What is art?

I believe artforms improve over time. The more art that came before, the more you can assess what worked and what didn't—and iterate on it. Movies, music—all of it—is often better than it was.

I know that's controversial. I know nostalgia and wanting to signal your refined taste blind us to this.

Granted, all new art isn't consistently better than all prior art. In part, economics and culture pressure new art into optimizing for vanity metrics.

But the best art of each era trends to being better than the best art of the prior era.

And so I present to you my favorite media, without shame that there isn't a greater representation of older art.

Shows

• Make Happy — A truly original comedy special that doesn't forget to be funny
• True Detective (S1) — Atmospheric, intellectual, and exhilarating storytelling
• Rick and Morty — Inspired, inventive storytelling that pulls no punches
• Making a Murderer — Masterful affinity-building and long-term storytelling
• Jones vs. Gustafsson — Two great UFC fighters going toe-to-toe for 30 min
• Between Two Ferns — Wildly bold and inventive self-indulgent comedy
• Counterpart — Brilliant plotting, brilliant character study, and very slick
• The Boys — Rich characters, rich perversion of culture, and unafraid
• Tiger King — Masterclass in how to space out the release of information
• Others — Sherlock, Barry, Altered Carbon (S1), Westworld (S1), Death Note, Daredevil, The Newsroom, The Office, Who Is America?, Patriot, Star Trek: Discovery (S1), Nathan For You

Podcasts

• Pod Save America — An informed and insightful (heavy) liberal skew of politics
• Joe Rogan — The best interviewer of all time: curious, patient, and sincere
• Sam Harris — The most articulate and rational communicator I've come across
• Eric Weinstein — The best thinker-by-analogy I've encountered; eye-opening

Films

• Searching for Sugarman — A triumph of documentary narrative storytelling
• The Matrix — Intellectual, philosophical, and visually dazzling storytelling
• The Prestige — A great example of stimulating plotting and character building
• Whiplash — A great example of character-based, emotional arc storytelling
• Free Solo — The filmmaking is fine, but it's Alex Honnold who's fascinating
• Finding Frances — An absurd documentary about the human condition
• Into the Spider-Verse — A dazzling feast for the eyes, and original fun
• Others — Heat, Edge of Tomorrow, Nightcrawler, 500 Days of Summer, Man on Wire, Moon, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Collateral, MacGruber (for gleefully not giving a sh**), Peanut Butter Falcon, Punch-Drunk Love, Zootopia, Star Trek

Songwriters

1. Wild Beasts
2. The National
3. SZA
4. Death Cab for Cutie
5. Frank Ocean
6. Radiohead
7. dvsn
8. Brand New
9. Hippo Campus
10. The Weeknd
11. Bon Iver
12. John Mayer
13. Ben Howard
14. Geographer
15. Kendrick Lamar
16. RY X
17. Zero 7
18. Fink
19. Bonobo
20. Majid Jordan
21. Post Malone

People with consistently great output

• Hans Zimmer — Film composer
• John Mayer — Musician
• Christopher Nolan — Film director
• David Blaine — Entertainer
• Aaron Sorkin — Screenwriter
• Eric Weinstein (more) — Intellectual
• Neil deGrasse Tyson — Speaker
• Elon Musk — Engineer
• Paul Graham — Essayist
• James Mark Miller — Writer
• Kevin Simler — Essayist
• Tim Urban — Educator
• Benedict Evans — Analyst
• Jeff Bezos — Entrepreneur

Quotes

• "Relax, no one else knows what they're doing either." — Ricky Gervais
• "If you gave him an enema, you could bury him in a matchbox." — Christopher Hitchens
• "You're telling me I can dodge bullets?" "I'm trying to tell you that — when you're ready — you won't have to." — Morpheus
• "If you play a Nickelback song backwards, you’ll hear messages from the devil. Even worse, if you play it forwards, you’ll hear Nickelback." — Anonymous
• "If you paint the leaf on a tree without using a reference, your imagination will only supply you with a few leaves. But, nature offers you millions — all on the same tree. The artist who paints only what is in his mind must very soon repeat himself." — Renoir
• "We all agree that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct." — Niels Bohr
• "In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move." ― Douglas Adams