☕ The list of lists

All the best year-end lists in one place... [Advertisement] December 23, 2023 [View Online]( | [Sign Up]( | [Shop]( [Morning Brew]( PRESENTED BY [Ray-Ban Meta]( Good morning and Happy Festivus! In lieu of the traditional “Airing of Grievances,” we are going to kick off a series of special end-of-year newsletters that aims to give 2023 the proper send-off Game of Thrones never had. From today through Dec. 30 (but not including tomorrow or Christmas), you’ll be treated to a variety of special editions, including a blueprint for setting New Year’s resolutions and our annual Golden Mug Awards. To begin the series, we bring you…the List of Lists. There are so many “Best of 2023” lists swirling around the internet that you don’t have time to read, so we read them (it’s our job) and curated the most valuable lists from many categories. Hope you enjoy. Have a Merry Christmas, and we’ll see you back here on Tuesday. —Adam Epstein, Matty Merritt, Cassandra Cassidy, Molly Liebergall, Dave Lozo, Neal Freyman ENTERTAINMENT [The best culture of 2023]( [scene from HBO's Succession]( Succession/HBO 2023 will forever be remembered as the year of Barbenheimer and Taylor Swift. But it was a lot more than that. It also gave us the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto movie and Kendall Roy [shouting]( “I’m the eldest boy!” And for that, we’re grateful. Here are the best best-of lists to help you figure out what’s worth your time. Movies Spoiler alert: There’s going to be a lot of Oppenheimer on these lists. Christopher Nolan’s historical epic headlined a great year for cinema and is poised to win mucho Oscars. - [The New York Times Top 10]( - [The Atlantic Top 10]( - [IndieWire’s annual critics poll]( - [The Sight & Sound Top 50]( TV Succession ended its four-season run this year and should be a first ballot Hall-of-Famer. But Reservation Dogs, The Last of Us, and The Bear made it a banner year for TV. - [The Ringer Top 10]( - [Vulture critics’ Top 10s]( - [New Yorker Top 10]( - [Top 100 on Rotten Tomatoes]( Music You’ll find lots of SZA, Boygenius, Zach Bryan, and Olivia Rodrigo here. You won’t find any Creed, but we maintain that “[Higher]( is the song of the year. - [Billboard staff Top 50 albums]( - [The Ringer Top 27]( - [NPR Music Top 50]( Books Sure, you can read these on the beach, but there aren’t any saucy romance plots among these lists. We know what you really want: memoirs, a well-researched history of hot dogs, and pages full of urban planning facts to impress your friends with. - [NPR Fresh Air Top 10]( - [New York Times 100 notable books]( - [Inc.’s 15 best business books]( Video games It wasn’t the best year for original games, but it sure was a good year to be a sequel. Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dominated the gaming discourse in 2023 and might also be the reason why your electric bill was higher this year. - [IGN’s best game of 2023 nominees]( - [The Washington Post Top 10]( - [Polygon Top 50]( —AE   PRESENTED BY RAY-BAN META [Meet your smartest glasses yet]( [Ray-Ban Meta]( Have you ever asked your glasses a question? Because you can now with the [new Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses](. Just say “Hey Meta.” [Meta AI will answer]( questions, give information, and help spark creativity—just by using your voice. No fingers needed to experience these features. With a blend of iconic style and cutting-edge technology, you can take hands-free photos and videos, make calls, listen to music, and livestream. Plus, these next-gen smart glasses have a built-in 12 MP camera and five-microphone system that allow you to capture moments in the moment. Experience the power of AI in your glasses. Check out the [Ray-Ban Meta collection](. READ [The best long reads of 2023]( [tbd]( tbd We know you come to us for the short blurbs we deliver to your inbox every day, but sometimes a morning is best spent ignoring ClickUp tasks and consuming a 5,000-word New Yorker investigation into the Dyatlov Pass incident. Here are some lists you’ll want to bookmark for the slow days. Best long read lists This year felt like a real L for internalizing the lessons sci-fi writers tried to teach us. - [Jealousy List 2023]( (Bloomberg) - “[Well, it’s certainly Titan-ish]( (An OceanGate roundup from Today in Tabs) - “[Artificial intelligence and education: A reading list”]( (JSTOR) - [Most-read Longreads Originals of 2023]( (Longreads) Best reads about things we couldn’t explain in 300 words Sometimes we want to cover topics that have us begging our editors to let us raise the word count. Thankfully, for everyone’s sake, they usually say no. But here are some long reads that provide additional context for several stories we covered this year. - “[From Bing to Sydney]( (Stratechery) - “[UnitedHealth pushed employees to follow an algorithm to cut off Medicare patients’ rehab care]( (STAT) - “[We don’t talk about Leonard: The man behind the right’s Supreme Court supermajority]( (ProPublica) Best in arts and culture It was a wild year for watching and we didn’t even have Colin Jost or Michael Che to half-heartedly comment on it. Here are our favorite reads to comb through with a Tiny Desk Concert in the background. - “[Noname is accountable to her community, not the internet]( (The Triibe) - “‘[The Simpsons’ is good again]( (Vulture) - “[Listening to Taylor Swift in prison]( (New Yorker) Best company deep dives We wouldn’t let you leave here without a collection of the good, bad, and ugly of the business world this year. - [How companies make it difficult to unsubscribe]( (The Pudding) - “[Is Dr. Bronner’s the last corporation with a soul?]( (GQ) - “[The mastermind behind your favorite shoes is about to disrupt the shoe industry. Again.]( (Outside) —MM   TECH [The best tech of 2023]( [Mark Zuckerberg does jiu jitsu]( @lexfridman on YouTube Artificial intelligence ruled the tech industry this year. We can only assume that, as ChatGPT and DALL-E gained traction, people realized asking AI to make a photo of Pope Francis in a big white puffer is an excellent use of advanced technology. Speaking of ChatGPT, it won the user’s choice award in Apple’s App Store Awards, although it wasn’t the best new app—that was AllTrails, a fitting champion for an era where telling someone they need to “touch grass” is an insult. Apps of the year Aside from the usual favorites (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, etc.), these apps captivated iPhone/Android users in 2023. - [Apple’s App Store Award winners]( - [Google Play’s best apps and games]( - “[17 iPhone Apps I couldn’t live without in 2023]( (Digital Trends) Inventions of the year We get it—the LG OLED TV is good. - [Time’s best inventions of 2023]( - [Popular Mechanics’s best gadgets of 2023]( - [CNET’s most noteworthy tech of 2023]( Notable people in tech It’s hard to make it through a list of tech CEOs that doesn’t include Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman. And Sam Altman a second time, thanks to November’s OpenAI fiasco. - “[The richest American tech billionaires in 2023]( (Forbes) - [Who’s who of AI]( (New York Times) - [Time’s 100 people in AI]( Notable tech companies Something new in 2023: Alphabet toppled Apple’s seven-year reign as the world’s largest tech company. - [Largest tech companies in 2023]( (Forbes) - [The tech IPOs that were and weren’t in 2023]( (Founder Shield) - [Top 10 quantum computing companies]( (AI Magazine) —CC   TOGETHER WITH CURRENCYCLOUD [CurrencyCloud]( License and regulation, please. Fintech, it’s time to make compliance a priority. While the US doesn’t have an overarching license or legislation for fintech companies (yet), the industry is growing—which means higher scrutiny and oversight. [Currencycloud]( ebook digs into everything you need to know about getting and staying compliant. [Get it here](. SOCIAL MEDIA [The best social media of 2023]( [Planet of the Bass]( @kylegordonisgreat on YouTube Another trip around the sun, another era of internet trends to romanticize. We spent this year looking inward at our [beige flags]( looking outward at [possible alien sightings]( and slapping the word “girl” onto [math and dinner](. Amid all that, you still had time to read the Brew every morning. Here are the highlights of 2023 online-ness from some chronically online people. Top tweets/xeets Despite one of the cringiest corporate takeovers in history, the platform formerly known as Twitter is still, as Rusty Foster put it, “limping along with its new Mountain Dew ass name.” - [The year that Twitter died]( (The Verge) - “[The 21 most defining memes of 2023]( (Rolling Stone) - Jeremiah Johnson’s [Worst Tweets of 2023 bracket]( Best viral videos This year, we paid livestreamers to say “[ice cream so good]( yelled about creators misusing the term “POV,” and probably spent too much time on TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube, and maybe even Facebook. - A thread of [people’s favorite TikToks]( from when everyone thought the app was getting banned in the US. - “[Girl dinner, the Roman Empire: A look at TikTok's top videos, creators and trends of 2023]( (USA Today) - [Year on TikTok 2023]( Catchiest internet songs The world listened to a lot of Tay and Bey this year, but we got a bunch of viral ditties stuck in our heads, too. - “[Sitting (feat. TJ Mack)”]( (Brian Jordan Alvarez) - [“Planet of the Bass (feat. DJ Crazy Times & Ms. Biljana Electronica)”]( - [TikTok Billboard Top 50]( —ML   LIFESTYLE [The year in wisdom and wellness]( [Street sign that says “well-being” and “wellness”]( Francis Scialabba Who doesn’t love getting some good advice? Who isn’t interested in having wisdom bestowed upon them? Note: This does not make it OK for men on Twitter to reply to women who are experts in their field to say, “Well, actually…” So, don’t do that. Here are some assorted lists that offer insights into lifestyle and work areas where you could maybe use some assistance. Remember—no one is forcing you to click these links, as we know nobody wants unsolicited advice. Click if you feel like it. No pressure. Learning As they say, learning leads to growing. And we want to grow, don’t we folks? - [Parade’s 55 resolutions for 2024]( - [Kevan Lee’s 15 best pieces of advice received in 2023]( - [23 things Karlie Flood learned in 2023]( Work/productivity Love your current job but want to become more efficient? Want to learn how to cheat your company’s vacation policy and take nearly two months off? We’ve got you covered. - [How to turn 15 vacation days into 52]( (Travel and Leisure) - [5 time management hacks]( (Minutehack) - [6 ways to mitigate burnout]( (Forbes) Investing We won’t tell you what to do with your money—we’ll let the experts do that. And many of them are suggesting some form of circumspection in the new year. - [Schwab’s 3 potential themes in 2024]( - [Morgan Stanley’s reasons for caution in 2024]( - [JPMorgan’s 5 considerations for 2024]( - [3 top Wall Street strategists offer their 2024 resolutions]( (Yahoo Finance) Life hacks There’s usually a better way of doing the things you do. Here are a handful: - [The declutter-your-life challenge]( (Shira Gill) - [How to finally beat procrastination]( (Joseph Folley) - [10 ways to make life better around the house]( (The Guardian) Health Take some time for yourself to learn about wellness trends, which are mostly about taking some time for yourself. - [The most popular advice from WaPo’s 2023 “Ask a Doctor” series]( - [23 fitness tips for the busiest people]( (The Guardian) - [7 daily habits to boost your happiness]( (CNET) —DL   GAMES [The puzzle section](#) Brew Crossword: It's Festivus, and yada yada yada…[here’s a crossword](. List trivia In the spirit of today’s newsletter, here’s a question that asks you to create a list. Spanish is an official language of 20 sovereign states and one territory. Can you name them? RECS [Saturday To-Do List graphic] This week, we’re bringing you the most-clicked links from the Recs section across the entire year. Inflate: [A neat visualization]( showing how far $1 in 1999 would go today. Watch: The secret to the success of Costco’s [Kirkland Signature]( brand. Think different: This reusable, [one-page calendar]( could change how you see your year. Buy: A bunch of random little [gadgets]( to make your life easier. New year, new you: Wanna conquer more in ’24? [Vitafusion]( delicious gummy vitamins can help you do it. Resolve to [rule your day the Vitafusion way]( *A message from our sponsor. ANSWER The countries are Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Guatemala, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Paraguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Uruguay, and Equatorial Guinea. The territory is Puerto Rico. Written by [Adam Epstein]( [Neal Freyman]( [Cassandra Cassidy]( [Matty Merritt]( [Molly Liebergall]( and Dave Lozo Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. 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