Next week, while the OTI staff vacates the OTI-dome for frolicsome offline holiday and new year’s celebrations, we’re honoring a time-honored blogging tradition and running a bunch of best-of list posts. (And some other goodies. Don’t worry, we won’t let you be bored all week.)
We think this can be more than a just cynical exercise in generating bogus pageviews; it can be a cynical exercise in generating bogus pageviews and a profound and deeply introspective effort at soul-searching and taking stock. OTI has come a long, long way since it went live on January 22, 2008, and the community of readers, commenters, podcast listeners—overthinkers of every stripe—has grown faster in 2011 than ever before.
So we’re asking you to pitch in to nominate your favorite articles of 2011 for this year’s Readers’ Choice Award by copying and pasting a link in the comments. And tell us what you’ve liked best over the past year: What topics caught your interest, what approaches caught your eye, what projects should we undertake (or abandon)? As we prepare to face the new year (and prepare to launch some big changes for OTI’s fourth birthday), we want to know what’s working.
Nominations will be open all day today and tomorrow, and next week we’ll crown the winner.
Here’s the list… What’s your favorite?
It was a strong year all around, but I’m going to specifically call out Mark Lee’s “‘Baby’ Project” as a creative and interesting expansion on the site’s mission, as well as being tremendously entertaining in its own right. If you’re making me pick one iteration, let me pick the indie rock version:
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/09/06/justin-bieber-baby-indie-rock/
FYi–The Baby Project is on hiatus and will return in the new year. But when it comes back, I can’t promise the Ludracris rap will be included in new versions.
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/04/02/underthinking-it-dawwwww/
http://www.overthinkingit.com/underthinkingit/ was one of my favorite things from the whole year. There almost should be a whole category of honorable mention for it.
Geez, I’ve really gotta go with the Economics of the Death Star:
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/04/25/star-wars-death-star-economics/
Besides the virtue of being a great question, it achieved wide reach, and the discussion completely changed my perspective on the entire series. Like may commentators, I was persuaded toward the “weak Empire” model and ended up with a completely unexpected, very ambiguous feeling about the Jedi as political actors. Great debate. Definitely one of the strongest of the year.
Seconded.
Thirded! Both the article, and the discussion that took place was exceptionally brilliant.
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/09/14/jay-z-blueprint/
As a music major, I tend to gravitate towards when the site delves into that world, and I think this was just a really great article. I love the way it talks about Jay-Z himself and extends that outwards to talking about hip-hop as a whole. And at a time when everyone was busy talking about this North American generation’s typically-perceived-as most tragic moment, it was nice to read something entirely different and celebratory.
My personal pick is “Conan the Liberal” – hilarious article. But I feel kinda bad, because that one was a guest post. If I have to pick one written by a regular staff member, I choose “The Well Written (Video Game) Plot”.
Seconding this one. Even if it’s a guest article, it was a mighty fine example of Overthinking at its best.
The Well-Made (Video Game) Plot series, specifically part 2: http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/09/12/well-made-video-game-plot-2/
Honorable mention has to go to Beauty and the Beast’s Dark Delusion: http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/10/03/beauty-beast-stockholm-syndrome/
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/12/08/grammar-beavis-butthead/ All the right types of pedantic and going down a rabbit hole that typifies OTI.
My runner up was http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/07/12/labor-market-jobs-zookeeper/ because it was the only place that had something else to say about “The Zookeeper.”
My pick for best article in 2011 would be “Miss Bianca: The Ultimate Disney Princess”. http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/10/10/miss-bianca-the-ultimate-disney-princess/
As I commented above, Conan the Liberal was IMO a strong contender for best article. I’d place it as my runner up: http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/08/10/conan-the-liberal/
For best podcast, since they’re different beasts from articles, I’d nominate #139 “Most Likely to Poop in the Future”. It’s funny, insightful, and the gang manages to stay on topic. It’s the episode I used to hook my sister on Overthinking. http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/02/28/otip-episode-139/
Thanks for nominating! Check out the voting post live on 12/27/11.