Year in Review 2016
An incomplete series of lists detailing what I built, wrote, talked about, and read in 2016.
Projects
- Built a prototype of I Want In, a platform connecting gamemakers and playtesters, at #SNDMakes in Chicago
- Read 52 books in 52 weeks from February 2015 to February 2016
- Built a prototype of Babbage, a low-hassle matching service that structures and schedules half-hour online feedback sessions for projects or career advice, at #SNDMakes in San Francisco
- Design and development for North by Northwestern’s Commencement 2016
- Design and development for Hunny Mag’s first digital issue
- Started a podcast with my sister called Sweet and Sour
Things Written
- Connecting gamemakers and playtesters at SNDMakesChi (Personal blog)
- Why you should do a news designathon (Knight Lab)
- On casual racism (Personal blog)
- 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Year 2 (Personal blog)
- NICAR16: Visualization designed for the human brain (Knight Lab)
- Slide Transitions (North by Northwestern)
- Limited connectivity: Including readers whose only access might be a mobile phone (Knight Lab)
- What to talk about when white people talk about Chinese culture (Medium)
Talks Given
- How to read 52 books in 52 weeks (March 2016, NICAR)
- Get yourself a #squad (November 2016, Ela Conf)
- Brave New(s) World: the intersection of journalism and technology (November 2016, WildHacks)
Books Read
56 total in 2016. For additional metadata and more details on how I choose the books I read, check out the corresponding spreadsheet.
- Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household by Thavolia Glymph
- The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
- The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
- Reynard the Fox
- Sex Criminals, Vol. 2: Two Worlds, One Cop by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
- The Old Arcadia by Philip Sidney
- The Prestige by Christopher Priest
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld
- The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare
- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
- Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
- Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class by Ian Haney Lopez
- Product Design for the Web: Principles of Designing and Releasing Web Products by Randy J. Hunt
- Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics by Lester K. Spence
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
- Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters by Jessica Valenti
- The Dead Ladies Project: Exiles, Expats, and Ex-Countries by Jessa Crispin
- Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
- Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China by Eddie Huang
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
- The Pleasing Hour by Lily King
- The Boat by Nam Le
- Content Strategy for Mobile by Karen McGrane
- Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
- All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister
- Design: The Invention of Desire by Jessica Helfand
- Dietland by Sarai Walker
- Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
- Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique Morris
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
- milk and honey by Rupi Kaur
- California by Edan Lepucki
- The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing
- Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
- Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed
- H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
- Sex Object: A Memoir by Jessica Valenti
- Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art by Virginia Heffernan
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
- The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee
- What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
- The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by Jesmyn Ward
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
Written on December 29, 2016