ZD 24.01: New Year's Reflection & Speculation Edition
ZD 24.01: New Year's Reflection & Speculation Edition
Should Old Acquaintance be forgot, and never thought upon . . .
Happy New Year!
I read many, many emails, posts and articles reflecting on the past year and speculating on the coming one. I filtered these down to the three best in each category. I couldn’t help but include a handful of articles from 2023 you really should not miss. Keep scrolling for more!
Three Best Reflections
These three stood out from the large pile of 2023 reflection posts:
In case you missed anything or want to relive the moments, check out Max Read’s link-filled review of the year’s moments in culture and technology told from the front lines.
Tom Whitwell publishes an annual list of the 52 things he has learned. Points range from interestingly mundane to profound. Worth the risk of falling into many rabbit holes.
To wrap it up, McKinsey’s Year in Charts puts a beautiful statistical bow on the year that was.
Three Selected Predictions
Predictions are awesome because, in most cases, people just remember when you got things right. See Michael Bury, who had an amazing year. Here are some selected predictions that I think are at least worth thinking through. I will not warrant future performance.
Amy Webb, prescient as always, identifies 10 big themes for 2024.
Digital Native Rex Woodbury has 24 predictions for 2024.
In case you were wondering what you should be carrying, WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg does an annual “What’s in my Bag” post. If it is good enough for Matt it is good enough for me.
Top Four of 2023
I read many things that informed my thinking over the year. Here are the four pieces that stand out the most:
AI was the story of 2023. Noah Smith helped put everything in perspective with The Third Magic, an essay pointing out how AI is probably more revolutionary than evolutionary to mankind.
The way we build things and how that interplays with society and the economy fascinates me. At Construction Physics explore just this subject. They wrote an amazing series comparing building the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center (Part II, Part III, Part IV), illustrating just how much we are getting in our own way these days.
I love sports. I have spent most of my adult life in the US cable industry. Ben Thompson’s The Rise and Fall of ESPN’s Leverage hit very close to home and does a brilliant job of explaining the complicated subject.
The Israeli-Hamas conflict is a world shaping event that we are going to feel for years to come. Thomas Pueyo’s How to Solve the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict is a masterpiece at explaining a complicated and convoluted subject. It is worth the afternoon it needs to be appreciated properly. If you read one thing about that conflict you can read that and come away a lot smarter.
Have an informed day! Stay tuned for the next edition where we will focus on the Zeitgeist of CES. Only some of the things that happen in Vegas need to stay in Vegas.