Intellectual Loneliness

Encountering for the first time communities in the real world founded on ideas, I began to realize that I had always felt what my friend David Perell calls “intellectual loneliness.” It’s a feeling that almost no one in your social circles shares the same passion for ideas as you. I realized I had always felt that there was no one I could share my ... See more

People feeling alone in their interests has always been true to a certain extent, but the internet has made it much worse. The excess of information allows you to travel down your path of interest with mad velocity. On the internet, Wonderland is recursive, with rabbit holes opening up to yet more rabbit holes; you never stop falling. And the furth... See more

In a fast-paced world full of intense economic/scientific/intellectual competition and decreasing opportunities for solitude, it is harder than ever before to justify spending significant time on intangible work that may or may not pay off. You can’t put on your resume—“I spend a lot of time thinking about ideas and scribbling notes that I don’t sh... See more

“I love ideas. I’m desperate; I have this yearning, hunger, and thirst for new ideas —new ways of looking at the world. But until I started writing, I wasn’t able to meet people who I could share that with.” – David Perell