16 of the best links from 2024

Hot in the middle of List Season, here are some of my favorite links from this year’s weekly 3 Simple Things email. Each Tuesday I send out something from me, something from somewhere else (these links), and an idea/quote/statistic. That’s it. It’s free, go sign up here.

In case you missed this year’s batch, check out 16 of my favorites from 2024:

The Menu Trends That Define Dining Right Now (New York Times)

This tour of restaurant menu trends was mouth-watering. Great blend of food, design, marketing, and more.

The Perfect Webpage (The Verge)

Winston Churchill said, “we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.” Google set out to index the internet, but in the process, they shaped how the internet actually works.

The case of the 500-mile email (Ibiblio)

I love a good technical support caper, and this one is legendary. It starts with a simple but confusing call: “We can’t send mail more than 500 miles.”

Why is this number everywhere? (Veritasium)

Quick, pick a number between 1 and 100. There’s a good chance you’ll see that number in big text once you click over to this YouTube video.

No “Hello” Rule (NoHello.net)

Want better workplace chats? Delete your greetings, and send this link to the rest of your team.

The time Terry Pratchett’s German publisher inserted a soup ad into his novel (Lit Hub)

Did you know that German books used to include paid product placement right in the body of translated novels?

Is it even a city? (Visit Oslo)

A fantastic anti-advertisement from Visit Oslo. Now I want to go.

What Your Grocery Cart Says About You (New York Times)

More food-focused interactive pieces from the Times. Check out this voyeuristic look into the grocery carts of strangers around the country.

The Most Sought-After Travel Guide Is a Google Doc (Thrillist)

Move over Lonely Planet and Fodor’s, the best guidebook in town is a Google Doc compiled by a cool friend-of-a-friend.

The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out (The Conversation)

Remember “Blue Zones,” those areas where a bunch of people tend to live abnormally long lives? Turns out it is mostly just pension fraud.

Gig posters used to be great. Then summer music festivals happened (Fast Company)

Every music festival poster is now just a wall of band/brand names. Blame the agents.

Stinge Watching Is the Opposite of Binge Watching (Kottke)

Ever save the last episode of a show you love because you didn’t want that universe to end? Welcome to stinge-watching.

Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED (Veritasium)

You’re almost certainly reading this thanks to several thousand/million blue LEDs. How we got there was not easy.

Full Of Themselves: An analysis of title drops in movies (Title Drops)

You know when a character says the name of the movie? That’s a title drop. Here’s a way more comprehensive interactive analysis of that than you ever expected to see.

The new Professional Women’s Hockey League just pulled off a major branding feat (Fast Company)

Imagine you had to develop the names and brands of an entire professional sports league, all at once. Well, one agency just did that!

Alphaguess (alphaguess.com)

Finally, a silly little distraction. Like Wordle, but guess a word and play hotter-or-colder alphabetically until you get to the day’s answer.

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