Recently, someone (of foreign origin) confessed to me that she couldn’t savor her successes: as soon as she achieved a goal, she felt she had to prepare for the next one right away. As an immigrant, I recognize this pattern all too well. Immigrants live in a state of permanent instability—a broken contract, an illness, a change in the law, a missing document… is all it takes to feel like you’re back to square one. And I don’t think this is exclusive to immigrants, but it’s a pattern I see often. A friend of mine, deprived of parental love, has lived since childhood in “I’m unworthy of being loved” mode.…

Covid is further accelerating the isolation of the ultra-wealthy. Here is the translation of a text I found on Instagram and found very interesting: It echoes the evolution of the luxury consumer I shared with you last time. The richer you are, the more you can say goodbye to shared infrastructure, shared spaces, shared risks, and shared reality. Today, isolation has become a luxury good: a continuum running down the social ladder, each level buying a little more separation from common spaces. At the very top, there is geographic escape in the literal sense. Private islands, estates in New Zealand (now the preferred apocalyptic refuge of tech billionaires), etc. The…