I missed a lot in 2023. Unsurprising, given I miss the vast majority of all things every year. I was also wrong about a lot in ’23. Also unsurprising. I don’t have a record of the specifics, though. I like details so for 2024 I’m jotting some things down and in a year-ish, I’ll check back in and see how I did. This is mostly for me but I appreciate you being here.

First off, forecasts. It goes without saying but I’m not a sage. These aren’t that bold either.

• Apple’s Vision Pro will set a benchmark for its hardware capabilities and user experience but remain a niche product with limited mass market appeal and accessibility.
• OpenAI will reach another major tech milestone in the first half of the year.
• More first generation AI forward hardware will launch—things that aren’t trying to be phones like Meta Ray-Bans and Humane AI Pin.
• Conversational interfaces will become more prominent even in devices with screens.
• Streaming services will continue to consolidate and then lean on their ability to market “cheaper” bundles. Cable 2.0, baby.

Onto commitments. I’m your one friend who hasn’t seen any of the movies or TV series you ask about when we all get together. I also tell people I’ll put their recommendations on my list (which I do keep). I have backlogs just as daunting for books and video games. Sometimes, I imagine the enlightenment that must be on the other side of all that content. For now I’ve cherry picked some that I will get to. Much of it is recent.

This year I will watch:

• The Wire
• Poor Things
• Dream Scenario
• Blue Eye Samurai
• Atlanta (season 1)
• Andor

By volume, the majority of that list is The Wire but it’s been over two decades and I still haven’t seen what many consider the best TV show ever.

I’ll make my way through these games:

• Jusant
• Dredge
• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Hi-fi Rush
• Witcher 3’s DLCs – Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine
• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarok Valhalla

I missed 2023’s and 2022’s Game of the Year. What am I even doing?

And for books:

• Tress and the Emerald Sea
• The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England
• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
• The Sunlit Man
• Song of Achilles

I backed Brandon Sanderson’s four secret novels Kickstarter and didn’t read a single one. I’d have Rhythm of War on that list if I didn’t need to reread the first three in that series again.

Last are my personal commitments:

• Learn to play piano
• Launch bundle of links
• Publish more to whatbrentsay this year than last
• Refresh whatbrentsay posts list design
• Set up home server again
• Buy a bookcase, for fuck’s sake

I haven’t been serious about playing a musical instrument since I was in a junior high school band over twenty years ago. I also bought a piano in December when one I was eyeing went on sale. It’s a mountain in my living room I intend on scaling. The rest are on-brand Brent Stuff™—web development, geeky tech nonsense. And I swear, Future Brent, dude, if you do not have a bookcase by the end of this year I will find something you do not enjoy and do it. I’m not the one who’ll have to live with it.