https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201230/16084345976/new-years-message-make-world-better-place.shtml

It's tricky to figure out how to start this post this year, of all years. As long-time readers are aware, ever since 2008, my final post of the year was a reflection on optimism. It started, in 2008, in the midst of a few fights to create a better internet at the time, in which two separate people had expressed to me what they believed to be a contradiction: I am unfailingly optimistic about the potential for innovation to make the world better, and yet I often appeared (to them, at least), to be so angry about the state of the world and the efforts various people were involved in to impede the internet. And thus started the tradition of writing a post about how important it was to stay happy and optimistic, even in the face of so many challenges to that optimism. Whatever anger or frustration people sense from me has never been in opposition to that optimism, but directed at how that optimistic vision may be delayed or limited by short-sighted thinking. If you'd like to look over the history of these posts, here's the full list:

2009: Creativity, Innovation And Happiness

2010: From Pessimism To Optimism... And The Power Of Innovation

2011: From Optimism And Innovation... To The Power To Make A Difference

2012: Innovation, Optimism And Opportunity: All Coming Together To Make Real Change

2013: Optimism On The Cusp Of Big Changes

2014: Change, Innovation And Optimism, Despite Challenges

2015: Keep Moving Forward

2016: No One Said It Would Be Easy...

2017: Keep On Believing

2018: Do Something Different

2019: Opportunities Come From Unexpected Places

Of course, 2020 has been a different kind of year by pretty much any measure imaginable. You already know that we're still in the midst of a massive pandemic that has taken the lives of nearly 2 million people worldwide, and 350,000 in the US alone. All of our lives have been changed in the last nine or ten months. At the same time, one of the key issues we talk about and advocate for here on Techdirt — keeping an open internet thanks to Section 230 of the Communications Act — has been under attack (as began in earnest last year) to the point that today, as I write this, it is front page news, with both the outgoing President and the President-elect saying complete and utter nonsense about it, and the Senate Majority Leader basically using the open internet as a key poison pill in his effort to deny Americans the relief they so desperately need.

Needless to say, it's been an exhausting (and frustrating and stressful) year all around.