#1: Don't go gentle into that new year

Hello and welcome to the very first issue of Extremely Unannoying! I'm so happy that you're here! 😊

I brought you three cool links and one fresh essay from me. Let's dig in!

1) It's not you, platforms do get shittier over time

Cory Doctorow, noted science-fiction author, internet activist, and real-life cyberpunk wrote a sharp essay on how and why big platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok) inevitably all break and die. In usual Doctorow fashion, the style is a bit fire and brimstone, but the article is full of good insights and will give you my favorite word of 2023 so far: enshittification.

2) You can meet your own family at the Crossroads

Many popular writers—especially the ones who are considered high literature—kind of write the same novel over and over again for diminishing returns. (I'm looking at you, Murakami.) But occasionally, this practice can yield better versions of the same story. Such is the case with Jonathan Franzen's new book, Crossroads. It's still a typical Franzen novel in the sense that it's about an ordinary family to show you there is no such thing as an ordinary family, but it's without the sharp edges and vicious mockery of his previous works. I loved it, maybe you will too.

3) Maybe watch some documentaries?

It's January, which means that one of my favorite events, the annual Budapest International Documentary Festival is back. As usual, the organizers picked the best recent documentaries from all over the world and most screenings have panel discussions after where you can hear from the creators of the movies. If you have even a passing interest in documentary films, I highly recommend attending this festival. It's excellent! The event runs until January 29th, and if you can't pick what to watch—because the options are frankly overwhelming—I recommend Young Plato. Watched it last night with a dear friend, and we both loved it.

+1) Yearly Reflection, but the instant soup version

I have been practicing yearly reflection for over a decade now, starting with vanilla YearCompass in 2014, then homebrewing my own systems on top of it to extend the booklet. I do think it's one of the best things you can do for your mental health and emotional wellbeing, but in recent years, I started to struggle under the weight of the ~30-hour year-planning sessions.

In 2022, I threw everything out and built a new, super-lean system I could complete in a short afternoon. After testing it on myself for a year, I showed it to some close friends this past weekend. We had a great time together and their feedback was encouraging, so I wrote up a post about the framework to share it with you too.

If you love yearly reflections but are strapped for time and energy, give it a try.

And that's it, friends! Thanks for reading the first-ever issue of Extremely Unannoying!

It's super early days as a newsletter writer for me, so if you have any feedback on how I'm doing, let me know. I'd love to write emails that you love to receive. 😊

Anyway, have a nice day, and we'll meet again in two weeks! 👋