2023: A Year in Review
A short round up of the highlights of 2023: personal, media (books, films etc.) and blogging.
A short round up of the highlights of 2023: personal, media (books, films etc.) and blogging.
But before we do that, another erratum has been discovered in the Christmas Quiz! Question 52 should be H3 P8 P6 F3 T3 F6 rather than I3 P8 P6 F3 T3 F6. This has been added to the Errata page and the main Christmas Quiz document has also been updated. Naturally, I will be accepting answers that are correct according to both the wrong version originally published and the correct version.
Also, results for the Prediction Contest 2023 will be out tomorrow. Check out the winners then, as well as how well-calibrated my own predictions are (spoiler: not very, though better than some others!) as well as how well the Wisdom of Crowds performed. We will be running another Prediction Contest for 2024, which will go live on January 10th.
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Personal (or, I didn't send a Christmas letter)
Overall 2023 has been a great year, despite turning 401. The highlight has included moving house to our 'forever home', within walking distance of our new town centre. An unexpected bonus has been acquiring a brilliant set of neighbours, with children regularly playing outside on bikes and scooters, street parties, and a street WhatsApp used for everything from borrowing kitchen utensils to locating mislaid children. It feels like all the best parts of a stereotypical 50s-style neighbourhood.
Professionally, I've managed to stay in the same job for the whole year2 and it's been a successful, satisfying and enjoyable one. The children have continued to thrive, enjoying school and home-school, making friends and pursuing hobbies. It's been a Lord of the Rings year with Eldest (books, film and musical) and Youngest getting thoroughly into reading proper books. A particular highlight is that this has been the first winter to have reached the end of the year without Youngest being admitted to hospital.
It's also been generally fun-filled, with great holidays including a wonderful family time in Scotland and ending with a trip-of-a-lifetime to Lapland, and many other moments to remember, such as taking the children punting in Cambridge.
For personal challenges, I've finally finished the sequel to my book (currently in the final process of editing, and intend to self-publish in the next couple of months - very much a hobbyist activity only!) and am now teaching myself Python. I may run a play-by-email strategy game next year. And, of course, revitalising the blog, of which more below.
Media
Some book, film and game recommendations. Not a remote attempt at categorising everything I've read or seen, simply some highlights.
Books (Fiction): Finishing the Vorkosigan Saga3 and starting The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold - I agree with all those who describe the former as one of the best non-hard science fiction sagas around; The Rosie Project4, an extremely charming and humorous academic romance; Windhaven by George R R Martin (see my review here)5; The Fall of Numenor, a wonderful assemblage of Tolkien's writings about the Second Age; and continuing my read-through-in-order of the Aubrey-Maturin series, now up to The Letter of Marque.
Books (Non-fiction): Standouts here were Persion Fire by Tom Holland, an incredibly compelling account of the Persian War; Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, a real-life FBI thriller of how oil-rich Osage Indians were systematically murdered for their wealth while the white inhabitants of the state looked aside; and Small Men on the Wrong Side of History by Ed West, comfort reading that reinforces all my prejudices.
Board Games: Dune, a brilliant combination of a deck-builder and worker-placement game with added battles, that is surprisingly true to the source materials6; and Brass: Birmingham, a gloriously atmospheric and satisfying economic game based around the industrialisation, which for some reason I seem to be good at7.
Computer Games: Against the Storm, a fun roguelite city builder that contains a satisfying level of complexity packed within a couple of hours for each game and a great learning curve; Baldur's Gate 3, as good as the hype;
Films: I'm sure I must have watched some memorable films in 2023, but can't currently remember any to recommend. Plenty of enjoyable fluff, but nothing stellar. I failed to watch either of Barbenheimer though would vaguely like to. Matilda: the Musical and Dune remain the last two stand-out films I've seen but both were December 2022.
TV: Standout recommendation is White Collar, an FBI series from about a decade ago where a conman has to help an FBI agen8t. Six seasons, all thoroughly enjoyable. The second season of The Wheel of Time is a lot better than the first and somehow manages to hit all the right notes from the book (a mixture of books 2 and 3) despite some fairly dramatic changes. And one anti-recommendation: Good Omens Series 2 which was deeply disappointing after the first, with many flaws, including the cardinal sin of not being funny.
Blogging
It's been a great year of blogging.
I've posted 51 times, just shy of once a week, and comfortably achieved my personal goal of getting over 20,000 views. There's been great engagement on some of the polls and surveys I've done, from the Prediction Contest to the Who's Rich survey - and of course the Christmas Quiz. Subscribers have increased from 33 to over 150, a nearly five-fold increase. Thank you to all those who have read, liked, commented, shared or lurked - you are all greatly appreciated.
I hope to continue that growth in 2024 - the best thing any loyal reader can do is to share and recommend posts they like with friends. I hope to continue the same mix of posts next year, but if there's anything you'd particularly like me to write about, please leave a suggestion below and I may use it for inspiration. I'm also thinking of moving this blog from Wordpress to Substack, mainly because Wordpress is becoming increasingly annoying on formatting / editorial issues (e.g. the recent issue I had with charts not showing), but also because it feels useful to be part of a more structured network of other bloggers. Whether or not I do that all content will continue to be free.
If you've joined part way through this journey, here's a list of my favourite post13 for each month to catch up on anything you've missed:
January: Do Protests Work? The three biggest protests in the UK over the last two decades - against the Iraq War, against the ban on fox hunting and to not leave the EU - were unsuccessful. So do protests work?
February: The Case for Lúthien Tinúviel to be the next Disney Princess. No-one wants to read this post, but it's still one of my favourites. Go on, click on it.
March: Against Effective Altruism. Topical, with EA in the news again recently, but I was sceptical of Effective Altruism before it became fashionable.
April: The Foundation Myth. Why we can't count on things turning around when things get tough - and how rich countries can become poor ones.
May: Why the Realignment Failed (for now). What the 2023 local elections said about the long-term trend of politics.
June: Five Elephants; or, Thoughts on Civil Service Impartiality. My most read post of the year, with almost 10% of the year's views by itself; it's been shared widely and cited in evidence submitted to Parliament.14
July: Social Conservatism and the Arc of History. An examination of how social conservatism remains relevant, despite increasing societal liberalism.
August: Travel Report from a Woke Nation. A surprising hit with my account of a recent trip to Scotland.
September: Mental Health and the Progressive Parenting Paradox. How should progressive parents respond to the evidence that suggests conservatives are happier?
October: Are Human Rights for Everyone? My only post for October, on how if Human Rights legislation wants to command widespread support, it can't be only for the left.
November: The Lantern Bearer: A Personal Tribute to Nick Gibb15. On school reform.
December: This Christmas Eve, and Always, I Stand with Israel. Unlike many of my post titles, this needs no explanation.
If you've enjoyed this blog in 2023, you can help by sharing what I write (I rely on word of mouth for my audience) - or recommending some of the posts above. You can also ensure you never miss a post, by entering your email address into the subscription form below.
Mitigated by celebrating with a great party with friends.
Not always a given, in recent years.
With thanks to K4 R7.
Courtesy of D5 C7, whose game it is.
Happy New Year! Glad you enjoyed Dune Imperium and White Collar.
Your footnotes suddenly jump from 8 to 13, and the 13+ footnotes don't appear to exist.