2023 Year in Data - Stories & Media
Welcome to the first of my 2023 Year in Data reviews! I collect a lot of data about my life including the entertainment I enjoy, my exercise habits, time tracking results, and more. Some of these will be a productive reflection on how well I achieved my goals for the year (I’m a big fan of the Cortex Yearly Theme system), but some will be just for fun. We’ll be starting with a fun one.
I love television, movies, music, and podcasts. I’ve been trying (a little) to get back into reading this year, but it hasn’t quite worked... We’re all familiar with Spotify Wrapped, but I’ve also pulled some screenshots from LetterBoxd and info from GoodReads. If you make it to the end, maybe you’ll find a few recommendations interesting!
Watching
I’ve been having a lot of fun recording my movie watching with Letterboxd this year. In my first year on the platform, I’ve watched 41 movies - a little less than one per week. Although, that doesn’t count all the Marvel movies I’m constantly rewatching.
My favorite movie this year was Across the Spiderverse, which I rate 4.5 stars. A film has to be pretty incredible to get a full 5 stars from me, and this came close. I often have a hard time getting invested in animated stories, but something like this comes around only once in a while to make me appreciate animation again.
At the end of 2023, I’ve watched 5% of the Letterboxd Top 250 movies, 10% of the IMDb Top 250, and 38% of the Box Office Mojo All Time 100. Maybe I should get interested in some more prestigious films next year so that I can keep up with The Big Picture. I could start working on the Oscar Best Picture Winners, of which I’ve only watched 3%.
I watched a lot of Christmas movies this November while I was studying. That skewed a little bit of my statistics, making Comedy my most-watched genre, followed by Action and Adventure.
I continue to wish that Letterboxd included television shows in their catalog. There’s a big chunk of my watching that’s missing as a result. The Last of Us was an all-time season of television for me. There were plenty of Marvel flops but also one of the best endings (I hope it’s the end) to a character arc in Loki. Gen V came out late in the year, deepening the universe of The Boys. Of course, I’ve also been rewatching The West Wing, Friends, and TaskMaster all through the year.
Listening
Spotify tells me that I listened to 2,792 songs across 53 genres in 2023. That’s almost 17 days of listening. Indiecoustica was my largest genre overall, but also the vast majority of my intentional music listening. The other categories - pop, rock, and rap - are mostly genres I listen to while running.
I tend to let Spotify serve me new music via my Discover Weekly or mixes based on a specific band. I listened to 1,819 different artists this year, which feels like way too much. In 2022, I discovered the band Lawrence from their clips on TikTok and have been listening, re-listening, and re-listening again ever since. Do You Wanna Do Nothing with Me was my top listened-to song, but I have to imagine many of their songs were in the running. Actually, I’m surprised that I only played it 35 times. For some reason, their music scratches an itch in my brain. They’re incredibly talented. I was also thrilled to see them open for AJR this summer.
Shingo Nakamura’s music was recommended to me (by someone somewhere, sorry!) as great study music. I can’t explain it, but my brain hits a kind of flow state while I’m listening to him that I haven’t replicated in any other way.
This section of my Year in Data is unfortunately very incomplete. In addition to music, I listen to a lot of podcasts on my favorite podcast player, Overcast. The developer, Marco Arment (who happens to be a host on one of my favorite podcasts, The Accidental Tech Podcast), had hoped to put together a Spotify Wrapped-like feature for this year. He posted on Mastodon recently to let his users know that it’ll be coming next year, but, until then, I’m without any stats to share. Instead, I’ll share some new favorites from 2023:
P1 with Matt and Tommy - for Formula 1
House of R - for nerd media coverage (I’ve been listening to them for a while, but they recently got their own podcast feed)
Thoroughly Considered - for people who are interested in the design of nice products
Reading
Now, reading has been tough. I enjoy reading. I like that it makes me feel smart. But when I’m done with a long day and want to relax, I don’t pick up a book. I usually opt for TV or a movie. I won’t share the screenshot of my GoodReads stats for my shocking two books this year, but will certainly link to them. I really enjoyed the Star Wars story Ahsoka by E.K Johnston as I prepared for the release of Ashoka’s TV show. It helped me bridge the gap between her appearances in various animated shows. I also read Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman on a recommendation from the Focused podcast. I’ve tried to read productivity books before and just gotten bored; this was not the case with Four Thousand Weeks. It genuinely felt therapeutic every time I picked up the book and helped me process some of my competing priorities in my professional (and personal) life.
Next year, I’d love to read more. I only joined GoodReads towards the end of the year at the urging of a family member, so maybe that will put some extra pressure on me. I don’t know what I’d be willing to give up to read more, though. Maybe I’ll be more likely to pick up a book than I was this time last year, but they may have to come to me.