Brian Wiesner

Anyhow—we shouldn’t even be having this discussion .

We’re the richest country in the world. Heck, California is one of the richest countries in the world. And, in favor of our shitty rugged individualism , we have let the greater good go by the wayside. To put it kindly.

Melisse and I observed that—at least—in San Francisco, we could roll out of... See more

But what makes us

HAPPY

?

While this is likely a bit different for everyone, I believe that once we have reached the “love and belonging” step on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we have already achieved a lot of happiness.

Human connection is absolutely key to wellbeing as found by many scientific studies. And conversely, social isolation has been... See more

Better social nutrition

Social media feels like the “empty calories” of human connection. I’m filling my cup with connections, but they lack nutrition. They’re social donuts.

In its place, I’ve spent most of my social time in intimate and often vulnerable 1-1 conversations, usually while on walks in the woods.

I’ve been more present with my wife,... See more

Where a city is positioned on this AM <-> PM scale fundamentally influences not only it’s sleep cycle, but informs it’s core identity of the city, and the people who live there. The AM city sees itself as disciplined and regimented, addicted to the dopamine of early morning workouts, fuelled by caffeine and nourished by Açaí breakfast bowls.... See more

There is a striking uniformity in the way creative people-artists, writers, mathemati-cians, scientists, and philosophers-speak about the process of production and problem solving. Ghiselin (1952) has collected into one volume a number of essays on the creative pro-cess by a variety of creative workers from Poincare to Picasso. As Ghiselin... See more

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

Seven years ago, Kevin Kelly wrote, “Intelligence is not a single dimension, so ‘smarter than humans’ is a meaningless concept.” It bears repeating.

For me personally, meaningful social connections are the foundation and the multiplier of lasting happiness, but the starting point lies within each one of us.

In the end, we determine the quality of our relationships through the quality of our relationship with ourselves.