The Best Content I Consumed - 2019

Welcome to my fifth annual "best of" list. You can check out the other four here: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.

This year I find myself consuming content differently than ever before. Reading long threads on Twitter, reading real books, listening to podcasts, and reading email newsletters are all at all-time highs. And, of course, I'm still watching more TV and movies than I probably should.

Each year, I've done my best to round up the best of what I've consumed across all the mediums I engage. Now, being in my fifth year of doing this, I'm just realizing that I've never formally set guidelines for myself. So, what makes something worthy of making this roundup?

For 2019, this is the criteria I've used to assess what gets published here. Every piece of content you will see below will have been consumed (not necessarily created) this year and have at least one of these four value propositions:

1. It made me see the world differently.
2. It led to non-stop smiling, laughing, or crying.
3. It's off the beaten path of things you'd probably find on your own.
4. It's something I could see myself wanting to re-read, re-watch, or re-listen to in the future.

And, given this new criteria, this list will look a bit different than prior years. I am going to have more content than I did previously, with less commentary associated with each.

Finally, this is solely based off of my own personal content consumption, meaning I am missing important items. Please, comment below with the best of what you consumed this year. My hope is that this article and its accompanying comments can provide everyone with much needed content for the holiday season.

And with that, let's begin.

READING:

As his Alzheimer’s looms, Charles and Pam Ogletree take one last walk in love — The power of love in a time of hurt and despair.

40 Key Computer Science Concepts Explained In Layman’s Terms — "Computer Science 101" for people who know absolutely nothing about it.

"Whats the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?" — Wonderful, uplifting, heartwarming, and rare Twitter thread that's not full of shade, clap backs and trolls.

Bodies in Seats — Incredibly reported piece by The Verge's Casey Newton on the tough lives of Cognizant contractors who moderate content from Facebook. Cognizant recently announced it would be leaving the content moderation business.

How to Configure Your iPhone to Work for You, Not Against You — Powerful hacks you can make to your phone to make it less addicting and to reduce your time in front of a screen.

How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation — A piece that's just too real in so many ways: "Another woman told me she had a package sitting unmailed in the corner of her room for over a year. A friend admitted he’s absorbed hundreds of dollars in clothes that don’t fit because he couldn’t manage to return them."

WeWTF — NYU Professor Scott Galloway's beyond hot take on WeWork's S1 filing and all of the red flags he saw with the company going public.

Stream On — More Galloway. Great, creative analysis on the current state of the streaming wars.

"How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):" — Twitter thread by @naval on how to drive success in your life.

Pete Buttigieg Is a Lying MF & Pete Buttigieg Called Me. Here's What Happened (Two articles you must read together in order to fully appreciate) – Picking up the phone and having a conversation to learn and see something from a different point of view is not dead in 2019.

This quick Twitter exchange with NYC Subway Transit — Climate change is happening. We must prepare.

What I Learned When I Lost 50 Pounds — Great, real account of what it's like to find comfort in your own skin.

Qantas Airlines' Letter to the "Competition" — More of this in business. More of this, please.

"The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company" — Bob Iger's book is part memoir, part Harvard Business School case study and part life wisdom. My pick for best business book of the year.

"The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" — Fantastic book around understanding why we make the choices we make so that we can start actually choosing the better option.

WATCHING:

Eliud Kipchoge Doing "Impossible" Things — If you do not know Eliud Kipchoge, familiarize yourself. No nicer, inspirational athlete on the planet right now. Earlier this year he broke the 2-hour marathon mark—meaning if you went on a treadmill, set the speed to 13.1 mph and ran for 2 hours straight, Kipchoge would still have finished before you. Wild.

Nature > Everything Else — Check out this octopus camouflage itself based on its dream.

Veep Season 7 — A topical, almost-too-real-at-this-point ending to one of the greatest comedies ever.

Whatever Eye-Trickery Sorcery This Is — Banksy meets Houdini, and the tweet's caption says it all.

Joker — Jaoquin Phoenix dazzles as the joker, just when you thought no one could top Heath Ledger's performance 11 years ago.

Succession Season 2 — Cousin Greg is here to steal all of our hearts. Could not stop laughing at and with this character. If you aren't on the Succession bandwagon yet, now is the time to hop aboard.

This Is Super Mario's Toughest Challenge — How... just how...

Marriage Story — Gut-wrenching, powerful, and superbly-acted story of divorce. Laura Dern is tremendous. Adam Driver has officially become a top five actor in my book.

Avenger's Endgame — The infinity saga comes to an end in a movie where I no joke cried twice. This is how you end 40+ hours of content @GameofThrones...

John Wick: Chapters 1, 2, and 3 — Was super late to the game on this franchise. I've watched a ton of action movies and some of the best sequences I've ever seen have been in these three movies. If you are a fan of action, this is a must watch. Perfect for an upcoming plane ride.

LISTENING:

Pivot — Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway give their unfiltered takes on everything that is going on in tech and politics... now twice a week! Absolute must listen for anyone who works at a technology company or is interested in joining one. Every episode I listen to is honestly fantastic, but here's my attempt at a favorite one.

Recode Decode — The Kara Swisher love-fest continues with her solo podcast where she interviews leaders and innovators in the technology space. My favorite episode.

Masters in Business — Impressive and thorough interviews with business leaders across numerous industries and sectors. Bloomberg's Barry Ritholtz does a great job distilling complicated business jargon into understandable concepts. My favorite episode.

Dissect — This Spotify exclusive podcast breaks down each track of an album in every episode. I listened to the season around My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and have even more of an appreciation for the album than I did before this podcast. My favorite episode.

Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend — Cannot stop laughing while listening to Conan's podcast. The level of depth he can get to in a 45-minute interview is remarkable. Also, don't skip the ads... they are hilariously done. My favorite episode, but pick any guest you're interested in and it's going to be a great time.

The Knowledge Project, Naval Ravikant — Incredible and useful wisdom around how to live a better and more thoughtful life.

Invest Like the Best — Patrick O'Shaughnessy interviews leaders in tech and business. He goes well beyond the surface and asks really meaningful questions. My favorite episode.