Brian Wiesner

Becoming a parent and engaging in the grueling work of caring for another human has brought me to the visceral realization that what this world is lacking — what we actually need most — is each other. It sounds hippie-ish and obvious, but as McKibben hints at, it’s going to become ever more serious and tangible. We are relational creatures designed... See more

We’re not even on the agency curve. It’s a different curve.

Look, I’m using knowledge and agency a little loosely. LLMs can do more than just regurgitate knowledge; even if you grant them reasoning, though, it still doesn’t feel like humanity emerges from LLM scaleup. They have no curiosity, and don’t ask their own questions.

Maybe I’m naive. Maybe all generations look back with nostalgia. But my sense is they don’t do it for a time they never knew . They feel a longing for their youth; their childhood. My parents might flick through black-and-white photos and hear stories from my grandparents and feel intrigued, but not so much grief. I think there is something... See more

Murthy offers a strategy to address loneliness that begins with building up the infrastructure that enables social connection. That includes physical infrastructure, such as parks and libraries, and also social infrastructure to weave together volunteers or enthusiasts with similar interests. Once again, Britain provides a model.

The English town of... See more

It made me start to wonder just how much I’d been affected by the bubble of prosaic routine in the US, feeling the only path to success was rigidly linear. This was a gentle reminder that there were no straight lines on the path to success. Success became a universe of possibilities. Their energy imbued my world with new, limitless horizons.

Life... See more

Life is nothing more than a series of stages, one after another. Our problem is that we often enjoy a particular stage so much that we’re hesitant to move to the next one. Each chapter should be enjoyable, yes, but each chapter should also prepare you for a new chapter that you could only reach by experiencing your current one . And you do, at some... See more

Stuart Andrew, the British minister for loneliness, told me that one of the challenges of loneliness is the stigma that surrounds it.

I dream of many different careers, many different lives, many different loves, many different renewals of my ‘self’ as if I was an immortal being who was able to experiment and explore across an endless timeline.

Good writing is about teaching.

Unless you’re writing a novel, good writing is about teaching. Most of my friends who make their living from writing wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves writers. Instead they are developers, freelancers, hobbyists, marketers, designers, and business owners.

They just realized they had valuable skills and started... See more