A 2021 Retrospective from Danny Crichton

Hello! This weekly newsletter was last sent out according to MailChimp on Thursday, Dec 31, 2020 at 4:40 pm ET. Well, 53 weeks later, it’s now Jan 8th, 2022, and that means it’s time for another weekly edition of this annual report (I believe the British call this a fortnight or something).

The personal news from me: I departed TechCrunch as managing editor in November to become head of editorial at Lux Capital, a multi-stage, deep-tech venture firm based in New York City and Menlo Park, CA. I’m mostly writing on the same subjects, but they’re now on the Lux Capital homepage and our new newsletter “Securities.”

But with another year down, here’s my annual wrap-up of the best articles I wrote and read as well as my favorite books from 2021. As always, feel free to reach out anytime!

Best Articles I Wrote (2021 Edition)

Full listing and explanation are on the web, but the summary:

  1. The Future of Technology and Disaster Response series
  1. RapidSOS EC-1

Plus

  1. Labs over Fabs: How the U.S. Should Invest in the Future of Semiconductors
    Honorable Mention: I’m a free speech champion. I don’t even know what that means anymore

Best Articles I Read (2021 Edition)

This year, I select a top 5 list as well as 19 honorable mentions out of about 1,600 essays and articles I read in 2021. It’s really extensive and has so many gems, so head over to the post and devour, but here’s the top five:

First Place: The Anxiety of Influencers by Barrett Swanson
Second Place: Where Are the Americans? by Leon Wieseltier
Third Place: Lab-grown meat is supposed to be inevitable. The science tells a different story by Joe Fassler
Fourth Place: Akihito and the Sorrows of Japan by Richard Lloyd Perry
Fifth Place: Ten Million a Year by David Wallace-Wells

Best Books I Read (2021 Edition)

This year, I read 52 books or so across all kinds of subjects. There were a bunch of honorable mentions and a few books I highlighted as disappointments, so check the full post for details, but here’s the top three:

First Place: A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne
Second Place: The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh
Third Place: Nervous States by William Davies