My best of 2013

By Dann Berg

Published or Updated on December 31, 2013

This post originally appeared on Novice No Longer.

Happy new year 2013

Here are the best things I’ve discovered, learned, read, wrote, made, and accomplished in 2013. There’s no particular order and not everything on the list was conceived this year, even if they were a part of my life this year. Want to see how I stacked up to last year? Check out my 2012 year in review!

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I earn a commission if you choose to purchase any listed item, at no extra cost to you. The small commission I make off a purchase had zero influence on whether an item was included in this post — I personally read and enjoyed everything on this list. Please don’t purchase anything unless you feel like it would be of value to you as well.

My favorite blog posts by others

The Bad-Boy Brand: The Vice Guide to the World by Lizzie Widdicombe There are two companies successfully executing “new media”: Vice and Vox. This New Yorker piece is a fantastic profile of the former.
Marcus London Ain’t Someone U Fuck With by Leigh Cowart An enthralling and extraordinarily well-written profile of porn star and entrepreneur Marcus London. London doesn’t quite share my positive feelings about the piece, however, threatening the publication with violence when it was published in their magazine. NSFWCORP, in turn, published the full piece online for free.
The Mega-Details Behind the New Design of The Smart Passive Income Blog by Pat Flynn I love reading detailed accounts of people building awesome products, and Pat Flynn is easily one of the best writers in this category.
Everything you need to know about PRISM by Verge Staff More information has come to light since — and will continue to be revealed in due time — but this is a fantastic look at this horrifying government program.
The Economics of Infomercials by Jon Nathanson A close look at the numbers behind those late-night shows that no one watches but everyone knows about. Spoiler: they’re surprisingly lucrative.

Total number of blog posts written

Nineteen – this doesn’t count the pieces I wrote for The Verge and LAPTOP Magazine, which accounted for the majority of my writing in 2013

Number of books read

Twelve – I usually like this number to be higher, but I substituted much of my reading time with online video courses this year

Favorite fiction books

Wizard and Glass by Stephen King You may recognize this book from last year’s list — and that’s because I read it again this year. It was even better than I remembered it.
A Supposedly Fun Things I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace Although Wallace has a collection of stories by the same name, I just read the single essay. I read it while actually on a cruise, which only enhanced the sheer enjoyment.
The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (Stephen King) _A group of kids must walk, with no breaks, until only one remains. Incredibly well written, with a surprise appearance from a character that King fans know all too well. _

Favorite non-fiction books

Authority by Nathan Barry Authority reads as part instruction manual, part memoir. Nathan has had great success selling products online, and shares many valuable insights in Authority.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini I had seen this book recommended by a few of my favorite writers, but never picked it up until this year. I’m so glad I did.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg This book isn’t exactly what I was expecting (I feel kinda meh about creative non-fiction in general) but it has some extremely valuable insights on human behavior.
SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham I haven’t read many books on the topic of selling, but I can’t imagine any other book being better than SPIN Selling.

Gadgets of choice

13-inch 2011 Macbook Air For a brief time, a 13-inch 2013 Haswell Air was my baby, but I had to give it up when I left The Verge. Although I miss it dearly, my 2011 Air is still holding strong.
iPhone 5S Yes, I woke up at 3am to order the gold iPhone 5S. No, I haven’t regretted it a moment. Although the fingerprint scanner seems to be getting slightly worse over time…
$69 Kindle with Special Offers I won’t be getting rid of this at any time in the foreseeable future. This non-touchscreen ebook is pretty much perfect, IMO.
2012 iPad mini Sometimes I want to upgrade to the new mini — like when I feel the urge to play Knights of the Old Republic without performance issues — but last year’s model is still pretty fantastic otherwise.

Number of books published

One

Number of books written

One and an eighth

Classes designed and taught

Two

Favorite TV shows

Breaking Bad, Shark Tank, Undercover Boss (I have no shame), Real Time with Bill Maher

Favorite Gif

2012 plans for 2013

Finish writing my book – I’m no longer working on that project and have taken my writing in a new direction, so I don’t feel bad about not achieving this
Develop and teach two new Skillshare classes – brought one new class to life, and working on a massive online course (much more scalable). I’m happy with my progress here
Build and launch a functioning dynamic website with Ruby on Rails – My focus has shifted slightly away from coding, but in an exciting new direction (this website!)
Code and release updates for my two iOS apps – Fail — still in progress
Say ‘no’ more – I said ‘no’ to a job that was fantastic but wasn’t the right fit for me, so I’d consider this a success
Start consulting in the mobile app space – Spent some time consulting in person and on Popexpert, so that’s all good
Meditate regularly – Man, I should really do this
Start doing yoga – Same with yoga, that did not happen in 2013

Plans for 2014

Finish The Non-Programmer’s Guide to Getting an App in the App Store online course
Complete my book on building apps
Post at least one new article a week on Novice No Longer
Start experimenting with Adwords for my upcoming online course
Create a powerful autoresponder series for new newsletter subscribers
Meditate regularly

Bring it on, 2014.