
It’s that time of year again, when your inbox overflows with definitive year-end lists. At the House of Beautiful Business, we felt it would be poor sportsmanship not to honor this annual tradition.
In fact, we’ve decided to up the ante: Instead of one list, we have a list of lists—an inspiring meta-list for 2024! Some of these enumerations are serious, some ridiculous; some have real items to double-click on, some exist in title alone.
24 definitive lists for 2024
- Not the fediverse
- Volkswagen
- Canada
- Andorra
- Switzerland
- FC Barcelona
- Monopoly
- Praxis
- The advertising industry
- Fox News
- The Vatican
- The Washington Post
- Berghain
- Hearst Castle
- Burning Man
- TED
- House of Gucci
- House of Beautiful Business
- The Davis Cup
- Bundesliga
- Studio Babelsberg
- Disneyland
- A public square on Mars
- NASA
We actually don’t know enough about football to write this list. However, we’re featuring three football experts at The Gathering in Tangier—FIFA agent Zineb Rechiche, chair of Women in Football Ebru Köksal, and former general secretary of the Federation of African football, Hicham El Amrani—who will be able to weigh in on this subject and more.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
- Emily Dickenson
- Kara Swisher
- Thomas Bernhard
- Oscar Wilde
- Virgina Woolf
- Michel Houellebecq
- Thomas Hobbes
- Al-Ma'arri
- Omar Khayyam
- Oswald Spengler
- George Orwell
- William Blake
- Theodore Kaczynski
- Pope Francis
- Agnes Taubert
- Emil Cioran
- Diogenes
- Simone Weil
- Michael Haneke
- Sylvia Plath
- Mary Shelley
- Charles Bukowski
- Quentin Tarantino
- The Queen Consort is a major Justin Bieber fan.
- William hasn’t read a single Charles Dickens’ novel.
- King Charles’ favorite tea is not, in fact, Earl Grey, but chai.
- Princess Beatrice is actually an AI clone.
- Prince Philip never won a game of polo in his lifetime.
- 3457 sweatshops contribute annually to the royal wardrobe.
- The royal dog’s masseuse plans to publish her own tell-all memoir.
- Zara Tindall refuses to buy anything from high-street chain Zara.
- Queen Elizabeth’s favorite Netflix series was Alpha Males.
- Meghan Markle is actually Elena Ferrante.
- Kate Middleton is actually Banksy.
- Archewell’s next production project is a behind-the-scenes documentary about the House of Beautiful Business.
- Oprah has had a longtime crush on Prince William.
- Kate Middleton wanted to name her firstborn X Æ A-14, but settled on her second choice, George.
- Princess Charlotte is afraid of horses.
- No living member of the royal family has ever been on the tube.
- When surveyed, only Camilla, the Queen Consort, could accurately explain the relationship between Henry IV, Henry VI, and Richard III.
- Harry and Meg tried to launch a crisp brand in the U.S. featuring jellied eel and black pudding flavors, but failed to secure investors.
- King Charles longs to be the first non-American US president.
- It’s an annual royal family tradition to stay up late on Christmas eve watching Die Hard on repeat.
- No one in the royal family has ever used a vacuum cleaner.
- When surveyed, neither King Charles nor the Queen Consort could list all the countries they reign over. They were delighted to learn they own Belize and are planning an upcoming beach vacation. They are still trying to find Tuvalu on Google maps.
- After several bottles of claret, Prince William confessed his favorite ancestor is Henry VIII.
- The royal chef has a garden of extinct fruit, including the Ansault Pear, the Taliaferro Apple, and the Madagascar Banana.
- El Savador
- Nicaragua
- Cambodia
- Vietnam
- Chile
- Bangladesh
- Argentina
- East Timor (Timor-Leste)
- Honduras
- Colombia
- Bolivia
- Ecuador
- Paraguay
- Uruguay
- Panama
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Cuba
- Peru
- Russia
- Venezuela
- Mexico
- Brazil
- Dominican Republic
- Your wedding
- CES
- House of Beautiful Business
- The Academy Awards
- An Ayahuasca retreat
- Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum
- The Beatles' reunion tour
- The next Apple product launch
- The Republican National Convention
- A bullfight
- 2001 - Odyssey in Space
- The Champions League Final
- A very exclusive date
- One of the football tight ends' proposals to Taylor Swift
- The Olympics
- Summit at Sea
- TED
- The Metaverse
- A 15 Toasts dinner
- Cannes Film Festival
- Rio Carnival
- State of the Union
- A rave
- Tea time
Same as this year’s.
- Can you take a break without feeling guilty?
- Have you ever cut professional ties with someone because of personal differences?
- How has your view of “having a career” changed in the last year?
- Is there something (or someone) you refuse to coexist with?
- Do you know any of your coworkers’ love languages?
- Do you base your decisions on efficiency or longevity?
- What was the last unethically sourced product you bought?
- What mission are you currently on?
- Are there any projects you abandoned midway that could be picked up again?
- What person, dead or alive, would you want to go stargazing with?
- Is inspiration overrated?
- Do you remember the first toy you loved?
- Are you where you thought you’d end up?
- Do you place hidden messages in your work?
- Who takes care of plants in your office, and in your home?
- What if beauty was a metric?
- What are you purposefully ignoring?
- Do you always want to be right?
- If your company had a zodiac sign, what would it be?
- What would you do if you had no fear of failure?
- Does your personal brand need a rebrand?
- What was the best night of your life?
- What dream did you have to let go of?
- Action card: Write a note to your coworker thanking them for something they did.
- Everywhere without stable internet (e.g. Deutsche Bahn)
- San Francisco
- Switzerland, maybe
- OpenAI headquarters
- Microsoft headquarters
- Meta headquarters
- Amazon headquarters
- Apple headquarters
- Fediverse
- Metaverse
- The VERSEverse
- The House of Beautiful Business festival
- Antarctica
- Sahara
- The vast interior landscape of your soul
- Off-broadway theater
- A film by Eric Rohmer
- A hard copy of a good book, say Tremor by Teju Cole
- Circus
- A dinner with friends (but without phones)
- A walk in the park
- Inside the LLM black box
- Hydra, Greece
- The Camp Nou in Barcelona
- It’s beautiful
- It’s good for business
- It’s good for you
- The ideas
- The actions
- The people
- The music
- The movies
- The dinners
- The unexpected
- The rooftops of Tangier
- The seascapes of Arrábida
- The life-centered economy
- A mirror world
- A parallel world
- A better world
- Dissent without dissing
- Culture without canceling
- Melancholy has a seat at the table
- The future is African
- Unpack the polycrisis
- Feel the numbers
- Old and new friendships
- Love
- How to Work with (Almost) Anyone, Michael Bungay Stanier
- Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone, Minna Salami
- You Belong Here: The Power of Being Seen, Heard, and Valued on Your Own Terms, Kim Dabbs
- The World We Create: From God to Market, Tomas Björkman
- Joined-Up Thinking: The Science of Collective Intelligence and its Power to Change Our Lives, Hannah Critchlow
- Reboot: Reclaiming Your Life in a Tech-Obsessed World, Elaine Kasket
- 10 Moral Questions: How to Design Tech and AI Responsibly, QCollective
- All That We Are: Uncovering the Hidden Truths Behind Our Behaviour at Work, Gabriella Braun
- Not Being: The Art of Self-Transformation, Steven D’Souza, Khuyen Bui
- The Persuaders: Winning Hearts and Minds in a Divided Age, Anand Giridharadas
- Tell Me What You Want: A Therapist and Her Clients Explore Our 12 Deepest Desires, Charlotte Fox Weber
- Dance or Die: From Stateless Refugee to International Ballet Star, Ahmad Joudeh
- Bittersweet: How to Turn Sorrow Into Creativity, Beauty and Love, Susan Cain
- Rise: Extraordinary Women of Colour who Changed the World, Maliha Abidi
- These Wilds Beyond Our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity's Search for Home, Bayo Akomolafe
- On Time and Water: A History of Our Future, Andri Snær Magnason
- Life, Death, Grief and the Possibility of Pleasure, Oceana Sawyer
- Heartificial Intelligence: Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines, John C. Havens
- Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy, David J. Chalmers
- Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again: Women and Desire in the Age of Consent, Katherine Angel
- The Business Romantic: Give Everything, Quantify Nothing, and Create Something Greater Than Yourself, Tim Leberecht
- The Future of Foreign Policy Is Feminist, Kristina Lunz
- My Face in the Light, Martha Schabas
- Privacy is Power: Why and How You Should Take Back Control of Your Data, Carissa Véliz
- Hillary’s emails
- Your CIA file
- The Caramilk secret
- The Pentagon Papers
- Bayo Akomolafe’s new book
- The first draft of Ulysses
- All the unsent emails in your draft folder
- What has remained unsaid between us all these years
- Pep Guardiola’s tactics
- The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
- The House member list
- The original screenplay of Alien
- The entire human brain
- The Coca Cola formula
- Santa Claus’ shopping list
- The Google Gemini model
- Content by Axel Springer’s competitors
- The unpublished Wikileaks files
- The director’s cut of Turner and Hooch
- Sam Altman’s secret plan
- Satya Nadella’s secret plan
- All of NATO’s meeting minutes
- El Bulli’s VIP cookbook
- Ernest Hemingway’s outtakes
We wish we had a list for this. Unfortunately, studies have shown that all dating apps will slowly and irrevocably erode your enthusiasm for dating. Better to jump to list #XXIV and spend your time more productively.
- Honor cycles
- Embrace all emotions
- Create intimacy
- Dare to be ugly
- Do the unnecessary
- Regenerate everything
- Cherish body and soul
- Sit still
- Listen
- Change your mind
- Plant a tree
- Keep (some) things sacred
- Don’t kill that ant
- Show up when it’s showtime
- Trust your guts
- Be a feminist
- Nurture ecosystems
- Stay humble
- Stay curious
- Go with the flow
- Co-create with AI
- Fluid identities, fluid designs
- Play
- Live to the fullest
We strongly advise that you keep conversations focused on food, the weather, and Netflix recommendations.
- Any tone ever used by any member of Succession’s Roy family
- Monotone
- Sarcastic
- Condescending
- Groveling
- Self-righteous
- Accusatory
- Seductive
- Egotistical
- Clinical
- Vindictive
- Authoritative
- Gruff
- Shrill
- Artificial
- Aggravated
- Obnoxious
- Bitter
- Flabbergasted
- Ra-ra-ra
- Cynical
- Sycophantic
- Phony
- Robotic
- Your posture and eyesight will vastly improve once you’ve permanently said goodbye to your desk and laptop.
- You’ll be richer, save for the investment in a topline Canada Goose parka.
- The bears are better company than your boss–except when they’re hungry.
- You can scream as loud as you want for as long as you want, and no one will ever hear you. Even when those bears approach.
- You’ll reconnect with nature and your environment. The stars will tell you more about the world than the news feeds of your past life.
- The movies of Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg, Sarah Polley, and Norman Jewison. (Although, you may have trouble finding a film projector once you’re north of 60°).
- Our co-founder, Till, vacationed there this summer and LOVED it. (He did, however, stick to the populated urban parts that cling to the U.S. border).
- Ok, maybe there aren’t too many more reasons.
- In fact, instead of Canada, consider Portugal?
Fill this one in at your discretion.
It actually doesn’t get any better than her chilling whisper, “I wish you well.”
We tried nearly fifty filters, and he still looked terrifying.
- Anna Freud
- Eleanor Marx
- Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
- Annie Darwin
- Harilal Gandhi
- Jean-Michel Cousteau
- Laila Ali
- Isabella Rossellini
- Kublai Khan
- Zindziswa Mandela
- Yolanda King
- Alexander IV of Macedon
- Kong Jiao Confucius
- Jesus
- Josephine Truffaut
- Yolande Du Bois
- Octavian Caesar
- Charlie Chaplin
- Martin Amis
- John Quincy Adams
- Sofia Coppola
- Justin Trudeau
- Gabriel Kane Day-Lewis
- Honor Swinton-Byrne
- He was sleepwalking.
- He didn’t realize his party members were people.
- He thought gatherings involving cocaine were exempt.
- He ran out of excuses.
- Cerise
- Fuschia
- Salmon
- Blush
- Rose
- Rouge
- Coral
- Flamingo
- Bubblegum
- Peach
- Baby
- Ruby
- Magenta
- Punch
- Amaranth
- Lemonade
- Carnation
- Thulian
- Watermelon
- Taffy
- Crepe
- Ballet slipper
- Hot pink
- Cotton candy
- Flossing your teeth regularly and carefully, though its benefits are still debated
- Playing a classic board game with friends and family
- Authoring your own curated year-end list that showcases your impeccable taste and winning sense of humor
- Living your bucket list
- Lying flat on the floor in the style of China’s tang ping trend, a movement that tries to subvert the pressures of a profit-driven world
- Reading poetry softly to yourself aloud
- Picking wild plants and cooking them into a delicious meal for a loved one, doing your best to discard of anything poisonous, unless you’re playing a game à la Phantom Thread. (Speaking of which, actress Vicky Krieps will be a speaker at The Gathering in Tangier!)
- Buying a pass for our 2024 festival Between the Two of Us
- Eating another piece of cake
- Playing our card game
- Watching Anatomy of a Fall, winner of this year’s Palme D’Or at Cannes
- Listening to the musical sins of House co-founder Till Grusche
- Declaring your daily goal from an open window
- Dancing!
- Bingewatching The Kitchen (premiering on Netflix in January)
- Volunteering in your community
- Taking a walk in nature
- Complimenting a stranger
- Hosting a “running” dinner (every course is served at a different home)
- Starting a social media detox program
- Taking a cold, rejuvenating shower to refresh your spirit
- Cleaning out your closet and donating everything you don’t need
- Having a nap
- Listening to a beautiful piece of music, such as Glenn Gould playing Bach or Fela Kuti’s invigorating jazz