Best of Every 2021

Knowledge Partner: McKinsey & Company

What might 2022 hold? McKinsey surveyed 5,000 Americans this fall to get a pulse check on US economic opportunity and the challenges workers see. This chart-driven feature distills five big insights. Dive deeper on the data, plus get an early look at some of the 2022 developments to watch for in this can’t-miss new article.

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Happy Sunday!

Merry Christmas to all of those who celebrate!

We hope all of you are taking the time to relax, reflect, and read this holiday week. Here's everything we published, and a selection of some of our best articles from this year.

The Web3 Renaissance: A Golden Age of Content

Li Jin & Katie Parrot / Means of Creation

In this week's Means of Creation, Li and Katie trace the story of how Web2 broke the business model of media and then they explore how Web3 might tilt scales back in favor of creators.

This essay broke out on Twitter last week and we highly recommend you check it out. It's also the first Every essay published as an NFT—you can join 57 other collectors and help support Li, Katie, and Every by collecting it here.

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What Worked for Me in 2021

Dan Shipper / Superorganizers

In true Superorganizers style, Dan is always experimenting with new tools and methods to stay productive and happy. Here's his list of 14+ things that have worked best for him in 2021 including:

A sun lamp
The Streaks app
An email babysitter
Stretching
Fish oil

And more. If you're looking for new routines to start in 2021, look no further than this article.

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Best of Every: Part 1

At Every, we believe that adequate rest and time with loved ones is essential to making us better thinkers, better writers, and better human beings. So, instead of publishing lots of new articles, we're bringing you the Best of Every from the last year. Without further ado, here are some of the posts you loved the most this year. Look for Part 2 next week.

How hard should I push myself?

Dan Shipper / Superorganizers

This is the eternal question: how hard should you push yourself? And, with the coming of the new year—while we're reviewing the past 12 months and resetting goals and intentions for the year ahead—it's an especially apt time to think about how we find the balance between work and, well, everything else. In this top-performing article of 2021, Dan dives into the science of stress, as well as some ways to manage it. It's the perfect article to get you ready for 2022.

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Legitimacy Lost

Li Jin & Katie Parrott / Means of Creation

There's a legitimacy crisis happening in the creator economy. Over the last decade, platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok have built gigantic, autocratic fiefdoms where they hand the rules down to creators and regular users from on high. But as we spend more and more of our time online, and our livelihoods are more tied to those platforms, that model is no longer working. In this article, Li Jin and Katie Parrott explain how we got here, and how decentralization and Web3 might fix the problem and introduce ownership to the creator economy.

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I Was Wrong About Olympus

Nat Eliason / Almanack

Speaking of web3 and crypto, you've loved Nat's DeFriday explainers this year. In this post, Nat takes a second look at a project he was previously avoided: Olympus ($OHM). He finds that not only is Olympus not a Ponzi scheme, but it might be one of the most important DeFi protocols ever built. By combining a bonds program for liquidity and staking incentives for stability (and creating a program for other crypto project to do the same), Olympus created a cryptocurrency backed by more than just memes. As a store of value, OHM could even replace Bitcoin.

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Caught in the Study Web

Fadeke Adegbuyi / Cybernaut

Gen Z has grown up in online spaces, and increasingly so since the onset of the pandemic. In this article, Fadeke takes us through the constellation of digital spaces and online communities teens are using to communicate with and support one another under the ever-increasing pressure of today's academic world. From the rise of Study Influencers, to the lo-fi mixes on YouTube, to dedicated study Discord servers, learning about this corner of the internet helps us understand the state of the world beyond it.

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The Dark Side of Noom

Taylor Majewski / Glassy

Noom is a wellness app that seemed nearly ubiquitous during the pandemic—it saw serious growth and even doubled its revenue in 2020. But how new is Noom, really? In this comprehensive interrogation of Noom's psychology, Taylor finds, "Noom is claiming scientific backing and using scientific-sounding language while promising not to overwhelm users with any actual science." Packed with hard facts, empathic questions, and Taylor's own experience with the app, this critical deep dive shows that new technology doesn't necessarily do much to fix age-old harmful wellness culture practices.

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How I Got My Brain Back

Brie Wolfson / Superorganizers

We had some really talented guest writers this year, and this piece from Brie Wolfson really struck a chord with our readers. After her recent battles with depression, Brie finds that productivity is more than grinding out to-do lists; it means finding health, safety, and joy in what we do. But even the simplest of tasks can feel impossible in the depths of a mental health rut—let alone finding “joy” in your work. So she developed a productivity system with the goal of reclaiming her mental health. It worked for her, and perhaps it will provide some solutions for you, as well.

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