Harry Winser.com

Looking ahead into 2026

Last year I wrote a Looking ahead into 2025. It contained some personal aspects and predictions. And here I am again to do it again for 2026!

Personal

2025 was certainly a year of moving forward. This year is no different and there’s quite a lot on the horizon; from starting a family, to buying a house, and getting married. It would be amazing to achieve all three, but just one of them would be great. They’re big things and life is complicated. So I’m not putting any pressure on those (other than attempting to move them all forward).

But I have set some goals…

Goals

As with all goals, they should be:

  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Specific

With that in mind, I’ve got two goals I’m keen to attempt to achieve this year:

  1. Write at least twelve blog posts within the year
  2. Actually release my Big Project

I enjoy writing, and last year I set myself a far too ambitious goal. So this year, I’m lowering the bar and making it much more possible for me to achieve. Why twelve? Well, that means on average I’ll have to write one a month. If I write more multiple in a month, and I get to busy another, then yay! I’m still on the road.

As for the Big Project - I’ve been working on it for almost a year now and it’s almost time for folks to see it. I can’t write much more than that right now. But I like this goal, as while it pushes me to deliver something; it doesn’t have any expectations attached to it. No financial results or usage targets etc. Maybe that’ll come next year. But right now, just getting it in front of people is the important part.

Predictions

So last year I broke my predictions down into two categories (tech & politics) with three predictions each. I got around 3(.5) of the predictions correct, so lets see if I can improve on that this year!

Tech

2025 was a mess for tech. A.I. got even bigger and swallowed so much of the available capital and brain space. On top of this we had tariffs (thanks Trump), AND we had a load of legal battles with big tech. So 2026 is going to be an… interesting year.

  1. The year of A.I. Trailers / adverts - I think this year we’re going to get hammered with trailers / adverts for t.v. shows and products. And NO ONE is going to like it. I also think that by the end of the year, companies will start to wind down their experiment with it. It started this year, and got a lot of backlash.
  2. Apple will release a folding phone, and it’ll cost >£2,200 - an easy prediction, as it’s on a lot of other peoples prediction list. But I’ve added extra spice by stating it’ll be above £2,200. And if it is… Very few people will buy it. Which might be exactly what Apple expect.
  3. Bluesky will fizzle, and you’ll start seeing adverts - I think Bluesky has carved out a nice little niece for itself. However, it’s explosive growth has ended. At some point, the bills have got to come due. I expect them to introduce some kind of advertisement tier. And personally I hope this causes more folks to jump to Mastodon, my preferred social media site

Political

I don’t need to tell you politics was a sack of cats this year…

  1. Starmer will still be in number 10 - this is a bold take, as the sharks have been circling. While I’m not happy with Labour, I don’t think a change of leadership will change anything - and I suspect everyone most people in Labour thinks this too.
  2. The Conservatives will surge while Reform stands still - I think once The Conservatives ditch Kemi Badenoch (which i believe will happen soon), I think they’ll pull the Centre Right back to their party, while Reform continues to flounder in actual government (see - Kent Council) and is just too divisive for the “middle” voter.
  3. Trump and Republicans will have a falling out - Well, more they they have already. But with the mid-terms coming up, and cracks showing in the Trump brand, I think we’ll start to see some spines being regrown. Don’t get me wrong these regrown spines won’t be used to help their constituents, it’ll be more for job preservation + reelection.

I wish you luck and fair weather for 2026

And with that I shall leave you to ponder what 2026 might bring your way. Whatever it does bring, I wish you health, wealth, and happiness.