Welcome back to the second annual Recommengine.
As a brief review, a Recommengine is a recommendation engine, something I invented around the campfire in 2008. My friends laughed at me, not because it was a bad idea, not because someone else had already done it, but because I lacked any of the relevant skills to build such a thing. Nothing happened until 2023, and while this is a blog post and not a search engine filtered through personalized interactions and a social graph, it still may be of use to you.
What follows are the things I stumbled across over the past 12 months that you might find useful. The things that I’ve recommended to friends, family, coworkers, and now, readers.
I’ll be doing this annually as my last post of the year.
Before We Jump In…
This post is lengthy. If you actually followed all the links, read all of the books, and watched all the videos, we might not see you again until this time next year. But you should totally do it.
Before we jump in, I want to thank you for reading. It’s been another fantastic year at Win With Flynn HQ. I love creating this content and hope you find the posts both useful and entertaining.
I have a straight-up favor to ask as well.
If you enjoy the blog, please share it with a friend. We’ve doubled our readership in 2024, and I’d like to do that again in 2025. It’s fun and it feeds my fragile ego.
If you really enjoy the blog, check out the books. They make you look and feel smarter.
Already have the books? Please circle back to those purchases and give them 5 Stars. (No need for a full review—the stars alone will earn my undying gratitude!)
Now, on with the show.
Quote of the Year: Pete Holmes from the Rich Roll Podcast
I’m not always sure what to think of Pete. He is talented, smart, funny, and sometimes he is just a lot to handle. His interview with Rich Roll was terrific, but this quote jumped out at me.
“I remember I was in Italy. I saw a ladybug and I was like; this ladybug has no idea it’s Italian. How many things are we carrying around? Who are you when you drop them? Which of those things are un-droppable? You wouldn’t believe what you believe.” – Pete Holmes
We carry around so much baggage. I’m Italian, I’m a conservative. I’m this, that, or the other. The weight of that baggage is hard to identify until you place it on something absurd, like a ladybug. We believe this baggage, these labels, are helpful because they define us, affiliate us. Well, what happens when we drop it?
“You wouldn’t believe what you believe” has been an overarching theme in my writing this year, and it’s part of many Recommengine winners below.
Videos:
Political Discourse in America
One of my favorite bloggers, Tim Urban, presents a framework for understanding political positions. He outlines his framework on two axes: “how you think” and “what you think.” The “how you think” axis distinguishes between high-rung thinking, which emphasizes truth, humility, and intellectual debate, and low-rung thinking, which focuses on identity politics, tribalism, and emotions. How are we doing currently? He argues that we are in the midst of a “low-rung flare-up” driven by social media and a decline in national unifying forces. This is a few years old, but I love the framework and think it held true through this past election cycle.
Related: Political Spirograph
5 Life-Changing Levels of Not Giving a F*ck
Another favorite blogger turned author turned YouTuber, Mark Manson is up for this gem, the 5 Life-Changing Levels of Not Giving a F*ck. Manson explores the concept of overcoming social anxiety and the fear of judgment by gradually desensitizing oneself to uncomfortable situations. The video presents a five-level framework, each level representing an increasing ability to ignore external opinions and embrace authenticity. He makes the case that accepting the possibility of failure, embracing imperfection, leads to a greater sense of freedom and self-acceptance. The framework is excellent, and I only wish it didn’t have the f bombs so I could have the kids watch it.
Related: It’s just Bob, now
Sisyphus and the Impossible Dream
Casey Neistat is one of the OG’s of YouTube, and he does not disappoint with this one. He discusses his long-held ambition to run a marathon in under three hours and the journey from his initial motivation, a leg injury, and his eventual realization that this goal doesn’t define him. His attempts and failures span years and parallel the Greek myth of Sisyphus, who is perpetually condemned to roll a boulder uphill only to have it roll back down. Ultimately, he finds fulfillment not in achieving his goal but in the journey itself. In other words, the work is the win, not the outcome.
Runnin’ Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love
Bill Gurley, a successful Venture Capitalist and graduate of the University of Texas, returns to his alma mater to give MBA students some advice on finding their dream job. He outlines his five guidelines for achieving this success: find your passion, hone your craft, develop mentors, embrace peers, and give credit to others. It’s a great video and worthy of your time and consideration because as he says, life is a “use it or lose it proposition.”
Related: More Green Squares
Storytelling Advice from the Creators of South Park: The But & Therefore Rule (“If it’s ‘and then,’ you’re fucked”)
Trey Parker and Matt Stone provide you with an easy upgrade to the way you think about telling a story. Something I’ve been working on quite a bit. Not just for the blog but for my personal life. What’s better than a bunch of random anecdotes at the BBQ? The guy who can tell a real humdinger of a story. You have the material; it’s just the structure and the timing that need help.
Related: Matthew Dicks: Storyworthy is a great book and his interview on The Knowledge Project is a good shortcut if you are not a big reader.
Movies
Rewatchable Movie of the Year: Field of Dreams
When you have your own midlife crisis and decide to plow under your metaphorical corn field to build a baseball field blog, it hits different. Ray says, “I have just created something totally illogical,” and I know the feeling.
Great cast, great movie, great lessons.
Related: The Rewatchables Podcast, ‘Field of Dreams’ with Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Mallory Rubin – The Ringer. This has been one of my favorite ways to enjoy a movie. Pairing it up with the corresponding Rewatchables. Give it a try with your favorite movies.
Documentary of the Year: Grizzly Man
This was tough. I had Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream in the driver’s seat for about seven months. It is a terrific documentary, and if you want to go full NERD on Tom Petty, you should pair it with Petty, by Warren Zanes.
Grizzly Man also fended off a late surge from Music Box: Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary which gave me even more appreciation (if that’s possible) for this accidental genre that’s become the soundtrack of so many memories.
Over the years, I’d heard a lot of people recommend Grizzly Man, the 2005 Werner Herzog documentary. For whatever reason, I never pulled the trigger. It tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, a man who spent 13 summers living among grizzly bears in the Alaskan wilderness.
But Grizzly Man really got me thinking. What do I participate in, where I’m Timothy Treadwell? Where I think I’m navigating with skill and precision, but I’m fooling myself. I’m just sitting there waiting for the (spoiler alert) Grizzly to attack. It reminds me of Nassim Taleb’s “turkey problem” from The Black Swan.
Food
Snack of the Year: Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels
Listen, Miss Vickie’s Spicy Dill Pickle chips were in the mix. So was Angie’s BoomChickaPop Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn. But the clear winner was Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels.
The last time a snack took over my mind like a virus was during the great Gardetto’s snack mix proliferation of the early 90s. Dot’s, “small town recipe, BIG time flavor,” is a wonderful, ridiculously salty, and amazingly addictive pretzel deserving our praise and admiration.
Technology
Aragon AI
You know that sexy photo I have on the blog and in the books? I needed a headshot but didn’t have time, didn’t have clothes, and didn’t have a haircut.
What I did have was 10 pictures of myself from the previous year, and as it turns out, that is all you need. Upload those to Aragon and the AI will produce 50 headshots for you to select from. Some of them are really bad. Some look like alien lifeforms. But like the blog, a few are bangers. And when you compare the price of getting a headshot ($500 bucks, plus the haircut) to the price of Aragon, ($30), it is worth a try to see if it comes back with something you can use.
Related: what is the meaning of this? – Win With Flynn (hint, headshots have very little meaning to me)
NotebookLM
Google’s NotebookLM is WILD. You’ve probably heard of ChatGPT, that’s a Large Language Model (LLM). Other companies like Apple are looking to provide Small Language Models (SLM), think about the Chatbot running on just the info on your phone, not everything on the internet. What Google has made with NotebookLM is a Chatbot trained on just a notebook, or just the files you upload. You can ask questions about your notebook, or someone else’s. Upload whatever you like. Imagine creating an Abraham Lincoln Chatbot, based on all his writing.
As a bonus, they made a neat little tool that creates a Podcast from your Notebook. What really stands out in your notes? What does the AI surface as important? It’s interesting to see if the AI “gets it.” If your writing is clear, the AI tells you what you wrote, and you can map that back to what you intended to write.
Related: My books, Passing Notes to Strangers, and The 31 Easy™ Somewhat Motivational Journal as a NotebookLM AI podcast. Check them out and give them a thumbs up!
Self-closing Toilet Seats
Okay, a bit of simple tech for you. I’m hearing lots of bidets talk these days but here is an upgrade for the ol’ toilet that doesn’t require plumbing.
Install a self-closing toilet seat. Silence, no slams, and classy af.
Durable, convenient, and just a 10-minute project will improve your life. But be careful when you visit friends that are still living in the past because you will slam their seat into oblivion.
Apps
Tubi (& Pluto & Roku Channel), Free TV is back, baby!!
Let me ask you something. How are you going to watch Grizzly Man and the Tom Petty doc?? Well, here is your answer.
It’s good and it’s free. It’s owned by Fox and has all sorts of obscure movies and documentaries you can’t find on the other platforms.
Roku Channel and Pluto are in the mix as well. I just flipped to Pluto in the other window, and it’s got Pulp Fiction followed by the Godfather. Can you beat that?
No. The correct answer is no.
Baywatch? Saved by the Bell? The A-Team, MacGyver? You ain’t gunna find them on Max.
True story. I went to the gym last week for some squats and had the place to myself. So, I pulled up Roku Channel. One TV got Die Hard, the other got Rambo: First Blood. Need I say more?
Free TV is back, baby!!
Queue
What’s your next binge watch? What are your friends watching and enjoying?
Enter Queue. Add shows to your queue so you don’t forget, rate the shows you’ve watched, and connect with friends to get recommendations.
Look for me @itsdaveflynn if you sign up for an account and you’ll see future Recommengine winners before anyone else.
Fitness
Stuart McGill’s Big Three
Us tall guys get all the promotions and all the girls and all the money. Trust me, I get it. But, as my friend Geoff tells me, “Big dog’s die young.”
I don’t know, I hope he’s wrong, but I do know this: big dogs have bad backs.
I think it is how gravity works way up here.
Anyhow, earlier this year I had the most debilitating back pain I’ve ever had. And I’ve had it bad before. McGill’s Big Three got me out of that funk and has prevented further issues.
The McGill Big Three consist of a modified curl-up, side bridge, and bird-dog, so no excuses. It’s pretty easy. Here is a short video showing the moves.
McGill does it six days a week. I haven’t managed to be that diligent. But every other day has done the trick.
Reading
Andy Weir, The Egg
This one is short. So short I need to be careful not to make my praise of the story longer than the story itself. Weir provides an interesting view of what happens when we die, and more importantly, what’s happening while we live.
Morgan Housel, The Three Sides of Risk · Collab Fund
Morgan Housel is a great financial writer. He is a great writer in general. He has sold millions of books. And this is my favorite thing he has ever published.
Ryan Holiday, Dads Can’t Have It All Either
During Covid I got used to seeing the kids daily and not traveling monthly. So, when the virus backed down, I decided I wasn’t going back to the old way. I wasn’t going back to the business trips and dinners. It created a lot more time for me to spend with the people I love instead of the coworkers and clients I like. Always choose love over like. The extra time allowed me to coach basketball, baseball, start a blog, publish a book, get in shape, and see a shrink. What have I missed? Airports, hotels, frequent flyer miles, and awkward dinners. A brilliant trade if I do say so myself. But Ryan said it better, so go read the post.
Related: Retirement at 43…
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
This one took me a long time. I started it, put it down. Started again, put it down again. And this year I finally got brave and crushed it.
The thing is, I wasn’t setting it down because it was bad, I was setting it down because it was too good. Too hard. Made me think too much.
Kahneman writes about the work that he did with his longtime partner, Amos Tversky, to identify and describe system one and system two thinking. Knee jerk, automatic, reactive thinking compared to slower, calculated, effortful thinking. As it turns out, we need both, but awareness of which you are using and why is eye opening. Again, “You wouldn’t believe what you believe!”
Related: Baby, I Can Feel Your Halo
William Green, Richer, Wiser, Happier
If you don’t have any interest in markets, finance, and stock picking. Skip it. You can be average without effort by just grabbing an index fund. But if you’re like me, and find the whole thing fascinating, and want to be above average while avoiding Timothy Treadwell’s fate, this is a great read. Green is an entertaining writer and brings together interviews from Sir John Templeton, Charlie Munger, Jack Bogle, Ed Thorp, Will Danoff, Mohnish Pabrai, Joel Greenblatt, Howard Marks and more. It’s not just about these investors becoming richer, it’s also about becoming wiser and happier, and about the investors that failed to do the latter.
David Morrell, First Blood
We hate to hear “the book was better” and I’m not going to burden you with that knowledge. I’m clearly a fan of the movie, especially on leg day.
But here is my case for the book: It was timely, political, well-paced, well written, and a damn fine example of a thriller. It explored the generational gap and expressed the age-old advice, don’t judge a book by its cover. Perception is not reality. Most of all it explored pride. That deadly sin that is so common among men, because it’s so misunderstood. Pride is self-destructive, it focuses on being right rather than getting it right. If those details are of interest, “the book is better.”
New Follow
Nick Gray
I stumbled across Nick Gray on X where he was soliciting applicants for a blind date. Not your standard blind date. The winning applicant would fly to Tokyo, where Nick was on vacation, and spend the day touring around the city with him. He posted regular updates through the selection process and on the date. Apparently everyone had a wonderful time.
He’s started and sold a few companies, Museum Hack being one of them.
He does fun stuff, like renting out a entire waterpark for his birthday.
And he also wrote a book, 2-Hour Cocktail Party, which I wish I had read while I was working in sales and hosting awkward events for clients.
He’s a unique voice on the internet and it’s fun to see what he is doing and steal ideas.
Runner Up: Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker, @PelosiTracker_ to get all the stock disclosures from one of our country’s greatest investors.
And there you have it.
Curious about last year’s list? Here it is: Recommengine, 2023
Wishing you all the best in 2025.
See you right here, next year!
Additional Resources
- Storyworthy, Matthew Dicks (Check it out)
- Petty, by Warren Zanes. (Check it out)
- Mayfair Cassel Slow Close Toilet Seat (Check it out)
- Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman (Check it out)
- Richer, Wiser, Happier, William Green (Check it out)
- First Blood, David Morrell (Check it out)
- Note on Affiliate Links
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