As our premier philosopher of burnout, boredom, tiredness and tools-downing – and, some would say, apolitical quietism – Han continues to be especially beloved by the artworld precariat. He’s also a stylist whose steady stream of digestibly short, aphorism-filled books pair well with social media-tinged attention spans. Titling his 2023 book Via Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity might seem a little at odds, coming from such a prolific writer, though it’s a paean to the unhurried contemplation of reality, rather than commendation for doing nothing at all. And if said reality gives you the shivers, this year the Korean-German thinker published the Anselm Kiefer-illustrated The Spirit of Hope – ‘a plea against the crisis of fear’ by the same writer who also in 2024 put out The Crisis of Narration, which lamented the loss of richly complex storytelling and the social media-fuelled shift towards ‘storyselling’. Problems everywhere, then, but it’s all grist to Han’s fast-moving diagnostic mill.