Spectacularly awful

America is almost at a point of no return. Time to press forward.

It’s only fitting that the coda to a generally awful year was peak awfulness. Just hours after the tragic death of Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of former President John F. Kennedy, at the age of 35, there was Donald Trump, trolling her family. The cruelty is the point these days.

America starts 2026 close to irredeemably off the rails. In not even a year it has vacated anything resembling a moral high ground; imploded decades of soft power; empowered China and Russia; and consigned millions of the world’s least fortunate to premature death. Domestically, the rule of law has been ignored when it’s not being shredded; Trump and his enablers have griftily grifted at every turn; and an economy the envy of the western world barely 18 months ago is staggering, revived by the smelling salts of irrational AI investment to be pushed back into the ring as we all await the knockout punch.

To say we’re eager to turn the page on 2025 is an understatement. It had spectacular personal moments, from being permanently reunited with Elevator Girl to seeing family in Paris and Melbourne to getting married. But it had many more lows, with economic uncertainty the persistent backdrop to an emerging life that just doesn’t feel right and needs both time and effort to be fixed.

First, there’s Connecticut. Moving here wasn’t our choice, never made sense, and the contrast with the north shore of Chicago only becomes more apparent as time passes. At night, we lie in bed, adrift on a very dark, very quiet ocean. There are no sidewalks. No public utilities. No hum of humanity, just individuals retreating into their million-dollar cocoons. It’s boring and alienating and generally good for no one, least of all children who should be riding bikes and hanging with friends and learning something resembling social skills.

Second, there’s the region. I once had a client who was rude, demanding, and generally a nightmare to work with, but who would now and then have the self-awareness to protest, “I’m from New York. What can I say?” How about choosing to not be an asshole? People in the greater New York City area revel in their shittiness, as though a life of simmering rage, confrontation, and entitlement is both a birthright and obligation. And it seems both accentuated and exacerbated by …

… the nation. Of course. As the always smart and readable Paul Krugman noted a couple of weeks ago, the awfulness coming from the top is not merely a reflection of Trump as an individual but strategic, designed to “destroy our values, not just our democracy.”

“Trump is purposely breaking norms and engaging in open expressions of hate and bigotry,” Krugman wrote. “And among a set of people, this serves as a signal that it’s now socially acceptable to do the same—look, for example, at the extremely racist and Nazi-praising chats among young Republican activists leaked to Politico. While these young MAGA-landers were outed and chastised, it’s clear that within MAGA-world emulating Trump’s hate-filled rhetoric is considered a way of signaling that you are loyal to the movement.

“And it’s also clear that if Trumpism persists, we are facing a future in which such behavior is no longer publicly unacceptable. Because Trump’s remarks about the murder of the Reiners weren’t just his personal venting. They were a symptom and a symbol of his systematic destruction of our norms, our humanism, just as he tried to destroy the norms of American democracy on January 6, 2021. It’s a profoundly nihilistic vision for America.”

What’s one to do in times like this? As someone who has spent far too long working with companies whose ambition is to help other companies make even more money, I can tell you what the data say: invest. When others are hunkering down, expand. The coming year won’t only be about money—although that would be nice—but continuing to build the life we both want and deserve. In a sea of assholes, we’ll find nice friends. We’ll escape our lonely ocean liner as often as possible, rowing ashore to take advantage of what’s nearby. And we’ll continue to prioritize those closest to us, always.

So, here’s to 2026. Because, surely, we’re all due a win or two?

Homegrown disappeared for a while and then re-emerged, which is why all the archived posts have the same date on them (oops). But my favorite posts of the past year are below, in no particular order:

• Patchy performance, where pimple patches become a riff on imposter syndrome and the ridiculousness of performative self-promotion.

• Magna Carter, where the former Vanity Fair editor’s memoir reminds me of always taking the wrong career path.

• Hot property, or “how I missed becoming rich” by leaving Australia just as the country went on an economic tear.

• Grumpy old man, where I rail against the complexities of the modern world and car’s that get a boner when you approach them.

• Return to work, and the perils of AI in a world of increasingly bullshit jobs.