The 3^3 Project

It’s almost the end of 2008 and I want to try something different — something fun that will interrupt the relentless stream of business-related posts.

Over the year, we all discovered new things that we now love and recommend to everyone.  Restaurants, food, movies, songs, bands, books, websites, articles,  Youtube videos, etc.  We recommend them because we’re confident that they’ll enrich another person’s life in some way or another.  This is genuine word-of-mouth marketing. The person making the suggestion has nothing to gain from it personally, other than the satisfaction that he gets from knowing that he’s made someone’s life a little better.

But when you’re online, it’s a bit harder to find authentic recommendations.  You don’t know if the source is being paid to write something or if they’re doing their friend a favor or what.  But I’m not going to let that happen on this post.

I’m calling this “The 3^3 Project” (three to the third) because you need to recommend 3 things, describe each of them in 3 sentences, and then ask 3 more people to join this discussion.  It allows us to find really cool stuff through genuine word-of-mouth, and possibly even come up with some Christmas gift ideas.

What I want you to do is this:

• Post (preferably in the comment section below or on your own blog) your top 3 favorite things that you’ve really gotten into this year and want other people to check out.  Your suggestions can be anything.  They don’t even have to be things that came out this year; you just have to have fallen in love with them during 2008.
• For each of your recommendations, you have to sell us on it in 3 sentences or less.  No paragraphs — just a few sentences.  Bonus points if you make it actionable by including a link, which will make it easier for everyone to actually see what you’re talking about.
• After that, you should ask 3 more people to add to the list.

Rules / Guidelines:

• No more than 3 things. Think hard about all the stuff you’ve fallen in love with this year and really narrow it down to the best of the best.
• Be specific. Don’t say things like “Film – Get into watching movies!”  Tell us which 3 films you really loved this year and why we’d love them, too.
• Avoid mainstream recommendations. No one wants to hear about how great the iPhone is.  But if you’ve found a really great iPhone app, tell us about that.
• NO SELF-PROMOTION. If you try to make your recommendations about you in any way (“I recommend my blog – I really got into it this year LOL!!1”), you will have officially killed the spirit of this list.  I will delete your comment if I get a self-promo vibe from it.  Side note: if you really want people to find out about your blog, go talk to Chuck Westbrook.

So here are my 3 things:

1. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – Next to ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Chappelle’s Show,’ this is the funniest and most creative show I’ve ever seen on cable TV.  You can watch all the episodes for free when you sign up on Hulu.  Start with this, this, or this.
2. “Consolers of the Lonely” by the Raconteurs – My favorite album this year.  Almost every song is awesome, but my favorites are: “These Stones Will Shout,” “Carolina Drama,” and “Old Enough.”  Be sure to listen to the whole album.
3. Delicious bookmarking – This is one of the most useful online tools I’ve come across.  You can categorize online articles, easily keep track of stuff, and passively send links to people in your network.  Be sure to download the Firefox extension which makes it A LOT easier to use.

[digg=http://digg.com/people/The_3_3_Project]

In order for this to become a group effort, be sure to put a comment down below and ask others to join in.  I look forward to seeing your list!

UPDATE: This post has started a thread on Tucker Max’s message board (see it here).  It will obviously be way more developed than the comments section on this page, so be sure to check it out.