Hat Tip to CJ Chilvers for capturing this on his blog

From Cal Newport via Lex Fridman:

“If I was going to give advice to young people…If they haven’t already, bad things are going to happen that you can’t control. So, what’s the plan?…How do you live life when life is hard in ways that are unfair and unpredictable? Relationships is the buffer for all of that…It’s all we’re wired to do. It’s like ALL of our brain is for this…It’s at the core of human thriving. I worry that social media is reducing strong relationships. Strong relationships, where you’re sacrificing non-trivial time, attention, resources, whatever — on behalf of other people — that’s the net that’s going to allow you to get through anything. THEN, what do you want to do with the surplus that remains?”

This is a warning to our culture and the antidote. That is one of the reasons I love Cal Newport’s writing and podcast about “The Deep Life” is that he give actionable, practical advice to modern day knowledge workers.

Do not allow Social Media or the use of iMessage/texts to replace your community. Community means real people that you see. That you offer non trivial time too. Use a reminder app or calendar entry and set an appointment to call them again in 30 days to check on them. It matters.