Best of 2016

Best-of lists signify another year is coming to a close. People feel a need to sort and order things to make room for what is to come. Or something like that.

So here is an assorted list of best new things I found in 2016. Things can be anything, as long as it was new to me in 2016. Feel free to share your list in the comments.

Best new app

Google Photos turned out to be a real improvement in photo management. It saves space on your phone and, more importantly, you can search trough photos because Google AI indexes them (and every face on it) for you. Picture of that meeting last month? Coming up! Picture of your kid on a swing? Say no more fam, I got you. You should give it a try, it works pretty great. (Be sure to read the T&C if you have privacy doubts).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEK37MBTUPk

Best new podcast

I have listened to 316 podcasts this year. I ain’t lying, it was kind of my thing this year, I even started my own podcast with a friend.

But apart from that, the “How I built this” podcast is hands-down the best new podcast I found this year. Every episode is interesting. No duds so far. It’s always a great story of one or more entrepreneurs on how they got started. And there has been a wonderful selection of guests already. This show is fun and you really learn something every time (but learning is fun ammirite?!).

Best new music

Usually I compile a list of best new music discoveries. I might still do that. But for now I’d like to point out one genre, that was newish to me: Dark Wave. Taking new wave a bit further. Not for everyone, I know.

Best book

Even though I just started this one and so I haven’t finished it yet, I still think Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike will be my favourite book of 2016. Boy, this is something else. And right up my alley, life-lessons, entrepreneurship, sports, passion. It speaks to me. You learn something, you feel you understand things better after reading. At least so far, I might blog about it after finishing (or you know, podcast about it)

Best game

Probably Sniper Elite III. I only played a few games this year, but this one was fun. Sneaking and sniping Nazis in the African desert. Not too much backstory or immersion, just what I like for now.

Best movie

The Big Short. A piece of recent real history portrait by great actors. Yes, in a Hollywood fictional sort of way, but that didn’t bother me.

TV shows are missing from this list, because there just weren’t any that I think I’d like to recommend. But I have seen more episodes of Flip or Flop than you would guess. Probably because we bought a new house ourselves and did some work on it.

 Best article/site

Not so much an article, as a guy who writes them. I think I must have stumbled on Derek Sivers and his braindump sivers.org a few times already before 2106, but it didn’t stick or I didn’t see the bigger picture. But this year it did, you can really learn a lot from this guy, who built and sold his company and didn’t keep a penny. He writes interesting articles, some have been compiled to read as a book. Highly recommended.

(That reminds me, I probably also should start tracking favourite quotes.)

Best video

I watch and like a lot of YouTube but I have never liked (you know, like-like) a youtube video in my life. So picking one is hard because there is no log.  So this is a placeholder for myself to keep track of this. The same goes for gifs, also moving images. I probably have seen more gifs than videos, and that’s saying something 😉

Best new gadget

My Chromebook. I did a blogpost on it. But my Tascam DR-40 and Logitech MX Master are close runners up. Oh and I started driving one of these, which is also a nice piece of technology.

Best tweet

For this last one, I’m going to be unapologetically selfish. Yes, with all the political drama this year there were a lot of interesting or funny tweets. But this tweet is mine, non-political and my favourite:

Hello World! Dit is Frans van den Berg. Geboren op 29-7 (2 priemgetallen). 3970 gram. Uptime: 11 uur en 14 minuten. pic.twitter.com/ynCq82UzP9

— Jan van den Berg (@loginn) July 30, 2016