2022: Media in Review
The best content of the year.
Ongoing favorites found here.
Book:
The Happiness Hypothesis
The Happiness Hypothesis is one of Jonathan Haidt’s more well-known books. In 400 pages, he analyzes culturally universal beliefs about happiness and comes to a surprisingly non-cliched conclusion to the ever-present question: what is the meaning of life? I texted out more paragraphs and quotes from this book than I have of any other.
Runner-up: The Three Body Problem
The Three Body Problem is a zoomed-out view of what the universe could be. I stayed up for hours reading until I finished because I couldn’t put it down.
Short read:
What I Learned From My Date-Me Experiment
Aella’s date-me experiment is an intrigue in taking pure rationality to finding the right partner. I’m drawn to her scientific method to dating.
Runner-up: Buy Things, Not Experiences
Buy Things, Not Experiences echoes my philosophy professor’s delight in Catholic pleasures over Protestant prohibition. It’s a reminder that while money doesn’t buy happiness, materials - the $25 martini, the clean new running shoes, the smell of a fresh book - are also experiences. “There are experience-like things…And there are thing-like experiences.”
Movie:
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once is my most-watched movie to date.
Runner up: The Menu
The Menu delightfully captures the zeitgeist of today’s fine dining world. With consultation from David Gelb (Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Chef’s Table), I viscerally reacted to these scenes - delicious and cutting.
Show:
Girls, episode American Bitch
Girls, particularly episode three of Season 6, “American Bitch”, struck close to my heart this year. Its protagonists mirror its viewers. The hope is to escape its satirized tropes, but reality is often trapped within them.
Runner up: White Lotus
White Lotus uncannily imitates reality. It sews together the sound of nails on a chalkboard onto a violin, and it plants the music in Maui and Sicily.
Tool: ChatGPT (runner up: Finch)
In ChatGPT’s own words: “I am an artificial intelligence assistant designed to assist with tasks and answer questions.” If you aren’t using it now, that’s fine. It’ll be embedded in everything online within the decade.
Finch is a simple Chrome extension that allows you to see environmental ratings on Amazon items. Aids choice paralysis with consideration for the climate.