If you’ve been with me since the beginning then you would know that it’s been a year since I started this thing. What was originally just an outlet for me to write about things I found interesting has turned into a weekly update on, well, things I find interesting.

This week and next I’ve decided to compile - in no particular order - the 10 things I found most interesting this year out of all the things I wrote about from December 2022 until December 2023.

I have a ranking of my top stories but I’m not telling you what my #1 is…yet

You’ve also probably become accustomed to my anecdote-inspired introductions as well. No anecdote this week, just straight business! Ain’t no one got time for stories - presents need to be wrapped, turkey’s need to be cooked, and families need to be fought with around the dinner table.

[The part where I tell you how long it will take to read this] This week's issue’s length doesn’t matter because it’s the holidays.

💰️ some headline for the first thing I write

🎵 the second article I usually write

🎴 the last one yadda yadda…but there’s actually 5 this week

DECEMBER: Chat mother effen GPT

This newsletter almost turned into a weekly update on AI. With the constant barrage of people online asking, “What’s AI doing now?”, 2023 felt like a year where AI ran the world. Luckily we all know that’ll never be a thing because Skynet is in line for the global throne. That said, I think it’s safe to say we all learned what a generative pre-trained transformer can do for us this year - you know, that GPT thing.

ChatGPT became officially available to the public on November 30th, 2022, earmarking the new way consumers could automate their lives…or ruin them.

It’s no question that OpenAI has made general AI publicly accessible and consumable officially throwing butane on the next industrial revolution’s fire. 2023 was absolutely the year we all finally got our own little Samantha to talk to and ask questions. In 2024 we’re going to see more and more AI enabled “things” than ever before.

JUNE: Social Media Not So Social to Canadian News

Back in the summer Canadians were met with fun little messages on Facebook and Instagram regarding news not being viewable. Instead of doing what Google is doing and paying ~$100M/ year to Canadian publishers for hosting Canadian news on Google, they decided to just block all news from being shared and viewed in Canada.

Bill C-18 or the Online Canadian News Act went into effect this year, which called upon “dominant” online platforms to basically pay news publishers for the content they produce should they have it shared on their platforms. The argument from the Feds in Canada is that a giant chunk of the ad revenue created from said content lines the pockets of the big tech platforms as opposed to the news publishers - fair points.

As of today, if you searched for Canadian news on Instagram or Facebook you would be hard pressed to find anything at all other than a message saying the content can’t be viewed in Canada. Frankly I don’t see Meta ever budging from its position here. But c’mon people, it’s the internet, there’s a million ways to find what you’re looking for.

JANUARY: So Many People Went to Japan This Year

If you had a conversation about Japan this year I guarantee you the person you spoke to either went, planned on going, or knew someone who went or planned on going. 2023 seemed like the year to travel to Japan. After being locked down and having limited travel options at times, when Japan opened back up it’s like they pointed a vacuum to the rest of the world. So it’s no surprise that Condé Nast’s Reader’s Choice Awards listed Japan as the top country to travel to in the world.

Truthfully, I think about how to get back to Tokyo probably 2-3 times a week since being there in January. Japan is such a good country to travel to - food’s good, transportation is good, shopping is good, the people are good - I can’t find anything I don’t like about that country - aside from having to duck my head from time to time.

I look forward to writing about Japan as I’m out there in 2024 - we be manifesting!

NOVEMBER: The NBA Cup aka WTF Did They Do to the Courts?

If you turned on an NBA game in the month of November or December and questioned what was going on with the court, then you my friend were watching an NBA Cup game! The new in-season tournament debuted this year adding a tinge of excitement in the otherwise boring part of the NBA season.

Games were played on Tuesday and Friday nights which means you got treated to those EYE SORE’S of a court for NBA Cup games.

Also, the Lakers won and Shaq summed up the whole thing quite nicely below…

JUNE: Elon vs Zuck

Back in June Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg exchanged “jabs” online over a potential cage fight. Zucks began sharing video of himself training with his jiu jitsu buddies sparking excitement given he looked pretty good! Elon, on the other hand, continued to remain confident in his Tweets, mentioning both on X (Twitter) and podcasts that he would essentially flatten Zucks with his “walrus” maneuver.

We then heard from Dana White on the Full Send podcast in December that the fight was so close to happening. Dana mentioned he was talking to both Musk and Zucks several times a week leading up to almost organizing a fight within a UFC octagon. Suffice to say the whole thing fell through, as expected, given one of them is out of shape in their 50’s and the other is winning jiu jitsu tournaments in the best shape of his life.

See you next week for part 2 of the year in Dulture