A few clear and straight-to-the-point thoughts on 2026.

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by Alice Alessandri and Alberto Aleo.                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
For some reason, whenever we ask ChatGPT something, its answers always seem to begin with phrases like: “I’ll get straight to the point,” or “Let me tell you clearly how things are.”
Maybe the algorithm has figured out that we don’t like sugar-coating or the hypocrisy of people-pleasing fake empathy, and has instead tried to match our style.

In an attempt to reverse roles, in the hope of temporarily taking back some power over machines, we decided to imitate AI ourselves, stealing its words to create a title that would introduce our “start-of-the-year article,” a regular appointment for our small community of readers who are still resisting the “zero-click search.”
For the sake of consistency, our advice for the beginning of 2026 will be ChatGPT-style: a few concepts, straight to the point, and no frills.

A premise: time doesn’t exist.

Quantum physics doesn’t consider time as a fundamental dimension but as a means to measure everything that is human and a way to define our point of observation on events. In fact, it allows us to tell the story of our evolutionary journey as we move through the small portion of the universe we are allowed to explore. What we call the past is nothing more than the memory of observed events, and what we call the future is simply our expectations of what might happen.

So, why bother with questions about the new year, predictions about trends, or guidance and advice? Well, it’s simply because our mental processes need it.

A great temporal illusion.

Human thought is riddled with biases, i.e., cognitive errors that, while they limit our perception skills, they also allow us to live in a simpler, more linear way. There are countless time-related biases, and we’ve described the main ones in our book A Guide to Purchase Motivations.
One of these biases leads us to experience the beginning of the year as a turning point. It’s the bias we call “habitual inertia,” which prevents us from changing our behavior except during certain key moments in the year. In fact, that’s why we make New Year’s resolutions!

Our tendency to fulfill our own predictions, fooling ourselves into thinking we are excellent analysts, also shows how everything we call time is nothing else than a huge bias constructed by the mind. In this reflection on 2026, we would like to bust some of these myths, set aside a few cognitive errors, and help you get back to your own point of view, without always blaming time (or the absence of it) and our natural ageing.

2026: time to take a stand! In other words, let’s stop being exposed to events and start making choices instead.

Professor Mary Gentile, the American academic who created the GVV method, which revolutionized the teaching of business ethics, recently wrote an article with a title that says it all: “Do we agree on these?” It was her response to everyone asking her for opinions and advice on how to live in the Trump era.

In the first part, she defines a minimal set of values that societies should never question: the right to life, freedom of opinion, justice, democracy, and truth. She then offers a series of suggestions on how to behave when we feel that one of these values is under attack; in other words, how to protect our values without necessarily waging war on those around us. As usual, Mary hits the mark by reminding us that the time has come to stop offloading responsibilities onto others, adapting, or hiding our heads in the sand.

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It is essential to ask ourselves what truly matters to us and define core values for ourselves and for others. They are boundaries to be protected and cared for, not defended with violence.

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2026: time to rediscover the essence of things, i.e., let go of useless superstructures.

In many traditions and cultures, the end of the year is also celebrated through ritual bonfires. What is no longer needed is burned, clearing the way for what comes next. To make our way through 2026 as well as possible, we need to travel light, carry only what is essential, necessary, useful and, if possible, also enjoyable.

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Let’s forget old directives, replace “I have to” with “I want to”, question the purpose of obsolete habits, open our closets and free ourselves from the things we don’t use, buy less and buy better, avoiding the temptation to compensate for our shortcomings with more things. Above all, let’s leave whatever is not useful to our evolution in the past (or in our memory), without maintaining the dynamics or the relationships that are no longer good for us.

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2026: time to surrender, i.e., abandon the idea that we’re omnipotent

During the holidays, a member of our family experienced a serious health problem. Anyone who has lived through something like this knows that managing such a situation, at least in our country, requires outstanding organizational skills and nerves of steel. You feel that you have to keep control over everything, double-check every detail, talk to doctors, handle logistics, finances, and much more, all in the belief that this will defeat fate, beat the illness, or restore normality to the lives of your loved ones.
Of course, this is an illusion of omnipotence that, in the long run, only hurts us or tires us because our feelings get buried under mountains of obligations.

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Letting go is sometimes the best way to win our battles in life. Accepting reality doesn’t mean surrendering to it, but seeing it for what it truly is and therefore fully embracing it and facing it.

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We want to end this first article of the year with a promise and an invitation to our community of readers. The promise is that on this blog you will never find content created by AI or shaped by SEO strategies: articles will be published exactly as they were written by their authors, the result of experiences, networking, and insights generated by work, study, and life as it flows through us.

To prevent this free approach from being detrimental to our visibility, we extend an invitation: if you find this blog interesting, subscribe and spread the word by sharing its articles with those you think might appreciate them. Let’s try to beat the algorithms together with real relationships and good advice.

Thank you all, and happy new year.

| partem claram semper aspice |