Brian Wiesner

Incense has been used for timekeeping in China and Japan for centuries, constituting a different, olfactory way of experiencing time. Lighting a stick of incense when welcoming someone at the door is a gentle way to signal that one has (or has not yet) overstayed their welcome. The more intricate incense clock originated in China in the Song... See more

Admittedly, an increased difficulty in impressing friends with neat tips and trivia hardly constitutes a social crisis. And perhaps benefiting from closely kept secrets was too easy in the past, anyway: In my Punch-Out example, I gained a disproportionately large amount of esteem for something that required very little effort or skill. But when... See more

Time is flat. There has never been more of it, but we have never been so busy. But we are busy with noise, moving along a timescale that is maybe just a little too fast!! Rushkoff argues that we have experienced narrative collapse.

In many ways, we are very similar to mycelium.

We need the right conditions to survive and a constant flow of oxygen. We need to communicate to grow.

We need to connect to live.

A good connection is how quickly your world can change when you meet the right person.

I am a massive advocate of ensuring you have some peaceful time alone. After all, I’m a devoted introvert . I love time alone to think. I love long walks where I can muse on ideas and let thoughts churn and mature. But, experiencing something as a group isn’t about thinking.

This is about belonging - it goes to the core of what it is to be human.

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

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.

The ones that form and spread great ideas, that build businesses, make music. Connections that let you find the back door and land opportunities you never would’ve otherwise. Connections that plant the right seeds for your future.

Genuine connections are among the few things that shape us.

Connections are like mycelium. It covers the entire earth... See more