The Terrible People to Avoid in 2026
The People Holding You Back From Happiness
Life is too short to spend it with people who make you miserable.
Most people already know who those people are.
They’re the ones who drain your energy. Relationships that feel heavy. Conversations that leave you worse off than when you started. Yet, most people stay. Not because they’re confused, but because ending things feels harder than tolerating them. They choose discomfort over uncertainty.
You can try to run away from your problems, become a hermit living off the land in seclusion, but that didn’t work out so well for Emile Hirsch in Into the Wild. Avoiding uncomfortable situations won’t get you far in life.
Once you accept this, you can actually do something about it. Reducing exposure to these people is uncomfortable at first, but in the end, you are better for it.
Brendan Gleeson arrives at this conclusion in The Banshees of Inisherin. Colin Farrell doesn’t like it, but Gleeson decides it needs to be done so he can spend time learning the violin or pursuing other interests. Anything besides listening to Farrell.
Gleeson is right. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If you surround yourself with mopey losers long enough, you eventually become one yourself. This was covered in The Most Obvious Secret to Success.
You need to cut people out who make your life worse. This article will identify the exact types of people you should remove from your circle if you want to be happier and more successful in 2026.
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People to Avoid
Some awful people are obvious. You can spot their toxicity from a mile away.
Their Moncler vest and Balenciaga sandals don’t help. Fortunately, most people have learned to mask their worst behavior. Walking around dressed like a Bond villain also puts others on guard, so the most dangerous blend in.
In reality, it’s not the openly vile people you need to worry about. They’re easy to avoid. It’s the slightly toxic ones that do the real damage. Death by a thousand paper cuts. The frog slowly boiling without realizing it.
Without further ado, stop spending time with the following people:
Tardy Tim/Tina
This is the person constantly late to everything. We aren’t talking about arriving fashionably late to a party, this is the person consistently keeping you waiting. They are the person who say they are on their way 10 minutes after your reservation. Their version of “On their way!” means they just left and will only be there in 20. In a work context, this is the person who consistently joins meetings 5-10 minutes late, without a heads up, keeping everyone else at bay. Occasional lateness is fine, if it’s every time, they don’t value your time.
The solution is very simple. For every minute they keep you waiting, send them an invoice for your time. Feel free to add a 4-6% admin fee like they do for law or audit firms. It’s a win-win situation. You get compensated for your time, they have no reason to apologize for the tardiness since they paid for it. If they don’t want to pay the bill, they will quickly start coming on time. Collecting on these bills can prove to be difficult though. So instead, stop accommodating their lateness. Don’t let their tardiness impact your schedule. Your time is your most valuable asset, don’t let people waste it in 2026.
Victim Victor/Victoria
Nothing is ever their fault.
Circumstances happen and nothing could have been done. They didn’t miss the deadline because they spent 8 hours on TikTok, it was because their boss sabotaged them by asking them to do something completely in line with their job description. Even if their boss didn’t do anything, they would claim the system is rigged, timing was unfair, luck never breaks their way, yada yada yada.
This applies to every aspect of their life. They’ll whine about not winning the lottery, even if they’ve never bought a ticket. Never has it occurred to them to take some sort of accountability. They need you to believe their story, so they can believe it themselves. They hate people that take accountability for their own actions, and make things happen through discipline or smart systems.
Spending time with them quietly trains your brain to see the world the same way. This is the easiest way to ensure you will never achieve your own objectives. You can join Victor & Victoria in misery, complaining the world is against you.
Thoughtless Theodore/Theodora
This is the person who does whatever feels good in the moment.
They change plans without notice. They break commitments casually. They don’t see why it’s a big deal. Their word means very little, and somehow it’s always justified after the fact.
They’ll convince you get concert tickets for an artist you don’t even like, then bail the day of. You never wanted to see the show in the first place!
They ghost. They flake. They reappear as if nothing happened.
They often explain this away by saying it happens to everyone or that it’s just how things. They might gaslight you a bit, and claim it was really you that cancelled the last time. It wasn’t.
Unlike Tim & Tina this can’t be blamed on clock management, they just don’t care. The former have too much going on, Theo’s have nothing. There’s an inverse proportion between how busy this person is and how willing they are to waste your time. Your perpetually unemployed friends often fail to grasp adults might have other time commitments and can’t base our lives around how they feel at a particular moment in time. Flakey people just aren’t worth your time.
Social Climbing Samuel/Samantha
This person is only around when you’re useful.
You won’t hear from them for months/years. Then suddenly they’re eager to reconnect, enthusiastic, complimentary, and very interested in your availability. There’s always an ask hiding just beneath the surface. You can usually identify these kinds of people because they still message you on Linkedin, even if they’ve had your phone number for 10+ years. These were the people trying to get you to sign up for a multi-level marketing/Ponzi schemes back in college.
At best, the relationship is transactional. You do them a favor and maybe they return one later. That’s fine, as long as you don’t confuse it with friendship.
Be honest about what this is. Keep expectations low. As soon as they feel you’ve outlived your usefulness, they’ll send you to the glue factory like Boxer.
Negative Nate/Nancy
Everything is a problem.
Their ability to complain about anything is their superpower. It’s normal for people to occasionally complain about their job or their boss, but these kinds of folks have endless gripes with their city. Their relationship. The weather. The economy. Their favorite sports team.
Spending time with them feels like getting stung by a thousand bees in the face.
Occasional venting or problem solving is human. Constant negativity sucks. They aren’t looking for solutions for their problems either, they just want somebody to listen to them whine. Unlike Victor/Victoria, Nate and Nancy are capable of doing things, it will just involve a lot winging before and after.
The respectful thing to do would be for them to save it for their therapist but instead they saddle you with their problems. Don’t do it. This endless negativity might help them get some things off their chest but it comes at your expense. Holding onto their issues, on top of your own won’t help you get after it in 2026.
None of these people will.
There are many more of these quiet villains but the common thread isn’t that these people are evil. It’s that they tax your time, energy, and attention. Over weeks and years, that cost compounds.
In most cases, you don’t need dramatic confrontations or grand exits. Cutting a finger off makes for good drama but it can usually be avoided by setting clear expectations and boundaries. Give people a chance to change their behavior, and if they can’t do it, prioritize people that don’t require as much energy on your part.
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, therefore your future is shaped less by who you add and more by who you stop giving access to.
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Even worst is the combo of Victim Victor/Victoria and Negative Nate/Nancy 🤯 Run away while you can!
WOULD HAVE PREFERRED TO LEARN THIS IN A PRIVATE COMMUNICATION.
HAPPY NEW YEAR'S.