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The Return of the Weirdo - by Ted Gioia - The Honest Broker

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“People are less weird than they used to be,” claims psychologist Adam Mastroianni. He describes this as “an epidemic of the mundane.” The strangest thing, he believes, is absence of strangeness. Nobody wants to make waves—or even trickles. Conformity is the flavor of the month, and it tastes the same every month. We live in a “smoothness society,” explains philosopher Byung-Chul Han. He points to the smooth, rounded contours of the iPhone as a symbol of society’s desire to remove friction. Our phone apps demonstrate the exact same thing. We scroll and swipe with such ease, and anything with complexity, nuance, or resistance is eliminated from consideration. “The smooth is the signature of the present time,” he claims. Everything from the Brazilian wax job applied to human bodies to the wax coating put on fruits and vegetables aims at the same ideal. Resistance is futile. Everything must be smooth. Paradise now really is that paved parking lot. In a world without complexity or resistan

The Return of the Weirdo Will this be the cool new thing of 2026? Ted Gioia Dec 22, 2025 1,006 206 182 Share “People are less weird than they used to be,” claims psychologist Adam Mastroianni . He describes this as “an epidemic of the mundane.” The strangest thing, he believes, is absence of strangeness. Nobody wants to make waves—or even trickles. Conformity is the flavor of the month, and it tastes the same every month. We live in a “smoothness society,” explains philosopher Byung-Chul Han . He points to the smooth, rounded contours of the iPhone as a symbol of society’s desire to remove fri

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