HORATIO ALGER IS STILL AMONG US.

Time's Person of the Year for 2023 is Taylor Swift.  The editors' reasoning is instructive.

Every year contains light and dark; 2023 was a year with significant shares of darkness. In a divided world, where too many institutions are failing, Taylor Swift found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light. No one else on the planet today can move so many people so well. Achieving this feat is something we often chalk up to the alignments of planets and fates, but giving too much credit to the stars ignores her skill and her power.

Swift is the rare person who is both the writer and hero of her own story. Her path is untraveled, something she’s known for some time.

Small beginnings we have always had with us. People who achieve prominence because they outwork others with more talent or more advantage we have always had with us.

Yes, as the editors note, there is a lot about the world that sucks.  And yes, the pile-on of the Excessively Earnest People over the honor is well under way.

Country and folk music develop, regularly, the full panoply of the suckitude.  And yet, in that music, there are lessons in becoming antifragile, which matters a lot in writing and living your story.