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Every January, leaders are told to do the same thing: set ambitious goals, map out the year, and commit to executing harder than before. We frame this as discipline or vision, but more often than not, it is a ritual of pressure. The assumption is that success comes from wanting more and pushing faster. After years of leading teams, building companies, and advising executives at the intersection of AI, work, and leadership, I realized something uncomfortable. Most people are not failing because their goals are unclear. They are failing because their capacity is already exhausted before the year even begins. That realization fundamentally changed how I approach the start of a new year. I no longer begin January by asking what I want to achieve. I begin by asking how I want to work. This shift might sound subtle, but it has reshaped my leadership, my productivity, and my ability to sustain momentum over time. The problem with goal-first planning Traditional New Year planning assumes a stable environment. It assumes our time is predictable, our energy is consistent, and our attention is ours to control. None of that reflects the reality of modern work. Leaders today are operating in a constant state of interruption. Meetings stack on top of each other. Slack never sleeps. Decision fatigue builds quietly. Add in personal responsibilities, emotional labor, and the cognitive load of navigating rapid technological change, and it becomes clear why so many January plans collapse by March. We set goals in a vacuum, ignoring the systems we will need to support them. We optimize for ambition instead of sustainability. The result is not a lack of discipline. It is burnout disguised as motivation. A different starting question At some point, I stopped asking, What do I want to accomplish this year? and replaced it with a more honest question: What capacity do I actually have? Capacity is not just time on a calendar. It is energy, focus, decision bandwidth, and emotional resilience. It is also deeply personal and deeply contextual. When I design capacity first, I look at four things before I set a single goal. First, energy rhythms. When am I most creative? When do I do my best strategic thinking? When am I drained? Most people know this intuitively, but they plan as if every hour is equal. Second, decision load. How many decisions am I making daily that could be automated, delegated, or eliminated? Leaders often underestimate how much cognitive energy is consumed by low-stakes decisions that pile up quietly. Third, friction points. What consistently slows me down or causes unnecessary stress? This could be meetings without agendas, tools that do not talk to each other, or workflows that rely too heavily on me as the bottleneck. Fourth, leverage. Where can systems, technology, or people multiply my efforts without requiring more from me? Only after answering these questions do I begin thinking about goals. Capacity as a leadership skill Designing capacity is not about doing less. It is about doing what matters with intention. As an AI strategist, I see organizations rush to adopt new tools without addressing the human systems underneath them. The same mistake happens in personal planning. We layer more objectives on top of broken workflows and wonder why execution fails. Capacity-first planning forces leaders to confront trade-offs early. If you want to launch something new, what must be paused? If you want to grow, where must complexity be reduced? This approach also normalizes a truth leaders rarely say out loud: you cannot do everything at once, and trying to do so is not a sign of strength. In fact, the strongest leaders I know are ruthless about protecting their capacity. They understand that clarity, judgment, and presence are finite resources. How this changes the start of the year When January arrives, I do not sprint. I audit. I review what actually worked the previous year, not just what looked impressive. I identify what drained me disproportionately relative to its impact. I redesign my calendar before I redesign my goals. Then, and only then, do I set intentions that fit the container I have created. Some years, that container is expansive. Other years, it is intentionally constrained. Both can be successful if they are honest. This ritual has helped me avoid the boom-and-bust cycles that so many leaders accept as normal. It has also allowed me to build with consistency instead of urgency. A reframing for modern work New Years resolutions are not inherently flawed. What is flawed is treating ambition as the primary variable when the real constraint is capacity. In a world defined by constant change, leaders do not need more pressure. They need better design. The most effective way to begin a year is not by demanding more from yourself, but by building systems that support the work you want to do and the life you want to sustain. Design your capacity first. Let your goals follow. You might find that you accomplish more by asking less of yourself, and more of your systems.
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New York City kicked off the new year with a new mayor in democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, whose inauguration flooded the internet with viral moments. Mamdani took the oath of office via two separate swearing-in ceremonies. The more intimate one took place underground at midnight at a decommissioned City Hall subway station. With just a few hours as mayor under his belt, Mamdani was then sworn in for a second time by fellow democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. Mamdani first reached internet stardom during his mayoral campaign, thanks in part to his campaign’s design and witty social media content, prompting a landslide victory and the highest mayoral race voter turnout in half a century. Unsurprisingly, the viral political figure’s inauguration has taken over social media. We’ve rounded up some of the historic event’s most viral moments. OG progressive stars spotted While U.S. Sen. Sanders (I-VT) swore in Mamdani, he wasn’t the only popular left-wing political figure to take the stage. U.S. Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)who’s also garnered victories and popularity due to progressive pledges and an astute social media campaignintroduced the new mayor before his swearing-in. @cnn Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) introduced Zohran Mamdani before he takes his public oath of office as the mayor of New York City. original sound – CNN In a video of AOC’s speech that has over 1.9 million views, users were divided in the comments, with many sending their best wishes to the new mayor while others expressed concern. “As a Texan, I’m so jealous of NY,” one user commented, while another posted “God help NYC.” Others showed excitement over Sanders and Mamdani sharing a stage, with one TikTok user posting a video of the pair hugging during the event. “A once-in-a-lifetime moment: watching Bernie Sanders swear in Zohran Mamdani as mayor of NYC,” the video said, with a caption reading “R u kidding me. Best day ever.” A headline-grabbing fashion moment Political figures were not the only ones to catch the public’s attention. Artist Rama Duwaji, Mamdani’s wife and now the first lady of New York City, gained attention over her footwear. The New York Post took offense to the first lady’s apparent $630 dollar Miista boots, calling the choice a luxury and more “socialite than socialist.” However, many users have taken social media to defend Duwaji’s choice. “[You] know there’s nothing bad to report when you’re talking about his wife’s boots already,” one user responded via X. “$630 for a shoe at a NYC mayoral signing is not a flex” another user said, adding that “anything less would be disrespect to the city.” "socialism is when nobody can have expensive things" – new york post revealing how low quality their publication is— b (@wwxwashere) January 1, 2026 Another user pointed out that displays of wealth are routine in MAGA culture, calling out the hypocritical stance against Duwaji. “I must have missed the $50,000 watch or $30,000 bracelets I see on MAGA women like Kristi Noem,” a user shared on X. Popular Instagram page Diet Prada also commented on the issue, linking to past coverage on Melania Trump’s $100,000 shoe collection. And others are even catapulting Duwaji to it-girl fashion status, particularly following a recent artistic cover for The Cut. “Instead of functioning as a political accessory to her husband, Rama has 100% retained her identity,” freelance creative director Elysia Berman said on TikTok. “This is a win for weird art school girls.” “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” In another emotive moment, American actor and singer Mandy Patinkin gave a performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” alongside young students from Staten Island’s P.S. 22. “A Jewish man singing at a Muslim man’s inauguration has me all teary-eyed,” one user commented on a video of the performance posted on TikTok. @cbsnewyork Actor and singer Mandy Patinkin performed “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with students from Staten Island’s P.S. 22 at Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration on Thursday. #newyork #nyc #mamdani #zohranmamdani #mandypatinkin original sound – CBS New York Many users shared a similar hopeful message, with one posting to X: “Mandy Patinkin singing ‘Over the Rainbow’ with these kids is so beautiful and hopeful. I’m in tears.” In the words of Jadakiss In yet another pop-culture moment, Mamdani’s speech included a quote from New York rapper Jadakiss. “Throughout it all, we willin the words of Jason Terrance Phillips, better known as Jadakiss, or J to the Muahbe outside,” the mayor said. Both fans of the mayor and the rapper alike took to social media to express their surprise and excitement over the reference. One user posted on X: “Mamdani quoting Jadakiss in his inauguration speech is why hes my mayor.” Another user on TikTok believes the new mayor, who is notorious for his pop-culture fluency, will continue to reference rappers in the future. “Mark my words,” the user said on TikTok. “He’s going to do it again, and whichever historians or internet historians are out there, y’all stay on deck. Documentation starts today.”
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A California lawmaker has introduced a first-in-the-nation bill meant to ban companies from embedding AI chatbot technology into toys designed for children. Announced on Friday, the measure comes amid growing concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on child welfare, as well as a number of local and federal proposals to limit kids access to large language model (LLM) chatbots. This particular legislation would target toys that simulate friendship and companionship through LLM technology. For toy manufacturers, LLMs can provide an easy, albeit risky, way of creating a personality for a particular doll or character. AI models arent pre-scripted the way most talking toys arewhich means toys integrated with the tech can end up sharing all sorts of inappropriate content with a young child. Case in point: Sales for an AI-enabled teddy bear were suspended in November after the toy, when investigated, started talking about sexual role-play and igniting matches.The California bill, authored by state Sen. Steve Padilla, is designed as a moratorium and would ban, until at least January 1, 2031, the sale of toys that include a companion chatbot meant for children 12 and younger. The proposal defines a companion chatbot as an artificial intelligence system with a natural language interface that provides adaptive, human-like responses to user inputs and is capable of meeting a users social needs. The bill also targets chatbot technology designed to support an ongoing bond with a potential child, including by exhibiting anthropomorphic features and being able to sustain a relationship across multiple interactions. Chatbots and other AI tools may become integral parts of our lives in the future, but the dangers they pose now require us to take bold action to protect our children, Padilla said in a statement. Our safety regulations around this kind of technology are in their infancy and will need to grow as exponentially as the capabilities of this technology does. Our children cannot be used as lab rats for Big Tech to experiment on. Its not immediately clear whether the bill has legs. But the impact of artificial intelligence on kids has outraged local and federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. One bipartisan federal proposal from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), for instance, would ban the use of AI companions for minors and punish AI companies that make AI for minors that solicits or produces sexual content. Notably, the White House has pushed back on state lawmakers hoping to regulate AI technology. Late last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would target states that write their own laws with litigation, and take a series of steps to establish one national approach to AI regulation on topics like child safety and alleged censorship. For now, though, its not clear how serious the Trump administrations efforts actually are. Representatives for several organizations focused on digital welfare for kids did not respond to a request for comment on the legislation, which was released Friday, January 2.
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For many Americans, 2025 wasnt a great year financially. The affordability crisis and general economic concerns became defining themes of the year as people dealt with rising costs and a worsening job market. But for billionaires, 2025 was a boon to their already exuberant wealth. The 15 richest billionaires in the United States saw their wealth grow by more than $1 trillion over 2025, according to a new analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank As of the end of 2025, those 15 billionaireseach with assets over $100 billionhave a combined wealth of $3.2 trillion, up from $2.4 trillion a year ago. Thats a gain of 33%, which is more than double the growth of the S&P 500 in the same time period, the Institute for Policy Studies notes. Over 2025, the S&P 500 rose 16%. (A double-digit gain is strong, but it is down from recent years; the S&P 500 returned 23% in 2024, and 24% in 2023.) How the wealth of the top 5 richest billionaires has changed Not only did billionaires get richer in 2025, but more Americans became billionaires. At the end of 2024, there were 813 billionaires in the U.S., according to an Institute for Policy Studies analysis of Forbes data. Those billionaires had a combined wealth of $6.72 trillion. By the end of 2025, there were 935 billionaires in the U.S., and their combined wealth totaled $8.1 trillion. When Forbes first began tracking the 400 wealthiest Americans in 1982, there were just 13 billionaires on the list. The top five wealthiest billionaires have changed over the last year, too. At the beginning of 2025, the top wealthiest billionaires were Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google cofounder Larry Page. This year, Zuckerberg was bumped off that list, and Google cofounder Sergey Brin joined its ranks; 2025 was the best year for Googles stock since 2009, with shares growing 65%, buoyed in part by the tech giants push into artificial intelligence. In contrast, the stock price for Zuckerbergs Meta Platforms grew about 13%. Though Meta also focused on AI, its strategy was more scattershot, experts have said, leading to internal confusion and the tech company falling behind other AI leaders. In its analysis, the Institute for Policy Studies broke down the current top five billionaires, and how their wealth increased from January 1, 2025, to January 1, 2026. They are: Elon Musk of Tesla/X and SpaceX: worth $726 billion, up from $421 billion a year ago Larry Page of Google: worth $257 billion, up from $156 billion a year ago Larry Ellison of Oracle: worth $245.billion, up from $209 billion a year ago Jeff Bezos of Amazon: worth $242.billion, up from $233.5 billion a year ago Sergey Brin of Google: worth $237 billion, up from $148.9 billion a year ago The rich got even richer all around the world. According to a Bloomberg analysis, global billionaire wealth increased $2.2 trillion. (That analysis was released several days before December 31.) An affordability crisis for average Americans This stark increase in wealth among the already wealthy comes as many Americans are struggling with affordability. Nearly half of Americans surveyed in a November 2025 Politico poll said they find it difficult to afford groceries, utility bills, healthcare, housing, and transportation. Last year was filled with these stories: about grocery prices increasing, utility bills skyrocketing, and healthcare premiums surging ahead of the expiration of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. This crisis is expected to get even worse, experts say, as cuts to programs like Medicaid and food stamps will take effect in 2026. Those cuts are part of President Trumps budget bill, which he called the Big Beautiful Bill and signed into law 2025. The cost-of-living crisis has led to a new public focus on both affordability and wealth inequality. That was seen in the election victory of Zohran Mamdani, who was sworn in as New York City mayor on January 1. Mamdani campaigned on making New York more affordable, and received notable support from public figures, including Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former labor secretary Robert Reich, both of whom have frequently criticized billionaires. More everyday Americans seem to be paying attention to inequality and criticizing billionaires, too. In a 2025 Harris Poll, nearly three-quarters of Americans said wealth inequality is a serious national issue, and 67% said billionaires are “creating more of an unfair society.”
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Americas National Parks offer some of the countrys most impressive vistas and that fact draws hundreds of millions of people to the parks each year. But more changes are on the way for the National Parks in 2026 and visitors arent likely to be happy with all of them. Anyone traveling to visit a destination thats part of the park system especially from abroad should expect to see an array of new policies implemented under the Trump administration, which already made sweeping cuts to the parks budget and began to weave its America first agenda into some of the countrys most cherished places in 2025. On some level, the Trump administration is trying to reshape the National Parks system into a microcosm of its own ideology, with perks for Americans, higher costs for everyone else, and a new aesthetic that puts a very specific idea of patriotism at its center. Entry changes on the way this year Starting in 2026, the parks will offer more dates with free entry for visitors, but only U.S. residents will get in for free. The Trump administration will remove existing free admission dates on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, while adding a new holiday for President Trumps birthday. The new patriotic fee-free dates, are as follows: Presidents Day (February 16, 2026) Memorial Day (May 25, 2026) Flag Day/President Trumps birthday (June 14, 2026) Independence Day weekend (July 35, 2026) 110th Birthday of the National Park Service (August 25, 2026) Constitution Day (Sept. 17, 2026) Theodore Roosevelts birthday (Oct. 27, 2026) Veterans Day (November 11, 2026) For days with normal admission, entry into the parks can be obtained through a day pass (previously $35 or less for a vehicle with a lower cost for visitors without a car) or with the annual America the Beautiful pass. While some parks dont charge admission at all, the most visited parks do and thats where park visitors are likely to notice the changes. In many instances, day pass pricing will go up for non-U.S. residents, who will now need to pay $100 per person to get into 11 of the most popular parks. Parks with higher day fees starting this year are Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion National Parks. The annual pass will continue to cost $80 for U.S. residents, but the price will shoot up to $250 for visitors who dont live in the U.S. President Trumps leadership always puts American families first, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said. These policies ensure that U.S. taxpayers, who already support the National Park System, continue to enjoy affordable access, while international visitors contribute their fair share to maintaining and improving our parks for future generations. Motorcycle riders will also get special status under the 2026 changes. Starting this year, one annual pass covers entry for two motorcycles, making national park adventures more accessible for riders and families who travel on two wheels. While that news is a boon for motorcyclists, it may also put an additional burden on parks where two-wheeled accidents are common. Because many of Americas most beautiful places also feature winding roads, dramatic cliffs and quick-changing weather, motorcycle accidents feature prominently in the incident reports that track injuries and fatalities in the National Parks. Changing a well-loved design to be patriotic Controversially, the administration will also change the design for the annual passes, which traditionally feature animals and nature scenes showcasing a particular parks natural beauty. This year, the Trump administration will introduce new, modernized graphics for all annual passes, featuring bold, patriotic designs, a change that has many annual passholders on social media brainstorming workarounds to avoid a possible Trump-centric design, including vinyl stickers that raise money for the National Parks Foundation. Many annual parks pass holders, author included, collect the passes from year to year and enjoy discovering each years fresh nature design. The look and price of the annual pass isnt the only thing changing. This year will be the first to introduce a digital version of the America the Beautiful pass. The system previously relied on National Parks visitors holding onto a credit card-sized pass for a full calendar year, with little recourse if they misplaced it. The digital pass option, new designs notwithstanding, is one of the only new pass changes that even Trumps critics will probably appreciate in 2026. Many changes already swept the National Parks in 2025 2025 was a year of dramatic change to the National Parks system, which is still reeling from the government shutdown, budget cuts and additional strain to its already tight resources. In March, the Trump administration directed the U.S. Department of the Interior to remove any displayed signage, books, monuments or installations that “inappropriately disparage Americans, past or living.” In an executive order, the Trump administration claimed that a corrosive ideology spread by political opponents like the Biden administration unfairly painted a picture of America as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed. Instead of capturing accurate historical accounts that place the national parks into context, the Trump administration prioritizes painting America in a positive light and glossing over the more complex human story of many of the countrys most beautiful places, which often sit on land once occupied by Native American tribes. A rocky year for parks employees New policies reshaping the National Parks in 2026 may do little to address the underlying problems the NPS faces, many of which have been worsened by the Trump administration itself. An investigation by The New York Times found that over 90 National Parks reported problems between April and July 2025 related to federal budget cuts, staff departures and a freeze on hiring. Those problems include reduced visitor center hours, skipped visitor fees, vanishing educational programming and even dirtier bathrooms, as a smaller parks workforce is spread even thinner than before. Since Trump took office, the NPS has lost a quarter of its permanent workers, including many who accepted the administrations buyout offer for federal employees. At least 20 percent of the national parks were understaffed or significantly strained in 2025, according to internal interior department data obtained by the Times. Many parks also face other serious issues that could impact visitor safety, including a growing backlog of trail maintenance tasks and a reduced emergency services response a risky proposition in some of Americas wildest landscapes. Outgoing director of the National Park Service Charles F. Chuck Sams, the first Native American named to lead the NPS, expressed deep concern about the impact on park staff in an interview with Underscore Native News early this year. How can the national parks be healthy and happy if their staff are not healthy and happy? Sams asked. I have great concerns for the staff of the National Park Service. You can feel their angst, their confusion and their frustration and their anger.
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