Everyone is right up there at the very brink of their pain limit.
The future could go this way, that way. The future's futures have never looked so rocky. Don't put money on it. Take my advice and stick to the present. It's the real stuff, the only stuff, it's all there is, the present, the panting present.
Belief is otiose; reality is sufficiently awesome as it stands.
Don't dumb down; always write for your top five percent of readers.
I think writers are excited by stupidity and bad behavior, generally.
Envy never comes to the ball dressed as envy; it comes dressed as high moral standards or distaste for materialism.