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The Fruits of Friendship - David Perell
My contribution to the advice canon for making friends follows a similar vein: Think of friendship as a tapestry. It starts with its first seams—a meeting at a party, an introduction, a spark at a concert. Sometimes you’re knitting it together, sometimes one person is working overtime, and sometimes you stop and look at what you’ve made and know th
... See moreAaron Edwards • I Followed Common Advice for Making Friends. Then I Learned What It Really Takes.
The most lasting and effective way to change your life is to change who you’re surrounded by. Since networks so powerfully shape who we are and what we do, the best way to change ourselves is to change our networks.This is a big limitation at the way we look at self-development and self-transformation. We think we can just roll out of bed one day, ... See more
nfx.com • Your Life Is Driven by Network Effects
Writer C. Raymond Beran on friendship: "What is a friend? I will tell you. It is a person with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can be naked with him. He seems to ask of you to put on nothing, only to be what you are. He does not want you to be better, or worse. When you are with him, you feel as a prisoner feels who has been decla
... See moreIn his book Consolations, the essayist and poet David Whyte observed that the ultimate touchstone of friendship “is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with
... See moreDavid Brooks • How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
“Perfect friendship is the friendship of [those] who are alike in virtue,” he wrote. “For these [individuals] wish well to each other [in all circumstances] and thus [these friendships] are good in themselves.” Relationships based on virtue demand effort and are hard to come by. “Great friendships can only be felt toward a few people,”
Brad Stulberg • The Practice of Groundedness
An intimate friendship, whether it be from the companionate love of your spouse or an Aristotelian “perfect friend,” is better than any professional success. It will salve the wounds of professional decline like nothing else.