Over the past few years, I’ve written personally about my year and have made a commitment leading into 2025 to write and share more. With that, I figured I’d start by sharing my top 5’s of my year in review:
Top 5 Apps
Clay - Downloaded Clay in mid-2024, and I think someone finally cracked the code on personal CRM.
Momento - I love what John and his team are building at Momento. Growing up, I kept tickets, scorecards, and other mementos, and now I have a digital scrapbook to track all those memories. Bonus: If I go to an ATL United game, they are a lock to win!
Pocket Casts - If you listen to podcasts, just download Pocket Casts and thank me later. Simple, clean, and does everything you need. I’ve listened to 500+ podcasts with it.
Airtable - “Google Sheets on Steroids.” I religiously use Airtable both professionally and personally. I dove deep into Airtable automations and code snippets this past year which has transformed the way I use it.
Copilot - I started using Copilot in 2023 after using Tiller for several years, and it checks almost every box for personal finance tracking and planning. My only issue is that it can be buggy and takes up a ton of memory, but the features make up for it.
Top 5 Physical Products
Concept 2 Rower - Hands down the best rower out there.
Birdfy - I love listening to the birds in our backyard and my wife got me this for my birthday and it is truly incredible. Check out my cardinal friend!
The Stack System - The Stack System has been a nice addition to my golf routine, which is easy to do at home. It's a smart speed training tool designed to increase swing speed, and the app makes it easy to follow structured programs and track progress.
Golfer's Journal Quarterly - The writing and photography make it feel less like a magazine and more like a collectible. I love that Golfer’s Journal has taken an old style business of sending physical magazines and made it truly unique and differentiated from any other product out there. I look forward to each issue.
Moccamaster KBGV Select - A good coffee machine is like a good phone—you use it every day, so it better be great. The Moccamaster delivers every single time.
Top 5 Newsletters
Normal Sport by Kyle Porter - Great golf commentary with just the right amount of humor. I get excited seeing this in my inbox every time.
Howard Lindzon Daily Newsletter - I’ve followed Howard for 10+ years and enjoy his daily insights into tech, finance, and the world.
The Jets Way - Nothing better than getting my hopes up with analysis on the New York Jets.
Nikhil Krishnan’s Out Of Pocket - Nikhil is the Healthcare Tech GOAT. Somehow he’s able to take topics and explain it to both an expert and novice in the field.
Ben Thompson's Stratechery - If you want to understand what’s happening in tech and why it matters, this is the one to read.
Top 5 Recurring Podcasts
Sharp Tech Podcast - Deeper dives and discussions from Ben Thompson and Andrew Sharp. I also love Sharp China and Greatest of All Talk pods.
No Laying Up + Shotgun Start - Must-listens for golfers
Lenny’s Podcast - I love hearing insights from product leaders at different companies that I can test in my daily work.
Odd Lots - Deep dives into markets and the economy. Even if you’re not an expert, it’s easy to follow. Joe and Tracy are great at asking the right questions to get their guests to open up.
18Forty Podcast - Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin does an incredible job discussing difficult Jewish topics and generating thought-provoking conversations with guests.
Top 5 Series Podcasts
I have been rating podcasts I listen to for the past 10+ years and these five stood out in 2024 (All ratings)
Covering Their Tracks - The story of a young man escaping a train bound for Auschwitz and fighting to hold a French rail company accountable years later. Intense listen and well worth it.
Ghost in the Machine - A Belgian cyclist gets caught with a motor in her bike and explores whether the next phase of “doping” in cycling is motor doping.
Last Seen: Post Mortem - Season 4 - Documents the stolen bodies of Harvard and the gray market for human remains. A shocking exploration into how body parts were stolen and sold across the country.
Who Killed College Football - If you love college football like I do, this one will make you question and understand how it got to where it is today.
The Good Whale - An interesting and sad look at the attempts to release the whale from Free Willy to the wild.
Top 5 Books
Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn: A Saga of Race and Family - A deep dive into Atlanta’s history, covering race, politics, and family legacies. This is one of the best books I’ve read in the past several years and helped me feel more connected to the city I moved to four years ago.
Coffee: A Global History - I started this after it was recommended on the History of Coffee podcast and I loved learning about the origins of coffee, different traditions and how the industry evolved to its current state.
From the Colonial Era to the Civil War Americans’ preference for coffee is often presented as an outcome of the struggle for independence. Tea became a symbolic focus for the colonists’ demands for ‘no taxation without representation’. Consequently, the story goes, American patriots switched to coffee. The reality is more complicated. Coffee had long been available in the colonies; particularly in Boston, where Dorothy Jones became the first person licensed to sell ‘coffee and cuchaletto [chocolate]’ in 1670. Coffee houses spread through the city, mostly doubling as taverns: the Green Dragon, founded in 1697, was a regular meeting place for political activists. Coffee imports into the colonies were also controlled by the British, however, coming principally from Jamaica.
The Power of the Dog Trilogy - Shoutout to my friend Eric that recommended this series. It was intense, captivating, and impossible to put down.
Open - Andre Agassi’s autobiography. One of the best memoirs I’ve read.
Game of Privilege: An African American History of Golf - A fascinating look at the history of Black golfers, their fight to break barriers, and how they impacted the game we enjoy and play today.
After winning a PGA Tour event in 1994, white South African pro David Frost was asked if the rise of Nelson Mandela would lead to more black players in golf-crazed South Africa. “Blacks like the active sports,” he responded. “Golf’s too still for them.” Although Jack Nicklaus financially supported Maggie Hathaway’s programs for minority golfers in Los Angeles and was long praised by Sifford, Elder, and other black players, he also responded to a question about race and golf in 1994 by insisting that “Blacks have different muscles that react in different ways.” But the remarks that drew the most attention came shortly after the 1997 Masters, when white pro Fuzzy Zoeller joked to CNN about what Woods might serve at the following year’s Masters Champions Dinner: “He’s doing quite well, pretty impressive. That little boy is driving well and he’s putting well. He’s doing everything it takes to win. So, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it. . . . Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.” (more highlights)