I ask him about the photo he has on WhatsApp and Hartmut Rosa (Lörrach, Germany, 1965) takes his mobile phone and tells me that he is not even sure how to look for it. “I try not to waste time with these things and I don't remember which one I have.” We find it, he looks at the screen and laughs. It is a close-up –which I can describe but not publish– where he appears with different sunglasses on his face. It is precisely his gaze that has X-rayed issues of extreme current importance, such as acceleration in our societies. Now he returns with Situación y constelación, a new book that has been published in Spanish by Ned Ediciones and that will be published next year in Catalan by Arcàdia, and in which he addresses how we are losing the ability to make decisions. He has spoken about it these days in Barcelona at a conference organized by CaixaForum.

It's not just that 2026 began with a bang, condensing into a few weeks all the informational intensity that used to be generated more gradually over an entire year. It's not just the frenetic pressure to which we are subjected by the second, and perhaps not final, term of the orange-clad man in the United States. Nor is it just the chaos of mobility in Catalonia, which will be studied in psychology departments as a case ofburnoutcollective, at the very least, and if they don't remedy the situation, it will end up pushing some commuter rail user to throw themselves down an embankment with the understandable and desperate objective of setting everything in motion—himself, the landslide, the retaining wall, and collective dignity forming a single, united protest.

Everyone has experienced it at some point: during shorter work weeks, due to a holiday, we generally feel more rested and in a better mood. And, moreover, we probably perform better during the four days we spend at work. This isn't just a personal perception: several international studies have found a positive relationship between shorter work hours and improved employee well-being and job performance.