This week's newsletter won't focus on education unless you count book and media recommendations as valuable learning. If so, get ready to earn your unofficial PhD.

Here are some of my favorite reads and watches from 2023. They weren't all released this year, but that's when I discovered and connected with them.

Fiction (with a little haiku)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Pixels form their bond

Life's game, both bitter and fond

Beyond screen, beyond.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Through time, tales entwine

Ancient texts bind lives with charm

Whimsy meets deep roots.

The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

Alaskan lives blend

Teen angst, fish scent, love's chaos

Odd lives intertwine.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Epic spear slices

Through folklore, drama, and myth

History's new path.

Children of Time and Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Cosmic adventure

Spiders, space naps, universe

Friends or foes in stars.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Maze of endless rooms

Secrets whisper in the stones

Tides of truth and myth.

Listened (audiobooks)

Surrender by Bono. The finest sound design I’ve ever heard in an audiobook

Same as Ever by Morgan Housel

The Tools by Phil Stutz

The Worry Trick by David Carbonell

The Difference Between a Profession and a Vocation. Not a book but a short monologue by Matt Delaney, who took over ERcast from me a few years ago. Lovely stuff. Listen

Watched

Apple

Shrinking

Lessons in Chemistry

Schmigadoon! season 2

Ted Lasso final sesaon

The Last of Us

Amazon

Jury Duty

Daisy Jones and the Six

Wheel of time

The Peripheral

Air

Hulu

The Bear

Paramount

Lioness

Netflix

Stutz

Blue Eye Samurai

All The Light We Cannot See

The Sinner

The Diplomat

Deepest Breath

Physical 100

If you are new to the newsletter, here are the 5 most popular editions from 2023

1. Why we give less effort when part of a group Read
2. How I thwarted sleep procrastination Read
3. Why performance metrics frustrate and how to make one that doesn’t Read
4. Alone in a crowded room Read
5. Hostage Negotiation Tactics in Medical Communication Read

The 7 most downloaded Stimulus episodes in 2023

1. Zero Warning | Scott Weingart on frameworks for no-notice critical patients Listen
2. Personal finance advice, why we argue about money, and the value of a scarcity mindset Listen
3. A Disability Insurance Deep Dive Listen
4. How to recover from a horrible, rotten, no-good shift Listen
5. Listening to Understand versus Listening to Win Listen
6. Compassion Fatigue Listen
7. A Strategy Mid-Shift Overwhelm Listen

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