Day, Russian Doll is a fun take on essentially the same concept, and easily binge-able
- Nathan for You (on Hulu) - a reality-style comedy about Nathan Fielder, who tries to help small businesses market themselves
- Lunatics (Netflix) - Chris Lilley, known for creating and playing a range of funny, memorable characters doesn't disappoint as he plays six different people who are kinda crazy, but also unapologetically themselves
- Perpetual Grace, LTD (Epix) - from the creator of Patriot, one of my favorite shows in the last couple of years
- The Blacklist (Netflix) - good series for unwinding from work
- Boston Legal (Hulu) - like Blacklist, also good for unwinding and also stars James Spader who you can not go wrong with!
- The Jeselnik Offensive (Comedy Central) - Anthony Jeselnik’s show is no longer on, but man it was pretty great
- Mindhunter, seasons 1 and 2 (Netflix) - investigators try to understand the minds of some of the most infamous serial killers
- Legion, seasons 1 and 2 (Hulu) - a trippy series based in the X-Men universe
- Fargo, season 1 (Hulu) - same approach as the original movie with new characters and (supposedly true) crimes
- Space Dandy (Hulu) - fun, colorful, sci-fi anime
Movies/documentaries/standup specials
- Rolling Thunder Revue (Netflix) - a documentary on an ensemble of musicians and poets lead by Bob Dylan that toured the country in the mid 70’s
- Anthony Jeselnik's Thoughts and Prayers (Netflix), standup special
- Bill Hicks's Relentless (Amazon Prime), standup special from the 90’s
- They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (Netflix) - great Orson Welles documentary
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (rental)
- Hail Satan? (Hulu) - a documentary on The Satanic Temple, religion or political protest group
- A Crooked Somebody (Hulu)
- El Camino (Netflix) - a Breaking Bad end-cap movie
- Dolemite is My Name (Netflix)
- Ghost Stories (Hulu)
- Us (rental)
- Carlito’s Way (Starz)
- To Live and Die in LA (DVD)
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Amazon Prime)
Comics
- The Walking Dead, Compendium 4 - after 16 years and 193 individual comic book issues, the original Walking Dead story comes to an end
- Gravity Falls: Lost Legends - it's like enjoying four episodes of the show, in comic book form!
- American Gods comic adaptation, volumes 1 and 2
Videogames
I tried out the Oculus Quest, but ended up sending it about a week later as my head couldn’t take its weight anymore. It could use a couple more years of iteration to get lighter and more comfortable.
- Oculus First Contact - on Oculus Quest, gives a nice intro to the sense of the visceral realism VR achieves
- Genital Jousting - on my Mac, a fun online party game
Here's the full listing of things I enjoy that I update regularly. Along with a condensed list of my all-time favorites.
And for more of these kinds of updates on a monthly basis, you can subscribe to my newsletter.