Well I missed “Auld Lang Syne”.

Writing time has been sparse, but here were my favorites from last year. Skip to what you want.

Neighborhoods Discovered

My passport got lit up last year (I wasn’t complaining). If you’re looking for an inspiring spot to hang out, you could do worse than these spots I stumbled on in ‘23.

Plaza de España, Seville (Spain)

Nakameguro, Tokyo (Japan)

Mile End, Montreal (Canada)

Top of the Hill, Cortona (Italy)

Books

Hopefully you caught my takes on Die with Zero and The End of The World.

Here’s one last book from the ‘23.

Sixty-Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong

Life update: I’ve contracted a severe case of Francophilia.

As I write this section from France, it hasn’t been enough to eat the baguette or drink the Bordeaux. I need to understand the Frenchman. What is this western worldview that seems so familiar… and yet perplexing?

As North Americans armed with fluent French, Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau are the perfect Quebecoise insiders to sneak us into the inner workings of our favorite frenemies across the sea.

Hilarious first-hand stories from years in France reveal strange tips of the cultural iceberg while a deeper look into French history takes us below the surface. It is the unfolding story of France that illuminates the peccadillos of the French that the rest of the world find so vexing.

Whether it’s the spilt blood of the French revolution, the trauma of German invasion, or just the fact that the French are “aborogines” (which really means “original people” not “primitive” as we often use it), it is the unique French past that explains everything from the “rude” waiter to the high taxes.

Here's the opening passage that gives you a sense for just how deep the “French paradox” runs:

Imagine a country where people work 35-hour weeks, take seven weeks of paid holidays per year, take an hour and a half for lunch, have the longest life expectancy in the world, and eat the richest food on the planet. A people who keep alive their local shopkeepers, who love nothing better than going to the public market on Sundays, and who finance the best health-care system in the world. A people whose companies are some of the most productive among modern countries, and whose post-industrial consumer society ranks among the most prosperous in the world.
You are now in France.
Now imagine a country whose citizens have so little civic sense that it never crosses their minds to pick up after their dogs or give to charity. Where people expect the State to do everything because they pay so much in taxes. Where service is rude. Where the State is among the most centralized and pervasive in the world, and where the civil-servant class amounts to no less than a quarter of the working population. Where citizens tolerate no form of initiative or self-rule, where unions are so pervasive that they virtually dictate the course of government and even run French ministries.
You are still in France.

Love or hate the French, by the end you’ll wish that every culture had such a convivial guidebook.

And on a more sobering book note…

Minor Prophets of the Bible

As individuals, we all must decide what we do with God. And yet, what happens when a whole nation turns away from him? What is the slow end of a culture where everyone simply “does what’s right in his own eyes?”

The minor prophets give us the unpleasant yet well-trodden map of cultural decline.

These books felt eerily prescient as I found myself wishing these old books were as irrelevant as the skeptics say.

Maple Music

All my current favorite bands are Canadian. Here are the maple syrup-loving artists that captured my ear last year. And here’s a Spotify playlist for sampling.

**Saratoga**

Beautiful. Calm. Folk. French.
Starter Songs: *Saratoga, Fleur.*

**Bahamas**

Often moody. Sometimes fun. Always catchy.
Starter songs: *Lost in the Light, Trick to Happy,* *Half Your Love*

and saving the best for last…

**Jill Barber**

Husky-voiced artist whose evolution spans “jazz lounge ballads” to wrestling with midlife identity. English and French.
Start anywhere, but maybe: *Chances*, *Petite Fleur*, *Woman of my Own Dreams*

Honorable Maple Leaf Mention: Great Lake Swimmers, Old Man Luedecke, La Chapelle Musique

Youtube Roll

Three years ago, I started to “Youtube”. In other words, I graduated from the occasional DIY/cat video to actually subscribing to people’s channels, and intentionally utilizing the site for regular learning and entertainment.

It can be a time-waster… but it’s also the most engaging and efficient educational content in human history. Here’s some faves of the mostly “fun and light” variety.

2023 Faves:

Old Man and the Three: JJ Redick the Podcaster > JJ Redick the 3-point shooter. Fave Interview: Coach K
Dorktown - Minnesota Vikings: The tragic story- told, quantified, …validated in mini-series form. Fave Episode: 90’s. Fave Poetic Moment: Miracle
Peter Santanello: Getting you inside the diverse ways of life in the USA. Whether it’s south LA, Hassidic Brooklyn, Amish country, or Inuit reservation, you will come away loving this unique place we call America.

Spirited Man: Genius artistry, celebrating the life of the craftsman.
The return of “Drisky Business”: Mark Driscoll’s political commentary is ignorable, but his bible teaching has an edge that might just be necessary.
Prof G Show: Smart American Gen-X professor (Scott Galloway) chops it up with bright British 20-something (Ed). The result is one man’s irreverent, entertaining, and educational take on investing and life.
Woodness Goodness: Fun-loving twenty-something N00b made a cabin in his backyard. Now building one in the mountains.
Nutrition Made Simple: Cuts through the clutter of nutrition science.
French Vibes: Visit my favorite corner of planet earth, if only for a few minutes.

Fixin' my Food

Let me distill countless hours of nutrition research I did last year.

If you are eating a standard American diet, make two changes:

1/10 your processed foods
10x your plants

We all know it, but nobody does it. To begin, I’ve found that you can’t aim for perfection. Rather, 80/20 it by mastering the “boring meals”.

In other words, don’t worry about the ice cream cake at the birthday party, but instead engineer the mindless, everyday breakfast and lunch to perfection.

The most efficient strategy to replacing garbage with veggie gold: Daily, epic green smoothies.

DIY Bubbles on Tap

Here’s how I did it.

Podcast Notes

If you want the cutting edge of the current scientific revolution, it’s not in full length books (way too slow). Instead, it’s top researchers synthesizing new insights via long-form podcasts.

But what if you don’t have two hours for a “Huberman”? Or what if you just want to get the content into your second brain instantly? Welcome to the time-saving power of Podcast Notes.

Points -> Memories

Lastly, in the tail-end of 2023, I stumbled on an all-time points deal.

So we kicked off 2024 back in our happy place. Hope it’s sunny where you are :)

Favorite Things: 2023