The Best Content I Consumed - 2018

Welcome to my fourth annual best of list. You can check out the other three here: 2017, 2016, 2015. Will be honest and open up that I did a poor job of finding time this year to sit down and read the long-form journalism I typically consume. I found myself reading shorter articles and thought leadership snippets on Twitter. Maybe it's a testament to society's increasing inability to focus—on average people are picking up their phone 12 times an hour. According to my phone's screen time report, I'm also one of those people...

Regardless, I have a bit of a different looking list this year. I hope these reads can find their way to the front of whichever device you do your reading. As always, leave your favorites of the year in the comments. Here we go:

Happiness & the Gorilla, Scott Galloway

Lots of simple, true concepts in this framework-filled piece. My favorite: sweating vs. watching others sweat — the more time you spend working out versus watching sporting events leads to greater happiness. On a personal note this rang true for me: the three months I spent training for the NYC marathon were my happiest (yet most painful) months of the year. Find a project that allows you to literally or figuratively sweat and be relentless in making it happen.

Inside the Two Years That Shook Facebook—and the World, Nicholas Thompson and Fred Vogelstein

The first article of what would become Facebook's year of bad media coverage. This article mainly focuses on Facebook's handling of the 2016 election, but brings up many issues that will define the next year: Is Facebook a platform or a publisher? Does Facebook do enough to protect its users privacy? What type of regulation is needed for a company with billions of members?

This Is Your Life In Silicon Valley, Sunil Rajamaran

A must-read, hilarious satire about living/working in Silicon Valley since this last season of HBO's Silicon Valley was such a disappointment without Erlich Bachman. A personal question that comes up for me almost weekly gets mocked expertly by Sunil: "Your last thought before bed: should you switch to the Android ecosystem? You are on the "S" iPhone replacement cycle, and you are getting impatient. But then you realize you are so heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem that it may not make sense."

A few thoughts on depression, Noah Smith

Everyone can (and should) do a better job at understanding mental health issues. Noah outlines seven key points around understanding depression that helped me gain more compassion for individuals affected by depression. A big learning for me: depression does not most closely resemble sadness, but rather numbness. As he writes, "There's an uncomfortable wrongness to everything, like the world is twisted and broken in some terrible but unidentifiable way. You feel numb, but it's an incredibly bad sort of numbness. This is accompanied by a strange lack of volition - if a genie popped out and offered me three wishes at the depth of my depression, my first wish would be for him to go away and not bother me about the other two."

How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You), Tim Urban

The longest piece to read on this list is a brand new framework to help you think through career choices. Tim's framework revolves around this idea of a "yearning octopus"—a set of goals every person wants to accomplish. He then goes on to explain how to create this octopus, prioritize it and understand the steps necessary to achieve it. A fun read for this reflective time of year.

Thoughts on growth, Michael Nielsen

Read this Twitter thread about how to use "magicians" (or rather, people who are just so much better than you at something you have no idea how they even do it) as inspiration for growth.

Principles, Sar Haribhakti

A list of 14 principles Sar has adopted over the years. The most relevant for me: "Thoroughly understand rules of the game to be able to creatively break or rewrite them." Only when you fully understand the status quo can you fully understand what's needed to innovate upon it.

The Shop

LeBron James and Maverick Carter created something special: a place for athletes to speak out and discuss real concepts about family, fame, hip-hop and success. Another reason why I love LeBron.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

This is the best action movie I've seen in the last few years. Period. Incredibly shot sequences such as a brutal bathroom brawl, a HALO jump and a helmet-less, high-speed Parisian motorcycle chase make the sixth installment of Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt as fresh as ever.

Avengers: Infinity War

Anyone who knows me knows that this movie was always making this list. After 10 years of build up for this moment, Infinity War marks a culmination of 40 hours of witty and inspirational superhero content from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you haven't seen this movie yet because you "don't like superhero movies," this is the movie to reconsider that position.

Patriot Act with Hasan Minaj

Hasan Minaj's show is one part new-comedy and two parts steroid-filled PowerPoint presentation. He does an expert job making mundane, yet important stories come to life. He's compared the three divisions of ICE to the three Franco brothers. He's explained hype culture with 20-minutes dissecting thousand-dollar hoodies from Supreme. And, he's outlined how Amazon is poised to truly take over the world (featured below). Episodes are available on Netflix and YouTube.

About the Author

Ross Gordon is currently an insights analyst for LinkedIn where he helps fuel hiring strategy for a dozen of LinkedIn's top global clients. Ross is an alum of LinkedIn’s Business Leadership Program - Global Sales (a rotational program for early in career talent) is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and has a passion for storytelling, technology and product strategy.