My 2013 Listicle

The best moment in 2013 was the safe, healthy arrival of my 2nd daughter

The biggest letdown in 2013 was Homeland, Season 3.

The best book I read in 2013 was “The Success Equation” by Michael Mauboussin. Helped change the way I think about my day-to-day job.

The biggest tech story in 2013 was the growing skepticism around hierarchies, authorities and governments – i.e., NSA/Snowden, healthcare.gov, decentralized money.

The second biggest tech story in 2013 was the emergence of crowdfunding and the future of money. About ten years ago, the story was about the changing way that people created, shared, consumed media (‘real-time’ or ‘social media’). A few years ago, the story was about one way that people were changing the way they consume stuff and services (collaborative consumption, peer-to-peer commerce, etc). The next few years could be about the changing way that companies, projects, artistic endeavors, goods, services, etc. are underwritten and paid for.

The best new follows in 2013 were Benedict Evans and Timothy B. Lee of The Washington Post. I would pay for the former’s insights and the latter writes about topics of interest in a balanced, logical way.

My favorite podcast of 2013 was The Jalen Rose Report.

My favorite paid subscription service of 2013 was The Financial Times. The Economist is still too thick for me.

The most memorable line I read in 2013 was by Vinod Khosla: “What have you done to earn the right to advise entrepreneurs?” Borderline haunting for me.

The worst moments of 2013 were the deaths and illnesses of those closest to my friends and colleagues – fathers, mothers, sons, daughters. Health is wealth.

Thanks to Esquire for the format used above, borrowed from their “What I’ve Learned” segment. See this one on Shawn Fanning: link.